predication.net

Today’s Gospel – if listened to carefully, gives us the feeling that perhaps we have misheard or misunderstood, like “the Pharisees and certain scribes who came down from Jerusalem” (Mk 7:1) who came to see Jesus.

If we can rule out the former, we can equally rule out the latter. That is precisely how Jesus meant it. He is not interested in our Sunday suit, our new clothes, the place we occupy in church… Jesus invites us to look not under our case but “under our skin” – into the human heart. Outward appearances can hide a lot; our behavior in public can give others the impression that they have a decent person in front of them, perhaps even a pious one – by their posture. But we don’t even need to look into the human heart; it is enough to see us at home at work, how we behave towards our wives, our children, our colleagues at work, our subordinates. And this is about our heart. Playing nice, one can do for an hour, but not for a lifetime. One puts off the mask to put it on again at the next celebration in everyday life. How many do I have? I have each one for a different occasion…?
We’re easily capable of deceiving people who do not know us, but not God, interested in our hearts. And he sees there better than we do. “From within, out of the human heart, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, lewdness, chastity, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evils come from within man and defile the man.”

We can already see how useless our “masks,” our acting, are. God reveals us perfectly, and let’s face it: it shames us. Jesus invites us today to take the first step – to stop putting on a show for ourselves, to stop deceiving ourselves, and to look inside ourselves with God’s eyes, and only then will we discover the truth about ourselves. God cannot be fooled; let’s not even try. We can tell ourselves anything, and so can others around us. God invites us to the root of the matter, our hearts – first, we must know the truth about ourselves.
And the truth about God and ourselves is not a scientific theology theory but a matter of relationship: God and self. It is a reality. God himself came to tell us this; we have it captured in the four Gospels. In Revelation. Everything we are to do is there. So, why are we still so far from God’s truth? One reason is the intrusion of human elements into the faith. Our subjective interpretations of the words of the Lord Jesus. This is a real danger in our lives and causes great harm to our fellow man and us. This applies not only to priests but to all of us who are capable of twisting even the words of a priest who is explaining the Word of God to us. The dangers of such attitudes need not be mentioned. From Jesus’ words comes anger and sorrow; thus, it is a serious matter.

He warns us against arbitrary explanations of God’s words, against complacency, against arbitrariness, overestimating human elements in religion, in the liturgy. God’s will remains in the background. This is what Jesus wanted to say to his contemporaries and us as well.
He warns us of one more thing: not making religion a purely cultic affair. Jesus himself said that he did not come to abolish the Jewish faith. He came to fulfill it and purify it of dangerous human elements. He accused the Pharisees of their attention to externals. They observed an outward, almost morbidly external ritual, yet many did not know the nature of the exterior act that was supposed to indicate inward purification. Man has not changed, for even today, man makes the same mistakes as he did two thousand years ago. The primary fault of Jesus’ contemporaries was: neglecting God’s warnings through the prophets. Jesus, therefore, does not abolish everything old but, on the contrary, renews this divine demand and takes up the prophetic fervor against the petty and superficial piety that was exhausted in the renunciation of prayer phrases and the outward dispensation of cultic regulations.

Hypocrites” – Jesus uses a curse word. We say to ourselves, so they were evil people, those Pharisees. Let’s not forget, the gospel was not just addressed to first-century Jews, but all generations, including us. Everybody today knows the word Pharisee, Pharisaic. We mean – the action of a person pretending and being insincere. And we use it even today, that is, we know very well that a Pharisee – this is not a man of antiquity, this is the image of man. Hypocrisy is any action that puts man’s actions above God’s law. Hypocrisy was likewise religious zeal, especially in ritual purity, whereby God’s laws were grossly violated.
The highest degree of this hypocrisy was: the direct suppression of God’s commandments by false piety at the expense of the duty of love to one’s neighbor, as if the end sanctified the means.

We all know the story of the merciful Samaritan and the unmerciful priest and Levite who went to serve God in the temple but refused to help the wounded man. Jesus is not making up fairy tales, but he is well aware of the situation around him and raises his finger in warning, “See, this is as far as human willfulness can go.” Therefore, when a certain scribe asks what is the essential part of the Law, Jesus replies, “You are a scribe and do not know this? Thou shalt love God with all thy might…and thy neighbor as thyself.” No wonder the scribe couldn’t figure out the tangle of prohibitions and commands, so the point was lost. Only Jesus points out what is the reason for the cult and religion. It is love. And it doesn’t take a scholarship to do that. We see how this scholarship was a trap for the scribes and Pharisees. Hats off, at least, to those who could ask Jesus what the truth was. It was worse with those who thought they knew everything and didn’t need anyone to advise them. Yes, the real danger is the pride that caused the chosen people to fail to recognize the Truth when it came into the world.
The same thing can happen to us. We may say of Jesus that we are His disciples, but our hearts will be hostile to God Himself because we are making God in our image.

