predication.net

On the main altar in an Italian modern church, I saw Christ with his chest open. The artist depicted him in motion, as if Christ were descending from the altar. The Lord Jesus really came among us. Christ made such a visit in early AD. He came to visit this earth and also brought us a gift: Heavenly Father loves every person. The Lord Jesus came for this gift not only to die, but He came to show us that it is possible to love God even in these human conditions

It resembles fire. He feels full of love for his Heavenly Father. He is a living torch in relation to the Father. Therefore, he can say with pride: “I have come to cast fire on the ground; And what do I want? Just to make it flare up!” (Lk 12:49). He wants to cast the fire of love on the ground. Why? That the earth may burn with love for God, for heaven since the creation of the earth has a fire of love for mankind.

The Lord Jesus cannot deal with all mankind in any other way than through His individuals. So he also turns to me to accept the “fire of relationship” with God. When I accept this relationship, it is no longer possible for me to be a satisfied person who sits in his place. On the contrary, when I accept Christ into my life, holy peace begins to reign in my life. After all, can a boy who is at war and has his girl at home be completely satisfied? Can a child who does not feel the arms of mom be satisfied? And how can a believing person be satisfied when he has his Father in heaven?

Thus, if I accept Christ into my life, my restlessness, my indifference, will cease. I will stop feeling at home on this earth. When I receive Christ, my life will be a constant courtship of God, a constant diet of my own life in love for God. In that holy turmoil, the Holy Ghost is present, who wants to pour into one thing: me and God. St. Augustine says, “My soul is dissatisfied until it rests in you, O God.” In these words, we can feel in Augustine the fire of Christ after union in God.

The Lord Jesus wants this fire to be kindled within us. We know that if we do not put a log on the fire all the time, then it can happen that the fire will go out. If we do not put our feet on the fire of love for God, it will also extinguish. If we do not receive Christ into our lives through our sincere prayer, through glorifying God in the liturgy of the Mass, into our remorse through the sacrament of repentance, through the Sacrament of the Altar, the fire of love will not grow. I will be a person who has suffocated love in him.

The most terrible thing for a person is when he loves dies. This is when life becomes meaningless and is a burden. The Lord Jesus says, “Father against son and son against father, mother against daughter, and daughter against mother shall part…” (Lk 12:53). That is, if I am fed up with love for my God and I see that my daughter does not stand, for God, then I am divided by this fact with my own child. Christ separates a man from a woman. For if my husband, who is a witness of my love and a helper of my life, and is not permeated with a relationship with God, I will feel this division in pain. When my love for God is threatened, that’s when I become a person who guards and watches over it. If I am not sorry that someone is “christening, godly” next to me, swearing, insulting my love, and I listen to him happily, that is, there is a rather weak fire in my life, or he is just squinting.

If I scolded your mom for being so-and-so, as you would look at it as a good son and daughter, What would you tell me if I scolded your wife you love? Therefore, if someone threatens me with what burns in me, which is to me the great joy of love for God, I should separate myself in this a man, and disagree with him, because in me Christ is offended, whom I have received in my life as love. I love God and God in my life, it is something most holy and powerful. Nothing can happen to us in life worse than when love for God is extinguished in us.

The king says to the son:
– The human abyss is then the greatest and most terrible, when in a person dies what can lead him to another.
And he took his son to one of the spaces, where one leper lives in a hut.
– Look, he lives here. His wounds flow, fester, the body falls off. On the face it can be seen that this is a person who is no longer interested in anything. You can see it in his yawning. He is struck in the deepest. The love died with him… People come to him, but only to look at him. A person can never be enriched when someone admires him. They also come to throw his food and drink. He needs these people, but the most terrible thing for him is that no one needs him. Not a single girl requires it. She will not shake his hand to walk together in life with him. No man requires it because he does not sit down with him, fearing contagion, and not a single child because he cannot caress them. They condemned him to be in this area, they feed him, they regret it. But that love dies on him because no one requires it; this is more terrible than leprosy.

