predication.net

Who has not met with justice? My, your, our… Justice. There is one. That is why Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said to the fathers: “Thou shalt not kill.” Therefore, whoever kills will go to court. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother will go to court ” (Mt 5,21 -22).

In order for sin, which is infinitely more dangerous than a weed in the garden, to do no harm, it must be spotted, spotted already in the bud. Best when it’s still sprouting. That’s when a person gets rid of it easier, and then it doesn’t harm either himself or his neighbors. Lord Jesus reminds us about anger. In the bud, anger is only a little intense, maybe it is related to a feeling of insult, grievance, or envy… At this stage, it is not difficult to tear it out, overcome it, and forgive the neighbor. However, if a person begins to nurture it in himself, water it, feed it, and does not renounce it, anger will begin to grow slowly, taking deeper and wider roots. And gradually it begins to bear harmful fruit. The person himself suffers internally, anger eats him up, kills peace and joy in him, and causes tension. A person cannot keep this inner discord hidden within himself for long. It starts to show in the form of psychological or physical harm to a neighbor, or even murder.

And we can learn something important in the garden. Weeds thrive best where no plants or vegetables grow. It has the most nutrients, moisture, and light there. So also sin takes root best where no virtues grow. Therefore, it is not enough to suppress anger, but also to cultivate the positive virtue of love. Jesus’ command applies: “…Go and be reconciled to your brother…” (Mt 5:24). Therefore, it is necessary to turn your gaze away from the altar for a moment and look next to you or even behind you, at your brothers and sisters. What is my relationship with them? Would any of them reproach me for something? Wouldn’t it also be justified? But let’s not just stop at examining our negatives, and mistakes in this area. Let’s move on. Let’s ask positively! What could I specifically do for them? Maybe for the elderly and infirm or for those closest to them, at least something small. We have a chronically familiar commandment: thou shalt not kill. I know one way to kill enemies.

The courtiers are said to have reproached Emperor Sigismund that he treats his enemies magnanimously, that he should kill them all. The emperor answered them: “You are right, the enemies are to be destroyed – but with magnanimity. Then we will kill their enemies and make them friends.”

Let’s not let ourselves be destroyed and consumed by anger, the desire for revenge. Let’s remove it so that we reconcile with our neighbors, and destroy their enemies, we have more friends. Our life will become a little more beautiful, joyful, and peaceful. I wish you and myself that even this reflection, where Jesus’ touching love for us becomes present, will strengthen us and rekindle the desire to fight for love, peace, and reconciliation.

