Reflection on our Holy Mother - By Your Maid

Last night, our Bible Study Group had a discussion on the first verse of Revelation Chapter 12, “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” Some people believe that women should be our Church, while some others our Holy Mother. I believe that woman should be our Holy Mother. This woman cannot imply our church.

Our Holy Mother is immaculate and never sinned in her life. She followed Jesus, witnessing her own son to be humiliated, tortured, crucified on the cross, and died miserably. As parents, who doesn't understand her sufferings which are like thousands of swords piercing her heart? How about our church? Our church is full of sinners, and the history of our church has never been immaculate. In history, crusade; nowadays pedophiles. Our church has always been in the war against the Evil. For a war, winning and losing are both normal. However, God never forsakes the church. So, our church still stands today. God kept His promise!

Our Holy Mother is necessary to our Catholic faith. It’s HER who brought our faith with blood and flesh. Because of her total obedience to God, our faith gains the radical difference from other religions and other Christian religions. Our Catholic faith worships a God with flesh and blood, a God born from an ordinary woman. Our God is not an abstract God. This God was born in a manger, grew up among ordinary people. HE had neighbors, fellows. HE was curious and had a temper. HE was sometimes disobedient, sometimes obedient to his parents. HE was like other boys. Yet, there is a huge difference between other boys and HIM: the other boys grew up to be sinners while HE grew up to be the other boys’ immaculate savior, sacrificing himself on the cross. This boy God is the son of God, has Father God’s blood in his veins. HE is the continuation of Father God. Our Father God is unlimited. So, does his son. Consequently, Son of God is Father God. They are one God. That’s why the Evil is so afraid of the woman who obeyed God's will and was willing to give birth to God. “Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth.” (Rev 12, 4). That dragon would kill this baby God. In the past, Herod would like to do the same thing. Today, Herod’s offspring would like to do the same.

The Holy Mother is a warrior. She stood by God’s side all her life, fighting against the Evil. She could choose not to obey God’s will: not to give birth to that child, not to take care of Elisabeth, not to establish a family with Joseph, not to restrain her anger when she finally found her son in the temple after three days’ agonies; not to let her son continue his journey to the cross. She could have sinned as every mother in this world has. Yet, she didn’t. She took God’s side, answered to His calling, and won over the war against the Evil at the foot of the cross finally. She testified to God's human life, God’s eternal life and God’s mighty power of creation.

Our Holy Mother became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. However, she chose to be a wife. Joseph obeyed God’s will and chose to marry our Holy Mother even though he might be humiliated by people around him. God emphasized the importance of family in this way. Looking around us today, we can find that the Evil’s attack to family becomes more and more violent. Sex spectrumgives difficulties to human reproduction. Legalized abortion hinders human being’s multiplication, just like the red dragon waiting to devour that child. The Evil waves the banner of “love” in the battlefield to confuse us. The “love” is an abstract love: this love resonates with our good intentions; this love doesn’t need our sacrifice; this love binds us with morals; this love provokes our sinfulness of being greater than God.

Our Holy Mother is extremely important to us nowadays. God loves people. God loves every one of us. We are all sinners, including those who have special sex identification and interest, those unborn babies, and those women who decided to abort their children. God’s love is real. Real love demands sacrifice. Real love is faithful. Real love is so concrete that it can appear anytime, anywhere. This real love is shown in the care we give to those girls who are pregnant out of marriage. This real love is shown in the patient guidance to the young people who are confused by sex spectrum. This real love is shown in the respect we show to LGBTQ. On the contrary, the thought trend of sex spectrum ignores the sufferings of those transgender people, pays no attention to the young children’s recognitive confusions and characteristic distortions, and closes eyes to the fact that the people who have special sex identification or interest are tiny part of the whole human beings. Is it love?! Legalized abortion uses law to protect the disrespectful deeds against life and to make killing of innocent voiceless unborn babies lawful. This law has been carried out for 50 years! As Catholics, we should not take the Evil’s side: help the Evil to destroy families; let our children, grandchildren follow their own will instead of God’s by not willing to sacrifice for their families, not willing to bear with anything. If we do, our next generations will be chased and tortured by the Evil unconsciously. They will go to justify themselves and the society with violent movements, go to self judgements, cheat themselves and others, go to wars and go to destruction. Imagine, if we all obey God’s will as our Holy Mother does to protect our families, will the Evil have a chance?

Our Holy Mother, Please give us the strength to obey God. Please teach us how to persevere tenderly.

