predication.net

Imagine God as mercy. “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” (Jn. 8:11).

The Gospel shows us sinners at the moment when we accuse other sinners before Jesus. We can have multiple perspectives on the passage about the woman caught in sin and the behavior of those who brought her before Jesus, as well as the behavior of Jesus. It is important to remember that the gospel leads us to humble ourselves, acknowledge our sinfulness, and that forgiveness of sins comes from Jesus. We are the recipients of the gospel, each one of us. The Pharisees are satisfied with their pseudo-righteousness and will not receive the mercy that the woman they brought to Jesus received. The woman is aware of her situation. According to the Law of Moses, for her weakness in which she was caught and is now accused, she faces the penalty of death by stoning. Indeed, in the days of Christ, such punishments were rarely carried out. But the Pharisees were not so much concerned with the woman as they were with attacking Jesus, whom they hated because He thought differently from them, rebuked their hypocrisy, and drew people after Him.

They tempted Jesus so they could accuse him. The response they expected from Jesus was, in their view, to be either rigorously rigoristic or lax. And one answer or the other was to be used against Jesus. Jesus found himself having to take a stand on the fate of a man dragged into accountability through the authority of power. But Jesus did not reject justice and righteousness, nor did he reject mercy, but he gave justice and mercy a true meaning. The Pharisees did not count on such a masterful response. Jesus said to them: “He among you who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” (Jn. 8:7). In these words, the Pharisees understood that they, too, were not without sin. There are other sins, such as adultery. They, too, have their vices. Jesus taught them a moral lesson in a few words. Someone may immediately ask: “And where was the accomplice, the accomplices…?” John writes: “As they heard these things, one by one, beginning with the elders, they fled away, until he (Jesus) was left alone with the woman who stood in the midst.” (Jn. 8:9). They left, but their shame had nothing to do with humility.

A solemn remembrance to each of us – a rebuke? Proverbs says: “The crow sits by the crow, and the equal seeks the equal.” Or: “Wolf to wolves.” They have no trouble destroying their consciences and others as well. We are weak people. But when we confess our sins in humility, when we awaken in our hearts the pain of our sins and those of others, we can expect mercy from our God. He is our God. When we renounce sin repeatedly, we are strengthened in our love for Christ. We realize the significance of Christ’s suffering for our sins. God is a just Judge, but He is also merciful. We want to live in Christ, and Christ to live in us.

It is interesting to read the purification prayers of other religions. For example, the ancient Hindu supplication reads, “Purify, O God, my soul, see to its innocence! The evil spirit has deceived her; the flesh has deceived her… ”
How very differently Christianity explains sin and guilt! Origenes has calculated what all tempt us to sin: The world, i.e., the evil influences of the environment, the flesh, i.e., the sinful passions, the devil, who gives us evil thoughts, penetrating like arrows into our hearts. Who, then, is responsible for sin? But the answer is “Neither the world, nor the flesh, nor the devil!” God punished the devil for his sin. But for our sin, we bear the punishment ourselves because we alone are responsible for our willing consent to evil. Therefore, the only actual cause of sin
is our own will, which chooses evil. If the cause of sin were something other than ourselves, then the responsibility would fall on God Himself, who put us in this predicament.

