The meaning of what we heard in today’s Gospel is probably this for us too: The Lord sends us to proclaim his truth. The words that we don’t need anything special are also true for us.

This applies to everyone, not just priests. We are obliged to pass on the faith we have received. It would not help us if we wanted to argue like Amos in the Old Testament, he is a shepherd, and not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet. Answering the call of God; living and preaching the Gospel was not always without hesitation. Some argued or ran away from the burden of the mission. And the response of those to whom the prophets were sent? It was a mockery, a misunderstanding. This is how the apostles tried with the message of Jesus, this is how priests, Christian parents and lay people try. One of you objects: Wouldn’t it be better if God himself revealed himself directly to everyone, if he did not send as his messengers people with faults and shortcomings? After all, they only overshadow his message.

A great burden in the life of a prophet, priest and apostle is the awareness of one’s own imperfection and the constant fear that people will reject God’s message because of human shortcomings and mistakes. Even a priest is only human, he will fall due to human weakness, but what is the response of those to whom he only wanted good? Believers laugh at him, throw logs under his feet, spread his mistakes, but there is also a small percentage of good, faithful ones who stand up for him and help him to rise with prayer. God’s answer to this fear of falling is always the same: “Go and proclaim: The kingdom of heaven is at hand…” (Mt 10:7).

God wants to save the people, but he wants to save them together as one community. God offers us cooperation in the work of salvation, cooperation with his grace and cooperation between us. The great joy of redemption is that we are redeemed together. And he sends us all to proclaim his message to the world. All believers are sent by Christ to preach the Gospel, each in his own way.

A special feature of the mission is community. The Lord sends his two by two and sends them into homes to bring peace there. Family apostolate is the first-class path of the Church. The Lord sends you, parents, two at a time to your families to spread his peace, greeting and blessing: “Peace to this house!” Say this first for your house and for your family. This is how you should greet your new apartment, your new house, your household today after St. mass and every day. And spread this gift of peace to your neighbors and familiar families. They don’t expect big gifts from you when you visit. The most beautiful gift during a visit are kind words imbued with peace that the world cannot give.

Not only the great preachers were responsible for spreading the faith, but all those who believed and lived according to it. The success of a preacher does not lie in how beautifully he delivers his sermon, but in what you take away, what you let enter your heart.

Abraham Sancta Clára writes in one of his books about a woman who served her husband as a confessional mirror. Instead of questioning his conscience, he listened to the woman and she immediately calculated all his sins and shortcomings.

I don’t mention it to make anyone do it that way, but there is something about it. Our faults are best seen by those who oppose us. It has certainly happened that you have heard from a person who is against religion, with what he justifies it. Usually by not living up to what we profess.
Can anyone discern from our behavior that our religion is a religion of love and forgiveness, when we hold the grudges of generations, when we are able to turn our backs on misery without giving advice, help, a good word, consolation, or opening a purse? How is the world supposed to believe that Christianity preaches love for enemies, when many times we do not even have love for those closest to us? How is an unbeliever supposed to know the greatness and majesty and power of our God when we have so little respect for him? When do they hear us say his name? Isn’t it most often in anger and irritation?

In the book Lust for Life, the author compares the humanity of today’s world to a group of tourists on the way to the mountains. After a certain time of ascent, three groups of people will begin to appear. The first ones regret that they went on this walk at all. They say it’s not worth the effort, the risk. They are coming back. The second group has no regrets. On the contrary, they are happy that the weather is nice, that nature is illuminated by the sun. But after a while they also ask themselves a question. Why go even higher? Why bother with those endings? Here is a nice lawn, a nice view, let’s lie down, unpack our supplies and enjoy all the beauty of the surroundings and nature. The third group – real alpinists! They are people who are not deterred by obstacles, fatigue, heat, thirst. They are passionate, they want to conquer the top, they want to overcome themselves.

