Introduction / Christ Stands at the Door: The Mass Revealed
导论／基督站在门外：弥撒的启示
OF ALL THINGS CATHOLIC, there is nothing so familiar as the Mass. With its timeless prayers, hymns, and gestures, the Mass is like home to us. Yet most Catholics will go a lifetime without seeing beyond the surface of memorized prayers. Few will glimpse the powerful supernatural drama they enter into every Sunday. Pope John Paul II has called the Mass “heaven on earth,” explaining that “the liturgy we celebrate on earth is a mysterious participation in the heavenly liturgy.”
在所有公教的事物里，没有什么比弥撒更熟悉了。弥撒里那些历久弥新的祈祷、圣歌和肢体动作，对我们来说就像家一样。不过，大多数公教徒一生都不会看见背诵祷词表面之下的东西。很少人会瞥见他们每个主日走进的那强有力的超自然戏剧。教宗若望保禄二世称弥撒为「人间的天上」，他解释说：「我们在地上所举行的礼仪，是对天上礼仪的一种神秘参与。」
The Mass is near and dear. The Book of Revelation, on the other hand, seems remote and puzzling. Page after page flashes bizarre and frightening images: of wars and plagues, beasts and angels, rivers of blood, demonic frogs, and seven-headed dragons. And the most sympathetic character is a seven-horned, seven-eyed lamb. “If that’s just the surface,” some Catholics say, “I don’t think I want to see the depths.”
弥撒既熟悉又亲切。相反，《启示录》却显得遥远又费解。一页一页地闪过怪异而令人恐惧的图像：战争和瘟疫、兽与天使、血流成河、像妖魔般的青蛙、还有七头的龙。而最讨人同情的角色，还是一只长着七角七眼的羔羊。有些公教徒会说：「如果这还只是表面，我可不想看见更深的部分。」
Well, in this little book, I’d like to propose something outlandish. I propose that the key to understanding the Mass is the biblical Book of Revelation—and, further, that the Mass is the only way a Christian can truly make sense of the Book of Revelation.
好吧，在这本小书里，我想提出一个大胆的观点。我主张，理解弥撒的钥匙就是圣经中的《启示录》；更进一步说，弥撒也是基督徒真正读懂《启示录》的唯一途径。
If you’re skeptical, you should know that you’re not alone. When I told a friend that I was writing about the Mass as a key to the Book of Revelation, she laughed and said, “Revelation? Isn’t that just weird stuff?”
如果你持怀疑态度，你要知道你并不孤单。我告诉一位朋友我要写关于弥撒如何成为解读《启示录》的钥匙时，她笑着说：「启示录？那不就是些怪里怪气的东西吗？」
It does seem weird to Catholics, because, for many years, we have been reading the book apart from Christian tradition. The interpretations most people know today are the ones that have made the news or the best-seller charts, and those have been overwhelmingly Protestant. I know this from my own experience. I’ve been studying the Book of Revelation for more than twenty years. Until 1985 I studied it as a Protestant minister, and, down through those years, I found myself engaged, in turn, by most of the fashionable and unfashionable interpretive theories. I tried every key, but none could open the door. Every now and then, I heard a tumbler click, and that gave me hope. Yet only when I began to contemplate the Mass did I feel the door begin to give way, a little bit at a time. Gradually, I found myself taken up by the great Christian tradition, and in 1986 I was received into full communion with the Catholic Church. After that, in my study of the Book of Revelation, matters became clearer. “After this I looked, and lo, in heaven an open door!” (Rev 4:1). And the door opened onto… Sunday Mass in your parish church.
在公教徒看来它确实很怪，因为多年来，我们读这卷书时是脱离基督宗教传统的。如今大多数人所知道的诠释，是那些上了新闻或畅销书排行榜的，而这些几乎清一色出自新教。我自己有亲身经历。我研究《启示录》二十多年。直到1985年，我还是以新教牧师的身分研究它；这些年里，我几乎把流行与不流行的解释理论都追过一遍。我试过每一把「钥匙」，却没有一把能把门打开。时不时地，我听见锁里的弹子咔哒一声，这给了我希望。然而直到我开始默想弥撒，我才感觉那扇门一点一点地松动。渐渐地，我被那伟大的基督宗教传统所吸引，1986年我被接纳与公教会完全共融。此后，我对《启示录》的研究就清楚多了。「此后，我观看，见天上有门开了。」——启4:1。而那扇门打开之后，通向的就是……你所在堂区的主日弥撒。
Now, you may reply that your weekly experience of Mass is anything but heavenly. In fact, it’s an uncomfortable hour, punctuated by babies screaming, bland hymns sung off-key, meandering, pointless homilies, and neighbors dressed as if they were going to a ball game, the beach, or a picnic.
