predication.net

Although it is not said publicly, it is known that even in our times, some who have power, money, and fame in their hands make themselves gods. Their divinity, however, quickly crumbles. For example, in Canada, at one of their concerts, one of the Beatles members, John Lennon, declared that they were more famous than Christ, and we know that this did not provoke applause; on the contrary, it was probably the beginning of the end. Hitler, Stalin, and others acted like gods. They ruled not only over things but also over people’s lives, and today? Who will remember their name with reverence? Humanity feels that man cannot be God. Myths and myths have given different forms to gods, but we believe that there is only one God. We believe in God as omnipresent, omniscient, most holy, righteous, and pure, a perfect God who has no equal. We believe in God the Creator and God the Judge.

The Gospel tells us how the Jews want to stone Jesus because the he-man claims to be God. We need to understand their actions. They are the only people who believe in one God, whose coming they await, whose coming the prophets foretell. They believe in a God who will deliver them from the state that man has fallen into after offending God. We must understand that the Jews have often had to resist the surrounding nations even in the belief in one God because the surrounding nations believed in polytheism – polytheism. We know from history that God punished the Jews in various ways, especially when they wanted to be like God. However, I do not understand Jesus’ words. Nor do they know Jesus’ works, the miracles, so they want to stone him. It reminds them of the terms of Psalm (cf. 82:6), which says, “you are gods.” You are sons of the Highest. In the Old Testament, God himself addresses judges, his representatives, in this way, and all the more rightly can Jesus be called so.

Peter responds to Jesus when asked if they also want to leave him by saying, “Lord, and to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn. 6:68-69). Peter’s confession here also says that they regarded Christ as “the Holy One of God.” When Mark describes the healing of the demon-possessed man, he also records the words of the unclean spirit who cried out, “I know who you are: Holy One of God!” (Mk 1:24). This evidence should serve us to show Christ our reverence, to give Him honor, and to believe in Christ our Savior and Redeemer.

We not only subscribe to this teaching but also put it into practice in our lives. We realize that all of our abilities, talents, and talents have been given to us by God, and therefore we fight against pride, which is the basis of every open attack against God. The angels wanted to be like God, so the devil and his followers cried out: “Nonserviam!” – “I will not serve!” We see pride even in the grandparent’s paradise. The tempter rebukes them by saying, “… you will be like God… And they knew that they were naked” (Gen. 3:5-7).
The desire to be God has led and will lead more than one person to insane acts that sooner or later end in fiasco because being God does not belong to the creature but the Creator. We have seen countless times that our lives are filled with an extraordinary power every time we show reverence and homage to God. That is why we feel that we want to meet Him again and give Him reverence after every such encounter with God. On the contrary, we think of our defeat, pain, and disappointment after sin. This, too, is a severe lesson for us in life.

When problems come into our lives, when the pride of life takes hold of us, when we desire power, fame, and wealth without Jesus, or at the cost of betraying Jesus, let us ask now that we pray well then I believe in God. Amen.

We cannot imagine our lives without making choices. How many times a day do we have to decide things quickly; what to do first, what to pay more attention to, who to give more respect to… Similarly, when the Jews encountered Jesus, they were put in a situation where they had to decide. The argument was to recognize who was more incredible: Abraham or Jesus?

This dispute plays out in the controversy over the sonship of Abraham. Jesus points out that he has preeminence over Abraham. “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing. But my Father glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ and do not know Him. But I know Him.” (Jn. 8:54-55).
Thus, Jesus proves that God favored him over Abraham, who was a man born in time. But Jesus is the incarnate Word who is eternal and who was with God before all ages, before the foundation of the world. Jesus proves to them that He was before Abraham: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw and was glad.” (Jn. 8:56).
The Jews see before them only a young man. Jesus was 33 years old, so they call him: “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” (Jn. 8:57). They do not understand and do not want to realize that Jesus is the Son of God, equal with God the Father, who knows no concept of time. Thus he was before Abraham, whom the Father-God of Jesus calls from Ur of the Chaldees to a land unknown: the land of Canaan, and gives him the promise that out of his offspring will come redemption… Jesus speaks and affirms other sayings in this discourse, so we can understand and embrace other truths taught by our faith today based on one dialogue. Jesus teaches that he is equal with God the Father. Jesus was, therefore, God and man in one person. He became like us in all things, took flesh from the Virgin Mary, was born, lived among us, died. But He was God always and always, never for a moment ceasing to be God, even when He took on the form of a man.
But we can only understand all this in the full context of the doctrine of love. No one could love more than Jesus because he gave his own life for us. He wanted to make atonement to His Father for the sins of all humanity. This had to be done by one who was equal with God the Father and at the same time was close to men. This could only be done, therefore, because from eternity, God the Son, the second divine person, true God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, took upon Himself the form of a man to do what no man, nor all men together, could ever do, to atone for the insult that creation had done when it offended God the Father by transgressing His command.

