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We know that miracles do not happen any more. That’s one attitude, but there are others, including the Catholic one. The attitude of the Catholics, of Eastern Orthodoxy and also of some Protestants is that yes, miracles are happening today and have happened throughout the history of Christianity. Some Protestant trends, including fundamentalism and much of evangelicalism, say that miracles don’t happen any more. Secularism says that miracles cannot happen.

Some Catholics have been influenced by the last two positions, but especially secularism. They think that even miracles recorded in the Bible are suspect, and they are quite convinced that today miracles cannot happen today. They say that miracles are pre-scientific. Yes, but they are also fabulous. They happened in the period before modern science, they happened during it, and they will continue to happen when this period is over. The attitude of both these Catholics and the secularists they emulate is truly unscientific. It is not based on conclusions drawn from scientific research into alleged miracles. Go to Lourdes, for example, or any other place of alleged miracles, and you won’t find a single sceptic taking notes and researching people who claim to miraculously healed. They know that after the New Testament period is over, they miracles can’t happen, so why would they bother to check it out? Their arguments look something like this: If Christianity only was just beginning, miracles were used to confirm its authenticity. “They went out and preached everywhere. The Lord helped them and confirmed their words by the signs that accompanied them” (Mk 16:20). But miracles are already unnecessary, for until the death of the last Apostle, Christianity had firmly established. They are no longer necessary for conversion to the faith, for the faith comes through the Bible.

In support of their claim, they quote the following verses: “Jesus did before the eyes of his disciples many other signs which are not, not, written in this book. But these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is Messiah, the Son of God, and that by faith you may have life in his name.” So then faith is of preaching, and preaching by the word of Christ.” (Rom 10:17).
What do these verses prove in reality? The Apostle John described some of Christ’s miracles so that the reader will believe in Christ. This does not mean that there will be no more miracles for future generations. Some people will believe based on what they read. Others need a special incentive that will come through a miracle. A verse from Romans} Is true that faith comes through the word of Christ, but not everyone is for this word in the same way. Some still require additional incentive of a miracle.
Another of the arguments used against miracles today is that the end of miracles was foretold in 1 Corinthians 13:8: “Prophecy shall cease, tongues shall be silent, and knowledge shall pass away.” But this verse speaks first of all of the heaven, where we shall rejoice in the blessed
vision, to see God face to face. Now, down here, “we see only dimly, as in a mirror” (1 Cor 13:12). In heaven, there will be no need of miracles to support faith, because we will know. Secondly, this is the verse chosen as proof of the attitude against miracles in our day, for it speaks of the disappearance of the early forms of prophesying and speaking in tongues. The implication is that such gifts, including miracles, are no longer have come to an end, but this does not follow. Even if prophecy and speaking in tongues disappeared forever in the first century (now we are not discussing whether they have reappeared in our time), their disappearance is not necessarily indicative of miracles. If miracles were necessary to get Christianity off the ground, why shouldn’t they be necessary to sustain it?

The fact remains that the Bible nowhere says that all miracles are ended with the end of New Testament times. Of course, the nor does it say that the miracles will continue until our time. So, as in so many other areas, the Scriptures are silent on this one. Why would, should not? Whether miracles are happening today is a question for scientific investigation, not for conjecture. But the necessary tool is an open and clear mind.

 What does it mean to bear witness? What are my difficulties in testifying and before whom? What do I gain by testifying? I am directly participating in the event… it has a greater weight of testimony than the one who gives testimony but that he heard it, read it… 

Jesus said: “But you also bear witness” (Jn 15:27). According to Jesus, we are to assume the role of his witnesses together with the Holy Spirit. Bearing witness should be an honour for us. Jesus does not promise earthly privileges to his witnesses, quite the opposite. A Christian must not be an obstacle to someone in following Christ. Those who do not give us an adequate witness, let us not judge, let us not condemn, but let us build in ourselves patience, trust, humility, perseverance and other virtues. Let us sanctify ourselves. Let our witness be about Jesus. The more the world expects from us testimony, all the more willingly, even if we act with the victims. So we don’t forget to bear witness with small, everyday deeds, words, behavior…