One who embarks on a spiritual journey is always evolving and becomes aware of two contrasting facts over time: not the finite is distant and yet near. First, he experiences more and more that God is a mystery. He is completely different, holy, invisible, incomprehensible, utterly transcendent, in all words, beyond the possibility of the of understanding. “A child just born,” writes the Roman Catholic writer Georg e Tyrrel, “knows as much about the world and its ways as about the most – wisest among us can know of the ways of God and of the …who rules over heaven and earth, time and eternity.”
A Christian living in the Orthodox tradition will be completely comfortable with this agree. As the Greek Fathers pointed out, “The God whom we can understand is not God.” For the God whom we would dare to comprehend in an exhaustive way through the use of our reason, will be nothing more but an idol, a thing of our imagination. Such a God is totally unlike the true and living God of the Bible. Man is made in the image of God, not in the image of God.
.
And then it is also important that this God of mystery is still uniquely open to us, filling all thought and always present in us, around us and with us. We are not present only in the atmosphere or by his power, but personally. God, who is infinitely beyond our understanding, is with us. He calls each of us by name. Between us and the transcendent God is a relationship of love, similar to the relationship of each of us to those who of those dearest to us. We know other people only through our love for them and through their love for us. The latter is also with God. In the words of Nicholas of Kabbalah..: God, our King, is more loving than any friend, more just than any ruler, more loving than a father, more a part of ourselves than our own members, and more indispensable to us than our own hearts. These are, then, the two poles of the human experience of the divine. God is both more distant and closer to us than anything, and paradoxically we discover that these two poles are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, the more we are attracted to one, the more clearly we are aware of the other. As we follow this path, we discover that God is becoming more and more intimate, but also more distant, more familiar and more unfamiliar – familiar to a small child, not understood. God dwells in inaccessible light, and man stands in his presence with loving confidence and addresses him as a friend. God is both the end of things and their beginning . He is the open arms that welcome us at the end of the pilgrimage and the companion who walks to guide us every step of the way. As it Nicholas Kabasila describes, “God is the shelter in which we rest at night, and the final destination of our journey.” God is a mystery, and yet a person: look at these the facts.
God as mystery.
We shall make little progress on the road unless we make with a sense of awe and wonder, with respect for the mystery of God. When Samuel Palmer first visited William Blake, the old man asked him with what feelings he approached the work on his paintings. “With fear and with fear,” Palmer replied. “Why your work is good…,” Blake said.
The Greek Fathers liken the human encounter with God …to the experience of someone walking in the fog over a mountain. The rush and he suddenly notices that he is on the edge of a precipice, below him. …there is no solid ground, but only a bottomless pit. For they also use the example of a man standing in the night in a dark room. The moment he opens the window, he is suddenly …he is struck by lightning and staggers back, momentarily blinded. Such is the purpose of the encounter with the living mystery of God. We are overwhelmed with dizziness, and it seems to us that we cannot, we can’t grasp anything firmly. Our inner sight is blinded. and our normal faculties of perception are in ruins.
The Fathers also use both symbols of the spiritual path two Old Testament figures, Abraham and Moses. Abraham, living peacefully in his ancestral home in the Chaldean Ur, he hears God’s voice: “Get thee out of thy land, out of thy …and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” ( Gn 12:1) They obey God’s call, which delivers them from his native environment, and boldly go into the unknown, without a clear plan and destination. He is simply invited, “Go forth…,”..and in faith he submits. Moses has three successive visions of God: first, he sees God as a vision of light in a burning bush (Ex 3:2), then God appears to him by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in the pillar of fire that accompanies the people of Israel in the wilderness ( Ex. 13:21), and finally he meets God in a kind of “not vision,” when he speaks to God in an opaque cloud at meeting on Mount Sinai (Ex 20:21). Abraham wanders from his native home to an unknown, and so it is experienced by everyone who walks the spiritual path of his knowledge into the unknown, he advances into the darkness. It is not a simple stepping out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of knowledge, but we are moving from the light of partial knowledge to a greater knowledge that is so much deeper that it can be described only as “unknown darkness”. As Socrates and, we know how little we know. We see that the role of Christianity does not give easy answers to every question, but rather a step towards the realization of the mystery. God is not driven by of the many objects of knowledge, but the cause of wonder. If it is written in Psalm 8:1: “O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth.” St. Gregory of Nyssa states, “The name of God is unknowable, it is wonderful.” If we acknowledge that God is incomparably greater than
Then anything we can think or say about him, we will discover , that it is necessary to speak of him not directly, but in figures and parables. Our theology is therefore, to a considerable extent, however, symbols alone are not enough. If we want to express the transcendence and total otherness of God. To express such a great mystery, we must use negative statements just as much as positive ones. In this way, it becomes clear that God is something else, more than what we are able to say about him. Beyond the use of this way of negation, which is called the apophatic approach (theology), our talk about God will be entirely misleading. Whatever we say about God – however correct it may be – does not reach the power of living truth. If we say that he is good or just, we must add that his goodness and righteousness cannot be measured by our human by our human standards. If we say that he exists, we must add necessarily add that there is no such thing as an object of limitation to others. In this case, the word “exists” means something very special. This is the way of positive statements, as Cardinal Newmann puts it: “We are always capable and yet incapable of goodness a satisfactory result.” If we are to affirm anything about God,…we must go beyond that claim, even though we ourselves are not false. Words cannot fully express God’s transcendence. However, the spiritual path is shown to be a path of transformation in all a very radical sense. Metanoia , the Greek word for repentance, expresses a complete change of mind. When we approach God, we change our minds, we undress ourselves of all our habits and habitual ways of thinking. …and our habitual ways of thinking. We are not turning around by our will or by our intellect, we need to change our inner perspective completely.
We need to put the pyramid at the top! The thick darkness we are entering with Moses is being illuminated with light. The apophatic journey and the “not knowing” of our leads not to emptiness but to fullness. Our negation is in the of reality as super-claims. The apophatic approach, destructive in its outward form, is positive in its resulting effect: it helps us, in addition to all negative and positive
statements, beyond language and thought, to relate to the immediate experience of the living God. This in itself really includes the word “mystery”. In the most proper in its most basic sense, it includes the “mystery” of concealment and revelation.
The Greek noun “mysterion” comes from the verbs and “myein”, whose meaning is to close the eyes or the mouth. Candidates initiated into certain pagan minds were first blindfolded and led through a maze. When their eyes were suddenly uncovered, they saw that everywhere around them were the mysterious signs of the cult. This is what they see in Christianity. In the Christian context, by mystery we do not mean that which is impossible and mysterious, enigmatic or unsolvable – a mystery is that which is revealed in order to be understood, even if we know that we will never fully understand. This mystery points to the darkness of God. The eyes are open, but at the same time but closed. If we then speak of God as a mystery, we know
…we know that He is hidden from us, but at the same time He wants to reveal Himself to us. He wants to reveal Himself to us as a person and as love.