Saint Susanna was the sister of Pope Caius, who was pope from 283-296. Modest tradition says of her that she was very beautiful and sensible. When she became a Christian, she had no fear during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian to fulfill her duty as a Christian, and even to help other Christians. For this she was beheaded in Rome in 295. She was not in a monastery, yet she knew her place, and what it meant to give even her life for Christ in silence.

Peter said to Christ: “Behold, we have left everything and followed you” (Mt 19:27).
When Peter asked this question, he was just a beginner in the school of Jesus. Peter had seen and heard during Jesus’ school what he could not see and hear elsewhere or with anyone. However, he had a different idea of the Messiah than what was actually in Jesus’ plan. Jesus did not come into the world as the leaders of the nation imagined and as the teachers of the nation taught. The nation at that time was under the domination of the Romans, whom the nation hated. Therefore, over time, the false notion arose that the Messiah would come as a deliverer from the yoke of Rome. Jesus, however, came with a greater gift. He came into the world to redeem and save the world, that is, to take away the consequences for the first sin, and to open to believers-and to those who will believe in Him-heaven and give them a state of blessedness. In this spirit we understand also the words of the Lord Jesus, which explain the greatness of the sacrifice of the man who decides to follow Christ completely. For it is no small thing to renounce brothers, sisters, field, house, parents… Jesus makes a promise to those who can renounce themselves for his name’s sake that they will gain eternal life.

Even though for many the words of Jesus have become stale and no longer say what they contain, because man is free and can be swept away by the deceit of the world, yet there are enough today who have believed these words of Jesus and have been able to fulfill them to the letter.

Among such are the Poor Clares. Their founder is St. Clare. She came from Assisi and was born in 1194. Her parents had a plan for her. She was very beautiful. But at that time, Francis, also a native of Assisi, began to lead a special kind of life in Assisi and its surroundings. Clare believed the purity of the words of the Gospel about poverty and total fidelity to Jesus. On Palm Sunday in 1212, she renounced the world with several other girls. Francis cut off their hair as a sign that they wanted to belong to Christ alone. They received a kind of veil and here begins the spiritual branch of St. Francis. A few years later, Clare is followed by her sister Agnes. In 1215, Pope Innocent III called this spiritual family the Poor Clares. At least one incident from the life of St. Clare. When Assisi was threatened with destruction by the Saracens, Clare took the monstrance from the monastery and went out to meet the army. The lightning that came out of the monstrance in clear weather at the time turned the army back, and so Clare saved the city. She died on 11 August 1253. The work of her sisters was not in idleness. Contemplative prayer, conscious sacrifice, renunciation of modern times, comforts, pleasures, and the taking of vows of chastity, poverty, obedience, and total surrender to God – all this is not a thing insignificant with God.

Even today we witness that the spiritual strength and graces that these communities impart are the riches of the Church.
Just as we can appreciate material concern, we should not neglect spiritual concern. Parents work manually so that the family lacks nothing materially, but good believing parents also work spiritually. They pray for their children. And so it is with the mission of the priest and all those who selflessly give themselves to God as a sacrifice – a sacrifice for the sins of the world. We realize that such a life is at least as necessary today as an active life, if not more so.

Parents often marvel at their children. Children know every car; they know how to adjust the radio and TV better than adults. They typically say to their mother, “Mom, you have to do it this way. And the child knows better. Children learn quickly and faster than adults because their senses are keen, clear, lively, and open. That is why it is a cruel misfortune for a child to be deaf or dumb. Today, much is being done for such children to enable them to provide for their existence. In the old days, it was not like that.

The deaf and dumb, of whom the Gospel tells, were one of the most miserable people. Therefore, the Lord will have mercy on him.

