卷一信仰的宣認 - 第一部分 - 第一章天主為人是「可及」的/PART ONE: THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

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English

第一部分「我信」────「我們信」

26. 在宣認我們的信仰時，我們這樣開始：「我信」或「我們信」。教會的信仰是指在信經中所承認的、在禮儀中所慶祝的、在實踐誡命和祈禱中所生活的信仰。在闡述教會的信仰前，我們先問「信」有甚麼意義。天主向人啟示自己，並把自己賞賜給人，同時又給尋求生命終極意義的人充沛的光明，而信仰就是人對天主的回應。首先我們要討論人類的這一尋求( 第一章 )，然後討論天主的啟示，這啟示就是天主將自己顯示給人 ( 第二章 )，最後討論信仰的回應( 第三章 )。

PART ONE:

THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

SECTION ONE

"I BELIEVE" - "WE BELIEVE"

26 We begin our profession of faith by saying: "I believe" or "We believe". Before expounding the Church's faith, as confessed in the Creed, celebrated in the liturgy and lived in observance of God's commandments and in prayer, we must first ask what "to believe" means. Faith is man's response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life. Thus we shall consider first that search (Chapter One), then the divine Revelation by which God comes to meet man (Chapter Two), and finally the response of faith (Chapter Three).

第一章天主為人是「可及」的

一、對天主的渴求

27. 對天主的渴求已銘刻在人的心中，因為人是由天主及為天主而受造；而天主也不斷地吸引人，只有在天主內，人才能找到他不斷尋找的真理和幸福。

人性尊嚴的最崇高之處，在於人被召叫與天主共融。自出世之初，人被邀與天主交談。如果不是天主以聖愛造生並保存他，人便不存在。除非人自由地承認這聖愛，並將自己完全委身於天主，否則不算完全地依照真理而生活。

28. 人類在其歷史中直到今日，曾以許多方式，透過他們的信仰和宗教行動 (祈禱、祭獻、敬禮、默想等等)，表達他們對天主的尋求。雖然有些表達方式是模糊的，但它們是如此普遍，以致人可以被稱為宗教性的存有：

天主由一個人造了全人類，使他們住在全地面上，給他們立定了年限，和他們所居處的疆界；如他們尋求天主，或者可藉摸索而找到祂；其實，祂離我們每人並不遠，因為我們生活、行動、存在，都在祂內(宗 17:26-28)。

29. 然而這種「與天主不可或缺及密切的關係」，可以被人遺忘、輕視、甚至明確地拒絕。這些態度可能源自不同的因由：例如對世上邪惡的反抗、對宗教的無知或漠不關心、對世俗和財富的焦慮、信徒們的壞榜樣、敵視宗教的思想潮流以及犯罪者的傾向——他們由於害怕便躲藏起來，不敢面對天主及逃避祂的召喚。

30. 「願尋求上主的人，樂滿心中」(詠 105:3)。即使人能忘記或拒絕天主，而天主卻不厭其煩地召喚每個人去尋找祂，好使人能生存及找到幸福。但此種尋求需要人全力運用他的理智、正直的意志，有「一顆誠懇的心」，而且也需要其他人的見証，以引導他尋求天主。

聖奧思定，《懺悔錄》：主，祢是偉大的，是堪受讚美的；祢的美善是無限的，祢的智慧是莫測的。人要稱讚的，就是祢。可是他是祢造化中渺小的一分子，到處帶著他死亡的命運，帶著他罪惡的痕跡，以及帶著祢抗拒驕傲者的憑証。但不管怎樣渺小，他還是要歌頌祢。是祢激勵他在歌頌祢時取得快樂，因為我們是為了祢而受造，除非安息在祢內，我們的心將得不到安寧。

CHAPTER ONE

MAN'S CAPACITY FOR GOD

I. The Desire for God

27 The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for:

The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.¹

28 In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behaviour: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a religious being:

From one ancestor (God) made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him - though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For "in him we live and move and have our being."²

29 But this "intimate and vital bond of man to God" (GS 19 # 1) can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man.³ Such attitudes can have different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call.⁴

30 "Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice."⁵ Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, "an upright heart", as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.

You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is without measure. and man, so small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this man, though clothed with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that you withstand the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small a part of your creation, wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.⁶

二、認識天主的途徑

31. 人按天主的肖象而受造，又奉召去認識和愛慕天主，故凡尋求天主的人，就可發現若干「途徑」去認識祂。人們也稱這些途徑為「天主存在的証據」，但這些証明並非自然科學所尋求的証明，而是「會集在一起而又令人信服」的論據。這些論據能使人達致認知天主存在的確實性。

這些令人接近天主的「途徑」，其起點就是受造之物：即物質世界和人。

32. 世界：由世界的運行、演變、非必然性、秩序和美麗，可以認識天主是宇宙的起源和終向。

聖保祿在談及其他民族時，曾斷言「認識天主為他們是很明顯的事，原來天主已將自己顯示給他們了。其實，自從天主創世以來，祂那看不見的美善，即祂永遠的大能和祂為神的本性，都可憑祂所造的萬物，辨認洞察出來」(羅 1:19-20)。