The Lord Jesus antagonized the highest circles in Israel. In the same way, we also become God’s enemies when we commit the mistakes mentioned above. Jesus Himself says this in another place: “It will not help you that you have served me, that you have eaten and drunk with me. Depart, you who practice iniquity” (cf. Lk. 13:26-27).

Every leader is threatened by the temptation of hypocrisy in some form. It is easy to pass off one’s plans and opinions as God’s clear will for all against subordinates. It is inappropriate to facilitate the art of education by pointing to one’s gifts of the Holy Spirit where factual and rational reasons are in place. And it would also be irresponsible and gravely sinful to knowingly substitute human opinions for God’s commandments.

Jesus was a man sought after by simple people, but learned men also gladly debated him – the scribes and Pharisees. However, many things bothered the Pharisees. One of them was that his disciples did not wash their hands before eating. Jesus replies to them, “Isaiah prophesied well of you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they honor me, for what they teach are the commands of men. You forsake the commandments of God and cling to the traditions of men.”
When Jesus answers the Pharisees’ question with a quotation from Isaiah, it may have initially given the impression that He was rebuking mere superficiality. However, the following verses show that there is a more significant issue at stake: “You are abrogating God’s commandments and clinging to human traditions.” Thus, the real problem is not the washing of hands but the traditions they have created within Judaism – for God’s sake. But why did the Pharisees disturb God’s word with their traditional washing? Because by doing so, they were preventing the evil that makes man incapable of fellowship with God, which comes from the human heart! No food is unclean. Nothing created that man can make a man dirty. Only one’s own heart is capable of alienating man from God.

The Pharisees added various explanations to these regulations. The Pharisees added different answers to these regulations until it all became formalism and led to hypocrisy in the Pharisees’ faith. We know that the Lord Jesus came into conflict with the law teachers concerning fasting and the keeping of the Sabbath, the day of rest.

It is a fundamental question whether it is permissible to nullify God’s commandment to preserve tradition in the Gospel. Jesus is clear that God’s commandments must not be broken. Practice must give way. We see this when he stands up for his disciples, who did not maintain ceremonial purity and did not keep the tradition of their ancestors, which said that they must wash before they ate. Jesus reveals to them a solemn fact. The Pharisees were very particular about outward observance, but they could justify themselves inwardly. He told them: “You know how to abolish the commandments of God to keep your customs.” (Mk 7:9). And immediately, he also gives them the proof. Moses said: “Honor thy father and thy mother” and, “He that curses father or mother shall surely be put to death.” (Mk 7:10). But you say, “When a man says to his father or mother, ‘Korban,’ which means that all I have to help you with is a sacrifice,” you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or mother. And you are nullifying the Word of God because of the customs you are passing on. And many other similar things you do” (Mk 7:11-13).

For the Jews at the time of Christ had a custom, or tradition, of giving to God by vow what they were to provide for the support of their parents. In this way, the son could free himself from the obligation to rear his parents and withhold all their material support. The burden of such a vow was considered more potent than the natural duty to care for and provide for parents. The action of the scribes was often a mockery of all justice. Mark had to describe these Jewish matters to us to understand the rightness of the Lord Jesus’ actions. For we also know from the Gospel these words of the Lord Jesus, “Think not that I am come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.” (Mt 5:17). We see that the Lord Jesus sets the record straight when He says that tradition, which men have invented, must give way before the commandments of God.

Sadly, even in our day, some would like the Ten Commandments of God to be non-existent, or at least to be publicly proclaimed as ineffective and meaningless. They demand this because they do not keep the Ten Commandments, they circumvent them, and therefore their conscience speaks to them. But then some come to Holy Communion, but their heart is far from what they are doing. But the Ten Commandments have a certain solemnity and importance even today, as they had in the days of Moses.

Even in our times, the world needs to return to its fulfillment. Even as Jesus himself brought it to completion when he declared, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. That you also love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn 13:34). Even the Gospel can be misunderstood, and we see only commands and prohibitions in it. Therefore, we must not think that we are good Christians when we outwardly fulfill what the Ten Commandments and Christian morality command us. However, all this is not enough to be saved, but we must, first of all, live our faith inwardly and outwardly.

We must not speak of taste or a bad taste in keeping the commandments. We must keep the command even when it is the least attractive.

