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The smallest child, but also the oldest person, have one great preciousness in them – life. This preciousness is our value and we value it more than a full wallet or possessions. However, human life can be not only a gift for another, but also a burden. Do you think it is a sign if someone told us: You are just a burden, a pest, a bug for me?! But a lesson flows from these ugly words: Life is beautiful when we love another person who is not a burden, but a gift and enrichment for our life.

Jesus, like us, had this great value – life. He could plan to build a house, start a family, and think about his fame and status. But he didn’t want to live like this. He dedicated his life and strength to love. He said it himself: Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Jesus knew very well that each of us was at risk in some way. A pupil so that he does not fail, a student so that he is not thrown out of an exam, a worker so that they are satisfied with him at work, an old person so that his health still serves him somehow… We all desire to progress in life, but we, believers, have to realize that the most important step for us is a life in which God rules. But none of us can do it alone. Why?

Jesus came into the world because we were threatened. And because he loves everyone, he gives his life for them as a ransom to advance to the next life. Our worth is in the life of Jesus. Isn’t it wonderful? God values ​​man so much that he sends his Son into the world to reward man with his life, death, and resurrection. A person can get into communion with God only under the condition that his life will be marked with excellence in love, and the best teacher of love is Jesus, who gives us the strength to not be a burden to others, but a gift, which is nothing new. After all, let’s judge for ourselves: Don’t we appreciate the most when someone likes us? And won’t the reverse also apply? The other person will not appreciate when we come to them with goodness in our hearts? A person is beautiful in that he knows how to love, and he is miserable in that he can be a pest.

The writer Kuznetsov very wisely describes this fact in the Legend of the River. The men in the room are talking about love. Peter asks his friend: Listen, is it true that a man should live with a woman all his life and infidelity is a sin? And the friend replied: You know, the life of love is given only to true people. We were once in the steppe and my acquaintance shot a male swan. Here, where she married, there she married, the female flew in, screeching, flapping her wings, hovering over us and making raids on us. We also shot at her, but we could not hit her. Night came, and we plucked the male, roasted it, and ate it. But we could still hear the flapping of wings and screeching. It died down in the morning and we thought she had flown away. When we got out, we saw her again. We could see it flying higher and higher, then it folded its huge wings and fell to the ground like a stone. We were frozen. One of us was a Kazakh who, seeing this, said that swans when they meet, are faithful to each other for life. Peter responded to that: Am I supposed to jump off the tower when my wife dies? A friend corrected him: You misunderstood me. You know, someone just plays for love, exhausts himself with nonsense, and shouts that family is a prejudice and there is no love. However, a person must live life to the fullest so that everything in him is great. If love, then love, if friendship, then friendship, if joy, then joy, if pain, then pain. That’s how happy people live, who don’t get bogged down in trifles and don’t live only for themselves. Happiness is a storm, a struggle, the sun in the heart, which is enough for you and others.

Could we imagine Jesus living as a parasite? He voluntarily renounced his life when he saw the threat to the human race, which consisted of the fact that none of the people could get into communion with the heavenly Father, so he gave the most valuable thing he had – his life. He sacrificed it for us, his friends. Perhaps the question comes to mind: But what about the enemies? Jesus has no enemies. Everyone, young or old, healthy or sick, believer or non-believer, is personally close to him. He showed this during his earthly life when he showed love to everyone. However, it is also true that not everyone showed him love. Therefore, it is up to us how we will treat him – as friends or enemies, as those who need him or mock him. He treats everyone the same – as friends.

The apostle John, who lived his life in love, recounts an amazing experience: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. If we can love another, if we are able not to live like a living creature, we come from God and know God’s life. We are great at that, and no one can blame us for being limited, that we will have a good time only after death. It’s not true! Whoever loves God loves always, in life, in death, and after death. How do I love? How much selfishness is there in my life? Am I not one of those who take advantage of those closest to them? Can I sacrifice myself for others? The Lord would grant that people respect us because we come to him with goodness in our hearts.