We today do not just see the bodily form of Jesus Christ, but we see in Jesus the indeed true God. The One before whom we will one day appear, the One whom, in His own words, we will see face to face if we endure to the end. This commits us to worship Jesus Christ as God. Our knees bow before the cross, before the images representing Jesus Christ. We pay homage and homage to the God whom we love, to whom we want to belong wholly, and ultimately, to whom we beg, beg, and give thanks.

Even though the Jews did not accept the truth of Jesus and wanted to stone him, we today believe in his deity, that he is equal with God the Father, we believe that he was first not only like the forefather Abraham, but that nothing came before him, for he is from eternity. We believe that heaven and earth will pass away, but his existence knows no end. That is why we are here this day also, to give God our conscious and voluntary homage, that in the most precious gifts – reason and free will – we may gain the merit of meeting him and of dwelling eternally in his presence.

When we find ourselves in a situation where we have to decide on something in the area of faith, let us always give preference to that which will be more beneficial to us for obtaining eternal life.

You may also ask yourself: Am I a true disciple of the Lord Jesus? Who belongs to Jesus? This is what today’s Gospel is about, and let us try to begin by answering our questions. Who is a true disciple of Jesus? The one who perseveres in his words, knows the truth and gains freedom over evil, understands suffering, and knows how to rise above the trifles that confront us in life. Such a person will know that when he is independent of all the things surrounding him when they are not of God and for God, he is genuinely a true disciple.

Jesus says, “If you abide in my word, you will truly be my disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8:31-32). We see from the text that Jesus is speaking to believing Jews who are talking to him: “We are Abraham’s seed, and we have never been enslaved to anyone” (Jn 8:33). They want to avoid giving up their right to the election because they are of Abraham’s seed. Jesus wants to show them where their fault lies. They are to realize that although they feel they are sons of Abraham, they learn even more than they are sons of God. That is, they must put the sonship of God above the sonship of Abraham. If they genuinely acknowledged God as their Father as they claim to do, they would love Jesus as the Son of God and would persevere in his word. Thus, they would become true disciples of Jesus Christ. Then they would know the truth, and the truth would set them free from sin. But this is not what they want. Jesus tells them: “… you want to kill me because my word has no place in you. I speak the things I have seen with the Father.” (Jn. 8:37-38).

This problem stretched even after the sending of the Holy Spirit, when it happened that the Judeo-Christians, that is, the Jews who accepted the teachings of Christ, did not want the Gentiles who accepted the teachings of Christ to take circumcision as well. They still looked at their election only according to their fleshly descent; that is, they were descended from the lineage of Abraham. To these, Jesus is telling them to accept his teaching, the teaching of “the truth,” and so they are to become a new man.
We today do not base ourselves on any fleshly descent. The door to the teachings of Jesus Christ is open to everyone and is not closed to anyone. The condition is that we not only believe the words of Jesus but that we also put them into practice in our lives. If we live according to the truth, we will gain freedom and the right to a new and eternal life without sin. As long as we live here on earth, we must always be aware of the struggle against evil, so we cannot always want Jesus to protect us from suffering. On the contrary, in the crosses laid upon us, we are to prove ourselves to be true children of God.

