predication.net

We have begun the month of October, the month that the Holy Church has dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary. While throughout the year we pray to her and ask for her help and protection, this month, the Church invites us to take the rosary in our hands and honor her in this way: by praying the Holy Rosary. A beautiful entry into this month is the Feast of the Protection (the Lid) of the Most Holy Theotokos, which the Eastern Church celebrates on October 1. It is an ancient, beautiful, and very symbolic feast. It is also a remembrance of all the mediations and protection she has shown us, as the Mother of God, sinners, over these twenty centuries.

St. Bernard said these words about her protection: “Remember, O most beneficent Virgin, that from all eternity it has not been heard that thou hast forsaken anyone who has taken refuge under thy protection.”

A medieval legend tells of a pious monk who knelt every evening before the image of the Sorrowful Mother of God and meditated on her love for us sinners. In these thoughts, he was so absorbed in the sufferings of the Mother of the Lord that, in his enthusiasm, he stood up and wiped away the tears from her face, which had been painted there by a painter. However, he did not wipe the tears because they were only painted on and therefore remained further on the painting. Legend further tells us that when the monk died, he saw the Virgin Mary wiping the sweat from his brow and the tears from his bloodshot eyes. That is the legend, the pious tale. But there is a healthy kernel of truth in it. Whoever has faithfully honored the Mother of God during his lifetime will grant him a happy death and a blissful eternity. She will wipe away the tears from his fading eyes.

Whoever has been to Lourdes must be moved by the sight of the Eucharistic procession. It takes place every day before evening. The sick in wheelchairs and the pilgrims present wander in front of the Basilica, where the Bishop celebrates the Eucharistic devotion, after which he passes by the ill and blesses them. During the French National Pilgrimage in 1926, a thrilling story happened. A young man was sick, so before he was brought to the cave, the sacrament of the anointing of the sick was conferred on him. In a solemn procession, he was in front of the Basilica, where the Cardinal blessed the sick with the Eucharist. When he came to the young man, he groaned aloud:

▪ Jesus, Son of Mary, give me back my health! The Cardinal blessed him and went on. The young man, however, felt no relief. Then he shouted once more:

▪ Jesus, Son of Mary, you have not healed me. I will tell your mother! The young man’s confidence touched the Cardinal, so he returned and blessed him again. A miracle happened. The dying young man got to his feet as if struck by a mysterious force. To the excited shouts of the others present, he began to walk and cry out:

▪ Jesus, Son of Mary, you have healed me! I will tell your Mother! I will say to her to thank you for me!

Indeed, since the beginning of time, it has not been heard that anyone who has taken refuge in her and asked for help has left her… Let us take shelter under her protection. This month we have a new opportunity and a new chance to show that we are her faithful children and that we have not forgotten her. And let us trust that she will not fail us, either. And not only in this life but also after death – in eternity – that she will be an excellent Heavenly Mother to us because, as St. Alphonsus says, a true admirer of Our Lady will not perish.

Although this question has been controversial since the earliest times
of human civilization, it was in 1929 that the modern cause broke out.
Astrophysicist Erwin Hubble irrefutably proved that our universe is not stationary but dynamic. He found that all distant galaxies are away from each other, which means the universe is expanding. When the is increasing, it means that in the past it was smaller, and the current question of what minimum volume it’s growing from. To solve the most famous physicists of the time (Stephen. Hawking, Arthur Peacock, and others) and the result of their study was surprising: the universe must expand from a “singular point,” which, in layman’s terms, from “zero.” Science has thus (by scientific methods) arrived at
a knowledge which, since the beginning of humanity, has been proclaimed by all religions that the universe has a face, i.e., that it is not eternal. It is also an earnest insight for philosophy, so it is no wonder that the problem of the Big Bang, as the moment of birth of the universe, has been and still is given special attention. If we look at this issue more closely, it doesn’t hurt.

We know from history that the deeper we delve into it, the less accurate and confident we are of information about individual events and personalities. And this is information from a few millennia at most. The Big Bang is talked about, is said to have taken place about 15 billion years ago. Can we confidently claim that a particular extraordinary event took place billions of years ago? What do we have
to guarantee that it took place at all? And so, quite naturally and insistently, the issue arises: Was there not a Big Bang?
The idea of the Big Bang was born in the 1930s and was formulated by the Russian physicist George Gamow, who left the Soviet Union to live in the USA. He even predicted that there would be a direct witness to this glorious event in the universe, so-called relic radiation, but his idea was sparked earlier by a smile. At that time, only one other observation suggested the possibility of the Big Bang’s existence-Hubble’s universe expansion. The discovery of the presence of the Gamow-predicted relic radiation (1965) by the American astrophysicists Robert W. Wilson and Arne A. Penzias. When added to this was an excellent agreement of data on the composition of the oldest stars, with the prediction arising from the existence of the Big Bang, a situation arose in which only a negligible fraction of the world’s public does not believe that it happened.
So we now have three experimental proofs that the Big Bang did happen, and further evidence appears to be on the horizon. To reinforce our belief that our universe began in the existence of the Big Bang, we’ll review all three pieces of evidence for its existence. The first is Hubble’s discovery of the expansion of the universe. The personal circumstance that allowed Hubble to detect the universe’s development was simply the good fortune of having a telescope at his disposal to observe even the most distant galaxies. The objective factor that helped him make his world-famous discovery is known.  It is a physical phenomenon that anyone can try and whose nature is not difficult to understand. Perhaps the ordinary person is not even aware of it, but if it were brought to his attention, he would certainly notice that when the source of the sound approaches him, he hears a higher pitch than when the head is moving away from him. This observation also applies to light because it is a kind of wave. The case is interesting for astrophysics because the latter deals, among other things, with the reception of light (and different types of electromagnetic radiation) from astrophysical objects. An increase in wavelength means a shift of light to the red color; a decrease shifts it to the violet color of the spectrum. Therefore, the “red” or “violet” shift has been adopted in practice.