The eternity of torment is a terrible but salvific dogma. Many of the elect owe heaven to their belief in hell. This truth must be urged and not followed by the feigned charity of those who pass over the issue without a word, accusing of inhumanity those who preach it. Inhuman are those who see their brethren rushing into the abyss and do not cry out to them. Stop. For you stand on the edge of the eternal abyss. Four two reasons for the eternal duration of the torments of hell are found in St. Thomas Aqun. and help us understand the psychology of the damned. When man commits a mortal sin , he knowingly and willingly renounces God because he prefers sin to God. When a person has freely chosen his final destination, he has no possibility of coming again to what he was destined for. , just as he cannot come to the truth who has erred in fundamental principles. But the sinner does not regard this inability of his to lift himself up and aim at God as a misfortune.

On the contrary, he has the promise of seeing his true welfare in it. We should be mistaken if we thought that the sinner is sorry for his sins. Even in hell he is not sorry. That he has sinned. He’s only sorry that he has to suffer. We would be mistaken if we thought that the remorse that comes after sin comes from the nature of man. They are caused by the grace of God. When God has been cast out of the soul, He seeks to return to it. If the sinner did not have remorse, he could not be induced by himself to regard his sin as evil, and so could not repent of it. Here on earth, every sinner can change, every sinner has the opportunity to repent of his sins. But this opportunity lasts only during earthly life. When the sinner comes to the other world, he no longer encounters grace, but only righteousness. Why does the sinner remain in his clenched impenitence after his death. Man has a free will. God has given man to choose his destination. To choose God or to reject Him. After death, man can no longer change his choice. God respects man’s free will. The only way God could correct such a will is if he were to forcibly and against its will destroy its connection with evil. He could remake it again.

But if God did that, man would no longer be the person he was before. One might say. It is no longer I, Judas, Nero, Satan who now love God. I,who was Judas, Nero, Satan. To tell the truth the present me is a complete stranger. The conversion of man here on earth does not involve such a destruction of personality. Here on earth the soul is subject to the influence of different moods.What one liked yesterday , begins to appear in different colours today. One sees today what one did not see yesterday. The grace of God can bring about , without violence , that man will willingly give up his choice. Here on earth even the greatest sinner can repent of his sins but in the next world this is no longer possible. Here the naive presumption of St. Aryan parish priest is untenable. If confession booths were built at the gates of hell,the damned would flock to them to obtain deliverance and forgiveness. If such a possibility existed, we could accuse God of cruelty. The reality is that the damned do not want to repent of their sins.

As we know, the main feast of St. Joseph is March 19. Then St.Joseph  is worshiped. Joseph, above all, as the foster father of the Lord Jesus and the head of the Holy Family. But this chosen man of God is also worshiped as the patron saint of workers, which has been emphasized in recent times by the introduction of his liturgical commemoration of May Day. We know from the Gospel that Saint Joseph was a carpenter (cf. Mt 13:55). That is why, from time immemorial, those who worked with wood, especially carpenters, have worshiped him as their patron saint. In Rome, in the 16th century, the Carpenter Archbishopric dedicated to St. to Joseph. At the beginning of the 17th century, she joined this brotherhood under the patronage of St. Jozef and the so-called Carpentry University (Universitá dei Falegnami). It was a corporation of various useful and artistic crafts, among which woodworking was predominant. There were turners, carvers, coopers, saddlers, manufacturers of furniture, musical instruments, carriages, boats and others.

Similar craft brotherhoods and associations that worshiped St. Jozef as their patron, were established in Spain, France, Belgium and other countries. Pope Pius XII. extended the patronage of St. Joseph to all workers and dedicated to him (in 1955) the first of May, which is celebrated in many countries as a workers’ holiday. The post-conciliar liturgical renewal included this day in the general liturgical calendar as a liturgical commemoration of St. Joseph  – the worker. In this way, the Church not only wants to show respect for the lifelong vocation of St. Jozef, but also wants to highlight the value of work and its importance in the natural and supernatural order. In this sense, for this day, she included among the liturgical readings of the priest’s watch (breviary) a stanza from the council’s constitution Gaudium et spes, where, among other things, it is said:

“Man, created in the image of God, was commanded to subdue the earth with all that it contains, to govern the world in justice and holiness and to focus oneself on God, recognizing him as the Creator of all things, so that everything is subject to man, and thus God’s name is glorified everywhere on earth. This also applies to normal everyday tasks. Because men and women who develop their activities in order to earn a living for themselves and their families, thereby demonstrating adequate service to society, can rightly look at their work as a continuation of the work of the Creator, a useful help to their brothers and as their personal a contribution to the realization of God’s plan in history.” (GS 34).