The Christian, therefore, does not lay the blame on anyone or anything else; he beats his breast and says: “My fault!” Our purification prayers take this typical form: “God, have mercy on forgive me, forgive me, a sinner!” Transgression of God’s law Preachers uses analogy, a simile of moral and natural laws. Let’s build a house regardless of the laws of gravity, collapse it, and sow grain in the opposite season and in different climates; what will we reap? That is the result of even human life, which is contrary to the moral law given by God.
The simile itself is not bad. The good, which is eternal, is permanent and necessary; the necessity can then be expressed theoretically, expressed in law. They are thus natural laws of morality, of sound. Even in revealed religion, God has expressed His will in direction. Faithfulness to the Lord was judged among the Jews by how one kept the Law. Christ, the apostles, and the Church formulated their doctrine in certain principles. Christian morality collected them, sorted them out, classified them, and worked out a system. From time to time, however, the opposition is manifested to such a “legal morality,” where all sin} is as it were already pre-weighed. The Phariseeism that manifested itself at the end of the Old Testament is a sobering example of how the letter of the Law has replaced a personal, respectful relationship with God. The danger of Pharisaic then will always be alive, not in vain, is spoken of so many times in the Gospel. But it will not be eradicated by discarding and neglecting the Law. In a sense, the thought of St. Paul in his letter to Romans; the law is good and holy, but it is no substitute for Christ, and without him, it is meaningless.
But he who loves Christ keeps the commandments (Jn. 14, 15), thus expressing his love for him. Therefore, he is rightly afraid to break even the least of God’s commandments, lest he is the least in the kingdom of God (cf. Mt 5:19). According to St. Basil, the commandments of God shine like stars, according to which swimmers are guided at night not to lose their way. The alphabetical Psalm 118 has been figuratively called “the rosary of God’s law,” which is light and life for the one who walks without blemish “in the ways of the commandments.” For the Stoics, the moral law was an expression of the necessity of the world; for the Pharisees, it was a code of national duty and customs, but for the Christian, it must remain ever alive word of the heavenly Father, whom we daily assure:  Thy will be done! God’s insult.
Not only philosophers but also Catholic theologians have often had difficulty explaining expressions in Scripture and religious language: sin offends, grieves, anger, and therefore punishes God. Even St. Thomas Aquinas thinks that this can only be understood in a broader, figurative sense. Sin only harms us ourselves. I am not breaking the sun by boarding up the window, but I am depriving myself of its light. In dealing with people, we call the refusal of a gift an insult. Sin is the rejection of God’s love, the greatest gift, which is why we humanly call it “God’s insult,” even though it cannot touch God Himself. For it is eternally unchangeable happiness. However, such an explanation of the term does not quite satisfy spiritual authors. It seems to them too philosophical. Statements of Scripture and the saints would thereby lose their force and whole meaning. At understanding sin, we must not lose sight of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. He became a man. As a man, He endured pain and suffering. Sin made him accurate and complete…offended him. According to the Histological principle, then, the …that which is in Christ’s humanity is transferred to God. Right we say that God was born, suffered, died. God, therefore, sustained
insults for sin. The value of Christ’s life is eternal. It is not just something past. Furthermore, Christ lives on in His mystical body, the Church. There, too; therefore, he suffers, he dies. If we insult our neighbor, we insult Christ: whatever you have done to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you have done to me (Mt 25:40). In its more profound consequences, every sin, even solitary and private, offends our neighbors and, therefore, Christ and God. It is not, therefore, merely a distant figure of speech. We are touching on here the deepest mysteries of faith when we read, for example, the simple words of the devotion of the Stations of the Cross: ‘It was my sins that brought thee down to the ground, for they spat upon the divine face.

Hardly anyone can count the number of rifts for Jesus. On the one hand, they are unnecessary, unnecessary, and unpleasant things. On the other hand, they are beautiful, helpful, and necessary when believers can stand up for their faith.

Even in the days of Jesus’ ministry, there were controversies over his person. Today’s Gospel tells us about one. The Pharisees say to the servants, “Have you also been deceived? Did any of the leading men or Pharisees believe in him?” (Jn. 7:47-48).

In this case, the Messiah’s origin question is at issue. Some of the leading religious leaders of the Jews were convinced that the Messiah could not have come from Galilee. Therefore, they viewed Jesus as a forewritten case. They rejected him before they could be convinced of anything or give him a hearing. They were speaking, actually quoting Scripture. The book of Deuteronomy (cf. 18:15-19) tells us that Christ will come from the seed of David, from the little town of Bethlehem, where David dwelt (cf. Jn. 7:42).
This was the cause of the division in the multitude. We know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. These disputants did not know – because of their poor information because Jesus lived in Nazareth after His return, where Joseph and Mary lived all the time. The birth in Bethlehem took place at the behest of the emperor Augustus because of his desire to know the number of his subjects for the census.