聖奧思定也說：「請你問問大地的美麗、海洋的美麗、以及到處散佈稀薄空氣的美麗；問問穹蒼的美麗……問問所有這些事實。它們都會回答你說：不妨仔細看看我們，我們是多麼的美麗。它們的美麗有如一首讚美詩 (confessio )。如今，這些受造物雖然如此美麗，卻是可變的，除了那不變的至美 (Pulcher )主宰外，還有誰造了它們呢」？

33. 人：藉著對真理和美善的開放，藉著倫理道德的意識，藉著自由和良心的聲音以及藉著對無限和幸福的渴望，人正自問天主是否存在。在這些情況中，他覺察到自己屬神的記號。「那存在於他內的永生的種子，是不可能貶為純物質的」，人的靈魂除唯一的天主外，沒有其他的根源。

34. 世界和人都証明他們並非自身的根源和終向，他們只分沾了那無始無終的「存在」。這樣，透過這些不同的「途徑」，人能認識一個事實的存在，它就是萬有的根源和終向，即「大家所稱的天主」。

35. 人有能力去認識一個有位格的天主的存在，但為使人能與祂親密交往，天主願意把自己啟示給他，並賜給他恩寵，好能在信仰中接受這啟示。不過，天主存在的証據能準備人接受信仰，並協助他確認信仰而不違反人的理智。

II. Ways of Coming to Know God

31 Created in God's image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are also called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of "converging and convincing arguments", which allow us to attain certainty about the truth. These "ways" of approaching God from creation have a twofold point of departure: the physical world, and the human person.

32 The world: starting from movement, becoming, contingency, and the world's order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe.

As St. Paul says of the Gentiles: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.⁷

And St. Augustine issues this challenge: Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself, question the beauty of the sky. . . question all these realities. All respond: "See, we are beautiful." Their beauty is a profession [confessio]. These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One [Pulcher] who is not subject to change?⁸

33 The human person: with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God's existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. the soul, the "seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material",⁹ can have its origin only in God.

34 The world, and man, attest that they contain within themselves neither their first principle nor their final end, but rather that they participate in Being itself, which alone is without origin or end. Thus, in different ways, man can come to know that there exists a reality which is the first cause and final end of all things, a reality "that everyone calls God".¹⁰

35 Man's faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal himself to man, and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith.(so) the proofs of God's existence, however, can predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason.

三、教會有關認識天主的訓導

36. 「我們的慈母聖教會支持及教導：人憑理智的自然之光能透過受造物確實認識天主——萬物的起源和終結」。若無此種認知能力，人將不能接受天主的啟示。人有此能力，因為人乃按「天主的肖象」而受造。

37. 但是，人在歷史的處境中，單以理智之光去認識天主，將會遇到很多困難。

比約十二世，《人類》通諭：簡言之，雖然人單憑自己的能力和自然之光，能確實而肯定地認識一個有位格的天主，這天主以上智照顧和掌管宇宙，並將自然律銘刻在我們心中，然而理智本身在有效地運用這種天賦本能時，卻遇到不少的困難。因為，凡有關天主的真理和涉及人與天主之間的關係，都絕對超越感官的領域，當這些真理要付諸實行及塑造生命時，便要求人自我奉獻和棄絕自己。原來，人的心靈在尋求這些真理時，會受到感官和幻想的影響及原罪的不良傾向而遭遇困難。因此，人很容易在這些問題上，把他們不願意認為是真實的事，便以為是假的，或至少認為是可疑的。

38. 為此，人不但在超越他理解能力的事上，而且也在「本來並非不可理解的宗教和倫理的真理上，需要天主啟示的光照，使眾人在目前的人類情況下，能毫無困難地、以堅定的確實性並絕無錯誤地認識這些真理」。

III. The Knowledge of God According to the Church

36 "Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason."¹¹ Without this capacity, man would not be able to welcome God's revelation. Man has this capacity because he is created "in the image of God".¹²

37 In the historical conditions in which he finds himself, however, man experiences many difficulties in coming to know God by the light of reason alone:

Though human reason is, strictly speaking, truly capable by its own natural power and light of attaining to a true and certain knowledge of the one personal God, who watches over and controls the world by his providence, and of the natural law written in our hearts by the Creator; yet there are many obstacles which prevent reason from the effective and fruitful use of this inborn faculty. For the truths that concern the relations between God and man wholly transcend the visible order of things, and, if they are translated into human action and influence it, they call for self-surrender and abnegation. the human mind, in its turn, is hampered in the attaining of such truths, not only by the impact of the senses and the imagination, but also by disordered appetites which are the consequences of original sin. So it happens that men in such matters easily persuade themselves that what they would not like to be true is false or at least doubtful.¹³