ON TODAY’s HOLIDAY, the liturgy of the Church puts this prayer on our lips: “God, you ignited warm love in Saint Catherine when she contemplated the Lord’s Passion and served your Church; through her intercession, grant that your people, to whom you have given a share in the mysteries of Christ, may rejoice forever when Christ appears in his glory”. These words describe the life of the saint we are celebrating: a fervent love for Jesus Christ that led her to devote herself to work for others and for the Church.

Katarína Benincasa was born in 1347 in Siena in a large family. From childhood she cultivated a deep piety that led her to consecrate her life to the Lord, despite the misunderstanding of her family. At the age of eighteen, she was accepted among the Dominican Tertiaries in the city. She continued living at home with her parents and led an intense prayer life amid the natural hustle and bustle of a family with many children. At the age of 21, Katarina had an experience that marked her life forever: she understood that God was calling her to devote herself with all her strength to acts of love and to work for the conversion of sinners. St. Josemaria was interested in the fact that this saint “was on the streets and created an inner cell in her soul, so wherever she was, she did not leave her cell”. This decision marked the beginning of several years during which the young woman moved around the city of Siena to take care of the sick and at the same time ignite the hearts of many people in the love of God and neighbor.

“A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither will they light a lamp and place it under a lampstand, but on a candlestick, so that it may give light to all who are in the house” (Mt 5, 14-15). Catherine was enlightened by the kind face of Jesus and understood that his light could not remain enclosed within the walls of her house. Thus she caused a revolution around her, which was made up of prayer and acts of service.

True wisdom is to be in harmony with God’s heart …

In the LETTERS of St. Catherine and in her well-known work Dialogue, the harmony between teaching and mystical experience is astonishing, especially if we consider that the saint did not have the opportunity to receive a broad cultural formation. From a young age, however, she attended the sermons of the Dominican fathers in her town: there she listened attentively to the interpretations of the Scriptures, examples from the lives of the saints, and catechesis on the faith. Over time, she cultivated her inner life also under the guidance of a local spiritual leader.

On St. Catherine, the words that Jesus uttered one day full of joy came true: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little ones” (Mt 11, 25). “True wisdom also comes from the heart, it is not just an understanding of thoughts (…). If you know many things but your heart is closed, you are not wise. Jesus says that the secrets of his Father were revealed to the little ones, to those who open themselves to his word of salvation with confidence, feel that they need him and expect everything from him; they have an open and trusting heart towards the Lord”. St. Catherine accepted the lights that the Lord gave her, and thus achieved a deep knowledge of God’s mystery. “Oh priceless, sweetest love,” she wrote. “Who is not ignited by such great love? What heart can resist without fainting? You, the abyss of love, as if you have gone crazy for your creatures, as if you cannot live without them, although you are a God who does not need us. Your greatness does not grow by our good deeds, for it cannot change; no harm comes to you from our evil, because you are the highest and eternal Good. Who will move you to such mercy?”.

Driven by this intense contemplation, the saint from Siena passed on God’s love to the people around her. She began with those who gathered to listen to her and be encouraged in her spiritual life. However, this outpouring of her inner life did not end there: over the years she wrote letters to many people, many of whom were public figures of the time. More than once, her letters were accompanied by calls for the addressees to live by the Gospel and seek God’s will. From her intimate relationship with Jesus, she drew energy to speak clearly and gently about God.