Jesus takes the sick man aside from the crowd. He touches his ears and tongue with his fingers. Unlike a doctor touching an ill place to find out the cause of the illness, Jesus is making a touch here that doesn’t examine anything, only suggesting that closed ears and a dumb tongue are the cause’s misery. Therefore, he says to him: “Effeta,” which means, “Open!” At that moment, his ears were opened, and he loosed his fettered tongue and spoke rightly” (Mk 34-35). And he became an average, healthy person who could already listen to others and knew how to compare and amuse himself with others.

Indeed, you have been somewhere where there has been a great noise, a rumbling. When a helicopter flies low, we don’t hear the clock ticking. If we don’t listen to it, it’s not necessarily a hearing fault. It may be something that is deafening us.
If we can’t hear God, we can’t recognize His voice in our conscience; let’s consider why. Perhaps the cause is the din and clamor in which we live. So we need to remove it. Every day, at least for a little while. Indeed, the pace of life today does not allow for long meditations. But everyone can afford a moment of inner silence. It is already a question of will.

But we have become accustomed to the noise. We can no longer bear silence and solitude. Even moments of relaxation we cannot imagine other than with radio, television, or picture magazines. We have to hear, see and read everything. And that is how we fill every moment of the day. Without it, we can no longer eat, wait for the bus, or go for a walk. There must always be something or someone to entertain and distract us. Just not to be left alone with ourselves, alone with God, because that is unpleasant. These are usually the remorseful things we fear, the things we run away from, the things that make us deaf. I hope you understand me well. I am neither against radio nor against television or some laptops, computers, magazines…

I want to warn you that if you do not stay in silence for a minute during the day, you will never hear God’s voice. And yet you’re hearing, even the inner one, may be perfectly fine, so you don’t need any miraculous healing: just courage and a little will. Don’t be afraid of it! God is not punitive justice. God is the first of all-merciful love. It is worth hearing his voice!

However, the deaf is typically also dumb. He cannot speak. Even the deaf in the Gospel was probably brought in by relatives who pleaded for him. Do we have a loved one who is deaf to every good word and hopelessly mute, so there is no presumption that he would maintain for healing? Let us then pray for him. Christ still has the power to heal and is just as willing today. Let us then ask Him for the gift of hearing for all who lack it.

Parents, you know how bad it is when your children are deaf to your warnings. And how many Christians are deaf! And am I not a little one of them? Why? Do I listen and perceive attentively when God speaks to me? The voice of conscience is the voice of God. The words of Scripture, are the words of God. Enlightenment, inspiration, encouragement to do good, but also the reproaches of our loved ones, the sad looks of our children, the tears of our mothers, …in all these things God can speak to us. Can we hear him?

And how about the motherless? You know, when we think of the amount of evil that is done with the tongue, I would almost say that sometimes we should ask for muteness as a gift. I mean, just do the math. How many invectives and wrath have been aroused by slander, by gossip! How many tears have flowed because of slander and insults! How many sleepless nights, black coffees and cigarettes! How much indignation has arisen from unpleasant talk! And the useless and empty words, the frivolous promises, the speeches with which we get on the nerves of the whole world – the surroundings, the provocative speeches! All this is an abuse of the precious gift of speech.