Such leprosy of our spiritual life can also affect us. It is sad that we do not accept Christ, that love dies in my prayers. But it becomes tragic when God does not accept me. I will become a leper, a crippled, because Christ will not stand for me, not just for a day or a year, but for all eternity! God will not give me a life of joy and happiness because I wanted to cripple myself, impoverish myself by not receiving the living fire that Christ brought, namely the Holy Ghost. Who among us would take a rotten apple to start eating it? We will throw it away, because it is not worth it. Who among us would have thought that God would stand for him if he did not accept into his life the living fire that Jesus Christ brought?God couldn’t do more for us. He sent His Son to our earth, he had to suffer, and as He himself says, “But by baptism I am to be baptized, and how narrow it is to me until it happens!” (Lk 12:50). Anguish gripped Jesus over how to bring the living God into the family.

He will bring me when I accept the fire of a relationship with God, even at the cost of being separated from others. Actually, this is quite normal. Where there is fire, there is no darkness. And where there is darkness, there is no fire, there is no light. If I receive the Holy Ghost sent by Jesus, there will be light in the presence of God in my life. On the contrary, if I do not accept the gift of Christ into my life, there will be no presence of God in it—the light of both love. Let us not be surprised that some do not stand, for God because they have suffocated the gift of Christ. Let us not be surprised, but let us cultivate friendship with God as the great light of the relationship between my life and His life. Otherwise, I am a cripple. Let us nail a banner to our minds: I must not cripple myself for eternity! 

We live in a time of redevelopment. Confessions about everything possible are the order of the day today. It belongs to the so-called good tone of confessing to concord, peace, equality of all people, ensuring material well-being, or enabling education for all. Many modern adherents do not even realize how comically they act with similar and constantly recurring phrases expressed in different places. After all, these phrases do not bind anyone. Others, in turn, are adherents of movie or sports stars, and sometimes they do it entirely primitively.

Only two things do a person make his confession quite soberly, almost restrained. This is when he has to confess to a particular party or political direction – in this, they already have their experience. Who knows how things will turn out in the future? And the second time when it comes to confession to religion. Religion is fundamentally a private matter. After all, we live in a pluralistic society whose supreme law is not to harm others, not to approach anyone, and not to get on anyone’s nerves with their convictions, especially religious ones.

We read something completely different in today’s gospel. Here, public confession to Christ is an absolute prerequisite for eternal life. It stands on the same level as the requirement of love of neighbor and mercy. “I say to you, ‘Whosoever confesses me before men, even the Son of Man shall confess before the angels of God. But whoever denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God'” (Lk 12:8-9). What a sharpness!

Christ is equally sympathetic and committed to the care of religion in secret. The one who sees in faith above all a matter of the heart. The one who did not want to know anything about the distortion of religion in front of the public tried to expel it into the heart’s chamber. When you pray, go to your room. The one was sharp with the Pharisees because they exhibited their prayers, fasts, almsgiving, and religion. Let people not see that you are fasting! And suddenly, that opposite, a strict command to manifest your faith in front of people. Not to show your dedication and not to confess to it – it is supposed to mean exclusion from society from God. Religion has two sides, which are more internal and private – a decision to believe in God, devotion to God, and a conversation with God. All this does not tolerate publicity because it is supposed to take place in the depths of the soul.

On the other hand, religion has a public character. For God is the Lord of the whole world! He is everything in everything. Therefore, an attitude towards God, and therefore religion, is a public matter. It cannot simply be enclosed in a chamber, church, or sacristy. He has the right to his place in public life, to be recognized and represented. Christ was not ashamed to give his life publicly to the people on the cross. Therefore, one who has received the grace of faith in Christ cannot consider it a private matter and close himself off. Christ must mean more to us than what people think and say. In other words, we often get into situations where we must express our opinions and stand by our Christian convictions. The Lord encourages us to do this by saying, “What can people do to you?” What can you lose? Perhaps only sexual life. But God can give you eternal life.

That’s all nice. But something inside us resists showing our religious beliefs outwardly. In that regard, we all suffer from a particular spiritual shyness and often say: What about whom, what m I, and what do I believe in? Why should I hang on someone’s nose that I go to church, and what prayer book do I use? What would be the point of me breaking up with someone precisely because of religion? It makes no sense! The latter will not understand it anyway, or they will not want to understand it. And how about cheering yourself up in public?

When, in 1936, Jesse Owen – the “black locomotive” blessed himself in front of his run at the Olympic Games in Berlin, the reporter announced it with a microphone, and all the newspapers wrote a fantastic amount about me. Still, when Franco Menichelii blessed himself at the Tokyo Olympics, no one noticed anymore. A private matter.