Sharing your faith with others …

AMONG THE MANY CHRISTIANS who were inspired by the life of St. Catherine, we also find St. Josemaria. He had a special respect for her from his youth; for example, he called the notes he made about the events of his inner life “Catharines”. “I fell in love with the power of St. Catherine,” says the founder of Opus Dei, “who speaks the truth to the most important people, with burning love and transparent clarity”. Therefore, in 1964, the founder of Opus Dei decided to appoint her as the intercessor of the apostolate, which is extremely valued: for informing a wide field of public opinion with the love of Christ.

Jesus is the truth that enlightens every person and saves him from darkness. To offer this light to others – to strive for it to be ignited in our own life – is one of the works of mercy. To bring one’s faith to others “means to make revelation visible, so that the Holy Spirit can work in people through witness: service is a way of life (…) If I say I am a Christian and live as a Christian, it attracts (…) Faith must be passed on: not to persuade, but to offer a treasure.

Before exhorting anyone to come to faith, Saint Catherine spent a lot of time tending to the sick in her city. The same love that led her to attend to the neediest later moved her to write letters inviting them to be faithful children of the Church. The credibility of her message was based on a life that radiated love for God and neighbor. Let us ask St. Catherine and our Heavenly Mother to intercede with God to give us love that feeds on prayer, manifests itself in acts of love, and proclaims the truth that leads to life. “The deepest teaching that we are called to impart and the surest certainty that dispels doubts is God’s love with which we have been loved (cf. 1 Jn 4:10). Great love, gratuitous and given forever, God never turns away from his love!”.

Children… How they strive to be good in the presence of their parents! And royal children, how they seek to preserve their royal dignity before their father the King! And you… don’t you realize that you always stand before the Great King, your Father God?  Do not decide without pausing to consider the matter in God’s presence.  It is necessary to convince ourselves that God is always with us. We live as if the Lord were somewhere far away from us, where the stars shine, and we forget He is always by our side. He is there as a loving Father – loving each one of us more than all the mothers in the world can love their children – helping us, counselling us, blessing us… and forgiving us. How many times, after we have brought up a naughty thing, have we managed to smooth out our parents’ frowning expression when we told them we wouldn’t do it again! And maybe that very day we fell again… And our father, with feigned sternness in his voice and a serious face, chastised us… but his heart was already soft, for he knew our weakness and thought to himself: Poor fellow, how he tries to be good! We must be filled and permeated with the thought that God is our Father, our true Father, who is with us and in heaven.Get into the habit of lifting up your heart to God in acts of thanksgiving many times a day. For he gives you this and that. Because thou art despised. Because you do not have what you need, or because you have it. Because He has made His Mother, who is also your Mother, so beautiful. Because He made the sun and the moon and that animal and that plant. Because He gave this man eloquence, and you are so ponderous. Thank him for everything, because everything is good.  Be not so blind and unmindful that thou wilt not enter into every Tabernacle when thou beholdest the walls or tower of the house of God. He awaits thee. Do not be so blind and oblivious that you do not invoke the Immaculate Virgin Mary when you pass by places that you know offend Christ there.  Do you not rejoice when, on your usual way through the streets of the city, you discover another Tabernacle? A man of prayer said: “Jesus is to be the goal of our endeavors, the Love of our hearts, the topic of our conversations, the pattern of our actions.” Use those holy “human aids” that I have recommended to you so that you do not lose consciousness of God’s presence: centering prayers, acts of charity and satisfaction, spiritual communion, gazing at images of the Blessed Virgin…  Alone! You are not alone. From afar, we accompany you always. And besides, the Holy Spirit who dwells in your pardoned soul – God with you – gives a supernatural tone to all your thoughts, desires, and actions.  “Father,” said the young man (what is the matter with him now?), a good student, “I have been thinking about what you told me… that I am a son of God! And I found myself walking down the street with my head held high and pride in my heart… Son of God!” With a clear conscience, I advised him to keep that pride.  I do not doubt your good intentions. I know that you act in the presence of God. Nevertheless, there is a bit: your actions are, or can be, observed by people who will judge them by human standards… And it is necessary to set them a good example.  If you get into the habit of seeking Mary’s company at least once a week to go to Jesus with her, you will see how much more you will live in God’s presence.  You ask me, “Why the wooden cross?” And I quote from a letter, “When I look up from the microscope, my eyes fall on the black and empty cross. This cross without the Crucified is a symbol. It has a meaning that others do not see. And the one who is tired and just wanted to put down his work, fixes his eyes on the microscope again and goes on, because that lonely cross cries out for arms to carry it.”  Live in the presence of God and you will have supernatural life.