It has become the fashion of the season to stomp on Catholics… to paraphrase a well-known song, sternly. Never mind that they should be protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as any minority. And that most of the prejudice against them is entirely out of line. I have been thinking about this in vain for some time now – reading various blogs, articles, and even in serious newspapers, I wonder how powerful the Catholic Church must be. One of the first things everyone accuses it of is – being powerful.
And so I’m sorry. We only have to turn on our common sense to see a flaw. How powerful? Did she bring an interstate treaty to fruition between the Czech Republic and the Vatican? We are the only post-communist country (and perhaps the only one in Europe) that does not have a treaty with the Vatican. And it is an international political embarrassment, especially since it has been a little while since November 1989.
Has the Czech Catholic Church succeeded in separating itself from the state? Everyone is calling for separation, yet the negotiations are moving at such a pace that the snails are racing against it in Formula One. A Look at the tug-of-war over the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague – formerly the spiritual seat, the cathedral is supposed to be for the celebration of mass and the glorification of God, and yet the Catholic Church has failed to have control oversight of it.
So how powerful? In what ways can the Catholic Church influence whom today? Has it managed to put a reference to the Christian foundations of Europe in the preamble of the European Constitution? Even if it hasn’t succeeded with those Christian roots, which is an inescapable historical truth. Do you see any power dictating the terms here? Or one defeat, one defeat after another? In the same way, the Catholic Church is accused of being rich. Oh, come on. On the Vatican website. (www.The Vatican.VA), English speakers can read the economic summaries for the past few years, and they might be surprised. Is the Czech Church somehow rich? If it has to sell off churches not only in the north of Bohemia? When there is no money to repair, many others?
The Catholic Church would need to return the properties which – I should point out – legally belonged to her. It received them as a gift from the nobles who supported the Church. When in communist times, everything belonged to everyone and nothing to the Church. And in the wannabe democratic era. Still nothing. Even on Wikipedia, you can read that “as a result of 40 years of persecution from, the economic situation of the entire Czech Church is very bad…
Since the fall of communism, only a tiny fraction of church property has been returned so far, which was generally an unprofitable and disastrous state… In general, the Church suffers from a massive lack of finances.” So how rich? Where? The Catholic Church is accused of determining the lives of others and telling them what to do. Have you
ever been forced to do what the Catholic Church says? Have you ever read any “Catholic decree”? Well, I haven’t. And even if there were any such decrees, no one would ever…would follow. Do all drivers yield to pedestrians in crosswalks? Do they, do all smokers obey the no smoking at bus stops? And they’re the ones affected by these laws. Why would ordinary citizens of the country follow the recommendations of a near-minority group? (According to the last census in 2001, 26.8% of the population adhere to the Catholic Church. Of the people of the Czech Republic, only 4% regularly attend Sunday services).
People are also very bothered by the fact that the leaders of the Catholic Church comment on everything. Well, so what? When an idiot is in a pub or at a discussion on an article here on iTunes, why shouldn’t the Church? Does everyone have the right to his opinion? According to the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms, they are even free to express their opinion. After all, if there is some of, say, a homosexual organization, they have the right to do so. And lo and behold – a statement from the Catholic Church appears, and the fire is on the roof. Even if the information is accurate. Even if it’s just Catholic fire codes in a church…
The Catholic Church is supposedly full of homosexuals and pedophiles. Full? Statistically, one in ten on Earth is a pedophile or a homosexual. Why should the Catholic Church be an exception? It’s just that it’s never written anywhere anymore that they did expose a bishop over there, but that maybe it wasn’t as much as the victims claim, and that perhaps the prospect of a fat severance package played a role. And nowhere does it say that, when the Catholic Church says. That there are millions and millions of priests all over the world, including in the Czech Republic, who Millions and millions of people have been helped. Whether in the time of totalitarianism or now – with advice, help, financial contribution, recommendation, accommodation…
I have met more priests and religions in my life with whom it was possible to have a normal chat and go for a beer but also expect help from them than those who would try to help my family and me any harm. But prejudices are prejudices. According to them, the Catholic Church is powerful, wealthy, sinless, and has no say in anything.

What do you say? Wouldn’t our life change if we believed, but really believed, in eternal life? It seems that our attitude towards the values of life would be completely different, and we would probably be different too! In many ways, therefore, the books of the New Testament try to reinforce our belief in life after death. The text of today’s Gospel about the resurrection of the daughter has this purpose. Why is this so necessary? We encounter human death all the time, but we do not encounter the creative power of God that gives new life beyond bodily death in this life. We encounter the care of God in this world. Why would He not take care of us in His kingdom as well?

We only hear seriously about “life after life” in the pages of Holy Scripture. Paradoxically, this is why it is not easy for us to believe in eternal life, to rely on it. Who should be more trustworthy to us than Jesus? So let’s look carefully today at what is said here about the life and death of the risen daughter. What the Lord says here about each of us.