If Hubble focused the telescope on closer objects, by the expectation, it measured redshift or purple shift, depending on whether the thing was moving towards or away from it. When he focused only on the most distant galaxies, he measured only the red redshift, indicating that all the distant galaxies were moving away from the observed “reference point.” This receding is not insignificantly small, as it might seem at first glance. At present, the most distant galaxies are moving away from us (and from each other are moving away from each other at speeds comparable to the speed of light (i.e., about 300,000 km/s). In this context, laypeople often ask whether this speed, which according to Einstein’s theory of relativity the maximum possible, can also be exceeded. The answer is yes – in this case, it is mainly a matter of receding due to the expansion of space-time, not the motion of galaxies within it.

We know different kinds of instructions and guidelines. Instructions for the operation of a machine, equipment, etc. We know that when we keep these instructions and directions, we also benefit from them. Man in the spiritual realm also desires something similar. In the spiritual life, too, we have instructions from the Lord Jesus so that we can embrace eternal life after life is over – and these instructions were summarized by St. Luke the Evangelist in the previous Gospels. In today’s one, he touches on the difficulties of a person striving for spiritual life. They are the attacks of fallen angels-devils.

The Lord Jesus has also taken His stand for our instruction and encouragement. When the enemies of the Lord Jesus could not deny His miracles, in their hatred, they undertook to act dishonestly and, at the same time to teach incorrectly the doctrines the Lord Jesus had duly explained to them. Some Pharisees began to speak of Christ as being associated with Beelzebul-the prince of devils, and using him to cast out devils. This was an open attack against Christ, for many began to regard Him as the expected Messiah.

And Jesus again refutes this claim. He will point to the division of the kingdom-the empire, where civil war broke out. A division – one against the other- significantly damaged the kingdom. It’s nonsense; it’s only to their detriment. And this is what the enemies of Christ are to realize, that even the devil will not fight the devil, and they will not harm each other because both will perish. It is logical that just as in a nation, they need each other and not oppose each other, so it is nonsense for Beelzebub to become an ally of Christ against other devils.

The Lord Jesus has his power by himself. After all, He is God and Lord of the whole world! Even the devil knows this, for he too was created by God as a good angel, but he did not prove himself, and therefore he was cast out of the state of blessedness and cast into the shape of damnation. Here, after all, God cannot associate Himself with His creature, who rejected His love and whom, as God, He justly punished.

The Lord Jesus defeats his adversaries with their weapons: “If I cast out evil spirits by the power of Beelzebub, by what power do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges” (Matt. 12:27). The Pharisees, as the educated class of the nation, knew that there were men of their race in the country who were doing like Jesus, but with the difference that they were commanding evil spirits in the name of God, and Christ was commanding evil spirits in His name. Thus, on the one hand, if they acknowledge the actions of their brethren, they must realize that Christ is something more than anyone before Him.

Jesus does not stop with this explanation of His. He connects them with an example from the life of a more muscular man and points out that they should always strive to be ready and strong, for the devil has strength and power. He tells them that God has also left men with the mind to be vital to resist the devil’s attacks, lest they fall into indifference, for he who does not fight radically against evil will fall into the power of evil sin and be defeated. This is a severe lesson for us as well. Peter the apostle wrote: “Be sober and watch! Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

He who leaves the door ajar, who acts only half-heartedly against sin, will pay the price because he allows the bearer of the power of evil to enter again into his house, into his soul. And such a return is worse. The Lord Jesus expressed it by saying, “When he comes there, he will find it empty, swept clean and decorated. There he will go away, taking seven other spirits worse than himself, and they will enter in and take up their abode there” (Mt. 12:44-45). We can see this in a person who struggles weakly against sin. He may cleanse his soul and confess, but he is worse off when he does not fight radically. That is why someone must also sigh sadly: Through my fault, I am worse! I do not improve myself because I struggle a little. Falling back into sin dulls the conscience, one becomes more indifferent in his faith, his enthusiasm for God weakens, and it can go so far that he becomes an outright enemy of Christ.

If we genuinely want to live the life that one day is to be rewarded by Christ, we must not only sometimes but constantly strive to follow the instruction for a perfect life that the Lord Jesus gives us in the Gospels, which are controlled and taught by the Church. “He who obeys the Church obeys Christ” is an old but proven motto. We realize that the teachings of Christ lead us to a mindset and action that is right and prudent. We are not dreamers, but neither bigots nor unbelievers, but we are people who not only care about this life but also believe in eternal life.