INDEPENDENCE

The virtue of selflessness has a special name. From a purely linguistic point of view, it is a negative term. Yet it represents perhaps the rarest of positive qualities. The word “gain,” reported from the root of this expression, is positive, lawful, right, just. But if its negation is highly positive, apparently the word profit can sometimes have a negative flavor, or turn into something outwardly negative. Whenever profit is consistent with the requirement of justice, it is something positive. However, as soon as it becomes an end in itself – profit, for profit – its positivity is lost, and everything degenerates into egocentrism, narcissism, egoism, etc., depending on what aspect of the human aspect of the human being, and one becomes profiteering.

Selflessness is the “condition sine qua non” of the growth, existence, and authenticity of the human personality, more precisely of its moral character. Who consider from this point of view the saying of Jesus, “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 16:23), will discover with immense surprise that Jesus did not utter a paradox here, but that – if in this context we set aside the biblical-theological meaning in the narrower sense – he was expressing a condition of moral self-preservation or self-preservation. But this would mean at the same time that to lose or seek to lose one’s own life for God is a path to self-preservation or self-mastery on a level that is utterly unknown to others.

But what if one does it out of calculation, out of selfishness? In a relationship with God, this is not true, for God never comes out from behind the scenes. If he did, he would overwhelm man with His goodness, His beauty, His greatness… just as the endless sea captivates a drop of water on a cliff. But God is hidden, and man is left only with faith – faith in goodness, justice, love, faithfulness, etc. God is thus “in statu viae” (still on the way) to the human being. Appears as the best goods, or even as the greatest good, or – only for very penetrating intelligence – as the infinity of all good.

But even then it does not irresistibly attract a man – because of the heaviness of his carnality. That is why man retains his freedom, even towards God. If, therefore, man freely, and thus unselfishly, chooses God, after a time he will see that he has not given up his personality, but has preserved it, that he has not given up himself, but has established himself in his authenticity, that he has not lost Selflessness his freedom but has enhanced it, that he has not emptied himself inwardly but has attained a higher stage of existence. Certainly, he has not yet had an ecstatic experience of it – apart from a few happy moments – but it is nevertheless a reason for unquestioning hope. At the same time, with these experiences, he realizes that the more selflessly he devotes himself to God, the more he grows and strengthens as a free, autonomous personality (“Ama et fac quod vis” – Love and do what you want). Every advance in selflessness means a further degree of authentication of the self, and conversely, with every self-direction one moves in the direction of the desire to “want to save one’s life,” and thus impoverishes oneself.

Without selflessness, there is no progress in either moral or virtuous
life. Man is bound by something. It reminds me of the incident of the two bon vivants who spent a long evening in a noisy society and then hired a boat to return home. They rowed for hours until it started to growl. They saw with horror that they had not got away from the shore, nor …within twenty yards of the shore. They had forgotten to untie the boat from the shore. It’s a picture of people anchored in themselves. As long as they don’t detach themselves from the
…or cut the rope, they can’t get a step ahead on the road to moral perfection. The virtue of selflessness thus inspires, motivates, and directs man to seek neither material reward nor recognition nor gratitude in anything, much less that satisfaction, which is incomparably more difficult for a man to renounce than anything else: inner self-satisfaction.

It is all the more difficult because one does not know what and how to grasp, where to begin, and often realizes too soon a fact that devalues everything – the self-satisfied reflection on the positive deed he has done. If it fails to remove it, the fragile virtue of selflessness is shattered,  as if it were made of the finest crystal. This apt comparison gives us enables us to understand why the good done by a self-satisfied glance at it disintegrates as soon as it has been successfully performed. It means, perhaps, that one must not fix one’s inward gaze on the well-done deed. Certainly not. The destruction of the effects of a good deed, and or the virtue of selflessness, comes only by admiring oneself – instead of God. Thus – to stay with what has already been said of the image – not only does one shatter the fine crystal, but one also wounds one by the shards. Hence the double harm. But is a man capable of absolute selflessness? Yes, but only in single moments of action. In the long run and for a lifetime.