或许你会回答说，你每周的弥撒经历一点也不「像在天上」。事实上，那一个小时常常很难受：婴儿的尖叫此起彼伏，平淡的圣歌唱得跑调，讲道东拉西扯毫无重点，旁边的人打扮得像要去看球赛、去海滩，或者去野餐。
Yet I insist that we do go to heaven when we go to Mass, and this is true of every Mass we attend, regardless of the quality of the music or the fervor of the preaching. This is not a matter of learning to “look at the bright side” of sloppy liturgies. This is not about developing a more charitable attitude toward tone-deaf cantors. This is all about something that’s objectively true, something as real as the heart that beats within you. The Mass—and I mean every single Mass—is heaven on earth.
不过我还是要坚持：我们去望弥撒的时候确实会到天上；这对我们参加的每一场弥撒都成立，不管音乐水平如何、讲道有多热忱。这不是学着去「往好处想」那些草率的礼仪，也不是培养对五音不全的领唱员更宽容的态度。我们说的是客观真实的事，真实到就像你胸口跳动的心一样。弥撒——我指的是每一场弥撒——就是人间的天上。
I assure you that this is not my idea; it is the Church’s. Neither is it a new idea; it’s been around since the day John had his apocalyptic vision. Yet it’s an idea that hasn’t caught on with Catholics in recent centuries—and I can’t figure out why. Most of us will admit that we want to “get more” out of the Mass. Well, we can’t get any more than heaven itself.
我向你保证，这不是我的主意；这是教会的看法。它也不是什么新鲜观念；自从约翰得了那场末世异象起，它就一直存在。只是近几个世纪里，公教徒并没有真正领会它——我也不知道为什么。我们大多数人都会承认，想要从弥撒里「得到更多」。可我们不可能得到比天上本身还多的东西。
I should say from the start that this book is not a “Bible study.” It is focused on the practical application of just one aspect of the Book of Revelation, and our study is far from exhaustive. Scholars debate endlessly about who wrote the Book of Revelation, and when, and where, and why, and on what sort of parchment. In this book, I will not take up these questions in any great detail. Neither have I written a handbook on the rubrics of the liturgy. Revelation is a mystical book, not a training video or a how-to manual.
我一开始就该说明，这本书不是一门「查经」。它只专注于《启示录》当中的一个面向在实际中的应用，而我们的研究远称不上穷尽。学者们无休无止地争论《启示录》是谁写的、什么时候写的、在哪里写的、为什么写、用的是什么羊皮纸。在这本书里，我不会详细讨论这些问题。我也没有写一本礼仪细则的手册。《启示录》是一本属灵奥秘的书，不是培训视频或操作指南。
Throughout this book, you will probably encounter the Mass in new ways—ways other than the one you’re used to attending. Though heaven touches down whenever the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the Mass looks different from place to place and time to time. Where I live, most Catholics are accustomed to the liturgy of the Latin Rite. (In fact, the word “Mass” properly refers only to the Eucharistic liturgy of the Latin Rite.) But there are many Eucharistic liturgies in the Catholic Church: the Ambrosian, Armenian, Byzantine, Chaldean, Coptic, Malabar, Malankar, Maronite, Melkite, and Ruthenian, among others. Each has its own beauty; each has its own wisdom; each shows us a different corner of heaven on earth.
在整本书里，你很可能会以全新的方式来面对弥撒——和你习惯参加的方式不太一样。虽然每当教会举行圣餐时，天上就会临到地上，但弥撒在不同的地方、不同的时代看起来会很不一样。我住的地方，大多数公教徒习惯的是拉丁礼的礼仪。（事实上，「弥撒」这个词严格来说只用来指拉丁礼的圣体礼。）不过，公教会里还有许多圣体礼：如安布罗削（米兰）礼、亚美尼亚礼、拜占庭礼、加色丁礼、科普特礼、玛拉巴礼、玛兰卡礼、马龙尼礼、默基特礼、鲁塞尼亚礼等等。每一种都有自己的美；每一种都有自己的智慧；每一种都向我们显出人间的天上不同的一个角落。
Researching The Lamb’s Supper has given me new eyes to see the Mass. I pray that reading this book gives the same gift to you. Together, let’s ask for a new heart as well, so that, through our study and prayer, we may grow more and more to love the Christian mysteries that we have from the Father.
研究羔羊的盛宴，让我有了看弥撒的全新眼睛。我祈求你读这本书时，也能得到同样的恩赐。让我们一同求一颗新心，使我们借着学习和祈祷，越来越爱那位父赐给我们的基督宗教奥秘。
The Book of Revelation will show us the Mass as heaven on earth. Now, let’s press on, without delay, because heaven can’t wait.
《启示录》会向我们显出弥撒是人间的天上。现在，我们别再耽搁了——因为天上等不及。