He was immediately healed after touching at least the hem of his garment, after touching at least the hem of his garment, was immediately healed. Let us recall the woman who suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had squandered her entire fortune, and the people did not cure her; on the contrary, her health was even worse. This woman, in her faith, also came to the idea that all she had to do was touch at least the hem of Jesus’ garment, and she would be healed. Indeed, after touching Jesus, she immediately felt a change in her sick body.

What should we not overlook in the miraculous healing that the Lord Jesus performed? The Lord Jesus must be “touched with faith,” that is, the Lord Jesus is the true Messiah, the Son of God, and if this is not the motive for touching Jesus, there will be no healing. Sometimes hearing the texts of Holy Scripture about these miraculous healing fills some believers with sorrow. They mourn that Jesus does not live among us today, that the Church is no longer a place where such rallies can take place as they did in the days of the Lord Jesus. But they mourn in vain. They do not understand that Jesus must be “touched,” that is, we must believe that He can truly help us today.

We, after all, even at this Mass, have the opportunity to touch the Lord Jesus, not just the hem of the garment, but we can take him home in Holy Communion or to those for whom we have come to pray. And why are these touches without miracles? Let us not look for faults in Jesus and the Church, instead let us look at ourselves! We believe that Christ is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. Christ is equally strong and suitable to all. The fault, however, is in us. Do we trust him? Do we touch Christ when we stand in our place during communion? We stand and look at those who approach Holy Communion. Or even when we close Holy Communion, we touch Him without faith; that is, there is not one hundred percent conviction in us that Jesus can and wants to give it to us. What? Our healing.

We know that in addition to the Body we receive in the Sacrament, He has another Body – a mystical Body that we form with each other as brothers and sisters. This means that we are also to be aware that when we touch this Body of Christ unpleasantly, for example, with an evil look, an angry, malicious, or slanderous word, and then we go to Holy Communion. With the same tongue, which has not yet been cleansed by sincere repentance and a resolve to repair the damage, I want to touch the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Can we then expect a benefit? Not!

Well, brothers and sisters, in such a case, indeed, the grace of the Lord Jesus cannot be expected to aid in healing, and it is no wonder that we continue to be sick in body and soul despite the frequent repetition of these touches. God can only be effectively touched by faith, but only a living faith that expresses itself in acts of forgiving and serving love. He only heals those who feel Him. If we have grasped this, we have already become wealthy spiritually. We admire the examples of the saints; we appreciate the personalities of spiritual life who live among us. Why? From their lives, we can directly feel how they touch God. Their faith is not just words; it is a sincere relationship with God! God is pleased that we come to ask. After all, He said it Himself: “Ask, and you shall receive! Seek and ye shall find! Knock and it will be opened to you!” (Mt. 7:7). But we must remember that if we want to receive from Jesus what we ask for, we must also give Christ what he wants from us, namely, our hearts, without pretense.

God did not create man just for work… But do we know that we also concern the soul besides the body? Have we given any of our spare time to the soul recently?

Jesus says to the disciples: “Come ye yourselves into seclusion … and get some rest,” but he also acts. Mark writes that he “began to teach many things” (Mk. 6:30, 34). Jesus knew what it meant to rest. He often retires alone into silence. There he takes time to speak with the Father. Work is a consequence of original sin. Knowing to rest with God is time rightly used for the soul, for eternity. Jesus knows that those who work need to recharge their strength. Excessive activity, an unhealthy attitude toward the rights of body and soul, a gamble with health, will sooner later echo[ and one will suffer from sickness, and even hasten one’s death. God expects man to conquer the world by the peacock. Man is to take due care of the needs of both soul and body. Many today possess much and yet do not enjoy what they have accumulated. Who is to blame. God? Are there no reproaches: “God, why are you punishing me? Why did you die so young?

The world until the end of time needs leaders, teachers… shepherds, because the world, its misery, Jesus presented with the image that it is like “sheep without a shepherd.” (Mk 6:34) Jesus not only speaks the truth about the world but explains the need for rest for the shepherd, which the Evangelist St. Mark makes clear: “And he began to teach them many things” (Mk 6:34). Sheep without a shepherd is a picture of tragedy.

Jesus warns us not to be bad leaders, shepherds. Jesus, the “good shepherd,” desires that we walk toward holiness. This time is a time of grace. God said: “To everything, there is a season and a time to every endeavor under heaven… What profit hath he that is continually active, of all that he hath labored for?” God appointed the seventh day for rest. We read, “And on the seventh day he rested from all the works that he had done.” (Gen. 1:2). And shortly before that, we read, “And God created man in his image.” (Gen. 1:27).