The Church Fathers affirm the existence of purgatory. St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says. He will surely save himself, but only from fire. St. Augustine writes. Whoever will be carnal, or will resemble in his life those who live according to the flesh, even if he does not break away from the Church, cannot be brought to heresy, let him await the fiery furnace, and let him know that only through the flame will he get to the right side. The fire will purify the souls so that they can get to the right. Only in purgatory shall we see what severe punishments are inflicted for what the world has come to call light sins.

St. Peter of Damian convinces us of the severity of the punishments for venial sin, by a whole heap of examples. The people of the world think very little of what they will have to pay for mistakes which they hardly notice here on earth. A certain nun has seen souls in Purgatory suffering for not being able to renounce their own opinions. Contemplating Purgatory will make us change by living. For many souls, he says, death would be a horror if we had only one perspective. All or nothing. Thus, heaven or hell. As one approaches eternity, one sees that one’s whole life has been miserable and that one has nothing to offer God except pity… The tormented soul has no choice but to despair in fear of eternal damnation. But when the justice of God expresses Himself as accepting his pity, the terror leaves him and he begins to hope. It might be said that in purgatory there exists at the same time the greatest possible joy after the joy of heaven and the greatest possible torment after the torment of hell.

For the soul, the cause of the most tender pain, is precisely the consciousness that it is loved by God, that it is called to rejoice in God in the fellowship of the blessed. For this, the soul loves God with the purest love. But at the same time, it seems that it can neither see God nor enjoy Him. And her pain is all the more agonizing because she does not know when her exile will end, St. Catherine of Genoa said. The purgatorial agony that comes from the temporary loss of God is so great, that language cannot tell and reason cannot comprehend. The torment of the senses is commensurate with sins.

The fiery instrument of God’s justice will give everyone what he deserves. The torments of purgatory immeasurably exceed the torments that would suffice in this life to atone for our sins, St. Augustine says that the fire of purgatory is more terrible than anything else that man can imagine here on earth. St. Thomas Aquinas does not hesitate to declare that the lightest purgatorial torment is worse than the heaviest earthly torment. Purgatorial torments last a very long time. Purgatory will come to an end on the Day of Judgment-For the souls who will still suffer at the end of the world, God will compensate for the duration of their torment with strength.

In the chronicles of the Franciscan Order, we read examples of the souls of the deceased appearing an hour or two after their death and complaining that the friars cared little for them and left them in purgatory for years… The priest prays for the dead at Mass. But it should be added that our prayers will not benefit all, only those who are in life, so these prayers can be beneficial to them. But we do not know which souls these are. Therefore, prayers and good works should be applied to all the baptized, so that no one is left out, who could benefit from those prayers. For it is better to dig up prayers that benefit no one than to rob them from those who can benefit from them. Finally, a thought of St. Teresa of Jesus. My Jesus, of what use are my little sacrifices to Thee? They will please the triumphant Church, which will receive these roses and place them in Thy divine hands so that Thou gayest give them infinite value, and throw them upon the suffering Church to quench her flames, and upon the struggling Church to help her to victory.

I am the way, the truth, and the life › Jn 14, 6. Jesus is the way. He is the perfect Son of his Father, who always did only what the Father told him to do. He did not stick to his ideas about his life’s direction. In doing so, he showed us how we should live. He loved his Father with complete trust. He knew that he was in the Father’s hands and found rest in them; once, when Jesus ascended to heaven, he invited us to live like him – in trust and surrender to our calling from the Father. He will teach, guide, shape, and transform us into His children. He will show us how to rest in his presence, just as Jesus did.