We know the instructions. We know where to look for it, so with God’s help, let’s strive for it.

Gratitude pays (Luke 17:11-19)
Let us teach our children gratitude.

In the story, even children will understand the greatness of small things.
The story tells of an ant drowning in the water of a brook. A dove saw it. She took a blade of grass and, holding it in her beak, approached the ant. The ant scrambled on top of it and saved itself. After a while, the ant carried the grain. He saw a hunter about to shoot a dove. He quickly dropped the grain, scrambled up the hunter’s boot, and bit him on the leg. The hunter jumped in pain and missed, and the dove was saved.
Each can be helpful to the other, but we should be grateful to each other for the goodness, love, and help shown… How good it is to read in the parish announcements, or to hear in the reports, that the faithful remember to give thanks and give to the Mass to give thanks… Have you also thought of forgetting ingratitude and noticing gratitude more? Gratitude is said to be the best medicine, the most beautiful rose, the most potent weapon, and whatnot…

Jesus said to the Samaritan, the only one of the ten healed who came to thank Jesus: “Get up and walk; your faith has healed you” (Lk 17:19).

The Gospels tell us about the conduct of the Lord Jesus that wherever He went, He did good and did not enjoy human praise or glorification. He did it quietly, without the effects that human popularity should bring Him. After the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, when the multitude wanted to make him king, he withdrew himself into silence and solitude. Of almsgiving, he said: “When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may remain hidden. And your Father will reward you, for he sees even in secret” (Mt 6:3-4). Jesus teaches: whoever gives a gift, let him not act in such a way that he expects the other person to return it to him. Jesus does not want the principle of reciprocation to apply among us. He teaches us gratitude in the behavior of the Samaritan.

Several places in Scripture remind us of gratitude. The Apostle St. Paul reminds the Ephesians to guard against all sin, as befits the saints, and instead to give thanks (cf. Eph. 5:4). To the Colossians, he commands, “And be thankful” (Col. 3:15)! St. Paul, not only costs, but we can recognize him as a man of thanksgiving. He writes to the believers in Rome: “Greet Prisca and Aquila… They have set their necks for my life. To them not only am I indebted with thanksgiving” (Rom. 16:3-4).
One might ask: In what does gratitude consist? Indeed, it is not just a momentary emotional thing when someone has shown us service, help, love, or attention, a kind of goodness. It is an inner strength that manifests itself in outward signs. Gratitude is a manifestation of honor, of the inner man. It is the response of inner attitudes displayed by exterior signs.
Jesus points to this fact when he meets the ten lepers whom he heals. The healing occurred on the way, away from him, because he said to them: “Go, show yourselves to the priests” (Lk 17:14). He did not take them aside; he did not touch the sick places; he did not pray over them… Maybe that’s why some of them murmured, but they made their way to the priests because, according to the Law of Moses from the Book of Leviticus (cf. Lv 13:11), they knew that only the priest could declare someone clean, that is, healed, and they could return to their former way of life. Perhaps after hearing about Jesus being a miracle worker, they listened and went. The Evangelist St. Luke noted: “As they went, they were cleansed” (Luke 17:14). Why didn’t Jesus heal them right away? He wanted them to share in the healing, to believe in Him. They walked away from him, that is, they thought, but their subsequent behavior became a memento until the end. To God, our gratitude adds nothing to greatness, glory, power, etc. The Apostle St. Paul reminds us in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, “But thanks be to God, who always gives us the victory in Christ, and by our means reveals in every place the fragrance of his knowledge” (2 Cor. 2:14). We gain even more in union with Christ when we do his will. The Samaritan recognized that he was healed. He returns to Christ to give thanks for the body’s healing. Jesus’ words: “Arise and walk, your faith has made you well” (Lk 17:19), also speak of the recovery of the soul or the increase of faith.

And gratitude for the increased faith, the healing in faith, deserves our greater attention. Pay attention to your faith. To be grateful to God for the gift of faith.
Johnson Gnanabaraman, in his meditation on this incident of the healing of the ten lepers, reflects in this way. He asks the ten men why they did not return to Jesus and give thanks for their recovery. And these are the answers:
First: I am not ungrateful, but rather, I wanted to show my family and friends that I was well. Then I wanted to thank Jesus, but he had left in the meantime.
Second: I wanted to thank Jesus, but not at the same time as the Samaritan because I am a believing Israelite. But before I could find the messenger, Jesus left.
Third: I wanted not only to give thanks in words but also to bring a gift, but I am poor and found nothing worthy.
Fourth: I had the intention of giving thanks. However, when I showed myself to the priests, I was unsure if my healing was permanent. I know that now, but Jesus is gone.
On the fifth: I almost returned with the Samaritan. To thank him, but there were many around him, and I would have had to confess to them that I was a leper and that he had healed me. I was ashamed, that’s why I didn’t come back.
On the sixth: Actually, I wanted to. I remembered that Jesus had helped others and didn’t expect thanks for it, so I didn’t come back either.
Seventh: I am not ungrateful. With great joy, I forgot. When I remembered, Jesus was gone.
Eighth: There are many lepers in the world. Indeed my honest, moral, exemplary life moved Jesus to heal me. Why should I still give thanks?
Ninth: I know how to give thanks. I wanted to give thanks, but most didn’t go; I didn’t go either. I stick with the majority.
And the Samaritan also asked. And the answer? “I can’t live without breathing. I couldn’t go home until I thanked Jesus.