«There was a certain rich man. He dressed in purple and scarlet and feasted sumptuously day after day. A kind of beggar, named Lazar, was lying at his gate, full of sores. When the beggar died, the angels carried him into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And he cried: “Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, let him at least dip the tip of his finger in water and moisten my tongue, because I am suffering terribly in this flame!” But Abraham said: “Son, remember that you have received everything good during his life and Lazar only bad. Now here he is happy, and you are worried” (Lk 16,19-20a.22.24-25).

Today I want to join you in the parable of the rich man and the poor Lazarus. The lives of these two people seem to flow on parallel tracks: their living conditions are opposite and do not correspond in the least. The door of the rich man’s house is always closed to the poor man who is outside, trying to eat at least the scraps from the rich man’s table. The latter was clothed in sumptuous clothing, while Lazarus was covered with sores; the rich man feasts lavishly every day, while Lazarus dies of hunger. Only dogs take care of him and come to lick his wounds. This scene recalls the harsh admonition of the Son of man at the last judgment: «For I was hungry, and you did not give me anything to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink; (…) I was naked, and you did not divide me; I was sick and in prison, and you did not visit me” (Mt 25, 42-43).

Jesus says that one day the man died. The poor and the rich die, they have the same fate. We all share it, don’t we? There are no exceptions. And so the man turns to Abraham, begging him with the address “father” (v. 24.27). He invokes himself as his son, belonging to God’s people. Nevertheless, during his life he showed no regard for God, on the contrary, closed in his world of luxury and revelry, he made himself the center of everything. Excluding Lazarus, he did not consider either the Lord or his law at all. To ignore the poor is to despise God! And this we must learn well: to ignore the poor is to despise God. There is, however, one peculiarity in the parable which must be noticed. The rich man has no name, only an adjective: “rich”; while the poor man’s name is repeated five times, and “Lazarus” means “God helps.” Lazarus resting at the door is a living call to the rich man to remember God, but the rich man does not accept this call. So he will be condemned not because of his riches, but because he was unable to sympathize with Lazarus and help him.

In the second part of the parable, we find Lazarus and the rich man after their death (vs. 22-31). There, on the other side of life, the situation was reversed: poor Lazarus was carried by angels to heaven to Abraham, while the rich man, on the other hand, is thrown into torment. Then the rich man «raised his eyes and saw from afar Abraham and Lazarus in his bosom». He seems to see Lazarus for the first time, but his words betray him: «Father Abraham», he says, «have mercy on me and send Lazarus» – so he knows him, right? – «send Lazarus to dip at least the tip of his finger in the water and moisten my tongue, because I am suffering terribly in this flame!» Now the rich man recognizes Lazarus and asks him for help, while during his life he pretended not to see him. How many times, how many times, many people pretend not to see the poor! The poor don’t exist for them… He used to deny him even the scraps from his table, and now he would like,

He still believes that he can claim rights for his previous social status. Proclaiming that it is impossible to comply with his request, Abraham personally offers the key to the whole story: he explains that the good and the bad have been redistributed in such a way as to compensate for earthly injustice, and the door that separated the rich from the poor in life has turned into a «great chasm». As long as Lazarus was at his house, it was an opportunity for salvation for the rich man: he could open the door, help Lazarus… but now that both are dead, the situation has become irreversible. There is no direct appeal to God, but the parable clearly calls for vigilance: God’s mercy towards us is linked with our mercy towards our neighbor; if this is missing, it does not find space in our closed heart, it cannot enter. Unless I open the door of my heart to the poor, that door will remain closed. Even for God. And this is horrible.

