鐘聲與氣味

译者：GabrielHuang

「父啊，我將我的靈魂交在你手中」（路加福音23:46）。這是主在十字架上說的最後一句話；他的最後一口氣，可以說是他一生的總結：不斷地把自我交托在天父的手中。他的手充滿寬恕和同情、醫治和憐憫、恩膏和祝福，這使他也將自己交托在兄弟姐妹的手中。主對他一路上遇到的個人和他們的故事敞開心扉，讓自己被天父的旨意所塑造。他承擔了福音所帶來的所有後果和艱辛，甚至看到他的雙手因愛而被刺穿。「看我的手，」他對多馬說（約翰福音 20:27），然後對我們每個人說：「看我的手。」 穿孔的手不斷向我們伸出，「父啊，我將我的靈魂交托在你手中」 這是他在我們心中悄悄激發的邀請和生活計劃。像陶匠一樣（參見以賽亞書 29:16），他希望塑造每一位牧者的心，直到它與基督耶穌的心調和（參見腓立比書 2:5）。懷著感恩的奉獻精神，為上主和他的子民服務，這種服務源於對完全恩賜的感恩：「你屬於我……你屬於他們，」上主低聲說，「你在我的保護之下手。你在我心底的保護之下。留在我的手中，把你的給我。」 在這裡，我們看到了天主的「屈尊」和親近，祂準備將自己交托在門徒虛弱的手中，以便他們可以餵養祂的子民，並與祂一起說：拿來吃，拿來喝，因為這是我的為你捨棄的身體（參路 22:19）。

在虔誠的奉獻中協調，在每個牧者都必須面對的挑戰和阻力中默默地塑造和完善奉獻（參見彼得前書 1：6-7）相信服從主的命令餵養他的羊群（參見約翰福音 21：17） ). 像主人一樣，牧羊人承擔著代求的重擔和膏抹他的子民的壓力，尤其是在善良必須努力取得勝利並且我們兄弟姐妹的尊嚴受到威脅的情況下（參見希伯來書 5：7-9）。在代求的過程中，主悄悄賜予溫柔的精神，準備好理解、接受、希望和冒險，儘管可能會產生任何誤解。它是一種看不見的、難以捉摸的果實的源泉，源於他認識他所信任的那一位（參見提摩太后書 1:12）。由祈禱和崇拜而生的信任，能夠辨別對牧者的期望，並根據上帝的美好時間塑造他的心和他的決定（參見約翰福音 21:18）：「餵養意味著愛，愛也意味著準備好受苦。愛意味著給羊真正好的東西，上帝真理的滋養，上帝話語的滋養，他同在的滋養。」

在聖靈的安慰下，也與奉獻精神相協調，聖靈總是在牧者的使命之前。他熱情地努力傳播福音的美麗和喜悅（參見Gaudete et Exsultate , 57）。在所有像瑪利亞一樣，以許多方式站在十字架腳下的人的富有成效的見證中。在既不攻擊也不脅迫的痛苦而又堅定的平靜中。頑固而耐心地希望上主會忠實於他的諾言，他對我們的祖先和他們的後代的承諾，直到永遠（參路 1:54-55）。

堅持上主的遺言和他一生的見證，作為一個教會團體，我們也想跟隨他的腳步，將我們的兄弟交到天父的手中。願那些仁慈的手找到他的燈，點亮他一生傳播和見證的福音之油（參見瑪25：6-7）。

在他的牧靈生涯結束時，大格列高利敦促一位朋友向他提供這種靈性的陪伴：「在目前生活的沈船中，支持我，我懇求你，通過你有如救生木板的祈禱，因為我自己的重量使我沈沒，你的善工之手會把我舉起來。」 在這裡，我們看到一位牧者的意識，他無法獨自承擔實際上他永遠無法獨自承擔的事情，因此可以將自己交由托付給他的人們的祈禱和照顧。上帝忠心的子民聚集在這裡，現在陪伴他並將他們的牧者的生命托付給他。就像墳墓旁的女人們一樣，我們也帶著感恩的芬芳和希望的香膏前來，為的是再次向他展示永恆的愛。我們要以同樣的智慧、溫柔、以及他多年來給予我們的奉獻。我們想一起說：「父啊，我們將他的靈魂交托在你手中。」