Which answer is closest to us? Attitudes to gratitude, attitudes, views on gratitude, and especially daily practice speak not only about what kind of people we are but also what kind of Catholic Christians we are. Let us ask ourselves: Doesn’t God deserve our gratitude? For what? For the gift of life, health, sickness, work, hands, eyes, hearing, heart, family, children, vacations… But also for the supernatural gifts, the gift of redemption, the gifts we receive through the sacraments, the Mass, prayer, and acts of Christian mercy.
To King Louis XIV of France are attributed the words which, at the first moment of hearing them, strike one: “When you call someone to office, you make a hundred malcontents and one ingratitude.” A hundred malcontents are understandable. They also desire, wish, like the office, but one ingrate? There is something in it. We may also come across it in our life; you help somebody, he is grateful to you in the beginning, but soon the opposite begins. Does it not happen that the words of the proverb are fulfilled: “For a goodness – for a beggar?”

Today we should be aware of our gratitude to those who, through their love, various services, and help, often at great effort, toil, and personal sacrifice, at the expense not only of their free time but also of their health, have given us values for which they rightly, justifiably deserve an expression of gratitude.
The old teacher was celebrating her eightieth birthday. Children were her life. For them, she did not marry; she forgot her happiness or renounced it… For several decades, she wiped the noses and tears of first graders. Many have forgotten her. What joy she had when grandfathers and mothers, her former children, and pupils came to congratulate her.
Let’s put ourselves in the situation, what does an older adult feel during Christmas when they are supposed to be alone? What joy, how he gives thanks when the neighbors in the entrance, from the street, notice him, even though they are not family, and invite him to the Christmas Eve table.
Life is more joyful when we can be grateful to one another for small acts of service, help, helpfulness… We know that we don’t lose a lot of time doing it; it doesn’t cost much effort, makes others happy, and makes life more pleasant.
Parents who pay attention to gratitude when raising their children prepare a beautiful future for themselves and them.
A many-hearted example from the first reading of the Second Book of Kings is Naaman, who was healed of leprosy by Elisha. When Elisha refuses to accept the gift, Naaman says: “Let me, your servant, take from this land” (2 Kings 5:17). This land will remind him of love. So he wants to show his gratitude.

A souvenir for our gratitude to God. Our involvement in prayer, accessing the sacraments, giving thanks, and making atonement, is gratitude to God. The Christian’s gratitude to God should be as self-evident as the fact that we breathe. If we have forgotten or underestimated our gratitude, now is the time to make things right.
A God-fearing man came before Peter.
“Where do you want to go?” “To heaven, of course.” “Anyone would, but here’s the point system.” “I hadn’t even thought of that. How many points does it take to get into heaven?” “About a thousand.” The man was taken aback by this, but Peter started: “What did you do well on earth?” “I’ve been to Mass every day. That means something.” “Yes, one point.” The guy shuddered. “I was a member of the Holy Rosary, and I prayed my tithe and the whole rosary every day.” Peter again: “Second point.” Sweat rose to the boy’s brow. “I was a member of the Society of St. Vojtech.” “Third point.” “I used to go help with the singing.” ” Fourth point.” “I prayed daily.” “Fifth point.” “Here, only God’s grace will help me, I believed in it, so I tried to be grateful to God daily.” “Do you believe that God is pleased with your gratitude?” “Yes!” Peter smiles, “So you’ve earned enough points, and you can go to the one you feel gratitude to, God.”

Gratitude pays off. This is not just a statement but a human experience; one day, we will see that it is also an essential key to heaven.

Recall from history when representatives of the people went to the monarch to present their petitions to him. Let us remember, for example, the Slovak delegation of 1861, which handed over to the monarch in Vienna the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation and the proposal of the Privilege for the realization of the equality of the Slovak nation in Hungary, or the petition march in Petrograd in 1905. The sovereigns did not accept the demands of both these actions.

We must reckon with this, which can happen when we ask someone for something, and they refuse. It is possible with people.
But it is not possible for God not to grant our requests. Jesus says: “Ask, and you shall receive! Seek and ye shall find! Knock and it will be opened to you!” (Luke 11:9).

From this, we see that Jesus also recommends petitionary prayer to God to fulfill our requests. Some of you might object at this point: I have prayed for my son’s healing and have not been answered. My son died.
What to judge about that? So what is the point of the petitionary prayer that Jesus recommends?
To answer this question, we first need to realize: Who God is and what God is like.