We have time to ourselves. The less of it we have, the more we need to indulge ourselves. It is commendable that time of rest can be used for spiritual cleansing. Just as during leisure, we can paint, put things in order, and order in the soul, in thoughts, opinions, attitudes, towards ourselves, others, duties, hobbies, things, places, has to be done. With God, the proper use of vacation time holidays… can enrich and change life beyond recognition. Life changes by many degrees; life becomes more joyful, more fruitful…

You may have read that world-class company even give their employees funds for vacation time. They know that when they get adequate rest, they can perform better. There will be less sick leave. They will transfer their talents, skills, and intellectual values more and benefit their workplaces.

In practice, we quite often witness that miracles and mysteries of faith provoke in some believers and practically all non-believers doubts about their actual existence because they contradict the laws of nature, contrary to “common sense,” and often represent a “bare impossibility.” We shall attempt, using several examples, to show that many of them are indeed mysteries, but not in that sense, that they should be rejected a priori, as impossible and nonsensical. We begin at once with the most central mystery -the existence of God. It very often happens that after lectures that tend to support the idea of the existence of God, a debater rises and triumphantly asks: “And who created God?” In the belief that he has thereby refuted all the lecturer’s arguments. The theologian’s answer to such a question is well known -God is the self-caused cause of his existence; therefore, he does not need to be created by another being. Such an answer of a man accustomed to pragmatic causality will not satisfy. Physics, however, can bring to bear the problem, thus posing a situation in which the issue of “self-cause” is practically absent.
The issue of causality always presupposes a temporal succession of events, whereby the preceding event may cause the following one. Therefore, we may argue that the assumption of causation is the passage of time. If time did not pass, there would be no point in looking for causal of existing phenomena; they would live as eternal and unchanging entities. With God, time does not pass; therefore, there is no point in asking to ask about the cause of its origin. This statement may naturally provoke the further question, How can one conceive of a reality? Which time does not pass? It is at this point in the reasoning that it may come to physics can come to the rescue because, for her, it is no problem to “arrange.” for time not to pass. Let us leave aside situations where it makes no sense to talk about the passage of time. These are situations related to the so-called thermodynamically equilibrium state of systems. Everything happens perfectly chaotic and reversible so that there is no evidence that the plan is moving in any significant direction, determining the flow of time. Physics, however, thanks to modern theories, also knows much more attractive and exciting situations in which something happens to time unusual.
It is irrefutably proven that the passage of time near large masses slows down, according to precise relationships found in any severe textbook on theoretical physics. The exciting thing about these relations is that according to them, there are (theoretically) such masses of objects for which every event appears as infinitely long. This implies that to an observer of such an object, every process seems to be infinitely slow, and in this situation, he; thus, time does not pass at all. The surprising fact is that such strange objects are called black holes. To observers on their surface, more precisely in the places defined in the so-called Schwarzschild radius, time does not pass at all.55)
The relativity of the passage of time, to which we have just drawn attention, gives us allows us to understand even better some very enigmatic texts from the Bible, such as the text, “With God, there is one day as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” We know from physics that the time that passes in a moving system, depending on its relative velocity of motion relative to another reference frame, lengthens or slows down; therefore, it would be possible to calculate precisely at what speed a specific system should move relative to the rest frame so that all the time intervals measured in it are close to the intervals measured in the rest frame in such a proportion as a thousand years bears to the one day. Therefore, man is capable of the above “mystery” of the Bible to verify experimentally.
Related to the relativity of the passage of time is another question often more thoughtful listeners ask: what does the soul do between leaving the body and Last Judgment? For only there will it know whether it belongs to the realm of glorification or damnation. This problem has intensely preoccupied theologians and has been the subject of much controversy. From the point of view of physics, this issue is not an issue because, as we have already seen above – there are states in which time does not pass, and in such a state, the soul is also in. The passage of time is unconditionally connected with the matter. And the spirit is immaterial. Therefore, the soul does not differentiate between leaving a particular body and the Last Judgment. Some time has elapsed. It perceives this issue as an issue only of a being that has a material nature.

In nuclear reactors, man-controlled and directed chain reactions Man-controlled and directed chain reactions in nuclear reactors can successfully protect and develop human life. By contrast, if the chain reaction proceeds in an avalanche-like fashion and can neither be controlled nor directed by man, such as in the explosion of an atomic bomb, then it produces only terror, misfortune, and destruction.

In the moral sphere, too, we can speak of a chain reaction. Good begets new well, and evil has more evil. At the root of every human activity that can be qualified as morally good or bad is an idea either by or contrary to the moral law. From the thought arises or is released a statement, an impulse, a movement, which manifests itself at one time indeed, at another in word. Every act has its consequences; every word has its repercussions; if a man can direct the course of his thoughts, if he can control his passions and passions, if he holds his action by reason and rules over it by will, his word can bring joy and happiness to men. Men can benefit much from their acts.

