若望.保禄二世圣座，罗马主教，天主教教宗，与丁卡大德四世圣座，东方叙利亚教会大公主教长，感谢天主，促成本次新的，弟兄一般的会议。
从宗徒接受由我们共同教父所宣任之尼西亚信经，作为信仰之后裔和守护者，我们信唯一的主、耶稣 基督、天主的独生子。他在万世之前，由圣父所生。时期一满，为了我们得救，他从天降下而成为人。天主的圣言，圣三一之第二位因圣神之能力，成为血肉，由童贞玛利亚取得肉躯，具理知之魂，在感孕之时即不可分开地联合一起。
因此，我们的主耶稣基督是真正的天主也是真正的人，完全的神性和人性，与父同体的，除了罪，凡事也与我们同体。他的神性和人性在他的位格（Person）中联合，没有混杂或改变，没有分割或隔离 。在他里面保存着神性的特色，也保存着人性的特色，有他们的特质、功能，和活动。但绝不是“一 位和另一位”，神性和人性在同一位独一无二的天主的儿子、主耶稣基督的位格中联合，他是我们唯 一敬拜的对象。
因此，基督不是一位“普通的人”，天主收了他，为了要住在他的里面，给他灵感，犹如他在义者和 先知中一般。但是，他的神性是同一位天主，是道，在万世之前，由圣父所生，没有开始的。他的人 性是在这末后的时代为母亲所生，却没有父亲。他的人性是蒙福的童贞玛利亚所生的，仍是天主的儿子本身。这就是东方的叙利亚教会祷告时称童贞玛利亚为“基督我们天主和救主的母亲”。同样的信仰，在天主教的传统中，称童贞玛利亚为“天主的母亲”，也称她是“基督的母亲”。我们双方都承认，这些称呼是同一信仰的合法性和准确性，我们双方都尊重各教会在它礼仪生活和虔诚中的选择。
这是我们所宣认基督奥秘的独一的信仰。过去认为有关位格和信条有可诅咒的争议，而今天主的圣神使我们更为了解，当年在这方面的分歧，大部分是由于许多的误解所致。
无论基督论中有任何差异，我们今日自我经验到联合在一起宣认同一信仰，天主的儿子成为人，以致 因着他的恩宠，我们得成为天主的儿女。我们希望从今以后共同见证这位是道路、真理、生命的信仰，对我们同时代的人，用适当的方法宣告这信仰，使世人能信这救恩的福音。
我们共同宣认的圣言成为血肉的奥秘，不是一个抽象的和单独的真理，是天主的儿子奉差来拯救我们。这救恩的计划，根本就在圣三——圣父、圣子、圣神——合一的奥秘中，因着恩宠藉着分享这合一而得以应验，在这唯一、至圣、至公、从宗徒传下来的教会中，这教会是天主的子民，是基督的身体，和圣神的殿。
信徒藉着洗礼成为这身心的一份子，这洗礼是水和圣神的工作，他们得以重生，成为新人。他们更因圣神的印记藉着抹油礼得坚振。他们自己与天主同在，在庆祝圣餐，基督完全奉献时，得以完全的实现。这种团契的重建是教会中有罪的教友与天主和好。藉着饶恕之礼使人与人和好，在册封之礼中，司祭循着宗徒继承的事奉确保信仰的准确，使这些圣礼盒团契能在各个地方教会中推行。
依此信仰和这圣礼的生活，其结果为特定的天主教会和特定的叙利亚教会能彼此承认为姊妹教会。有关信仰的内容、圣礼，和教会的宪章的相同能使教会间有丰满、完全的团契。如果这种我们所主张的共同点未能获得，我们怎能侥幸地期待一起庆祝圣餐呢？因为圣餐是教会间完全团契的记号。
虽然如此，不过我们在教会间信仰中深厚的团契和相互的信任已经存在，促使我们考虑一同见证福音的信息，在教牧的领域相互合作，特别包括教会学道及未来司祭册封都在范围之内。
感谢天主使我们重新发现，我们的信仰和圣礼上早已联合，我们重申要排除一切过去的艰难，阻碍我们教会间完全的团契，以致我们更能回应主要他的子民合一，这种合一是眼能看得见的。为了征服这些阻碍，我们组织一综合委员会使天主教和东方的叙利亚教会能有神学的对话。
丁卡大德四世
若望.保禄二世
1994年11月11日
（周联华牧师 译）
后记
文/周联华牧师
天主教庆祝利玛窦的来华纪念，理当庆祝，应当大大庆祝！基督教庆祝马礼逊的来华纪念，理当庆祝，应当大大庆祝！但是对景教阿罗本的来华，尽管有景教碑的记载，我们却淡然处之，而且还怕传上“异端”的邪气。考其原因，无非是因为景教是属聂斯多留派（Nestorians），聂派既被定为“异端 ”，我们就尽量回避。
天主教教宗与东方叙利亚主教长已发表上述联合宣言，认为当时的“诅咒”实是许多误解，指的就是聂斯多留（Nestorians），且当时聂氏所写的文章都已烧毁，无从辨正，但幸得有叙利亚文保存。今已在The Bazaar of Heracleides,by Nestorius,translated by G.R.Driver&Leonard Hodgson,Wipf and Stock Publisher,Eugene,OR;April,2002,previously published by Oxford,1925发表。聂斯多 留既已平反，我们对景教碑与阿罗本当刮目相看了。
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
圣座网站宣言的英文版：
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_11111994_assyrian-church_en.html
COMMON CHRISTOLOGICAL DECLARATION
BETWEEN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
AND THE ASSYRIAN CHURCH OF THE EAST
His Holiness John Paul II, Bishop of Rome and Pope of the Catholic Church, and His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, give thanks to God who has prompted them to this new brotherly meeting.