The misconception of God is this: God observes people, what they do, and if they do his will, then he is suitable to them, but if they do not do his commands, then he speaks: Wait! I will remember this! You will still need me! But then I will not give you anything if you do this. As ye do unto me, so will I do unto you. God is not like this, nor can he be! He is not vengeful. He does not tremble with terror whether any man will obey Him or not.
Jesus did not present God to us this way, but He announced that God is our benevolent Father. He lives in infinite bliss and wants to let people experience as much of His bliss as possible. God is close to us, knows our desires, and grants many of them even before we ask for them or deserve them.

But even though He gives us many gifts without prayer, He still wants to provide us with some skills if we ask for them properly.
God gives us all kinds of benefits. God does not revel in our asking Him to have mercy on us. He is a great lover of truth, and He wants us to realize the great truth that we are nothing of ourselves because we have nothing of our own. When He fulfills our desires, He wants to arm us with one more great gift on that occasion. For it is then that we realize the truth about ourselves. We acquire that precious virtue of modesty and the integrity of great trust in God. Let us not think that God is killing us and throwing us down by this.

People with excellent education would be able to tell us how little man means in the universe and how limited his abilities are. The progress of science is silencing the voices that speak of man as an almost omnipotent giant. More than one college graduate admits that what he learned in college was primarily how little knowledge he had.
That is why God asks for petitionary prayer, that in the process, we may be perfected in the love and truth of our dependence on God.

God will grant our every petitionary prayer. We do not doubt that He will present even the petition of such a person who has long forgotten Him and needs His help suddenly. Even if He does not immediately give him precisely what he asks for, He will provide him with an even better gift. A gift which he requires more, and that is the gift of the virtue of religion.

The father of the sick son may not have remembered God for many years, and it was only prayer for his son’s recovery that brought him to God. He asked for his son’s health gift and was gifted with the greatest treasure of all – faith in God. Even though his son had died, his prayer was not in vain. Those who prayed for him became closer to God. They asked for and received even more than they asked for. They were blessed with God’s graces and the experience of God’s nearness.

Jesus Christ, Himself can be our model in petitionary prayer. He endured the most difficult trial. In his hour of extreme anguish, he prayed to God in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed so fervently that he was sweating blood: “Father if you are willing, take this cup from me.” (Lk 22:42).
He was not heard. We know that he eventually died in terrible pain on the cross. But his prayer was meaningful. After these words of worship, an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And strengthened, he remained faithful to the Father until his last breath.

The French writer Albert Camus describes a plague epidemic in a novel.

People thought the plague was a punishment for their sins. But one day, an innocent boy they loved fell ill, especially a believing priest and an unbelieving doctor.
The doctor devoted all his care to the boy, the parish priest prayed together with his faithful as fervently as possible, and God’s miracle did not occur. The boy dies.
The unbelieving doctor becomes even more bitter after the boy’s death and becomes convinced that such an unjust God cannot exist.
The priest did the opposite. He went to the pulpit and preached, “There is much suffering in the world, the meaning of which the human mind can hardly comprehend, and it will take a twofold attitude to suffer, either it will resist the senselessness of evil and reject God as unjust, or it will embrace God even though He sends suffering upon men. In God’s eyes, even suffering has redemptive value, for it brings human souls closer to God.”
And the priest chooses the latter. He humbly submits to the incomprehensible ways of God. He did not know why God decided to call the boy to Himself. He didn’t know if He had called to spare him some great disappointment or for another reason. He only knew that God had the power to join the sufferings of men to the redemptive sufferings of Christ.
And he praised God that many had encountered God and been enriched by his graces during his prayers for the boy’s healing.

Let us also be strengthened in the conviction that God is always with us and hears our every prayer. Let us not hesitate to present any request to God persistently, but with a condition: Not my will, but thine, O God, be done!
Let us not consider the possibility that God will not hear us. Even if it seems to us that God does not listen to us, does not care for us, let us know that in prayer, we have been blessed with even better graces than we asked for.

When we ask God for anything, let us remember to ask Him also to kindly grant us such desires as He may fill for our benefit and His greater glory. 

We see many human faces every day. They are tanned, healthy, cheerful, and full of freshness and life. But we also see many pale, sad, discouraged faces.
One walks down the street and does not know whether one is standing in front of a person or act of a shop window and sees a dummy in front of one. For such are the faces of many people; lifeless, bored, annoyed, discouraged…
The face is the expression of the human soul. The soul of such a man is in the grip of incomprehensible weariness, sullenness, worry, and life’s unpleasantness.
Spiritual experts advise: try it with prayer. Try to free your mind from the cramped atmosphere and a morbid mood by lifting your thoughts to heaven. Learn to pray. Expose your soul to the rays of heaven as you expose your bodies to the sun to make them tanned.
Many a man signs in his morbid melancholy, but I cannot even pray anymore.

Don’t be afraid, don’t say you can’t pray! Christ comes to your help today in the Gospel. He teaches his disciples to pray and encourages them that the heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to all who ask him.