Jesus is waiting for our answer. It is impossible to block one’s ears before God’s word, not to give an answer with one’s life. God speaks to us through the voice of our conscience, through the Church, through people, things, events. The Easter season demands the same from each of us. ” Love to believe and believe to love!“Listen to God and respond as God asks of us in our conscience. Jesus died for our sins. We realize the importance and need to learn to listen to God in our conscience and respond correctly not only with words, but also with thoughts and actions. The child does not listen to the words of the parents, perhaps he responds to the third, fourth appeal. How does he love his parents? A student does not listen to the teacher. Can he get praise? When a car driver does not listen to the running of his car’s engine, he can break down his car. A runner athlete does not follow the starter’s shot, can he stand on the podium? And when listening matters in ordinary social, sports, cultural life, shouldn’t it in spiritual life? To listen to save my soul. To listen and respond correctly to the demands made. Listening means for us: to do everything to fulfil in our life , what God asks of us. “Follow me”(John 21:19)! The call of Jesus to each of us. A challenge that is not limited by time, space, place, people. Have a true conscience.

In the review “L Éncyclopedie de la vie pratique” (Encyclopedia of practical life), he states that the average person devotes 70 years of his life: 8 years to study and education, 9 years to entertainment, 3 years to body hygiene, 6 years to eating, 5 years to walking, 11 years of work, 4 years of reading, 24 years of sleep and rest. We are to live with Jesus in every moment.

To answer this question, we need to understand how Jesus experienced his inner relationship with the Father, and how that relationship then translated to people. And how we are to enter into a relationship with Jesus. Jesus speaks of the need for love, for it is through love that the deepest bond is formed. Let’s think about how Jesus loves us as the Father loves Jesus. We see, that he loves him in such a way that he gives him a mission.

And how Jesus loves the disciples. In a way that makes him fully available. Love is love when He doesn’t keep something for Himself and gives Himself for people. Staying in my love is therefore problematic because they say the shirt is closer than the coat. In this case, closer is that which is more perceptible to the senses, and so staying in awareness of God’s love is not easy. For we are so distracted from it, whether by external distraction, by the multitude of duties that demand attention, or by internal distraction, that it is easier for a man to dwell in thought on what he has experienced than on that mysterious awareness of God’s love.

This is precisely what cannot be achieved by some single decision. It is in abiding that one must keep on abiding. This love is conditioned by obedience to God, that is, by keeping His commandments. Usually, we contrast obeying and loving. Obedience is regulations and barracks, and love is voluntary and joy. It is not quite so. Parents tell the child. You may do this, you may not do that, but it is imbued with love. Keeping the commandments means tuning into the life of God because everything that God has created has been distorted by sin. The commandments came into being after sin. Until then, there was no need for commandments because man made his own choices for what was good and did not need commandments. As a result of sin, man began to go off course, and those courses needed to be named. And those are the commandments, or in other words, the standards by which man is to live with God. Sin means that man wants to go his own way and thus loses God.

We have it instilled in us that a commandment is something that restricts a person. Why? It must be said that our concept of sin is subject to certain distortions, which have ancient historical origins. It was that misguided asceticism, whether influenced by Jansenism or other currents. Love and commandment were separated and God was feared. The times were different. Children were punished more than they are today. The atmosphere was that parents were commanding children, but there was also an awareness that God punishes us when we do wrong. The upbringing of the priests also had an influence. The essence of the command is love. To keep the commandments without God’s grace is unthinkable.

Today, however, it is as if people themselves create and determine, what is good and bad. To keep the commandments is to understand them. The commandments are the condition of love, but they are also the fruit of love. Our civilization would not exist if there were no physical laws. We are discovering them. As soon as a man breaks a physical law, it is a crash. We just cannot perceive that certain laws are also written in the heart of man. Man chooses his path. If he keeps the commandments he decides life, if he does not, he decides death. The commandments do not restrict life, but on the contrary, protect man’s life from misfortune. One should not only command and forbid, but also explain why something is commanded or forbidden. What is my relationship to the commandments?

People who hate God also hate those who try to live for God with love. That is why it is not rare that for love and goodness, man repays man with hatred.