Among those present was Nicodemus, who is considered a secret disciple of the Lord Jesus because he came to Jesus under cover of night, and they talked together. To him, he gave those precious words about being born again of water and the Spirit. This Nicodemus, though he was respected in the high council, stood up for Jesus, saying, “Will our law condemn a man before it hears him and finds out what he has done?” (Jn. 7:51). Here Nicodemus, still in fear but already publicly confessing to Jesus. He stands up for the law, which is on Jesus’ side because the Great Council wants to pass judgment on him before they would hear him. This was the falsity of the leaders of the nation.
Perhaps even Judas didn’t mean it badly in the beginning. He may have thought that the high council just wanted to hear Jesus, but when he saw what followed, he returned the money, and the wrong attitude toward his guilt drove him to suicide. Indeed, Jesus would have forgiven him if he had mourned as Peter did or come to the foot of the cross and forgiven Jesus. Here, however, we see the behavior of Nicodemus, who his fellow members suspected in the high priesthood that he, too, had believed Jesus. So, they ask him an uncomfortable question: “Aren’t you also from Galilee! Examine, and you will see that a prophet does not arise from Galilee.” (Jn 7:52).
From this, we can see that Jesus is opposed by the arrogance of the leaders of the nation and the scholars, as well as by the brutal violence of the officials. Few were to catch Jesus. We see this from their words when they expressed themselves: Never did man speak so. They were impressed by Jesus’ preaching, speaking, and approach to life in general.

We may rightly ask: What has changed in our relationship with Jesus in the last two thousand years? Nothing. In the same way, even today, many similarly appeal to various things so that they don’t have to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah…
It is suitable for today’s modern Christian believers, both older and younger, to strive to live according to the teachings of Jesus Christ and seek to have solid knowledge in the area of faith, the teachings of Jesus Christ. Today, more than at any time in the past, we need educated but also believing Christians. However, we must follow a reasonable approach to the issues. Never by force and at any cost and with everyone engage in endless discussions, debates. Just as we believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, in His love, power, light, so in their hatred and bias they will endlessly speak their minds, and so will their opponents. They cannot be persuaded, they twist the facts, and what is more, they have no knowledge, and they want to give reason away! That is why it is necessary to take a suitable stand or convince by living.

Our life is an open book of faith. In church and wherever God wants us to be, we strive with all our goodwill to give a good testimony of faith. If the Pharisees had found out where Jesus was born, they would not have said to Galilee that the Messiah could not have come from there. We know that Jesus has the surname of a Nazarene. When we know the teachings of Christ better, we can better and more easily translate His teachings into our lives.

Principle: Never violence in faith, but a severe approach! This, too, is worthy of a Christian when he leaves a place where there is no effort for dialogue, where hearts close before mouths open.

And comfortableness and they did not have the strength to overcome their comfortableness, and they did not have the power to get rid of these weaknesses. They felt fear, so they preferred to settle for a neutral position.

Yes, there is much talk and reflection today about God, faith, and Jesus Christ. We see both negative and positive attitudes in our surroundings. Each side and decision has its reasons. Even today, we come to Mass to be strengthened by the Word and Body of Jesus in the Eucharist. In doing so, we remember the death on the cross, that is, our redemption, our liberation from sin. We come to be strengthened in our relationship with Jesus, which our Church teaches us about. Often, we realize that we must not be Christians only in church or when we pray privately at home. Let us draw strength and resolve to persevere in our journey to follow Jesus before the Lord’s Supper. Yes, we often feel that it is challenging, that it hurts to follow Jesus wholly and completely.
We know from our own lives that even though this decision was painful and complex, it was the right and stunning conclusion. As a priest, I can also say from my own life that I have never regretted my decision to be a priest. For Jesus said: “And everyone who for my name’s sake leaves houses, or brothers and sisters, or father and mother, or children, or fields, shall receive a hundredfold more, and shall inherit eternal life” (Mt 19:29).
Today, after having been a priest for several years, I know that the vocation of a priest is difficult, but I can say that if I had to decide on my work again, I would not hesitate for a minute.
However, I also know from your life journeys that many of you have had to and must make difficult decisions in your faith and journey to follow Jesus. Many of you have also seen that when you put Jesus’ words into practice in your life: “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Lk 9:23) that Jesus will not owe anything to His faithful.

Once we have decided for Jesus, we must not think that it hurts just once in our lives. Indeed, we don’t want Jesus’ words from the Gospel to be true for us: “You also know me, and where I am from your knowledge. And I came not of myself, but he that sent me is true…” (Jn 7:28).
We believe that Jesus is our God, the eternal Love, who loved us above all things. We prefer not to be among those whom John wrote about who tried to seize and kill him when Jesus told them who he was and what he had come for. Even if they did, it was only because he wanted it and not them. He tried to prove his love, saying, “Greater love has no one than this than he who lays down his life for his friends.” (Jn 15:13).

Let us pray for ourselves today that we may always make the right choice, even when it is difficult. Let us not hesitate even in such difficult moments, and let us trust Jesus above all else. May the words help us: “Behold, I am with you until the world’s end!”