Are there no voices in the Catholic camp that speak with restraint about the public confession of the procession of the Body of God? After all, Christ spoke words about pearls that are not to be thrown before pigs. Or we are taken aback by the confession of one “Christian” who should prefer to hold his tongue behind his teeth because his private life does not coincide with his admission. Perhaps Christ’s words about confession before men mean something else. Today, it is not required to confess to him out loud before monarchs and viceroys as years ago. It is required neither by the expression of protest nor by dialogue in the form of a debate. But it is needed for the testimony of lived Christianity. The world does not want to hear from Christians only great pathetic words, much less similar gestures, but a life quite different from the one that leads the world.

Christianity must get completely into our blood and be reflected in our way of expressing ourselves, speaking out, and our views and opinion of people and things. It is to be manifested in our modesty and willingness to help. Such a confession of faith and confession to Christ convinces. The world longs for such a confession, even if it does not want to admit it! Just as many chases after all sorts of idols and do not hide them at all, so we must not hide and conceal the direction in which our desire is going.

These days, autumn work is at its peak. A good gardener is careful not to spoil the harvest he has grown. We see that he inspects the fruit so that one rotten apple is not the cause and that he will infect the entire box in a few weeks. We can observe something similar in today’s gospel.

The Lord Jesus, as a caring farmer, after harsh words of warning and warning to the Pharisees and scribes, instructs His disciples how to behave in the world. In particular, it warns them of the contagion that has already led many to falls and misfortune and is hypocrisy, which he likens to leaven.

The term yeast was meant in the days of the Lord Jesus’ ministry of everything that could infect another thing. For example, an infected apple could also be a passion, a disordered inclination that, when it got out of control, when something was neglected, threatened to destroy a beautiful work, or cause significant damage.

When the Lord Jesus tells them to protect the leaven of the Pharisees, that is, hypocrisy, it is clear that the Lord Jesus disagreed with their actions and would have wished his apostles to avoid it. Although the behavior of the Pharisees was outwardly attractive, despite praying and fasting, they were respected and callteacherscher,” but in, side the Lord Jesus saw their shallowness, inconsistency, superficiality. – they thought. Differently, they acted. They pretended to be godliness and made themselves better than they were.
Even the apostles could have succumbed to that danger, which is not what the Lord Jesus wanted. His teachings are the teachings of love. Can we imagine hypocritical love? After all, this is not to the benefit of it!

Love is associated with sincerity; therefore, what is inside lets it manifest itself externally. We can also say this. What is hidden cannot be hidden forever. Everything will come to the surface once. Pretense is just a matter of time before it manifests or breaks out intfantasticng damage. Therefore, it is better to be careful at the beginning. The gardener inspects the apple. A person should choose a friend slowly.

The Lord Jesus does not promise anyone paradise on earth. Thus, the journey to Jesus is not without difficulties. Yes, there will be fear and crisis, perhaps even persecution, oppression, … death. The Lord Jesus, as God, knows this. Therefore, he encourages us to fearlessness: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the flesh, and then they have nothing left to do!” (Lk 12:4). He says this very seriously. The body is not everything!
And he goes on to say, “I will show you whom to fear: Fear him who, when he kills, has the power to plunge into hell! Yes, I say to you: Fear it!” (Lk 12:5).
These words speak of the death of the soul. A Christian should be afraid to commit a knowingly and voluntarily grave sin!

In the history of the Church, we can find many lessons from the lives of Christians. Malice and violence reigned. Christians were forced to sacrifice to idols, roman emperors, so they preferred to die in the teeth of animals. How many, because of their beliefs, died even in this century during the revolution in Mexico in the 30s? What about Stalinist purges or Hitler’s death camps? Let’s remember the 50s and 60s with us!
However, the Lord Jesus gives a unique assurance of His will when He says, “But ye also have all the hair on your head counted” (Lk 12:7). If we are well aware of this, we know that nothing happens without God knowing. God, in the person of Christ, assures the faithful that He will reward even such a trifle for him as one hair that will be plucked for him.

Do you feel, brothers and sisters, how the Lord Jesus wants to strengthen us with these words? Without his will, not a single hair will be lost from our heads. Our mission is to proclaim the joyful message of the Gospel. That means no secrecy. Let us be zealous, albeit careful. Yes, we will encounter difficulties and resentment; it will seem to us that the thing is lost when we see the innocent die for Christ when the prisons are full of confessors of Christ, but let us realize that the Church has already survived all this.