“Hope, daughter, your faith has made you well.” Says the Lord to the woman, but it was true for the father as well. Don’t be frightened by the painful events of sickness and human death. Don’t let it take away your faith that the connection with the eternal God that was made in our lifetime will endure even in death. This, then, is the first thing that is required of us with regard to death: trust in God. Faith is the prerequisite for the wonder of the resurrection. Faith is the condition of passage into a new, eternal life. To believe is to reckon with the eternal God even at the threshold of death. To believe that our dead are – and we too will one day be – in the light of God, having believed in God in our lifetime.

What does the Lord Jesus do and say next? Then when Jesus came to the house of the leading man and saw the whistle blowers and the excited crowd, He said: “Depart! The girl is not dead, but asleep.” The Lord Jesus sees the dead as God sees him. “Sleep” is a figurative name for the mysterious transition between life and death. Healing sleep. That is why the Lord Jesus does something incredible. Get up! Wake up from death! Later, the Lord Jesus will experience the same thing for himself – at Easter dawn, when he rises from the tomb.

And now, already believing in the life-giving power of God, he calls the dead daughter to life. This quickening word sounds to our dead too! It will be sounded one day to us and to all who believe in Jesus by seeking to live according to his gospel. To the general amazement, the girl woke up, and came back to life. After such a feat, we would expect some proclamation from Jesus, a lofty declaration, “So you see who I am!” And those present would have deserved to have him triumph over them, for they had mocked him a moment before. He drives them all out, he does it in secret if possible.

We know from the evangelist Mark that he preached to the resurrected girl to give her something to eat. The Lord takes care of her. Food, to eat, is a basic need of our lives. He takes care of us, too. He gives us the Eucharistic meal to eat, so that in its power we too may live. Live forever. This is how our Lord wants it. And this is the core, the message of faith of today’s Gospel: that God is a friend of life, not of death. The last thing before us is not death, but life. Can this be believed? It is, well, unimaginable. We have the advantage because the Lord Jesus, who declared of Himself, “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believed in me shall never die, he shall live forever,” is risen from the dead. Let us now pray together: “Lord, I believe – help my unbelief!”
Readings
Let Women Speak in the Church The First Letter to the Corinthians uncompromisingly recommends, “Let women be silent in the assemblies” (1 Cor 14:34). Salesian Zdeněk Jančařík paraphrases this statement in the title

Jesus saw a man named Matthew sitting at a toll booth and said to him: “Follow me!” He got up and followed him. Then, as Jesus sat at a table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples: “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” He heard this and said: “It is not the healthy who needs a physician, but the sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.'”I did not come to call the righteous but sinners

The harvest is beginning. The crop enriches the man who feels the fruits of his labor. We also know another harvest – the spiritual harvest, which is also not negligible.

We have listened to a portion of the Holy Gospel according to Matthew, and from this stanza, we learn that when the Lord Jesus was passing through the land of Israel, he saw sitting at a toll booth a specific tax collector named Matthew. And the Lord Jesus went up to this tax collector and challenged him: “Follow me!” (Mt. 9:9). And the evangelist then goes on to say that the tax collector got up and followed him.

It is an exciting event that St. Matthew the Evangelist has described for us. For the tax collector, the public sinner whom the Lord called into His service, is Matthew, who afterward wrote the message of Christ. Indeed, this tax collector, Matthew, had already heard of Christ, for the rumor of him was spreading throughout the whole region, for Jesus was walking about and doing good to all. He healed the blind, raised the dead, forgave sinners… And now this Jesus the Creator appears before him, and the tax collector, whom the people thought was a great sinner, is called by the Lord to follow him. Even with sinners, he receives hospitality, as if to the anger of the people, who condemned such actions of Jesus. But most against Jesus are the Pharisees, who criticize Jesus and reproach his disciples, saying, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Mt. 9:11).
They cannot understand this. Perhaps they thought Jesus should associate with them, for they considered themselves true and religious Israelites! But the Lord Jesus, by His Spirit, looked them over and saw that they were full of lies and hypocrisy. Therefore, He often calls them whitewashed tombs, turning away from them; He calls sinners to Himself.