Jesus is the truth. Every word he said was true. When he promised something, it came true. Every miracle he did, and every speech he preached testified to our heavenly Father’s love for us and how we are to live in mutual love with each person according to his will. Everything that Jesus did when he walked the earth, but also everything he does now in and through his Church, is a proclamation of this love. This truth is the essence of all creation – it is the essence of the life of each of us. It is a promise of hope and a future filled with His love.

Jesus is life. To know Jesus means to live fully because he gave us a share in his divine life. Every time we receive the Eucharist, we receive God’s life into our sinful hearts. Imagine it: Jesus wants to live in us. He decided to give us his own life in our hearts so that our life would flow from him. This is a gift beyond measure, a reason for gratitude and joy. He comes to meet our deepest needs and to rejoice with us in every good gift. He comes to teach, fulfill, and accompany us.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We have everything in it. He gave us much more than just the forgiveness of sins. He gave us a new way of life in union with the heavenly Father. Don’t worry; reach out and grab it today!

The Man Who Bears Fruit You may still remember the idea of the so-called useless man from school, specifically from literature lessons. The Russian Romantic writers of the 19th century, such as Goncharov in his Oblomov, Pushkin in Eugene Onegin, and Turgenev in Rudin, dealt with it in their literary works. A useless person (лишний человек) was usually a nobleman or member of the upper class who, although talented and capable, was nevertheless unsuited to any ordinary career. He was afraid to take risks, could not make decisions, or refused to take responsibility for anything. As a result, he would become lazy, unsuccessful, completely passive about his life, and thus quite useless. He will create nothing and nothing will be left of him. He is simply a burden. The theory of the useless man is not fiction, but a fact. How many people around us today could we include here? They are mere idlers, devouring parasites, of whom nothing remains, people useless for anything. How not to become them? Which people are the best candidates for useless people? Is there some quality in our nature that predisposes us to become useless people? Yes, there is. It is the inability and unwillingness to suffer. Without suffering and pain, there is no growth, only decline. But accepting pain is not easy. If suffering appears in our lives, we immediately think that God is punishing us. Many of us rely on God in this way: “Why does God allow all this to happen to me? If I were a pervert or a hedonist, an egoist or a parasite, a schemer or a criminal, a cheat, a rapist, or a tyrant, … then I would be able to understand why God is punishing me. But I live righteously, fulfill my duties, obey the laws honestly, sacrifice for my children, and work from dawn to dusk. So why is God punishing me? Why is my effort to do good rewarded with so much adversity? The more good I do, the more my misfortunes multiply. How is it that the bad prosper and the good have to suffer so often and so much? Why do the good mourn and the bad laugh? Jesus answers, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” He cuts off every branch that does not bear fruit in me, and every branch that bears fruit he cleanses, that it may bear more fruit.” In Jesus’ words, the goal of our lives is to bear fruit. If we do not bear fruit, our life is worthless. A person who does not bear fruit is like a dry or wild tree; he is just taking up space unnecessarily. The only thing he can still be used for, and even then only once, is fire.
Isn’t that the case in everyday life? Let us look at nature, at the gardener and the vinedresser. Let us ask them why they let the oak tree that grows beside the road leading to their garden, or the poplar or birch tree grow unnoticed. And why, on the other hand, do they treat the vine, the apple tree, or the apricot tree completely differently year after year? Year after year these poor trees are mutilated and pruned. Why do they not touch some, while hurting others? There is not a year that goes by when the gardener does not approach these kinds of plants and inflict pain on them, while quietly, unobserved, he lets plants grow which brings him no benefit. It is not a secret. If a tree that bears fruit is not pruned, it will wither. If it is pruned, it becomes nobler and more fruitful. A tree that does not bear fruit will stay in the ground as long as we want, but sooner or later it will end up in the fire.

It is the same with people. He, too, will become a brick if he is not lifted by adversity. You, too, will become a great egoist if pain does not raise you to the right level. That you are not a tyrant, a wicked villain, is only because pain at the very birth of these vices has cut off their shoots and prevented them from engulfing for themselves your whole mental life. That you are not dishonest, pets and villains is only because pain, as a kind of guardian, has prevented you from transcending the boundaries of depravity and vice. Or that it exposed you in time and confiscated all the illicit goods you wanted to accumulate in the luggage of your heart. Or took one of your dear ones away from you so that you could break away from your trench and more fervently long for your true homeland.