But if a man becomes the plaything of his passions and passions, if the dark forces of the evil veil the vision of his reason with mist and paralyze the power of his will, then the evil of his words may grow pain and sorrow, then the fruit of his deeds may be shame and fear, misery and death.

Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great, who wanted to destroy the little Jesus after his birth in Bethlehem. From his father, he received an inheritance rule over Galilee and Transjordan. He drove his lawful wife away from him when he met Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. He lured her away from him. He entered into a sinful adulterous affair with her. John the Baptist sharply rebukes him, “You shall not live with your brother’s wife” (Mk 6:19). Though he exploded with violent anger against John, Antipas knew how to control himself. The Slovak poet Hviezdoslav is the author of the tragedy Herod and Herodias. Other literary forms and some film works also deal with this theme. Why?

Mark masterfully recorded the events surrounding Jesus Christ when Herod, under the pressure of remorse, said: “This is John risen from the dead, whom I had beheaded.” (Mk. 6:16). The Gospel story is like an episode from a novel. A king celebrates a birthday, a young girl dances before a select company, and she is allowed to make a wish for a reward. The moment has come for the queen, the girl’s mother, to take revenge on an inconvenient critic. Because the king is a weakling, John the Baptist must die. All it takes is a little intrigue at just the right moment for the man of God to be killed.

Our century has enriched the world with a new discipline, atomic physics. It has brought the concept of the chain reaction into the consciousness of humanity. It is based on the ability of neutrons released or produced by the disintegration of an atomic nucleus to cause other atomic nuclei to break up. In nuclear reactors, man-controlled and directed chain reactions can successfully protect and develop human life. By contrast, if the chain reaction proceeds in an avalanche-like fashion and can neither be controlled nor directed by man, such as in the explosion of an atomic bomb, then it produces only terror, misfortune, and destruction.

In the moral sphere, too, we can speak of a chain reaction. Good begets new well, and evil has more evil. At the root of every human activity that can be qualified as morally good or bad is an idea either by or contrary to the moral law. From the thought arises or is released a statement, an impulse, a movement, which manifests itself at one time indeed, at another in word. Every act has its consequences; every word has its repercussions; if a man can direct the course of his thoughts, if he can control his passions and passions, if he holds his action by reason and rules over it by will, his word can bring joy and happiness to men. Men can benefit much from their acts.

But if a man becomes the plaything of his passions and passions, if the dark forces of the evil veil the vision of his reason with mist and paralyze the power of his will, then the evil of his words may grow pain and sorrow, then the fruit of his deeds may be shame and fear, misery and death.

Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great, who wanted to destroy the little Jesus after his birth in Bethlehem. He received an inheritance of rule over Galilee and Transborder from his father. He drove his lawful wife away from him when he met Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. He lured her away from him. He entered into a sinful, adulterous affair with her. John the Baptist sharply rebukes him, “You shall not live with your brother’s wife” (Mk 6:19). Though he exploded with violent anger against John, Antipas knew how to control himself. He did not have him killed immediately because he was afraid of John since it was known that he was a righteous and holy man. He had him imprisoned in the dungeon under his castle, Marchers. Herodias was Herod’s niece, for she was the daughter of Aristobulus, who was also the son of Herod the Great and whom his father had murdered. Herodias was the wife of Philip, also a son of Herod the Great. Salome was their daughter. She was about nineteen years old when she demanded the head of John the Baptist as a reward for her dancing.

The Bible does not give the name of Herodias’ daughter Salome. It is known from Jewish Antiquities, written by the Greek historian Josephus Flavius. Herod was a terrible murderer. Herod Antipas and Herodias and his daughter Salome came from his school. John must have reckoned that only severe punishment could await him for such an admonition to Herod and his illicit wife. He was waiting for the opportunity: when, where, and how. Similar things have happened more than once in history. Today, we especially remember that both John and Christ loved the truth and the good above all things. It is Friday. Remembering the death of the Lord Jesus. Judas, not Salome, betrayed Jesus. Her mother induced Salome—Judas by the desire for money.
What does this mean for us? We need to embrace what Jesus and John the Baptist loved: truth and goodness. This is the surest victory. John successfully fulfilled his mission as a prophet, Jesus the Redeemer and Savior of the world. Let us ask the Divine Heart of Jesus for the strength to persevere in good until the end of our lives.