Jesus said to his disciples: “If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you” (Jn 15:18). And he immediately explains why this hatred exists: “If you were of the world, the world would love what is his, but because you are not of the world, because I chose you out of the world, the world hates you” (Jn 15:19). These words belong to the second part of the farewell speech of the Lord Jesus at the Last Supper. And specifically, a disharmonious tone crept into that message of love, by which he wants to prepare his apostles for the fact that although they will try to sow love around them, they will reap the hatred of the world for this effort because not all have Jesus as leader in their lives. Those who do not have it hate Jesus, and because his disciples belong to Christ, they will be subject to a wave of hatred similar to that of Christ himself. In addition to the fact that Jesus chose them from the world, that is, from the power of evil, they no longer belong to the world, and the world knows how to take revenge for this because the world loves only what belongs to it, which does not exceed its boundaries, principles, and way of life. Therefore, the world’s revenge for friendship with Jesus is most often manifested by the persecution of Jesus’ disciples. Jesus draws their attention to this and at the same time wants to please them, to encourage them, that even he himself was repaid in this way by the world. With these words, the apostles begin to realize the union, the bond with Christ, that they will have to suffer with Christ, but that they will also know the joy of the successes they will achieve while spreading the Gospel of Jesus. Because many people will accept faith and believe in the Lord Jesus, and thus the number of Christians will increase.

Likewise, we also have to reckon with the fact that we will not avoid the hatred of the world because of the teachings of Jesus. That’s why we have to reckon with the hostility of the world, we will experience humiliation, and even we have to reckon with persecution for Christ. All this is the tax that a Christian pays for his obedience and faithfulness to Christ. We have to put up with this and not look for an escape route. We realize that when there are confrontations with evil in our lives, this is also a necessary thing for the Christian life. The history of the Church tells us about countless multitudes of those who were hated by the world and had to lay down their lives for God.

After all, at this time we remember St. Stanislav, the bishop of Kraków, whom the king has executed as an “inconvenient” person. We remember Pope Martin I., who leads the Church in difficult times, the boat Petrus. Although he had to sacrifice his own life, he did not betray. We remember Juraj, who as a soldier and commander knows how to judge who is a superior officer, so he prefers martyrdom.

However, not all of them died a martyr’s death. We have a long line of believers: Dominik Savio dies young, but the motto from the day he was on the first St. received, he kept: Better to die than to sin.

Anthony de Mello under the title “Duckling” writes the story of the ascetic Sufi Shamse Tabrizi about himself: “From childhood I was considered as someone who could not be trusted. I guess no one understood me. My father once told me, “You’re not crazy enough to be locked up in an insane asylum, and you’re not sane enough to be put in a convent. I don’t know what to do with you.” And I answered him: “Once someone put a duck egg under a hen. When the duckling broke through the shell, it walked along with the mother hen until they reached a pond. The duckling went straight into the water and the hen, frightened she stayed on the shore, cackling.”

The Easter season does not end. Every Sunday is the commemoration of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and therefore week after week, throughout the year, we realize the greatness of the love of Christ, whose words “No one has greater love than he who lays down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13) are alive and current even before and after the feast of the Ascension of the Lord.

God bestows on some people in the Holy Scriptures the honorary title – friend. Abraham and Moses are friends of God. Jesus also had friends. He looked lovingly at the young man who had many possessions. Jesus had a friend, Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, and often stopped at their house. Out of modesty, John the apostle does not write about himself in the Gospel, and yet he notes about himself as a disciple with the words: “…the one whom Jesus loved” (Jn 13:23). After the last Supper in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus even addressed the traitor Judas: “Friend, why did you come here” (Mt 26:50). The Gospel reminds us that Jesus connects friendship with love. Jesus speaks clearly and comprehensibly about criteria that are unchangeable: “If you keep my commandments” (Jn 15:10). And as if in one breath, Jesus says what awaits people for this loyalty: “You will remain in my love, as I keep my Father’s commandments and remain in his love” (Jn 15:10).

Why does a person need friendship? Because a person realizes himself only in a relationship with another person. Unless a person recognizes a friend, it is as if he is not himself. Why did God create a woman for man? Adam felt alone.