And the Holy Spirit is the life into your weary and unruly body. All that is required of you is to ask and pray. Everyone who asks receives, whoever seeks finds, and whoever knocks gets an opening.
These words not only apply to the Apostles, but the Lord Jesus says them to us today, assuring us that God will answer our prayer. Will He hear us in all that we ask? Yes. In all things that accomplish Christ’s redemptive work in and outside us. Jesus guarantees a hearing, but only within the framework of the Divine Providence that governs the world. It is necessary, however, that one not only ask but that one makes it happen. It is naive to ask to have everything at once at this moment and without any effort, but it is excellent and necessary to ask for help against evil inclinations, for grace in the zeal to arrive at virtue. In this matter, supplications are never in vain. Similarly, the hearing of petitions for temporal gifts is guaranteed by Jesus if they are related to our soul’s welfare.

And such petitionary prayer is offered by Christ today to all who are wakeful and sick, from whom the life of God is ebbing away.
Brothers and sisters, to pray and ask God is to find the spring of living water, as Christ speaks to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.
To pray means to ease your inferiority, put away the gloom of your life, and take a breath from your worries and miseries.
Even St. James the Apostle says: “Are any of you suffering? Let him pray” (Jas 5:13).
Yes, to draw in prayer the restorative power of the air from the heavenly mountains and strength from the higher light. We can do all this in prayer. We do not find it in any pleasures and amusements.

In one of his short stories, the French novelist Maupassant describes the exuberant life of a wine bar: it takes place in a modest little house where love is sold and wild dancing is done under the influence of wine and passion. When these orgies have reached their climax, the owner of the house staggers and sink to the ground. Suddenly there is a sepulchral silence. The woman has died. A stroke struck her. Then one of the women kneels and begins to pray the Our Father. She struggles for words, for she has not prayed it in years! But a second, a third, comes and helps her. They are frightened and pray. Where did the transition from stormy passions to prayer come from in them? Indeed, they have felt their human weakness and God’s power to end the intoxication of the senses.

This, too, is the form of man. When he is knocked down to the ground, seized with pain – he begins to pray. He lifts his hands to prayer, or at least his heart to God. Will those whom we see disgusted and tormented in ordinary life do this? Will they! They will if we help them.

Let us help them not seek comfort down on earth but long for heaven. Let us help them not to seek comfort and strength in wine cellars but in God! Let us tell them that Christ can shake the weary souls poisoned by passions, boredom, and alcohol. If we do not have the strength to say to them this, or perhaps we feel that we are like this, then we have no choice but to pray for ourselves and them in this way:

God, you have created us in your image. We are to show you in our lives; we are to radiate joy and happiness – but you see what sin causes in us. We ask you, God of life, we ask you for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, give us your Spirit – give us your Spirit, give it to all who ask you for it, that we may shine again with the fullness of life that you provide, O God.

Until a few decades ago, we might have felt that the world was more or less understandable, and we could lean on the unquestioned certainties of three-dimensional space, solid matter, and fixed time. Twentieth-century physics, however, has led us astray and looking at an open book, the reader is not sure whether he is reading from a science fiction story. At the end of the twentieth century, it was clear that the universe was a far more remarkable place than we could ever have suspected, that things were far more complex than everyday experiences suggested.

With the development of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity, it became apparent that only a tiny fraction of dimensions behave reasonably and customarily: the world at minimal and vast distances is very different. It acts very differently from the world we grew up in, the world of our spaces. The certainties have broken down for us: the masses are full of empty places, the room has all kinds of strange twists and turns, and the clocks always point differently in different areas. Everything is different! A solid mass and, at small distances,  boils, and bubbles; most of all, it resembles a stormy sea or
boiling foam. The black holes are somehow encapsulated in space, space can be torn like a sponge for washing, and there are many more dimensions than our usual four. My hands, which are now writing this text, are not material but bundles of dancing strings. Man on Earth suddenly seems like a settler who emerges from his comfortable cottage, where he is warm and light, and finds a storm raging outside and angels flying and dancing fairies. The world is very different from what we imagined! We live in a quiet bubble of space-time: at high speeds, great masses, and distances large or small, everything is different.

I think contemporary physics has vastly outstripped the imagination of science fiction writers: reality is more interesting than the best science fiction story. The more physicists investigate the Big Bang Theory and the initial parameters of the universe, the more unexpected they come to. If just one of the many constants had a slightly different value than it does, neither galaxies, stars, nor we would ever have come into existence. The probability of the initial parameters being “correctly” set is so tiny as almost zero. Except that’s precisely what happened. To somehow avoid the problem, astrophysicists define the so-called anthropic principle. One and its form says that the universe must be so we can live in it. Maybe there are many universes where the constants are set. Nobody will ever know because life cannot exist in them (at least in that form as we know it). Because we are here, the universe must look like this. It’s strange: because of people on a tiny planet, a small galaxy, the universe looks the way it does.

Since the Middle Ages, our cosmic self-consciousness has somehow faded. It was generally assumed that the center of the universe was the Earth, around which everything revolves, figuratively and literally. Galileo Galilei and Nicholas Copernicus made it clear that the center of the universe is the sun. In 1750 Thom as Wright discovered that the Milky Way in the night sky is our view inside the galaxy of which we are a part. Today, we know that we and our solar system are stumbling somewhere on the edge of this galaxy. It was probably the philosopher Immanuel Kant who first 1755 wrote that at least some of the nebulae we see in the sky are circular disks about the same size as our galaxy. Today, we know that there are millions of galaxies like ours in the universe, that galaxies form clusters and superclusters of galaxies that are also in the universe very irregularly distributed as if they were imaginary walls of some unimaginably large spatial cell. We know the universe is not infinite, but we can hardly imagine its size.