He comes to comfort the sick and infirm. Therefore, he also says to the Pharisees: “It is not healthy who need a physician, but the sick” (Mt 9:12). Jesus thus emphasizes that He comes into the world to fulfill His Father’s will, lift, dust off, and cleanse all of us who have fallen into the mire of sin, into the bondage of darkness, into the power of the evil spirit. That is why he calls us to follow him, to follow him, to walk in his way. He calls us like the tax collector in the Gospel.

I don’t think we stand outside this calling. These words we heard about the calling of Matthew, the tax collector, apply to us as well. For us, and all of us, without distinction. The Lord Jesus comes to each of us and calls us with the exact words, “Follow me!” (Mt 9:9).

Not all who hear and obey this voice resolve to follow him. Something is holding them back, preventing them from saying that decisive word, the word of permission and determination. Many of us are held back and hindered by the riches of this world, by worldly fame and careers. That is why many of us prefer to remain down-to-earth and are unwilling to determine to leave it all behind and go to the heights.

Matthew, captivated by the words of Christ, gets up, leaves his myth behind, leaves everything behind, and Jesus becomes the most important thing to him. He repents his previous straying and is led by new ideas, by the light of Jesus’ actual teachings.

It is essential, dear brothers and sisters, that we also give Jesus the central place in our lives, throw away everything that pleases us, and let ourselves be led by Jesus, by the light of Jesus, and walk on the proper path. The Lord Jesus wants us to follow him; he wants us to walk in his footsteps, even though it is often a difficult path. He wants us to belong only to him, for we are his flock, redeemed by his precious blood. He wants all the sheep to be together so that none of these baskets is lost. He calls us good and wholesome pasture. And what do we often do? We try to turn aside from this promising path; we don’t want to be led by the good shepherd, the Lord Jesus. We don’t want to escape our evil ways from the lousy pasture.

But we see quite a different example in the tax collector Matthew and quite a different attitude in this matter in the youngest brother of St. Bernard. From the lives of the saints, many of you will know that St. Bernard, with his brothers, chose to serve the Lord God in solitude. Before they went into seclusion, however, these brothers wanted to say goodbye to their youngest brother, who was only a boy. They said to him: “Stay with God, our dear brother Nivard. We are going to serve the Lord God. Therefore, we leave you your father’s mansion, all the property, fields, forests, and meadows; this will be yours from now on.
When Nivard, the youngest brother, saw his brothers dressed for the journey, he burst into tears and cried out with tears in his eyes: “Not so, my brothers. This is not a fair division. You want God’s life, and you leave me to the earth? I also want heaven, and therefore I also go with you!” The brothers, moved by their youngest brother’s speech, gave away all their possessions to the poor and took Brother Nivard with them.

See, dear brothers and sisters, how boldly this boy Nivard chose God’s life when he should have chosen between heaven and earth. Wouldn’t most of us who glory for Christian choose the land and the riches of this world rather than the life of God, Himself?
Indeed, following in the footsteps of Christ is often very difficult, and perhaps that is why many of us are afraid of this arduous and thorny path. But God sorely tries His faithful ones to test our love for Him this way. For just as steel is refined and hardened in the fire, so it is with us. We must purify ourselves in the love of God in the complex trials of life.

In an episode about St. Teresa of Avila, it is said that one day, walking across a river, a strong water current swept her away, and she began to drown. Here the Lord Jesus appears to her, and in great fear, she accuses him, “Lord, why do you let me suffer like this?” And the Lord Jesus says to her: “Teresa, this is how I test my friends.” Then Teresa answers him, “I understand now, Lord, why you have so few friends, so few who follow you.”