The root of all vice is selfishness. The best food for it is beneficial. The greater the wealth, affluence, and success, the more self-love grows and becomes aggressive and greedy. Therefore, he who does not suffer cannot understand others, and he who does not understand cannot love, and he who does not love is like a wild tree: he cannot do good. Let us look around and observe people, and we will find that this is so. An easy, comfortable, and lazy life makes people lazy, limited, and vicious. It stops their inner development. Those who do not suffer, suffer because they have no place to gain experience. We do not know life from books but from experience, struggle, and suffering. It is not age that makes one mature; it is a virtue that one has cultivated through experience. A pilot proves his skill not on a calm sea, but on a rough sea. You will be as great as your pain.

I like the legend describing how the bamboo, a beautiful tree in love with itself, became a useful tree. But to do that, the gardener first had to cut it down, then cut off all its beautiful branches, then move it to another place and cut it in half. To that extent, it could become a trough for him, through which water from the spring flowed to where the gardener needed it. Through it all, the bamboo was frightened, suffering, and resisting the gardener’s intentions, but in the end, he was happy to be of help.

This story beautifully and accurately expresses the meaning of life. It just says differently what today’s gospel says to the vine and branches. The purpose of our lives is to bear fruit. If you don’t bear fruit, or if your only fruit is a sour plain, then you are a wild, useless, and therefore essentially useless tree.

To understand properly, we must be careful when we speak of useless people. Godless regimes like to entertain this idea as well. That is why, under Hitler, handicapped people ended up in gas chambers, and today many elderly people end up being euthanized. For Christians, the life of helpless people is not useless. A useless life is the life of a person who voluntarily chooses to create nothing and to live only at the expense of others because he rejects the pain of growth, discipline, and struggle with his vices and passions. Lord, let the goal of my life be to bear abundant fruit no matter the cost.

All in all.God will be all in all. What shorter can be heard, and what more tremendous can be imagined? God is all to himself because his greatness is sufficient for him, and he is even to all the elect. God is the light that enlightens the elect, and joy cheers them. God is the glory that encircles them. Only he can be happy who is not deceived, who suffers nothing and fears nothing. The truth is, if only man had all possible goodness. He would lack much if he were deceived. Or if he had to suffer while doing so, he could not be satisfied. Even if he did not have to suffer but had to worry about something, he could not be at peace. In Heaven, St. Francis de Sales cries out how many favors there are. The Divine is made to be understood directly, without through an image. Or likeness. The Divinity draws near and unites with our understanding. Good God, what a delight for human reason to be constantly united to its supreme object not by its form but by its presence, not by an image, not by an imitation, but by its divine essence.

God will act like mothers who are not content to feed their children with their own milk but put their breasts into their mouths, so the child may receive their milk. We shall also see that eternal and miraculous birth by which the Son was born from eternity. We shall also see the generation of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we shall also see the Divine Love of the Eternal Father towards the Son as it is accomplished in one breath. Our hearts will behold the beauty and sweetness of this love between the Eternal Father and His Son. There, Jesus will show Himself through His beautiful and benevolent humanity. We will also see our Mother Mary, the good and sweet Virgin Mary. We will see St. Joseph and, with him, the Patriarch of the Prophets, the Apostles, the Martyrs, the Confessors, the Bishops, and the pure virgins of the whole Church.

Theophanies often talk about heaven. Teach them to yearn, cry, and sigh for the heavenly homeland so that they may be able to speak with St. Ignatius. How empty the earth is when I look up to heaven. Heavenly happiness will have no end. If it should end once, it would not be happiness—the greater the happiness, the greater the fear that we will lose it. To see God, this is life, cries St. Augustine, and this is life eternal. We shall see God, and that is all, for it is such a great thing that everything else is nothing compared to it. In heaven, there is eternal joy, ever rejoicing, reminiscent of happiness.