也談聖母 - 使女

昨晚我們查经班查考默示錄第十二章的時候就那個“身披太陽,腳踏月亮,頭戴十二顆星 的榮冠”的女人展開了討論。有的人说这个女人指的是聖母,有的說是教會。我認為,這 個女人應該是聖母,而不可能是教會。

聖母始胎無染原罪,且一生無罪。她跟隨耶穌,目睹自己的兒子倍受凌辱、折磨,最後在 十字架上痛苦地死去。為人父母的我們,有誰不能體會其中萬箭穿心的痛苦呢。教會呢? 教會本身就是由我們這些罪人組成的,教會歷史也從未乾淨過。遠的十字軍東征,近的戀 童癖,教會永遠會在於魔鬼的交戰中,勝負常事而已。然蒙主不棄,兩千多年,我們的教 會依然矗立。天主有諾必踐!

聖母對於我們天主教來說不可或缺。是聖母賦予天主教以血肉。由於她對天主的絕對服 從,我們的信仰才與其他信仰以及其他基督信仰有本質區別。我們信仰的不是一個虛無的 天主,而是一個有血有肉的,從一個普通女人身上生下來的天主。祂出生在馬廄,成長於 鄉間,有鄰居、有夥伴、有好奇、有血性、有不懂事的時候,有特別聽話的時候,看上去 和其他年紀相仿的男孩沒有區別。唯一的區別是,其他男孩長大了,都成了罪人。這個男 孩長大了,一生從沒犯過罪,還為那些男孩所有的罪付出了生命。這個男孩是天主的兒 子,身上流的是天主的血。天主的兒子是天主的延續,天主無限,天主的獨生子當然就是 天主自己。所以,撒旦才最怕這個順服天主要生天主的女人:“那條龍便站在那要生產的 女人面前,待他生產後,要吞下她的孩子。”那條龍如此,當年的黑落德如此,如今各個 黑落德的後裔亦是如此。

聖母是鬥士,她一生都站在天主一邊,與撒旦打仗。她可以不答應天主;她可以不要那個 孩子;她可以不去照顧依撒伯爾;她可以不跟若瑟組成家庭;她可以對小耶穌讓他們夫婦 好找暴跳如雷;她可以不讓自己的兒子走十字架的路;她可以犯我們世間的母親犯的任何 一個罪。而她卻沒有。她始終站在天主一邊,聽從天主的召喚,最終擊敗撒旦:見證天主 為人的一生和天主永恆的生命以及創造萬物之大能。

聖靈受孕的聖母選擇了家庭。若瑟受聖召和聖母組成了家庭。天主以此強調家庭的重要。 當我們環顧現今社會,我們會發現撒旦對家庭的攻擊越來越猛烈。性別光譜化讓人類繁衍 越來越難,墮胎合法化如紅龍吞噬那女人的孩子,為人類延續製造障礙。撒旦打的旗號是 “愛”,一種虛無的抽象的道德的“愛”。這種“愛”撩撥著我們善良的心;這種“愛” 不需要我們的付出;這種“愛”讓我們被道德綁架;這種“愛”迎合了我們的凌駕於天主 之上的罪性。

聖母於當今的我們尤為重要。天主愛人。天主愛所有的人。我們都是罪人,包括性取向比 較特別的人,包括未出生的孩子和決定墮胎的母親。天主的愛是真實的。真實的愛是有付 出的愛,是忠誠的愛,是具體到時時處處、分分秒秒的愛。天主的愛體現在對未婚先孕的 女孩子的幫助上,體現在對性別意識混亂的年輕人的耐心疏導上,體現在對 LGBTQ 的尊重 上。而性別光譜化思潮無視變性人群體的痛苦,無視為幼小的孩子帶來的性格扭曲和認知 上的迷惑,無視真正有生物學基礎的特殊性別取向的人極少這一事實。這是愛嗎?墮胎合 法化用法律庇護對生命的不尊重,對弱勢胎兒進行合法的殺戮。這一做就是五十年!作為 天主教徒的我們當然不能站到撒旦一邊,幫助撒旦擊毀家庭,讓我們的兒子、女兒、孫 子、孫女不再願意為家庭付出,不再願意為愛忍受什麼,而熱衷於遵從自己的意志。如此 一來,他們不自覺地受魔鬼的驅使,走向尋求自我公正的暴力運動,走向自我判斷,走向 自欺欺人,走向戰爭,走向毀滅。試想,如果我們人人聽從天主的旨意,像聖母一樣謙 卑,愛護家庭,魔鬼哪有可乘之機?

聖母媽媽, 願您賜給我們順服天主的力量, 教我們如何溫柔地堅強!