We know from the Old Testament how God showed His power over Pharaoh when He would not release the Jewish people from Egyptian bondage. The last plague was brutal for them. The angel of death killed all the firstborn of both people and animals in the houses whose doors were not marked with the lamb’s blood. In remembrance of the rescue of the firstborn Jews, every firstborn son was considered the property of God. Therefore, on the 40th day after the birth of a baby boy, they carried the child to Jerusalem, placed him in the hands of the priest, and by the passing of the prescribed sacrifice, redeemed the son. This amounted to 5 shekels, the wages of five days’ work. There was also one more church ceremony at that time – the purification of the child’s mother. On that occasion, the mother was obliged to bring the sacrifice of a lamb, and if she did not have this, it was sufficient to get the gift of two turtledoves or pigeons. Mary and Joseph brought a pair of turtledoves, proving inferior. In every parish, some people regularly attend Mass and other liturgical reverences. This was also the case in the Jerusalem temple. Many of the Jews, when they heard the sound of the trumpets, which called like our bells to the temple, left their work and went to pray. It is true that the Jerusalem Temple was large and had specific laws, both liturgical and orderly, as to who could stay where. Women were separated from men. It is in this context that we read of Simeon and Hannah. They were among the faithful to God. In return, by God’s permission, they were granted the grace to see the Redeemer already here on earth. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Simeon made a prophecy to Mary about her co-suffering with her Son. We understand the words that Joseph and Mary returned with the child to Nazareth to mean that Matthew is not recounting events such as the flight into Egypt. When Luke writes, the Gospel of Matthew is already familiar to believers. Therefore, he is not telling what we already know from Matthew, but he immediately writes that after all these events, they returned to Nazareth.

The feast tells us about the significant events in the lives of Jesus and Mary. This has given rise to various conjectures about whether today’s feast is the feast of the Virgin Mary or the Lord Jesus. Today’s feast is not commanded. We consider today’s feast to be the feast of the Lord because the Lord Jesus shows us faithfulness to the commands of His Father, who ordered the sacrifice to the nation through Moses. Jesus has become like us in everything except sin, fulfilling the law. The Virgin Mary gave today’s feast a Marian character in that she likewise did the will of God the Father. This feast is one of the oldest in the Church. After the silencing of persecution in the 4th century, the candlelight procession in Rome is mentioned. The content of today’s feast is that the Lord Jesus as a child, is brought into the temple, ending the priesthood of the Old Testament and beginning a new priesthood in him and through him. For a thousand years now, with a procession of lighted candles, the Church has remembered the words of Simeon: “…. light for the enlightenment of the Gentiles” (Lk 2:32).
Today’s symbolism of light draws our attention to the example and following of Jesus, especially when today’s celebration takes place in the evening and solemnly in a procession with lighted candles. Today’s symbolism of light draws our attention to the pattern and following of Jesus, especially as today’s celebration takes place in the evening and solemnly in a procession with lighted candles. Today’s feast is also called the Feast of – Our Lady of the Thunder. This feast is known in many countries of the world. We invoke Our Lady as a protector in times of trouble. In the past, it often happened that fire caused many misfortunes, especially when lit with candles. Our Lady was entrusted with this light. Also, many accidents were caused by lightning. If long ago, the custom was adopted that today the candles lit in disasters were blessed, and by their light, the faithful prayed and asked for protection to Our Lady of Thunder.
Today we shine electric lights, and our dwellings are protected by lightning rods. However, this is no reason to say that what was in the past was superstition; today, this feast is losing its significance. On the contrary, today, we ask Jesus and Mary for help in even worse disasters and storms. The candles we bless today will remind us by their light of the closeness and presence of Jesus and Mary in our prayers. Today marks 40 days since we experienced the feast of peace and love in the family circle. Today, we, especially children, cannot imagine a Christmas tree without colored electric candles. When the family prays together, it is the candle and it’s light that can help us to focus, to enter into the presence of God, and to enhance our conversation with God. In prayer, we recognize, like Simeon and Anna, our God. We are to approach prayer with as much self-evidence and faithfulness to God as Mary and Joseph did their duties to the Law. Today, we realize that a good Christian is not to forget his responsibilities to his soul. We do not encounter the excuse that Herod was reaching out to their child with Mary and Joseph. They fulfill everything faithfully and conscientiously.

We realize that the words of Simeon are already being fulfilled today, “He is appointed for the fall and the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which they will resist.” (Lk 2:34). The disobedience of the commands, the public rejection of God’s laws, is temporal. Jesus is unrecognized, denied, and mocked. The second prediction of Simeon is fulfilled: “And a sword shall pierce your soul.” (Luke 2:35).