After the death of one martyr, three new confessors arrived. The grain dies off and brings the cob. One thirty times the harvest, another even a hundredfold. And into how to echo the words of Christ sound: “And behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world” (Mt 28:19-20). Let us have courage!

It is lovely when we feel this way and are convinced that it is beautiful when we do something for Christ, even if it costs sacrifices. We know from history and present that young people, in particular, are courageous, fearless, persistent, and willing to make even the most difficult sacrifices.

We remember the French Jesuits Isaac Jogues, John de Brébeuf, and their companions. They became victims of savages among the Canadian Indians of the Huron tribe. They were killed out of hatred when they told them about love. They died, but their deaths were not in vain; after all, Canada today is a believer.

We can see that they were a good leaven. They overpowered the wrong yeast. It was not easy. They went through a hard school, but they were not afraid because they felt reinforcement in the words of Christ: “Fear not, you are more valuable than many sparrows!” (Lk 12:7).

Autumn, just peaking, can also alert us to the autumn of our lives. We know that it can be even at sixteen or thirty. Therefore, we must beware of evil leaven and be the excellent leaven that enriches and strengthens.

Like a gardener, let’s look not at the apple but at our words and thoughts and evaluate our acquaintances. Is everything ok? Are we not in danger of betrayal or hypocrisy?

The evangelist Luke presents a gospel in which he captures the event of Jesus calling and sending disciples to the whole world. Jesus aptly addresses His disciples about their new mission: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send the workers to his harvest” (Lk 10:2).

The words of Jesus are relevant enough for our day and the apostolic activity of Jesus’ followers. The sowing of God’s Word and the associated apostolic ministry is immense. After all, even today, there are places, countries, and nations all over the world where the proclamation of Jesus’ message is necessary. On the one hand, there are places where this message has not yet been received, where people do not know anything about God or have not heard of Him. Jesus, Himself wants restatements of faith to reach these people, thanks to the zealous and necessary work of the missionaries. There are places in the world where the gospel is sown, but more workers are needed to spread, preach, and cultivate it with enthusiasm.
However, we cannot forget those places where apostolic activity was abundant and prosperous in the past, where countries and nations had a rich Christian tradition. Still, because of Christian indifference and religious indifference, their lives of faith have disappeared, and they need new evangelization.

The world requires many good things, but without a doubt, it also needs enough zealous and determined workers in Christ’s vineyard. When there are holy enough, joyful, and tenacious ambassadors of Jesus, the seeds of the positive message of Christ can be well-sown, carefully cultivated, and so well-rooted in the hearts of all men. However, Jesus left us the answer on how to get new workers into his fields. He says, “Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send the workers to his harvest” (Lk 10:2).

Prayer is the most effective way to win over other apostles. Therefore, we can also join the apostolic ministry by praying constantly and confidentially for the new workers in the Lord’s field. Prayer should be at the beginning of every activity, and therefore it must also be the beginning of the apostolic activity.

At Mass, let us ask the Lord for enough zealous and holy priests to set an example of their authentic faith and sow the word. May the Lord call them and send them to all the world according to His need and will. 

We know from our own lives that the same thing can serve to benefit us, but it can also be detrimental to us. The crucial thing is whether we need it and whether we accept it. Medicine can harm, but it can also help. The remedy can also be a warning that is done sensitively and tactfully. The accusation can also bring harm if one does not receive it as it is due.

The Evangelist Luke describes Jesus’ admonition of the Pharisees, “But woe to you, Pharisees, for you tithe mint, rue, and every herb, but you pass over the righteousness and love of God! This ought to have been done, and that ought not to have been neglected” (Luke 11:42).

These were harsh words of the Lord Jesus to the pious and learned theologians, the experts of the Law. They are, however, accurate and justified words because they touch on prevarication. We know that this Jewish group considered themselves perfect, and they showed it through their conduct. They used to sit in the first seats in the synagogues; they liked to receive greetings in the street, and they gave themselves the address: teacher. Jesus addresses these words: “Woe to you, for you, are like unmarked graves, and people do not even know where they are walking” (Lk 11:44).