Now the rich man thinks of his brothers, who are in danger of ending up like him, and begs that Lazarus may return to the world to warn them. But Abraham answers: “They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them”. In order to convert, we do not need to expect miraculous events, but we must open our hearts to God’s word, which calls us to love God and our neighbor. God’s word can bring a hardened heart to life and heal it from its blindness. The rich man knew God’s word, but he did not let it enter his heart, he did not listen to it, therefore he was unable to open his eyes and have compassion for the poor.

No messenger and no message can replace the poor we meet on the road, because in them Jesus himself meets us: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers, you did for me” (Mt 25:40), says Jesus. Thus, in the reversal of fortunes that the parable describes, the secret of our salvation is hidden, in which Christ combines poverty with mercy. Listening to this gospel, all of us, together with the poor of the earth, can sing with Mary: «He has dethroned the powerful and exalted the lowly. He fed the hungry with good things and let the rich go empty-handed” (Luke 1:52-53

In this lecture, we will try to answer theoretically and at least partially
the question of the cause of human suffering; in the conclusion we shall find that the answer is not so simple as it appears to us after the first two paragraphs. This question is sufficiently well known, and it is the usual beginning of the discussion between atheists and Christians. It reads as follows: If there is a God , how come, that there is so much suffering in the world? The dialogue goes like this: Is God good? The atheist asks. Surely yes, replies the Catholic. Does God love man? Of course. Is God omnipotent? Certainly. Then why doesn’t he do something about the wars!!!
The atheist triumphs. The main point is obvious: If God is omnipotent
and merciful, why does he let innocent people suffer? Why are there gulags in Siberia, Terezin, Dacha u or Auschwitz? If God is omnipotent and merciful, why did He allow rape in Croatia, war in Kosovo, genocide in Chechnya, killing in Rwanda, hatred in Ireland, the attacks in Palestine and the slaughter in Somalia? God is in the position of a father, before whose eyes his own child is being abused and tortured, can he prevent it, and he will do nothing at all. Yet he claims to love his child. The conclusion is clear: either God is merciful but not omnipotent, or he is almighty but not merciful, or he does not exist at all.
So we come to the problem of suffering. We partly know the answer to this question, and partly we do not. Relatively easier to more easily explained by pointing to the freedom of man: God loves and desires to be loved. Man is created for love. He is loved by love, and he loves and the capacity to love. For love to be possible, there must be freedom. Freedom and love are two sides of the same coin; if I do not have freedom, I cannot love. In this sense I cannot love, for example, an animal. Love is a very voluntary thing, and you cannot force someone into it. If I as a human being (or an angel) have the freedom to love, I must necessarily also have the freedom to not love, to deny love. If I could not to choose between loving and not loving, it would not be possible to speak of love. It is a kind of cosmic law. So I can decide either to love, or to hate, or to be indifferent to . God gives us freedom ; and what he gives, he never takes back. If I choose evil, God respects my decision. Because man has freedom (and reason), he has, of course, responsibility. Gulags Someone had to invent them, someone had to build the camps, and someone had to someone had to kill them. It was men, not God. Wars are the responsibility of the people who invented and implemented them. Because these architects of wars are free, they are responsible for what they caused. The only reproach we can address to God is why God created man so ineptly.