And today, we see a genuine reverence for Mary and the public and open attacks against her mission in the Church. A part of the faithful is available to God. Although not every day, as Church law determined on Sundays and commanded feast days, they participate in Holy Mass or Church events. The other part of the faithful ignores the spiritual life. Judgment is left to Christ. But those who knowingly and willingly deny the light of Christ’s teachings here on earth must reckon with the words of Jesus, who speaks of darkness and pain for those who have despised the invitation to the wedding feast, or have mistaken the wedding garment in their lives for something unimportant and secondary. The lighted candle in our hands is an address to us from Mary and Jesus that the light of grace in our hearts not be extinguished. It is a call to each of us to be a model, an example, and an encouragement in our lives.

In one stadium where a liturgical celebration was taking place, the preacher asked the organizers to turn off all the lights during the sermon. The stadium went dark. The preacher then lit one candle. He asked those present if they could see it. Those on the other side answered yes. They saw a small light. Then the preacher invited all those who had a match, lighter, torch, or different light to light it. The darkness in the stadium disappeared. The more sources they landed, the more light there was. Finally, the preacher remarked, -This is the way it should be in our society. When one shines by a good example, others will see it. If we all strive to do this, the darkness of unbelief and sin in our environment will be transformed into the pleasant light of peace and love.

And something like this is what today’s feast – the Presentation of the Lord – wants to remind us of today. Let us sacrifice ourselves for the salvation of our souls. Let us offer our examples for the encouragement in faith for our neighbors. On today’s feast, Mary and Jesus invite us to follow them with our light of good Christian living. And this is what our young friends need today. They require it more than perhaps we adults think. Our young people will not settle for platitudes, words without deeds, but for the examples of our lives. And they are right.

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Until a few decades ago, we might have had the feeling that the world was a more or less understandable place, and we could lean on the unquestioned certainties of three-dimensional space, solid matter, and fixed time. Twentieth-century physics, however, has led us astray and looking at an open book, the reader is not sure whether he is reading from a science fiction story. At the end of the twentieth century, it was clear that the universe was a far more remarkable place than we could ever have suspected and that things were far more complex than our everyday experience suggested.
With the development of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity, it became apparent that only a tiny fraction of dimensions behave reasonably and customarily: the world at distances minimal and very large is very different. It acts very differently from the world we grew up in, the world of our spaces. The certainties have broken down for us: masses are full of empty places, the room has all kinds of strange twists and turns, and the clocks always point differently in different areas. Everything is different! A solid mass and in small distances, all sorts of boils and bubbles resemble a stormy sea of boiling foam. The black holes are somehow encapsulated in space, space can be torn like a sponge for washing, and there are many more dimensions than our usual four. My hands are now writing this text; they are not material but bundles of dancing strings. Man on Earth suddenly seems like a settler who emerges from his comfortable cottage, where he is warm and light and finds a storm raging outside and angels flying and dancing fairies. The world is very different from what we imagined! We live in a kind of quiet bubble of space-time: at high speeds, great masses, and distances large or small, everything is different.
I think contemporary physics has vastly outstripped the imagination of science fiction writers: reality is more interesting than the best science fiction story. The more physicists investigate the Big Bang Theory and the initial parameters of the universe, the more unexpected conclusions they come to if just one of the many constants had a slightly different value than it does; neither galaxies, stars, nor we would ever have come into existence. The probability of the initial parameters being “correctly” set is so tiny as to be almost zero. Except that’s precisely what happened. To somehow avoid the problem, astrophysicists define the so-called anthropic principle. One and its form says that the universe must be so to live in it. Maybe there are many universes somewhere where the constants are set. Differently, no one will ever know because life cannot exist in them (at least in that form, as we know it). Because we are here, the universe must look like this. It’s strange: because of people on a tiny planet, a small galaxy, the universe looks the way it does.
Since the Middle Ages, our cosmic self-consciousness has somehow faded. It was generally assumed that the center of the universe was the Earth, around which everything revolves, figuratively and literally. Galileo Galilei and Nicholas Copernicus made it clear that the center of the universe is the sun. In 1750 Tho  Wright discovered that the Milky Way at the night sky is our view inside the galaxy we are apart from. Today, we know that we and our solar system are stumbling somewhere nearly this galaxy. It was probably the philosopher Immanuel Kant who first 1755 wrote that at least some of the nebulae we see in the sky are circular disks about the same size as our galaxy. Today, we know millions of galaxies like ours in the universe. They form clusters and superclusters of galaxies that are also in the universe very irregularly distributed as if they were imaginary walls of some unimaginably large spatial cell. We know that the universe is not infinite but can hardly imagine its size. To Immanuel Kant, who marveled at the starry sky above him, with whom he recalled one clear night at the opposite end of the planet, in Antar …on the other side of Antarctica. I wish you could experience the feeling of the limitless depth of space when, on a solitary walk, I suddenly had the impression that I was standing upside down and seeing the starry sky below me, looking into the endless depths of a universe that had no bottom.
It is sometimes a valuable warm-up for our healthy humility to try to look at our galaxy from somewhere very far away until it looks like a blurry speck in space: then we can more easily grasp the comicality of all dictators and our lust for power. Carl Capek, in his play; From the Life of Insects, he develops a battle of ants in a poisonous scene: they fly orders and big words about glory as we are used to them from our human wars. Only later does the viewer realize that the whole war is being fought over a piece of forest land, over a single blade of grass. Too bad Capek didn’t live to see the Hubble telescope.