The word “friend” emphasizes closeness between people. The word “friend” does not contain anything sinful. Friendship arises when we recognize that we think alike, that we are united by the same values, we have the same criteria, we say, “You are like me”. A person with another person advances more easily on the path of fulfilling the will of God. Where two or three are gathered in Jesus’ in my name, there is also Jesus. Friendship after original sin can also be understood negatively when it contradicts the will of God. Jesus turns to us with a challenge. ” This is what I command you: That you love one another” (Jn 15:17).

It is beautiful and useful that today when we use the term “friend” we think of our friends and during today’s Holy Mass. Prayer, Holy Mass, and Eucharist are a deposit, a blessing for us believers to strengthen friendship.

Anthony de Mello in the book “Bird’s Song”  presents short stories and writes: “A certain man found an eagle’s egg. He took it and put it under the hen in the chicken coop. A little eagle hatched with a flock of chicks and grew up with them. All his life, the eagle behaved like a chicken in the yard, thinking he was a domestic rooster. He was raking the ground looking for worms and worms. He chattered and chattered. He could even flap his wings and hover several meters in the air. After all, isn’t that how roosters fly? Years passed, and the eagle grew old. Once he noticed a beautiful bird high above him – in the clear sky. He flew elegantly and majestically in the middle of the air currents, barely moving his powerful golden wings. The old eagle looked up in amazement. “What is it?” he asked the hen standing next to him. “It’s an eagle, the king of birds,” replied the hen. “But don’t think about it.

Do we know what we are here for? Let’s remember it with the words of the Lord Jesus from the Gospel: “As the Father loves me, so I love you. Remain in my love” (Jn 15:9).

These words are particularly relevant also because we remember the Ascension of the Lord Jesus. The words sound like a testament. Jesus knows that his mission ends on earth. Human eyes will not see him again until the time when he comes into the world as the Judge of the world. However, he wants to be with each of us, connected in silence and purity of heart through the most beautiful human feeling – through love. It indicates the conditions under which this contact from our side must be maintained. “If you keep…” (Jn 15:10). Here Jesus is talking about the greatest love, which is manifested in our loyalty to God and love for our neighbour as for ourselves, just as he kept his Father’s commandments. If we want to be his true friends, only when we do what he has commanded us. Then his love will be complete in us. It is a challenge.

Is it love when a singer sings love words and transgresses God’s commandments? Is it love when we confess our love to another person with words and deeds, and is it a sin? It is love when we recite a prayer when we are at Holy Mass, and we approach the sacraments, and we harbor in our hearts’ resistance to certain truths of faith, and commands, when we do not want to leave the path of sin, the opportunity to sin, in relation to things, persons, feelings. ..?

Yes, the difficulty is also in the fact that we are not persistent in love. That is why we identify with Jesus’ words: “If you keep…” (Jn 15:10). “Caritas oblige – love obliges”! Those who live love, and fight for love, often have to suffer more, even though they are less popular. They don’t give up He is cautious in his emotions, he prefers the truth and remembers human weaknesses, he rises above insults, he knows how to forgive, and he forgets the evil done to him.

Have you ever seen trees after a heavy storm? A tear falls from many an eye at that sight – uprooted trees, broken branches… We can observe something similar in spiritual life. For example, preventing someone from contacting God. Setting a bad example, being a scandal… Lord Jesus reminds us: “I am the vine…” (Jn 15:1)The parable of the vine branch is relevant even today. With the image of the “vineyard”, which was known to his listeners and comprehensible to us today, Lord Jesus points to the truth announced by Jesus and everyone who believes his words. In the allegory of the branch, Jesus follows not only a well-known matter from the life of nature, but in the context of an Old Testament prediction, he touches on the image in the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah about the “vineyard of the Lord”. “What else should I have done to my vineyard that I did not do to it” (Isaiah 5:4)?

Through Jesus and him, we receive graces and gifts. Only direct contact with him is a guarantee of a harvest. “He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5). The text says that each of us who have been incorporated into the Church through baptism is a branch. God is already in the Old according to the law, he plants, protects, and cleans his vineyard, but he also expects a harvest from it. The Gospel does not present just some image. It is a living image and it appeals. What it says shakes our conscience: “Without me, you can do nothing” (Jn 15, 5). The Catechism reminds us in article 755 that the Church is cultivated land, God’s role. The true vine is Christ, who gives life and fruitfulness to the branches, that is, to us who, through the Church, remain in him, and without him, we can do nothing.