To Immanuel Kant, who marveled at the starry sky above him, with whom he recalled one clear night at the opposite end of the planet, in Antar …on the other side of Antarctica. I wish you could experience the feeling of the limitless depth of space when, on a solitary walk, I suddenly had the impression that I was standing upside down and seeing the starry sky below me, looking into the endless depths of a universe that had no bottom. For our healthy humility, it is sometimes a helpful warm-up to try to look at our galaxy from somewhere very far away until it looks like a blurry speck in space: then, we can more easily grasp the comicality of all dictators and our lust for power. In his play the Life of Insects, Karel Capek develops a battle of ants in a poisonous scene: they fly with orders and big words about glory as we are used to them from our human wars. Only later does the viewer realize that the whole war is being fought over a piece of forest land, over a single blade of grass. Too bad Capek didn’t live to see the Hubble telescope.

Martha received the Lord Jesus warmly and immediately began to take great pains to serve him. When she was not up to it herself and saw that her sister Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to Him, she turned to Jesus with a question: “Lord, don’t you care that my sister leaves me to serve myself? Tell her to help me!” The Lord answered her: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and anxious about many things, and only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen a better portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Lk 10:40-42).

Now you may say to yourself. So hard-working Martha worries about working in the kitchen and serving at the table, and in the end, she gets even more reproach!
Mary, who doesn’t feel like serving, conveniently sits at the Lord’s feet and listens to Him instead of working. And she is commended for having decided on a better portion that will not be taken away from her.
How is it possible, then, that Martha must continue to struggle with eating alone, but everyone will eat? On the other hand, if everyone acted like Mary, who would care about the Lord and his disciples?
Yet the words of the Lord Jesus cannot be understood as a rebuke of the diligent and a commendation of the lazy. Therefore, we need to reflect more deeply on this response of Jesus.
Let us look at the lilies of the field, which neither toil nor spin. Let us remember the parable of the mustard seed. In it, Christ compares the kingdom of God to a source that grows and ripens on its own – without human intervention. In this way, he gives us an example of a life surrendered to the will of God.
When Jesus rebukes Martha, he points out her over-concern for many things and, thus, the unhealthy overindulgence she would like to impose on others. In Mary, on the other hand, Christ commends not inactivity or laziness but attentive listening to his words. The ability to choose at that moment what is most fitting and necessary.

We too often think, like Martha, that activity is the most necessary. Just doing, always realizing something, organizing. We have the impression that the time set aside for prayer, meditation, and listening to the Word of God is a waste of time, which should be reserved for action. Like Martha, we are often concerned about what we can do for the Lord and not what the Lord can do for us and what He can provide us with. Thus, such an encounter with Jesus is crucial, for only he will grant us God’s wisdom, love, and eternal life. Without this connection, there is no true religion. This union with God in prayer, contemplation, adoration, and collaboration with the Eucharistic Christ is the only thing necessary. Other items can only be helpful.

This example sums it up very well.

An old banker was driving a young college student in his boat. The student noticed that on one oar was written “ora” and on the other “labor.” So he asked the older man a question: – Please, why does the one who works need to pray?
The old man did not answer immediately but let go of the oar, which was written “ora,” and rowed only with the other oar. The boat began to turn round and round. “But we won’t get any further this way,” said the student. “Of course,” replied the old man, “he who only works and does not pray will get nowhere.”

Now, you may object that work, affairs, and engagements are duties and necessities that no one can avoid, and therefore one must choose work or prayer. No, such an objection will not stand! Because both prayer and work must be selected. These two concepts are not mutually exclusive, as many think, precisely because they know neither work nor prayer. When one works and does not pray, and when one prays and does not work, exhaustion comes anyway. So it is possible, even necessary, to pray while working and to work while praying.
Praying does not mean saying a lot of words. Prayer is lifting the mind to God, which can be done in the factory, the school, the market, the operating table, and even the department.

Well, brothers and sisters, what lesson is there for us in all this? Indeed, our religiosity must also have both components: it must be contemplative and active.
Our life is very crowded with activity, so there is a danger that we will have no time left for contemplative life. Worrying about our future, family, jobs, and livelihood could gradually alienate us. It is, therefore, essential that we do not neglect this part of our religious life altogether, that we know how to find a moment for prayer, contemplation, adoration, and above all, for an encounter with the Eucharistic Christ in the Holy Mass. For genuine religiosity is not only in action, but at times it is necessary to be able to sit at the feet of Jesus in the spirit and to listen attentively to his words because they are required as the speech of life, as the speech that is of more excellent value than all the other things of this world – it is the speech on which our life, even our death, depends.

Let us strive to understand this, and ask Almighty God to do so today, that we may be a little Martha and a little Mary if we all want to be among the friends of Jesus.