Witnessing plays a severe role in controversial matters—the more credible the witness, the more his testimony gains in importance and necessity.

John the Apostle recorded a significant testimony of Christ that we should know and not bypass in our faith. Jesus said to the Jews, “If I bear witness of myself alone, my testimony is not true. But there is someone else who testifies about me, and I know that his testimony about me is true” (Jn. 5:31-32).

Jesus is doing the right thing in acting like the Messiah, rightly so according to the laws of the day. In Jewish law, a judgment could only take effect when two witnesses attested to the facts of the offense. This regulation was known to the Jews from the book of Moses, which we call Deuteronomy. It says: “One witness will be of no value in any guilt or crime committed; on the testimony of two or three witnesses, the decision will depend” (Deut. 19:15).
Jesus knows and recognizes these regulations as legal standards, and he attempts to prove that he is sent from God through several testimonies:
1. the testimony of John the Baptist
2. by his works and miracles
3. 2. the witnesses of Jesus, the miracles of the Jews, the testimonies of Jesus, the testimonies of Jesus, the
4. by God himself, who is his crowning witness

The works that Jesus does are the works of God, and the Father’s voice calls for faith in Jesus Christ, as anyone unbiased knows.

From this, it follows that everything that is of the nature of authority among the Jews, such as the prophets, the Law of Moses, John the Baptist, and even God Himself, testifies that Jesus Christ is God’s ambassador. Here we must remember that he who rejects such testimony is outside the law; his judgment is false and invalid. Centuries and now millennia have changed nothing for some.
Even in our environment, some people try to place Jesus in some group they have created, only to not have to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their God and Lord. So they say of Christ that he did not exist at all, which is denied by Josephus Flavius, the Jewish historian, Pliny, and others who accurately captured in their works the time that we believers also say Christ lived among us.
Others want to assign Jesus to the philosophers, others to the reformers. Some consider Jesus a politician and a man like us in general, but with a higher intellect for his time. But we know that Jesus cannot be classified anywhere. He is not a social agitator nor a dreamy thinker. He is God’s ambassador; he is the agent of salvation. Therefore, his words apply to us, too, that we should believe and be saved.

In Turin, Italy, in 1976, Vitoria Messori’s book was published by the SEI (Societa Editrice Internazionale) under the title H y p o t e s of J e s s I o n . By October 1988, this book had already been published in 18 languages and 33 editions in Italian. The number of copies has reached one and a half million. Few Catholic books have achieved such success in such a short time. It engages in a severe and severe evaluation of the critical hypotheses about the “mysterious Palestinian.”
He concludes that of all the possible and impossible hypotheses about Jesus, the one from the Gospels that is correct is the hypothesis that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ the Son of God. In the book, the author describes his honest and unbiased research. He convincingly shows that all the hypotheses about Jesus have already been told, that all the objections have already been refuted, but they are being raised and refuted again. He has pointed out that some conjectures do not deserve a “scientific hypothesis.”

For us, the teachings of Christ are the teachings that show us the way to eternal bliss. With St. Paul, let us continue to repeat today, “I know whom I have believed, and I am sure.” (2 Tim. 1:12). The great certainty that can endure all things for Christ’s sake that can move mountains, and this is for us the testimony that Jesus speaks of Himself in the Gospel.

The testimony of Christ is unshakable when we have given ourselves wholly and entirely to Him.

The Church WANDERING
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If Jesus says to strive to enter by the strait gate, we must necessarily seek to follow in his footsteps on his way. And his footsteps are in the form of human feet: there are two of them, and the footprints from them lead in only one direction, always only forward. Never to the left, or the right, or backward.

Our faith is not confined to the precincts of churches but is to permeate our whole earthly life.

The vocation to holiness – that is, to communion with God – is part of God’s eternal plan, which embraces all the men and women of the world because it is a universal vocation.

The life of faith is a matter of the moment. Just as life is made up of individual events, the life of faith is made up of moments. What is missed in a moment, no eternity can restore. Our life of faith is to be judged by how it manifests itself at the moment. Our eternity, our salvation, depends on moments.

God excludes no one, for his plan is only love…

The Church PURIFYING
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Let us look at the heart of Jesus and listen. It is a heart that overflows with God’s all-giving love, and even the most significant pain does not prevent it from loving. He loves with love and willingly suffers. His heart is a fountain of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. In such love, every sin burns.

To pray for the souls in Purgatory is a duty of love.