Yes, God tests those who follow him; he tests those who are determined to follow him. Our Slovak saying sums it up very nicely: “Whom the Lord God loves, He visits with the cross.” Even though the Lord God permits, but never forsakes. Therefore, my dear ones, let us not be afraid to embark on this journey. It will be a difficult and arduous journey, but it will be a journey that leads people to the eternal goal, to the attainment of the Lord God Himself. And He is helping us on this journey. Well, what have we to fear? What have we to fear? For behind us stands not a weak man, but God Almighty Himself!

We already know what the Lord Jesus asks of us and what he offers us, so let us follow him and choose him! Here, with the priest, let us offer our hearts to Jesus at this Mass. Let us consecrate ourselves to him; let us become his best friends. Let us leave everything else behind, for it is secondary. Let Him stand first in our lives from now on. Instead, we seek God’s kingdom, and everything else will be added to us.

Let us ask Jesus to give us the strength to persevere in this resolution, are his alone, and never fail Him in our lives.

One for another. We cause Jesus joy when we help one another.

We need one another. Sometimes we realize this more and sometimes less. Jesus healed the sick. St. Matthew writes this: “Get up, take up your bed, and go home” (Mt. 9:7). Jesus proves his power not only in word, but also in deed. But Jesus did not come into the world to present Himself as a miraculous healer. He came to reconcile humanity to the Father. Original sin has inflicted consequences on all people until the end of time. In the same way, every personal sin a person commits causes consequences on both the physical and spiritual life of a person.

Jesus teaches people to love throughout his life. Many around him are aware of this. What we must not overlook, not underestimate, what is important is: to behave according to the words of Jesus. He wants us to believe his teachings. The command of love touches our convictions, our life in the soul, and our outward expressions about God, our neighbors, and ourselves. The power of love addresses specific attitudes, actions, and behaviors. When we are faithful to the words of Jesus, “Thy will be done,” we must not and cannot be indifferent to helping or not helping our neighbor. This is not only true in the social or charitable sphere. It is to apply whenever and wherever we are to communicate to someone the graces they need from Jesus. By fulfilling the command of love, God will give His graces to us who fulfill the power of love and those for whom we have undertaken to do the knowledge of love.

Shall we, therefore, turn a blind eye to fulfilling the command of love? Do we prefer the philosophy of “what doesn’t burn you, don’t burn you”? That is not and cannot be Christian. Do we know what the works of Christian corporal and spiritual mercy are? They are based on the Beatitudes of Jesus. Jesus rewards man’s genuine love for the man with still other gifts. He not only heals the lame man of the gospel in his body but also forgives his sins.

Indeed, we often forget our sins. Yes, mercy acts of charity by which we help our neighbors in their physical and spiritual needs, but we must remember that our genuine love for God and our neighbors should also be mindful of the soul. In that spirit, it is appropriate to instruct, counsel, comfort, and strengthen to act in the heart that these are also acts of spiritual mercy. The works of corporal mercy are especially these: to feed the hungry, take in the homeless, clothe the ragged, visit the sick and prisoners, to bury the dead. Giving alms to the poor is one of the principal witnesses of fraternal charity among these acts; it is also the doing of justice which pleases God” (CCC 2447). Material deprivation, unjust oppression, physical and mental illness, and ultimately death is human misery. A man comes to this state after original sin.

“Never say never!” This is a saying that many of us are familiar with, and it is certainly not wrong.

I think about Peter and Paul and what brought them together. They were different people; they only met a couple of times. They had in common that they were apostles – albeit in another way. The common thing is that they were martyrs. But the commonality is, I think, that they would probably subscribe to the saying “Never say never!”