本篤，新郎忠實的朋友，當你聽到他的聲音時，願你的喜樂圓滿，從現在到永遠！

「Father, into your hands I commend my spirit」 (Lk 23:46). These were the final words spoken by the Lord on the cross; his last breath, as it were, which summed up what had been his entire life: a ceaseless self-entrustment into the hands of his Father. His were hands of forgiveness and compassion, healing and mercy, anointing and blessing, which led him also to entrust himself into the hands of his brothers and sisters. The Lord, open to the individuals and their stories that he encountered along the way, allowed himself to be shaped by the Father’s will. He shouldered all the consequences and hardships entailed by the Gospel, even to seeing his hands pierced for love. 「See my hands,」 he says to Thomas (Jn 20:27), and to each of us: 「See my hands.」 Pierced hands that constantly reach out to us, inviting us to recognize the love that God has for us and to believe in it (cf. 1 Jn 4:16).

「Father into your hands I commend my spirit.」 This is the invitation and the programme of life that he quietly inspires in us. Like a potter (cf. Is 29:16), he wishes to shape the heart of every pastor, until it is attuned to the heart of Christ Jesus (cf. Phil 2:5). Attuned in grateful devotion, in service to the Lord and to his people, a service born of thanksgiving for a completely gracious gift: 「You belong to me… you belong to them,」 the Lord whispers, 「you are under the protection of my hands. You are under the protection of my heart. Stay in my hands and give me yours.」 Here we see the 「condescension」 and closeness of God, who is ready to entrust himself to the frail hands of his disciples, so that they can feed his people and say with him: Take and eat, take and drink, for this is my body which is given up for you (cf. Lk 22:19). The total synkatabasis of God.

Attuned in prayerful devotion, a devotion silently shaped and refined amid the challenges and resistance that every pastor must face (cf. 1 Pet 1:6-7) in trusting obedience to the Lord’s command to feed his flock (cf. Jn 21:17 ). Like the Master, a shepherd bears the burden of interceding and the strain of anointing his people, especially in situations where goodness must struggle to prevail and the dignity of our brothers and sisters is threatened (cf. Heb 5:7-9). In the course of this intercession, the Lord quietly bestows the spirit of meekness that is ready to understand, accept, hope and risk, notwithstanding any misunderstandings that might result. It is the source of an unseen and elusive fruitfulness, born of his knowing the One in whom he has placed his trust (cf. 2 Tim 1:12). A trust itself born of prayer and adoration, capable of discerning what is expected of a pastor and shaping his heart and his decisions in accord with God’s good time (cf. Jn 21:18): 「Feeding means loving, and loving also means being ready to suffer. Loving means giving the sheep what is truly good, the nourishment of God’s truth, of God’s word, the nourishment of his presence.」

Attuned also in devotion sustained by the consolation of the Spirit, who always precedes the pastor in his mission. In his passionate effort to communicate the beauty and the joy of the Gospel (cf. Gaudete et Exsultate, 57). In the fruitful witness of all those who, like Mary, in so many ways stand at the foot of the cross. In the painful yet steadfast serenity that neither attacks nor coerces. In the stubborn but patient hope that the Lord will be faithful to his promise, the promise he made to our fathers and to their descendants forever (cf. Lk 1:54-55).

Holding fast to the Lord’s last words and to the witness of his entire life, we too, as an ecclesial community, want to follow in his steps and to commend our brother into the hands of the Father. May those merciful hands find his lamp alight with the oil of the Gospel that he spread and testified to for his entire life (cf. Mt 25:6-7).

At the end of his Pastoral Rule, Saint Gregory the Great urged a friend to offer him this spiritual accompaniment: 「Amid the shipwreck of the present life, sustain me, I beseech you, by the plank of your prayer, that, since my own weight sinks me down, the hand of your merit will raise me up.」 Here we see the awareness of a pastor who cannot carry alone what in truth he could never carry alone, and can thus commend himself to the prayers and the care of the people entrusted to him. God’s faithful people, gathered here, now accompanies and entrusts to him the life of the one who was their pastor. Like the women at the tomb, we too have come with the fragrance of gratitude and the balm of hope, in order to show him once more the love that is undying. We want to do this with the same wisdom, tenderness, and devotion that he bestowed upon us over the years. Together, we want to say: 「Father, into your hands we commend his spirit.」

Benedict, faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be complete as you hear his voice, now and forever!