The saying goes: “He who asks much learns.” A young child asks questions of his parents over and over again. He asks everything. And we enjoy his curiosity. The pupil or student also often raises his hand and asks questions. The teacher wants and does not feel tired when he sees the interest of his listeners. The adult also needs to ask a question himself from time to time. That, too, is right. He searches, he investigates, and he wants to prove something.

In today’s Gospel, we have witnessed the dialogue of the expert in the Law, who nevertheless tempted Jesus with a question: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Lk 10:25).

What shall we do? What is God’s will for us? But then we are afraid to wait for the answer. We are so scared to hear Jesus’ response because we know the answer to that question within ourselves. We are so scared of being struck by Christ’s imperative: You are doing it right, you sense, you feel, you know, you see, you understand. Do this, and you will live!

The expert in the Law asks this question of Jesus, only to catch him in speech. Jesus, however, puts this issue on the right track of practical living. He does not instigate a discussion but points to a concrete example with the parable of the Good Samaritan. In this way, he forces the scribe not to speculate, to argue in speech. Jesus does not tell him: This I commend to you, I command you, remember this, but he says: “Go and do likewise.” (Lk 10:37).
It was tough to talk to the scribe because the Jews hated the Samaritans. They considered them Gentiles, so a wall of envy, hatred, and prejudice had formed between them. And the Lord Jesus, in this parable, singles out the Samaritan who has a better heart than the Jewish priest and Levite. The Samaritan, touched by a noble spirit, comes to the aid of his neighbor, even if it requires a sacrifice on his part.

The scribe’s answer was simple and correct, but the daily practice was challenging.
Love is one and simple, always and everywhere. But its ways are also different. It starts from our little self, but it must always lead from Jerusalem to Jericho through friendships, relatives, and various obstacles and pitfalls. It must go on, from breaking bread to breaking a heart of kindness, graciousness, forgiveness, and the sacrifice of life. In today’s modern world, neither computers nor atomic energy can take our place in this, for the only one who drives it is Christ, God, who is Love. These are not heroic acts of love but ordinary, everyday ones. Let’s consider today’s Gospel example and which character we act out.

The ringing of the telephone awakens us. The wife who answered it says to me:
– Mrs. Lattenberg has a heart attack. You’re supposed to go there right away.
– You know very well that the car is in the shop. Let them come for me.
– My husband is not at home; he is at work – comes from the other side.
The sick woman lived in a secluded place far outside the village. In summer, it’s a walk, but in winter, now… I started to get dressed. I, too, felt my sick heart.
– Call a neighbor to take me there.
The neighbor will drive back:
– Now, at midnight? We have the right to rest!
– They have the right, and what about me? They will need help one day; they shouldn’t forget that. After all, it’s a man’s life! That lady already had a heart attack once!
– You’re right; maybe they’ll admit it, – the wife retorts.
While I went to get my briefcase, my wife dialed a number. But no one answered. Even the Hausers were sitting in front of the TV and refused. They said they wanted to rest.
The wife said:
– What are you going to do? Walk to the crossroads; possibly, someone will pick you up.
Distrustfully, I put on my coat, lambskin, and warm gloves and walked out into the thicket.
– It’s my duty, – I sneered.
A car was coming from the town. I stood on the side of the road and waved my battering ram. The car passed close by, and the driver pulled up and continued in the direction I was headed.
– Villain!” came out of my mouth, and my arms were getting heavy.
Mr. Lattenberg shook the snow from his hat, slipped on his boots, and pulled a key from his bag. Before he could unlock it, the door opened. He saw a pale mother. Behind her crouched his two boys.
– I thought it was the doctor, – she said, disappointed.
– A doctor, why?
– Albina is sick. Probably her heart again. I telephoned him, but he won’t come immediately because his car was in the shop. His wife said he was walking, that he’d hitchhike someone at the intersection.
Mr. Lattenberg was puzzled. He pictured a hunched figure with a briefcase waving a battering ram in his mind. But why should he get his car dirty?
So that was him? Do you say he was waiting at the crossroads?
– You saw him? Why didn’t you pick him up in the car? Why?!
The mother’s face changed:
– You sucker! You know very well that he, too, has a sick heart and has to go slowly. He won’t come! And your wife will die! My God!
– Don’t cry; I’m coming for him. I’m coming…
He turned around, but his brother’s voice stopped him:
– You don’t have to, Charles. Albina has just died…

Which character in the story is similar to me? Who acted like a close person? Who can say: Do I have the right?!
Here, too, we can see what love can do. True love. A genuine Christian looks not only to his advantage but also to the needs of his neighbor.

Now we are sympathetic to the Good Samaritan. And whoever has not yet given himself the answer to the question “What to do?”, let him go and do like the Samaritan.
Go, don’t stand still, move! Open your eyes, and look around you! Is there anyone near you who requires help? Maybe it’s right in your family. Perhaps it’s your father, your mother, your children. Don’t wait for your big day, for the moment when someone hits you in the eye. Be a Samaritan, and do not spare the wine of love and the oil of consolation! Do it knowing that your eternal life is at stake.

A child asks, and when he grows up, he acts. The student, when he understands, will enlarge the ranks of the learned. The Christian today responds with acts of love.