Both of them consider this meeting as a basic step on the way towards the full communion to be restored between their Churches. They can indeed, from now on, proclaim together before the world their common faith in the mystery of the Incarnation.
***
As heirs and guardians of the faith received from the Apostles as formulated by our common Fathers in the Nicene Creed, we confess one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten of the Father from all eternity who, in the fullness of time, came down from heaven and became man for our salvation. The Word of God, second Person of the Holy Trinity, became incarnate by the power of the Holy Spirit in assuming from the holy Virgin Mary a body animated by a rational soul, with which he was indissolubly united from the moment of his conception.
Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ is true God and true man, perfect in his divinity and perfect in his humanity, consubstantial with the Father and consubstantial with us in all things but sin. His divinity and his humanity are united in one person, without confusion or change, without division or separation. In him has been preserved the difference of the natures of divinity and humanity, with all their properties, faculties and operations. But far from constituting "one and another", the divinity and humanity are united in the person of the same and unique Son of God and Lord Jesus Christ, who is the object of a single adoration.
Christ therefore is not an " ordinary man" whom God adopted in order to reside in him and inspire him, as in the righteous ones and the prophets. But the same God the Word, begotten of his Father before all worlds without beginning according to his divinity, was born of a mother without a father in the last times according to his humanity. The humanity to which the Blessed Virgin Mary gave birth always was that of the Son of God himself. That is the reason why the Assyrian Church of the East is praying the Virgin Mary as "the Mother of Christ our God and Saviour". In the light of this same faith the Catholic tradition addresses the Virgin Mary as "the Mother of God" and also as "the Mother of Christ". We both recognize the legitimacy and rightness of these expressions of the same faith and we both respect the preference of each Church in her liturgical life and piety.
This is the unique faith that we profess in the mystery of Christ. The controversies of the past led to anathemas, bearing on persons and on formulas. The Lord's Spirit permits us to understand better today that the divisions brought about in this way were due in large part to misunderstandings.
Whatever our Christological divergences have been, we experience ourselves united today in the confession of the same faith in the Son of God who became man so that we might become children of God by his grace. We wish from now on to witness together to this faith in the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, proclaiming it in appropriate ways to our contemporaries, so that the world may believe in the Gospel of salvation.
***
The mystery of the Incarnation which we profess in common is not an abstract and isolated truth. It refers to the Son of God sent to save us. The economy of salvation, which has its origin in the mystery of communion of the Holy Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Spirit —, is brought to its fulfilment through the sharing in this communion, by grace, within the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, which is the People of God, the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Spirit.
Believers become members of this Body through the sacrament of Baptism, through which, by water and the working of the Holy Spirit, they are born again as new creatures. They are confirmed by the seal of the Holy Spirit who bestows the sacrament of Anointing. Their communion with God and among themselves is brought to full realization by the celebration of the unique offering of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist. This communion is restored for the sinful members of the Church when they are reconciled with God and with one another through the sacrament of Forgiveness. The sacrament of Ordination to the ministerial priesthood in the apostolic succession assures the authenticity of the faith, the sacraments and the communion in each local Church.
Living by this faith and these sacraments, it follows as a consequence that the particular Catholic churches and the particular Assyrian churches can recognize each other as sister Churches. To be full and entire, communion presupposes the unanimity concerning the content of the faith, the sacraments and the constitution of the Church. Since this unanimity for which we aim has not yet been attained, we cannot unfortunately celebrate together the Eucharist which is the sign of the ecclesial communion already fully restored.
Nevertheless, the deep spiritual communion in the faith and the mutual trust already existing between our Churches, entitle us from now on to consider witnessing together to the Gospel message and cooperating in particular pastoral situations, including especially the areas of catechesis and the formation of future priests.
In thanking God for having made us rediscover what already unites us in the faith and the sacraments, we pledge ourselves to do everything possible to dispel the obstacles of the past which still prevent the attainment of full communion between our Churches, so that we can better respond to the Lord's call for the unity of his own, a unity which has of course to be expressed visibly. To overcome these obstacles, we now establish a Mixed Committee for theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East.
Given at Saint Peter's, on 11 November 1994
K. MARDINKHA
IOANNES PAULUS PP. II
|