Godliness is not just tithing when they have something to tithe when it is out of their abundance and costs them nothing. Piety is a matter of love, which must come from within a person, from their convictions, and this must serve to glorify God and not to glorify the giver. Where there is love, there can be no talk of egotism, selfishness, or pride. Love does not offend but encourages. Pride does evil. Love knows no bounds. It is selfless, as Paul says in Corinthians, “Love is patient, love is kind; it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not arrogant, it is not shameless, it is not selfish, it does not fret, it does not think evil, it does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth” (1 Cor. 13:4-6). This confession of love by Paul has nothing to do and can have nothing to do with the behavior of the Pharisees. And in listening to it alone, we sense where the truth is, where the value lies… So love knows no bounds, but the behavior of the Pharisees does not indicate that.

The text of the Gospel is a lesson for us to put love on ourselves, even though it is sometimes difficult and requires effort and sacrifice, but it is also an enrichment. On the other hand, the pride and arrogance of the Pharisees are wearing us down. Let us strive that the Lord Jesus may not reproach us also. That is why we must break with pretension in our lives. We must not reduce Christianity to the level of external acts and ceremonies. Christianity is love because GOD IS LOVE. Christ, our teacher, clearly teaches us that we must not cultivate pretense in ourselves; we must not have different outward and inward behavior. When we feel that this applies to us, it is a sign to begin a sincere change in the attitudes of our lives. We realize that even if outwardly we speak and act however well, nicely, and deservedly, and it does not coincide with the love that springs from conviction, it would all be but as tinkling metal and a clanging bell. Therefore, the Apostle Paul further wrote: “And if I had the gift of prophecy, and knew all mysteries and all science, and if I had faith so strong that I could remove mountains, and had no charity, I should be nothing” (1 Cor. 13:1-13).

Let us not forbid, let us not command, but let us show by our lives the actual value of the teachings of the Lord Jesus. And when we receive a just accusation, a warning, let us do our best to set it right, to use it for our spiritual enrichment for the salvation of our immortal soul. The Lord Jesus emphasized this in words, “Woe to you scribes also! For ye burden men with burdens which cannot be borne, and ye yourselves touch not these burdens with one finger” (Lk. 11:46).

It is beautiful when love is manifested not only in words but in deeds. For the Lord Jesus said: “Not everyone who speaks to me: Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21).

Let us be careful that everything is for our benefit. We will guard the one and cultivate the other.

What do you say to such words: Only the worst people go to church! Is it true? Yes, we are imperfect; we have many faults. There are many faults on our shield, but we feel that perhaps others are no longer aware of, these are the very things I want to try to repent. It would be very wrong for us to clasp our hands in church, to go to Holy Communion, and yet to be able to slander everything and everyone, to judge, to take revenge, to not hold our tongues…

We must realize that those who try to live a more practical spiritual life and can find time for external devotions are looked upon more critically by those around them. They notice even the smallest-tiny imperfection and flaw in such a person.

But this must not discourage us from following Christ, even when considered the worst. They would rejoice if we set them right! But we are to remember that we must prove to them, though we may not convince them, that we are only better than those who fail to do their duty. Yes, the Mass is not all faith, but we know there are things to keep that speak volumes about our inner selves.

The Pharisees found fault with the Lord Jesus as well. What is it? Would you say that the Lord Jesus had no responsibilities after all? Judge. The Lord Jesus was invited to a certain Pharisee for lunch. He went and took his place at the table. And the Pharisee was astonished when he saw that the Lord Jesus had not washed His hands before eating. We know that the Pharisees considered the observance of ceremonial regulations, which included the washing of hands, to be the foundation of their righteousness. The Lord Jesus’ action, in this case, was deliberate. Not that, as a man, he was opposed to hygiene, but by his conduct as God, he wanted to show that he could see into the inner man. He looks at the cleanliness of the inside of a man. It is a sinless state.

We know that the Pharisees considered themselves elite and perfect people, inventing and keeping all kinds of laws and regulations, but inside they were pretty different. Therefore, in another place, they also received reproof from Christ: whitewashed graves, a generation of vipers, and a deadly stench. It was pride that often drove them to absurdity. The Lord Jesus, by His teaching, brings about the opposite of what the Pharisees prided themselves on. The teaching of the Lord Jesus is founded on love.