I’ll summarize what we know. Peter was outstanding. Even today’s Gospel passage (Mt 16:13-19) testifies that he sometimes knew how bulls-eyeball’s-eye. Some theologians conclude that it was with Peter that Jesus had the most to say. But he also learned how to hit it completely wrong. At one point, Jesus called him Satan, a tempter with no understanding… Peter explicitly used the word “never.” He promised Jesus that he would never leave him, to which Jesus had to tell him that he would betray him three times before morning. At the Last Supper, Peter said: “Lord, you will never wash my feet!” When Jesus explained what was going on, Peter turned around and wanted to wash not only his feet but also his head and whole body. Peter certainly would have had no problem signing our saying, “Never say never!”

I can’t find any statement in Paul in which he explicitly said any “never.” But he was a man who was fiercely convinced that this new sect-that is, the Christians-needed to be silenced, punished, and put in prison. Destroy it. People like Paul would not admit that one day they would preach the complete opposite and stand on the other side. But all it took was one particular moment and years of searching for their place. But even Paul would sign us up: “Never say never!”

If I were heading toward a conclusion now, that would be enough. Many of us – and perhaps all of us – have had moments when we have let others down. We’ve experienced times when we’ve had to say no, even when we were sorry, AND most importantly, we’ve experienced times when we’ve added lines and scars to our life stories that we can’t erase. That is when we let ourselves down. But Peter and Paul – like so many people throughout history – are hopeful that one can still go on and improve. In our day, it is no small thing to be reminded of such a simple truth. For today we are much more willing to change everything around us – we have many options for doing so – we expect change from others, we can back out of marriage, out of school, out of a job… if we don’t like something. But it’s not all that common that we want to change ourselves, to work on ourselves. Therefore, one could stop here and point to Peter and Paul as those who changed, bringing great blessings to whole generations.

But I won’t stop here. In the Gospel, we heard how Jesus promised Peter he would be the rock on which the Church would stand. In doing so, Jesus knew Peter, knew of his weaknesses. But he trusted him. Despite everything, Jesus believed Peter.

I was reading a commentary on the Bible, particularly the first chapters on the creation of the world and man. The author of the article, Rémi Brague, took great pains to emphasize the message of those pages: God believes in man. That is, not that man thinks and ought to believe in God. But that God believes in man. That’s why he gave us the earth – in the hope that we won’t destroy it, that’s why he gave us life, that’s why he gave us free will – the ability to choose good or evil, that’s why even after the first humans are expelled from paradise, they are offered salvation – in the hope that they will cooperate. God believes in man despite knowing what they are like and what we are like.

Can we also believe in man? I would be more cautious here. We can have hope. We can hope that man will be put on good paths; we should try to find the good that can be cooperated with. But many historical events warn us that we cannot just naively believe in man. We cannot rely on the fact that being human; one will necessarily grow into a good person. That is why it is valuable to remind ourselves that God – not men and man, but God – believes in us. This is an invitation that awaits a response.

And here’s one more note. Peter and Paul discovered in Jesus the center of their lives and the center of their selves. Peter’s confession, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” can be seen as a confession to which he returned even after his falls. As a confession that kept him on his feet. And Paul wrote: “To me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” We can see clearly in him – and in other sayings – that Christ became the checkpoint, the center, and the direction of his life. In such a case, people can be believed. In such a case, they seek not themselves but the greater good. Then they are answering the call of God’s faith in us.

We will pray for the church in today’s Prayers of the Faithful. Let us also remember that we may be faithful to what we have come to know as good and earnestly seek the right center and centering of our lives. That we may be trusted, that God Himself may trust us.

The Sacrament of the Altar is the body and blood of Jesus Christ under the species of bread and wine. We say the Sacrament of the Altar because it takes place on the altar. At the Last Supper, the Lord Jesus changed the bread and wine into His body and blood. Then he said to his apostles. Could you please do this in remembrance of me? With these words, He gave the apostles the power to change the bread and wine. From the apostles, this power was passed to the bishops and priests.

Do this  in my memory.