Doctors often talk about the need for faith and trust of the patient towards the doctor. Practice says that wounds heal sooner in such a case, and recovery is significantly shortened. However, we also know of issues that cannot be explained other than by stating that it cannot be explained, that science cannot prove it, that the disease was and is not. The slide confirmed that, and suddenly, it’s not there. Often an incurable illness is cured… We can read about this in Lourdes, Beacon of the Atomic Age. We, believers, speak of the miraculous, doctors say of incomprehensible cures, and Jesus in this Gospel admonishes, “Do not be afraid, just believe!” (Mk 5:36).

We are made to live, not to die. Two stories from this Gospel bear witness to this. The Lord Jesus consistently leads people to himself. Recently, he calmed a storm at sea with a single word before the eyes of the apostles, and now he does the same when he heals a sick woman and raises the dead girl of the synagogue leader. In all cases, we see that Jesus shows his power not only in word but also indeed, that he is Lord of life and death. This is not made any easier by the doubt that the sick woman and the synagogue ruler acted in a spirit of faith that can be said to move mountains but would not have been sufficient if the Lord Jesus had not accepted it and responded to it with His power. Faith received and confirmed by the Lord Jesus works miracles.

The faith of the sick woman and the synagogue ruler’s daughter should encourage us. We also see the helplessness of the man who did all in his power and did not achieve the desired result. He was left with God and His intervention. All that is needed is to believe and trust Jesus. To live daily in practice the truth that the Book of Wisdom speaks of, “For God created man for incorruptibility, he made him in the image of his likeness; but by the envy of the devil death has come into the world: he will be tried by those who are his prey.” (Wis. 2:23-24).

Let us trust God! Jesus is more powerful than death, for that is what He came into the world to do, to give us God-given life. This was fulfilled by both the woman and the man of the Gospel. To explain to the woman, Jesus said that her healing had much more profound meaning and the cause of that healing went to the bottom of God’s mercy. For it rests on man’s boundless trust in God. Jesus himself confirmed this when he said to the woman, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be healed of your sickness” (Mk 5:34). The Lord Jesus rarely gave people such a testimony.

As we reflect on this woman’s healing, we realize that it was a boon for the woman and our encouragement and edification because it touches each one. Through these events, we gain the assurance that we can ask Jesus for anything if we ask with confidence and with great surrender to his will.

We often wonder why God does not hear us…? Let us ask ourselves: What faith fills us? With what religion do we approach the matter at hand? What else is lacking in our confidence? Is there trust persistent prayer? Are we genuinely convinced that only Jesus and anyone else can help us? Let us nurture in ourselves, spread around us such a witness of faith, and eventually, we will be convinced of the love of Jesus.

The second miracle of this Gospel concerns the same virtue, although it shows it from a different side. The synagogue ruler’s closest friends undermine his faith. They say: “Your daughter is dead; why do you still kidnap the teacher?” (Mk 5:35). Who knows how the matter would have ended had Jesus not been there to tell him with all authority: “Do not be afraid, just believe!” (Mk 5:36).

Let us consider that in such situations, faith can be destroyed thanks very quickly to others through unwise or unwise actions or words. Jesus at that moment seemed to be saying to Jairus: She died for them, but not for you! I will prove to you that she did not die but is asleep. Believe me! Jesus’ real action is directed toward encouraging Jairus to believe rather than performing the miracle of raising the dead. We see that faith is more important to Jesus than the dead man.

Let us realize that there will be no resurrection if we do not have faith. If faith prevails, life will triumph over death, and that is certain! So it was with Jairus. His faith prevailed.

Mark says: Jesus took the girl by the hand and said: “Talitha Kum!”, which means, “Girl, I say to you, get up!” (Mk 5:41). In these words is the power and might of the Lord Jesus. Jesus does not perform miracles for spectacle or external popularity to notice outward signs. Still, we may have a foothold to the substance of the matter in external things. That is that we may believe that Jesus has brought victory over death into the world. He – Jesus got to a sad, desperate, or hopeless humanity himself as the greatest gift: the gift of life. He and no one else!

How beautiful it is to realize that we have such a great Teacher. And not only that but whoever lives in him has such a significant meaning in life. Life without end.