God lets us “suffer in the storm to test our faithfulness. He does so for our greater spiritual welfare. At such times He seems deaf to our prayers. But let us be assured that God hears us, secretly helps us and strengthens us by His grace to repel every enemy attack. He assures us of this in the words of the Psalmist, “In trouble thou didst call upon me, and I delivered thee; behind the veil of the storm I heard thee, I tried thee.” (Psalm 81:8).

To rid oneself of oneself, ridding oneself of all reservations, makes one truly accessible, and then one becomes a fundamental instrument in God’s hands.

We must all be convinced that we are hanging almost over the precipice of all sin, and that we are held only by a hair of grace. If this hair were loosened, we should fall into this abyss and commit the most terrible crimes. “If the Lord keep not the city, his watchmen watch in vain” (Ps. 127:1). If God does not guard the soul against sins, in vain will the soul defend itself in its strength…

The church BLESSED
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We believe in eternal life. We believe in a God who rewards and also punishes. We believe in a Teacher – Christ – who has taught us everything we need for salvation. Let us not underestimate our salvation! We look upon the soul as a great gift and grace.

The Lamb of God shed His blood on the wood of the cross and won for us salvation from eternal death. He gives us His body and blood, offered for us at Mass in the transfigured bread and wine, as spiritual food, and as a deposit of our resurrection. He becomes for us the bread that strengthens us on the way to true freedom and to the new promised homeland, which is the Kingdom of God.

The resurrection is the center of the Christian faith. Without the renewal, everything would lose its meaning.

If Christ has not risen, then our faith is futile, then our preaching is pointless, and everything is empty, and we would be the most miserable of creatures. But since Christ is risen, then everything takes on a new dimension, everything takes on the true meaning, then it is joyful to live, but also pleased to suffer because everything leads to one goal – the loving arms of God, which has been prepared for us from eternity.

To love means to live fully.

There was an intense exchange between the boys. They were arguing about something. One says and thinks it should be this way; the other wants it his way. And the third summed up his argument, his opinion, in these words. The boys reflected and put on the terms of the boy who did not say how he imagines wishes but how he saw his father doing it. The authority, the experience, perhaps the love of this father for his son prevailed.

Jesus says to the Jews, and us today, in solemn words, full of authority and love, “Truly, truly, I say to you: The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does likewise.” (Jn 5:19).

In this Gospel, Jesus explains to the Jews his relationship with God the Father. He emphasizes that God did not cease to be active even after the work of creation, as the Jews thought, but is constantly sustaining and administering the world. The Son is equal to Him in nature, power, right, and majesty. This relation is explained in theology by the doctrine of God in three persons in dogmatic – De Deo trino.
John in the Gospel gives us a severe thought about this: God has entrusted all that he possesses to his Son, namely: power, life, and judgment.
We see from the Gospel that Jesus does not make claims for people to believe in him; he does not base them on human authority but the power of God. The Jews believed that God continued to sustain the world; he continued to work even on the Sabbath, which they interpreted rather strangely, that children were born even on the Sabbath, a day on which the Jews did not work.
Jesus also heals on the Sabbath, which offended the Jews. What God can do: raising the dead, judging the works of men, this He also gave to Jesus, His Son. From this, Jesus infers for them that whoever therefore does not honor him does not honor God the Father either, but whoever believes his words obtains eternal life.

You may ask: Why is this so? Why can the Lord Jesus do what His Father does? He explains this by saying that He also does whatever His loving Father shows Him. Here is a simile that Jesus did not use but that the hearers inferred because it was widespread and familiar. The simile is about how a craftsman’s father initiates his son, his successor, into his art.

He who sees the Lord Jesus sees God. He who can listen to him listens to the Father, but also, he who does not listen to him rejects the Father. Without him, there is no life with us, no salvation, no way to God. And yet we accept the words of the Lord Jesus, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (Jn 14:6). That is why we look to Jesus as a landmark not only of the ages but of humanity. This means to us that indifference to Christ does not exist. Each one of us must decide either to accept or reject Jesus.
We want to accept him decisively. That is why Jesus is close to us; we see in him our Judge, who at the hour of our death will be the landmark of blessedness or damnation. He earned this rank by his love for God the Father and us, his brothers and sisters when he came among us out of love to redeem and save us.
We believe that Jesus is “the truth.” We believe that the judgment upon us will be what we deserve and that it will also be, for he will not punish for himself but for the Father whom he has reconciled. Therefore, we endeavor to live life fully and respect his authority. Those who do not respect authority on earth offend and deserve punishment. He who does not respect authority for eternal life despises the love of Christ and therefore prepares for eternal damnation. Even as we prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we are to remember that this may be the last opportunity we have to forgive God for our sins. The thought of encountering Jesus as a Judge will lead us to a responsible approach to eternal values.