Thus, we can explain the suffering caused by humans by pointing to the man’s freedom and the responsibility that results. What we cannot explain, however, is suffering not caused by man. Earthquakes in Turkey and India, volcanic eruptions and lava and mudslides in Central America, floods in Bangladesh and hurricanes in Cuba, cancer, AID Sand polio : who is responsible?
The ancient Israelites, in the early days of their history, saw things much more simply: whoever is godly and righteous, the Lord blesses. Yes , numerous family and wealth are a sure sign of God’s blessing. On the contrary, sickness, barrenness and poverty are seen as signs of God’s adversity, as punishment for sins. Yet in the New Testament, Christ’s disciples ask in the story of the blind man: “Rabbi, who sinned – he or his parents – that he was born blind? ” and Jesus has to laboriously explain that this is how it is not , that sickness is not a punishment for a person’s sins. Even the Israelites themselves in the course of their history begin to realize that the original theory has serious cracks: there are so many wicked and rich around us and so many godly and poor. The Psalms therefore often say: O God, where is your righteousness? How is it that the godly are doing badly and, conversely, the wicked do well?
The problem of the meaning of human suffering is the subject of an entire Old Testament Book of Job. Since there are a number of very good commentaries on this book, we will try to reflect only on the main idea and leave aside the bulk of the book, which is the dialogue of Job and with his friends. J o b is a righteous and godly man, and therefore it is no wonder that the Lord blesses him. J o b has seven sons, a prosperous farm, and numerous flocks. But the devil comes to the Lord, and the Lord boasts before him Job’s piety. The devil replies, “Is Job free to fear God? And hast thou not thyself made a hedge as it were about him, about his house, and about all his goods? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his flocks have flooded the wide land. But stretch forth thine hand, and smite all his goods, lest he curse thee to thy face. Then the Lord arranges with the devil that they will make a trial. The devil may do anything, but he must not touch Job’s health. And so come the familiar rumors of Job; one by one messengers come to Job with bad news: the enemies have driven away the flocks and have slain.
The house where Job’s children were feasting has collapsed, and they are all dead, other enemies have driven away other flocks, and so on. In a matter of minutes, the wealthy shepherd becomes a poor man without a family. Job, however, does not sin against God in any way and says: The Lord has given, The Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord! The devil therefore agrees with the Lord that he will now reach out for Job’s health, and he receives permission from God that he can do anything, but he must spare Job’s life. And so he does. Satan moves away from before the Lord’s face and strikes Job with a cruel boil from the heel of his feet to the crown of his head. So Job took a shard to give him something to scrape off, and he retreated to a garbage dump. The whole book then continues with a visit from Job’s friends, who try to somehow justify to him his suffering.

Please note that Job has not actually done anything wrong, it is only the reader sees behind the scenes to heaven and earth and hears from above the Lord’s dialogue with the devil and from below Job’s conversation with his friends. Job doesn’t know what’s going on in heaven has happened, he sees only his misfortune, and throughout the entire book – over forty for  chapters – he only cries out to God : “Why? ” – and his question remains unanswered.
J o b finally comes out of the ordeal successfully. It turns out that his piety was conditioned neither by wealth, nor by health, nor by joy of the family. In the conclusion of the book of Pc7″ he blessed the end of Job’s life more than his beginning, so that he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of horned farm animals, and a thousand donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters,  and after that Job lived another hundred and forty years and saw his children and his children’s children to the fourth generation. And Job died, old and full (of his) days. Yes , Job died old and full of his days, but his suffering remained unexplained. On Job’s o ‘why? ” God and even the book does not answer. Nor do we hear the answer in the New Testament, for even Christ himself did not take away the suffering of man. It is true that where Jesus comes, there he heals, cures, revives, gives sight to the blind and speech to the dumb. But not permanently. All whom Christ heals will eventually die, as other people die. Neither Lazarus of Bethany nor the young man of Naima are not excluded from the lot of other men. Jesus did not even explain the suffering. The problem of human suffering remains unanswered to this day and has resisted the consideration of theologians throughout the ages. Can I therefore make this chapter conclude with Blaise Pascal, who says that Jesus did not eliminate or explain suffering, but carried it with us.

You know people around you who often grumble about their lives. You know about their troubles that weigh them down… And actually we don’t even have to go far, because each of us has our own cross. Crosses are different, just like people’s attitudes towards their sufferings. We often hear from our non-believing brothers: “How can you believe today, at a time of such progress?” And some will even say: “If God shows me a miracle, I will believe too.”