We realize that love makes a person genuinely pure. Therefore, we do not divide people according to whether they do clean or unclean work, but we look at the inner man and what motives he goes about his work and duties. It is not enough to clean the surface, so everything is in order on the outside and not inside. Even if we cannot see inside another, we know God is there as believers. What often happens is that what a person carefully hides within transforms and will one day manifest itself on the outside. Every affection and every virtue in time, at least in unguarded moments, can be sensed from our manifestations or read in a person’s face.

If we want to be perfect Christians, we must take care of our inward appearance and only then our outward appearance. Then, even if we are wronged, and our insides are clean, we will surely not miss our reward. God will be our judge. Therefore, let us go on without fear. In life, we may meet with people who have better outward manners, know the social rules more than the simple Christian, and yet have less respect from other people. Let us strive to purify our interior from all evil so that we may not be slaves to our sins and passions and that the love of Jesus may penetrate us. It is not enough to cover sin, mask it, or pretend. Sin must be removed, and we can only speak of purity and perfection.

Let us also pray for those who speak of people who try to be the worst, that the Lord, by the light of the Holy Spirit, may enlighten their minds so that they may know their error and embark on the true path of conversion, purification, and purity in their lives.

We often witness remarks like, “If there were a God, I would believe! No one has seen God, so prove to me that he exists! Show me a sign, and I’ll be the best believer in the world! …If there were a God, he wouldn’t have allowed it! Yes, many people would like us to introduce God to them as person X.Y., or to tell them through the appearance of a dead man that God exists, or to show us some sign in the sky…

This is what the Lord Jesus Himself experienced when He taught the crowds. Then He said to them: “This generation is an evil generation. It asks for a sign, but it will not receive a sign unless it receives the sign of Jonah” (Luke 11:29).

The Lord Jesus refers to the prophet Jonah, whom the Jews revered. After all, he was their prophet! God sent him to Nineveh to tell them they must repent, be converted, and forsake their wicked way of life if they want to be saved. Jonah was afraid. He was fearful of the inhabitants of this city. He was running away. While fleeing, he experiences a storm, during which the sailors learn from his mouth that the God of Jonah is punishing them for his disobedience. God will not punish Jonah, but He will give a lesson to his future fellow citizens. As Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days from the time he was cast out of the ship to his going ashore at the city of Nineveh, so the Lord Jesus speaks of the particular sign that will be given to this eager multitude for signs, that he to will one day be in the bowels of the earth for three days. He says: “For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so shall the Son of man be to this generation” (Luke 11:30). Three days does not mean three whole days. A day both unfinished and begun is enough to be counted as a whole. By this sign, the Lord Jesus says He will be buried on Friday and rise from the dead on Sunday at dawn. But there is something for us to notice as well.

In response to this preaching of Jonah, the people of Nineveh have forsaken the way of evil and have been converted. The sign that the Lord Jesus had spoken of beforehand is to convince us of His deity and power.
Let this event encourage us that we, too, should be converted. If there is no conversion, the Ninevites will be judges for us, as they were for Jesus’ contemporaries, for to them, it was proof that Jonah was acting at God’s command, and we had not accepted Christ. A faith resting on miracles alone would be a fragile faith. Yet we have been given many plausible proofs, which may be sufficient for any sincere-minded yet reasoning man.

Yes, there have been doubters and unbelievers, but we know that the Lord Jesus does not force His teachings on anyone. Similarly, the Church does not force anyone to be a member of it, as other ideologies do. On the other hand, we have ample evidence of the deep faith of artists, scientists, and athletes, i.e., personalities who not only believed and believed but who became an example and an impulse to have confidence in others.

We have been given a reason as a gift from the Creator. Therefore, let us reflect on why we live and our purpose. Even today, God shows signs, even though we often take them for granted, and yet they will help many to change their lives. The death of a loved one. For some, it is a cause for murmuring, blasphemy, and falling away from the faith. For another, it is a time for serious reflection and the beginning of a new life. A defeat, a failure in work and in the venture in which one puts most of one’s hopes and efforts – and suddenly, the end! How often, after the quieting of thoughts and the review of events, a change of life towards God follows. But even here, we must not expect something extraterrestrial, some phenomenon, or other.

There is no shame in realizing that I am the prodigal son who must return; that I am the lost sheep whom Jesus, in strange and to us, incomprehensible events and circumstances, wanders to or takes on his shoulders; that we are like the woman to whom Jesus speaks: “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and sin no more!” (Jn 8:11). And it may be that, like a repentant robber in the last moment of life, he says: “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Lk 23:43).

