溫州教區神父抗議當地政府壓迫教會

作為活在21世紀的教友，如果我們稍為認真一點地看這個社會，望著我們的教會，很多時我們也會有種無力感：我們真的能有將來嗎？教會被世俗及邪惡圍攻，我們手無寸鐵，仿佛只有等著滅亡。我們自己的教友沒有熱誠、沒有堅持，也失卻了跟基督的關係、不明白教理……

教會初期已建立的厄里亞隱修院被伊斯蘭國毁滅

然而保祿宗徒提醒我們：

我們在各方面受了磨難，卻沒有被困住；絕了路，卻沒有絕望；被迫害，卻沒有被棄捨；被打倒，卻沒有喪亡；身上時常帶著耶穌的死狀，為使耶穌的生活也彰顯在我們身上。(格林多人後書4:8-10)

我們不是獨自一人，我們永遠能抱著那近乎熄滅的希望，在掙扎、求存、呼求天主，等待那晨光的出現。就像在彌撒中，神父帶領著教會面對在東方升起的太陽，期待著基督救恩的來臨。

電影版的The Lord of the Rings 很多人都看過。原著作者是英國作家 J.R.R. Tolkien ，他是很虔誠的天主教徒，他的寫作也流露著他的公教信仰。其實 The Lord of the Rings 也是很附合公教信仰的一部鉅著。

筆者也會想起 The Lord of the Rings 中 Samwise Gamgee 對 Frodo Baggins 的一段鼓勵性的對話：

Frodo : I can’t do this, Sam.

Sam : I know. It’s all wrong
By rights we shouldn’t even be here.
But we are.
It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo.
The ones that really mattered.
Full of darkness and danger they were,
and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end.
Because how could the end be happy.
How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened.
But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow.
Even darkness must pass.
A new day will come.
And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
Those were the stories that stayed with you.
That meant something.
Even if you were too small to understand why.
But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand.
I know now.
Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t.
Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo : What are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam : That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.