Today we heard words that invite a slightly different way of thinking when Jesus says that the crowd will not be heard. “He (representation) asks for a sign, but he does not receive a sign other than the sign of Jonah” (Lk 11:29). God offers a miracle, a sign to the one who believes in him. God‘s word as it is offered to us by St. Luke presents us with Jesus, who is on his way to Jerusalem. This journey takes him a very long time, it stretches almost through the entire Gospel. Not because Jesus did not know how to find the way, but because of his love for people, especially when he saw all the misery of people. One of the events that happened during the journey is a dispute that arose between the listeners and the Teacher himself. When the crowd began to gather, Jesus declared the generation evil. Why? Because he is asking for a sign. What kind of sign it was, follows from the event before, but also from the character of the whole Gospel. The crowds wanted to see a miracle as proof of Jesus’ Divinity. However, Jesus gives an answer that does not lose its authenticity even today. He offers them a sign through the figure of the prophet Jonah. This “man of penance” was cast into the underworld through a great fish. But God kept him there for three days. And he delivered him again. Christ suffered for us on the cross, died, was buried in the grave. But God resurrected him after three days to live and overcome death.

Doesn’t the message of faith from God Himself sound to us today? “Believe and you will see miracles”, not: “here is a miracle and believe” . Let’s look at Jesus’ contemporaries. Were all those who saw signs and wonders converted? Has God won all his listeners? Not.

In the world today, there is an opinion that evil is winning in the world. Let’s look at those parts of the world where Christians are persecuted by Muslims. Inhuman treatment, abuse and cruel humiliation, even killing. What miracle do these Christians see that they continue to be Christians? They believe that Jesus is the one who has the last word in the world . Their hope is the cross, this sign of hope even in such a sea of ​​pain. We do not have to face such a threat. Well, let’s notice the example of trust, which in itself – if it is sincere, is a miracle. Whoever wants to experience miracles in his life, should not be afraid to open to Christ. He takes nothing away, but perfects everything in us.

Let us pray: Almighty God, we thank you for creating us. Teach us to trust you. In the time of trials, especially help us to believe and thus receive a sign. After all, you have already given us the greatest sign: yourself for us

We have certainly experienced many moments in our lives when we don’t want anything, and we don’t succeed in anything! Then we take everything, even with prayer, as a burden, something we “have to” and not what we want! Jesus said to the apostles: “You will pray like this:” (Mt 61,9).

He speaks to prayer! And not just any prayer, but about the prayer of Jesus. If we read carefully not only today’s Gospel, but all four Gospels where the life of Jesus is described, we see Jesus in them praying often. He prays with them, in front of them. He prays not because he wants to teach them how to pray, not because he wants to give them a “good example.” It is a spontaneous, ever-present expression of his union with the Father because it is his own.

And this inner devotion, and warmth shine through his entire external actions, attitude, and style, and he is always an example. It is the same when praying alone, with disciples, or among crowds. But his prayer excites the disciples. After all, they were men of prayer, but they did not yet know how to pray and beg and did not hear. That’s why they beg him: “Lord, teach us to pray as you do!” Jesus says: “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”(Matthew 6:8). He teaches them the “Our Father” prayer, which consists of one address and six petitions. The first expresses our interest in God’s kingdom, which will be among us if we do God’s will. The others express our desire for bread, forgiveness, and protection from sin, that is the desire for what we require daily to be able to fulfill God’s wishes and thereby bring God’s kingdom closer.

This text is shorter in Luke than in Matthew, but it does not change the fact that even though we have it in two variations, God is here for us as a Father, a representative of justice and love, gratitude and mercy. With this prayer of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus indicated that the requests we present to God should be humble like the requests of subjects when they stand before the king, trusting like the requests of children when they stand before their father, and benevolent like the requests of those who have decided to help as many of them as possible, and they should also be persistent.

How is my prayer? Do I pray at all? And when I pray, what do I experience? Isn’t there a kind of superficiality or mendacity? Of course, we all know how to “recite” this prayer by heart from a young age, but how many times have we tried to address our Father with it in sincerity, humility, trust, and the silence of our hearts? Let us never forget and remember that if we say the words of the prayer to our Father, we open the way to his heart! Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us pray with joy in our hearts, religiously, sincerely, persistently, and with the most significant trust and then so that we can look forward to meetings with Him! Let’s start today!

How far am I from God? How do I live my faith? Am I a Christian only in church? At the end of time, Jesus will separate, “He will put the sheep on the right and the goats on the left!”

