我們不會忘記我們的亡者。我們總是為他們祈禱——不是向他們祈禱——祈求上帝賜他們安息,直到我們眾人再度復活。死亡無法使我們與基督的愛分離。亡者不需要「紙錢」,他們所需要的,只是在聖禮中,在基督的身體——那真正生命的食糧——前被紀念,好使他們活在上帝慈愛且賜生命的記憶中。
他們在上帝的手中,因此既不願意也無法干預我們的生活與家庭。上帝是我們祖先的上帝;祂不是死人的上帝,而是活人的上帝。
我們之所以存在,是對上帝呼召的回應(羅馬書 4:17:「那使死人復活、並稱無為有的上帝」)。我們之所以存在,是因為上帝早在「創立世界以前」就已經認識我們(以弗所書 1:4)。
我們活在上帝賜生命的記憶中,因此輪迴、前世等說法是毫無意義的。
We do not forget our deceased. We always pray for them – not at them – that God will give them rest until we all rise again. Death cannot separate us from the love of Christ. The deceased does not need “paper money” but only to be remembered in the Liturgy before the Body of Christ, which is the authentic food of life, so that they may live in God’s loving, life-giving memory. They are in God’s hands, so they do not want to and cannot interfere in our lives and homes. God is the God of our fathers; He is not a God of the dead but of the living. We exist in response to God’s call (Romans 4:17: “God who gives life to the dead and calls the non-living as living beings”). We exist because God knows us “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). We are in God’s life-giving memory, so there is no point in reincarnation, past lives, etc.