Therefore, in asking our conscience, or in various discussions about the fulfillment of the Decalogue and other commands, let us not say and persuade, what is my opinion, how do I like it, how does it suit me, but let us look to Jesus who tells us. As the boy in today’s opening reflection did, we will say, My father does it this way. And let us say: My Jesus requires it of me like this.

Some religious people have several wrong attitudes towards holy things and are prone to expect, for example, a miraculous medal, scapular or water for their salvation and healing. Thirty years ago, pilgrimages were widely made to Turzovka, where Our Lady was supposed to appear to the forester. At that time, the Episcopal congregation had to crack down very hard because people were coming to this place to beg Our Lady and at the same time transgressing the Church’s injunction. On Sundays and the commanded feast, these pilgrims did not go to Mass. Nay, there was much talk of healing. But there was none when the bishop-appointed commission investigating this suddenly asked for serious evidence. Only in the words of Jesus is their salvation.

This is what this Gospel teaches us, too, when Jesus says to the sick man who had been lying at the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, near the Pool of Beth sat, for thirty-eight years, “Get up, take up your bed, and go.” (Jn 5:8).

In both of today’s readings, there is talk of healing water. Ezekiel tells of the fertilizing water that transformed the desert into a rich garden.
John in the Gospel, on the other hand, tells of the healing power of the water in the pool of Bethsaida. This was not the natural power of water. We might compare it to the effects of the water in Lourdes today, where many unexplained healing have taken place due to a sick person being immersed in that water. In the book Lourdes Beacon of the Atomic Age, these events are not written about in a superficial sense because a committee of doctors investigates each case, and the doctors may not be believers. When the Church gives proof of unexplained healing, it is provided after a thorough investigation. Thus, nothing superficial, fanciful.

But the Gospel wants to tell us that all our salvation comes from the Lord Jesus. We have talked about the three stages of faith, and the gospel seeks to reinforce this effort of ours to improve our confidence.

The sick person lies in the pillar by the pond where he came or had himself brought to be healed in the water that restores health. But he had no one to carry him into this water when he was coiled; that is when he acquired healing power for a while. It was something strange. The water in the pond, after the beast, healed only one, and that was the first one who entered it. This sick man is, therefore, sad. When Jesus asks him if he wants to be made well, hope dawns on the sick man. But the sick man sees only an ill body, and Jesus wants to give him his salvation. The sick man thinks that Jesus wants to take him there, but Jesus prefers not to become a nurse. He would like to heal by his word. The sick man is not healed thanks to miraculous water, nor with some tried and true practices, but with the love of Jesus. This was to lead him to seek both Jesus and salvation. Jesus, who healed his body, can also heal his soul, so we understand Jesus’ words of admonition, “Behold, you are healed; sin no more, lest something worse befall you.” (Jn 5:14).

Our faith is not based on the power of sanctified objects. These objects, such as scapulars, numerals, and medallions, are merely visible objects designed to inspire and sustain faith in the power and strength of the teachings of Jesus Christ. When we take such things in our hands, let us not then yield to superstition, to magical charms, for our pious reverence for these objects is only intended to deepen our dependence on God.
There is a difference between wearing a cross around one’s neck or a rosary on one’s finger to invoke God’s help and protection and one who carries these objects around as a talisman for good fortune or success. May these objects, these symbols, have a place in our lives and remind us of the salvation of our souls. But may they help us grow spiritually and move forward in fulfilling God’s and the Church’s commands.

In some schools nowadays, it is said that it does not bother some teachers that young people behave vulgarly and do not fulfill their study duties. Still, when young Christians have a rosary on their hands, they are already bothered by it, and they say that it interferes with their study duties. I know many who achieve good results and have exemplary behavior because they are believers. They set an example. Yes, we must not provoke anyone, but neither must we passively resign. Let us enjoy these and similar things with discretion for the salvation of our immortal souls.

In these things, let us submit ourselves to the discipline of the Church, and in so doing, let us convince ourselves that it will only be to the benefit of the cause and our salvation.