38 This is why man stands in need of being enlightened by God's revelation, not only about those things that exceed his understanding, but also "about those religious and moral truths which of themselves are not beyond the grasp of human reason, so that even in the present condition of the human race, they can be known by all men with ease, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error".¹⁴

四、如何談論天主？

39. 在支持人類理智能夠認識天主的同時，教會也表達了她能向眾人及同眾人談論天主的信心。這個信心就是她與其他宗教、哲學和科學，以及非信徒和無神論者對話的基礎。

40. 由於我們對天主的認識有限，因此我們談論天主的術語也很有限。我們只能從受造物，依照我們人性有限的認識和思維方式去談論天主。

41. 所有受造物都與天主有某些相似之處，尤其是依照天主肖象和模樣而造的人。因此，受造物的各樣美善(如它們的真、善、美)，都反映著天主的無限美善。故此，我們能從受造物的美善中談論天主，「因為，從受造物的偉大和美麗，人可以推想到這些東西的創造者」(智 13:5)。

42. 天主超越一切受造物。所以談論天主時，我們的語言要不斷地從一切限度、想像及缺陷中加以淨化，免得混淆那「不可言喻、不可了解、不可目睹、不可捉摸的」天主。人類語言表達天主的奧跡，總是短了一截。

43. 這樣去談論天主，我們的語言當然是以人類的方式去表達，在確實描述天主本身的同時，卻又不能表達祂無限的單純。事實上，我們必須記得，「每當我們在造物主與受造物之間察覺到若干相同之處時，就必發現兩者間有更大的不同之處」，而且「我們不能明白天主是甚麼，只能明白祂不是甚麼，及其他事物與祂的關係」。

撮要

44. 由於本性和召叫，人是一個宗教性的存有。因為他來自天主及歸向天主，除非他自由地履行他跟天主的關係，他將不能徹底地活出他的人性。

45. 人受造是為生活於與天主的共融中，在祂內人才能找到自己的幸福：「當我整個地與祢契合時，我便沒有痛苦和憂慮。當我的生命完全充滿祢時，才是真實的生命」。

46. 人聆聽受造物的訊息和自己良心的聲音，就能確實地知道天主的存在，祂是萬物的起因和終向。

47. 教會教導我們：人類透過天主的工程，用理智的自然之光，能夠確實地認識唯一真實的天主，我們的創造者和上主。

48. 從受造物的各樣完美，即天主無限完美的模樣，我們確實可以談論天主，縱然我們有限的語言無法完全表達祂的奧跡。

49. 「受造物如果沒有造物主，勢必消失」。正因如此，信徒們感受到在基督之愛的催迫下，把生活的天主之光，帶給那些不認識或拒絕祂的人。

IV. How Can We Speak about God?

39 In defending the ability of human reason to know God, the Church is expressing her confidence in the possibility of speaking about him to all men and with all men, and therefore of dialogue with other religions, with philosophy and science, as well as with unbelievers and atheists.

40 Since our knowledge of God is limited, our language about him is equally so. We can name God only by taking creatures as our starting point, and in accordance with our limited human ways of knowing and thinking.

41 All creatures bear a certain resemblance to God, most especially man, created in the image and likeness of God. the manifold perfections of creatures - their truth, their goodness, their beauty all reflect the infinite perfection of God. Consequently we can name God by taking his creatures" perfections as our starting point, "for from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator".¹⁵

42 God transcends all creatures. We must therefore continually purify our language of everything in it that is limited, imagebound or imperfect, if we are not to confuse our image of God --"the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable"-- with our human representations.¹⁶ Our human words always fall short of the mystery of God.

43 Admittedly, in speaking about God like this, our language is using human modes of expression; nevertheless it really does attain to God himself, though unable to express him in his infinite simplicity. Likewise, we must recall that "between Creator and creature no similitude can be expressed without implying an even greater dissimilitude";¹⁷ and that "concerning God, we cannot grasp what he is, but only what he is not, and how other beings stand in relation to him."¹⁸

IN BRIEF

44 Man is by nature and vocation a religious being. Coming from God, going toward God, man lives a fully human life only if he freely lives by his bond with God.

45 Man is made to live in communion with God in whom he finds happiness: When I am completely united to you, there will be no more sorrow or trials; entirely full of you, my life will be complete (St. Augustine, Conf. 10, 28, 39: PL 32, 795}.

46 When he listens to the message of creation and to the voice of conscience, man can arrive at certainty about the existence of God, the cause and the end of everything.

47 The Church teaches that the one true God, our Creator and Lord, can be known with certainty from his works, by the natural light of human reason (cf. Vatican Council I, can. 2 # 1: DS 3026),

48 We really can name God, starting from the manifold perfections of his creatures, which are likenesses of the infinitely perfect God, even if our limited language cannot exhaust the mystery.

49 Without the Creator, the creature vanishes (GS 36). This is the reason why believers know that the love of Christ urges them to bring the light of the living God to those who do not know him or who reject him.