The Indian philosopher Rabindranath Tagore brought back not-very pleasant impressions from his travels in Europe. He claims that in Europe he encountered Christianity on Sundays and holidays and paganism on other days of the week. He did not see the connection between religion and life in Europe. In many ways, the Church is perceived more or less as something decorative, an ornament for life. He, therefore, acquired the conviction that faith becomes only a memory of the past, of the cult of ancestors, it is not actively accepted today, it is not approached in time, and what is said about it is not drawn from it. He did not have the feeling, from meetings with Christians, that faith is something that enriches. All this is because even though people say they are religious, they don’t live according to it. They also believe in God and serve mammon.

The experience of this philosopher is a challenge for us to make a transformation in our spiritual life during Lent. Lent is a time to reanalyze your life as a Christian and give yourself an answer to questions of such content: How far am I from God? How do I live my faith? Am I a Christian only in church? A sincere return, an inner transformation during these Lenten days of renewal, may it lead us to the mountain of Transfiguration to experience our inner transformation. We get to know the experience of prayer, reception of the sacrament, and other values ​​offered by the Church when we find enough time for them. The inner experience of faith cannot be gained by running, hurrying, calculating a limited time, calculating… The event from the mountain reminds us that neither the natural nor the supernatural plane should be underestimated when experiencing a transformation. The experience of transformation must presuppose two worlds: human and divine.

The world needs a different experience than the conclusion of the last decade of the twentieth century. Between 1990 and 2000, wars killed up to 2 million children, 27 million ad, and cults and 35 million people had to flee their homes. The study further states that in the 1990s, they registered 56 wars (armed conflicts with more than 1,000 casualties) in 44 countries.

Who is on one side, and who is on the other side? Who is the sheep, and who is the goat? Wars are not just about killing with guns. Who is he murdering spiritually? Where do we want to go after the trial? We decide for ourselves today. Isn’t Lent my war with me? We certainly remember such facts that should cause pain. God in human flesh, Jesus Christ, came for a different life and different experiences. It is time to contribute to other experiences in our lives during Lent. 

It can be said about Lent that we experience it more and most in the spirit of faith. From the sprinkling of ashes to Easter ceremonies, even those who practice less faith are more receptive, at least to some practices of faith. More attention is paid to the Church in mass media, and interviews, but also the idea of ​​self-denial or sin. Those who feel more Christian will find time for the Stations of the Cross, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, whether they will engage in acts of penance, Fridays without meat, denying themselves something, renouncing something permitted and plea, sent, and thinking more about their salvation. They are certain experiences.

Jesus, when he says: “The healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick… I did not come…” (Lk 5:32), speaks to us when we feel our illness – sin. Faith is also grounded in experiences. Believing also means to meet God and making ourselves available to him. Therefore, meeting God has the power that a person can change. During Lent, especially believers, we feel and realize the need to change our lives, to leave the path of sin, and to make amends. Therefore, the event of the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus on the mountain, in fasting is a significant help, an inspiration, to give God what belongs to God. The transfiguration of the Lord is a call to return to God. We get the opportunity to prove that we want to live in eternity with God.

Ernest Psichari, the grandson of the famous Renan, as commander of the French Foreign Legion, survived the desert storm. Shaken within by this experience, when the storm ceased, he fell on his knees, surrounded by his soldiers, and cried out with a loud voice: “Lord, there is a God!” I believe in His existence.” Then he traveled to Paris and was baptized in the church of the Dominican fathers. Jakub Maritain was his godfather. The storm in the desert was an experience for him, a manifestation of God’s love, which touched the depths of his inner life and caused a change in his life. Not only the return but other things subsequently that speak of his true living Christianity. He was healed of the diseases of sin. He became, as he says, happy.

Lent also invites us to think about ourselves. To allow God to touch our insides with a certain experience. It is also necessary and important for us to have our eyes, ears, and hearts open, to be receptive, and  sensitive to inspirations, meetings, things, and events. Hopefully have time for a serious study about God, man, missi, on and purpose or meaning of life. To extinguish the desire for happiness that burns his heart, he must direct his steps to Christ. Jesus is always nearby. Our life is a constant encounter with Jesus. That is why it is significant to realize the significance of the event of the transformation on the mountain.

Lent is a time to reanalyze your life as a Christian and give yourself an answer to questions of such content:
How far am I from God?
How do I live my faith?
Am I a Christian only in church?

A sincere return, an inner transformation during these Lenten days of renewal, may it lead us to the mountain of Transfiguration to experience our inner transformation.