No, we do not, and it would not be suitable if we had such evidence of God’s existence that we could convince all men of his existence. But we have a reason, we are free men, and these are the givens that determine our salvation.

Biblical revelation states the central idea of creation in the first line: ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1). With these solemn words, the Holy Scriptures begin (cf. CCC, 279). In those first words of Scripture, it is asserted that God gave origin to everything that exists outside of him. He alone is the creator. Everything that exists (expressed by the formula “heaven and earth”) depends on Him, who gives it. The theme above of creation appears often and again in prophetic and sapiential literature (Prov, Sir, Ecc, Mud), in Paul’s letters, and in the Gospels. Finally, in the last book of the Bible, we find a hymn to the glory of the Creator: “Worthy art thou, O Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created things: by thy will, they were created, and are created” (Rev 4:11).

From the beginning, the Church has confessed that God created all things. The belief in the God who created all things, celebrated in this hymn, is already expressed in the first article of the Nicene Creed (DS, 125). At the same time, as the tradition of the Church developed, revelation became clearer. The first lines of this Creed: “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of the world visible and invisible…” are at once a prayer, praise, and a confession of one of the central beliefs of the Church. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed represents a heritage cherished by Christians of both East and West. Although not all Christian churches explicitly affirm this creed, belief in God as Creator is many Christians’ starting point of faith.

This truth of creation was formulated at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and the First Vatican Council (1869-1870). The revealed truth is that God created the whole world and that it was created “out of nothing.” According to the expression of the Teaching Office of the Church, based on the sayings of Sacred Scripture and Tradition, the words “heaven and earth” signify the sum and totality of all things existing apart from God, that is, all created things. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this expression means, “All that exists, the whole creation. It also points to the continuity which within creation both unites and distinguishes heaven and earth…” (CCC, 326).

The article of faith, then, is that out of nothing, God created all things without exception: small and great, spiritual and material, earthly and super-earthly. The article above is one of the most important truths, for it depends on the proper relation between the world and God and, thus, the correct conception of both the world and God. Sacred Scripture and Tradition continually teach and magnify this fundamental truth: The world was created for the glory of God (cf. CCC, 293). God did not make the world out of anything because he needed our praise to increase his credit, but out of pure goodness to give us the splendor of his eternal happiness. This is how the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it: “The glory of God consists in the fact that God manifests and bestows his goodness. For this reason, the world was created…” (CCC, 294).

The world is not the product of simple chance but the expression of freely giving wisdom and love. “How manifold are your works, O Lord! Thou hast wisely made all things. The earth is full of your creation” (Ps 104:24). In fact, we assume the content of the psalmist’s confession all the time. We believe that the world is governed by laws that we can examine. Our overall naturalistic picture of the world is built on this assumption. The order we can explore them, but no chance. This is a manifestation of ordering reason. Creation testifies to the wisdom of the Creator (cf. CCC, 295).

If someone were to come from Sirius or some other star and see our earth, so green, blooming, inhabited by billions of living beings, he would say, “Thank you, Lord, for letting me see all this!” Even without having come from a distant star – let us get used to one thing: to continually say to God, “Thank you” (A. Luciani: I believe). On the dome of the Vatican Observatory, which rises on the terrace of the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, one can read with emotion the inscription: Deum Crematorium, Venite Adoremus – Let us bow down to God the Creator. Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Germany’s greatest poet, said: “That something vast, personified, comes to meet us as God, the Creator and Sustainer, to whom we are to bow and whom we are to glorify.” “Seek God in all things,” advised St. Ignatius of Loyola as early as the 16th century. And whoever obeys his advice finds it easy to love the Creator.

It is no coincidence that the saints had an extraordinary relationship with creation. The most famous is St. Francis of Assisi. Only he who frees himself from himself truly begins to perproducteation (cf. CCC, 299). The Creator begins to speak to him in the language of his design, and the praise of the Creator rises in the heart. Constrained by pain and almost blind, he prays the Song of Brother Sun at San Damiano (cf. CCC, 344). Suffering and the cross so refined him that he saw the speech of God’s love in all creation. We, too, can rejoice with him and throughout our lives – as long as we live – praise him (cf. Z 104:33).