From the lives of the saints, we know that when they gave themselves wholly and entirely to Christ when they truly lived Paul’s words: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me,” they recognized that the teaching of Jesus made them accessible. Even today, many believe that when the faith, the teachings of Christ, forbid them something, it takes away their freedom. We must not pride ourselves on being baptized, so we are a parable to God, but we must live our baptism. The life of a believing Christian is worthy of reward or punishment. Therefore, above everything, why we work, what we want, what we possess, and everything, let us set one ultimate and true goal: doing God’s will in all things.

When we are faithful to Christ even in the little things, a life lived in this way will say that we are Christ’s and are his.
The words of James the Apostle: “So also faith, if it has not works, is dead in itself” (Jes 2:17), are true today.

The great French mathematician Blaise Pascal opined that although the probability of the non-existence of God may be substantial, even more, significant is the asymmetry of the punishment for a wrong guess. It is better to believe in God because you have won eternal bliss; it doesn’t matter if you are wrong. On the other hand, if you don’t believe in God and are proved wrong, you will be eternally damned; it doesn’t matter if you are right. The decision is to be made by a man without a brain. Believe in God!
But there is something fundamentally strange in this argument. Believing is not something you can decide to do as a matter of decision. At least, it is not something I can choose to do as an act of will. I can decide to go to church and recite the Nicene Creed; I can decide to stack Bibles that I believe every word of that creed. But none of that will make me feel it if I don’t think it.
Pascal’s wager can only be an argument for pretending to believe in God. And God, the belief in whom you act, had better not be of the omniscient kind, for he will overlook the deception. The ridiculously absurd idea that believing is something you can choose to do is delightfully mocked by Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency; in it, we encounter the robot Electric Monk, a labor-saving device that you can get “to do and believe for you.”
The deluxe model advertises itself as “able to believe things even Salt Lake City wouldn’t believe.” But why do we so readily accept the idea that the only thing to do if we want to please God is to believe in him? What is so special about faith? Isn’t it likely that God will also return the favor, generosity, or humility? Or seriousness? What if God is a scientist who credits the honest search for truth as the highest virtue? Didn’t the designer of the universe have to be a scientist? Bertrand Russell was once asked what he would say if he died and found himself face to face with God, and the latter asked him why he didn’t believe in him. “There wasn’t enough evidence, God, there wasn’t enough,” was Russell’s (I would almost say immortal) reply. Wouldn’t God have more respect for Russell’s bold skepticism (or the proactive pacifism that had already made him the First World War II) than Pascal’s cowardly caution? We cannot know which way God is going, and we don’t even need to know that to reject Pascal’s wager. We are talking about a chance, remember, and Pascal did not claim that his wager was about anything other than very distant prospects. You would bet that Would God value dishonestly feigned faith (or even honest faith) more than natural skepticism?
And then, suppose the god you meet when you die turns out to be Baal; suppose this Baal will be as jealous as his ancient rival Yahweh was said to be. Wouldn’t Pascal be better off if he had not bet on any god as the wrong god? Doesn’t he discount the absurd number of possible gods and goddesses,’ logic of Pascal’s wager? Pascal was probably joking when he proposed his bet, as I’m kidding when I reject it. But I have met people in question after a lecture, who have gravely stated Pascal’s wager is an argument in favor of belief in God, so it was correct to air it briefly here.
Finally, is it possible to propose some anti-Pascal wager? Suppose we grant some slight possibility of the existence of God. Nevertheless, one can still say that you will have a fuller life if you bet on this non-existent god than you would have if you bet on an existing one and had to waste your precious time glorifying him, sacrificing to him, fighting, and dying for him, etc. I am not going to elaborate further on this question here. Still, readers should keep it in mind when we proceed in later chapters to the evil consequences resulting from religious views and the observance of religious precepts.

We give little thought to death when we reflect on ourselves. When we reflect on ourselves, we provide a little idea to end. The young do not think because they are still young.
Healthy people of mature age, on the other hand, still want to prove something and leave something behind. The elderly tell themselves that it is not yet so wrong with them. We even see that when we know that our relative is on his deathbed, the doctor is giving up, and science is not helping, there are still cases that we deceive ourselves and those who should prepare themselves to meet God as believers. But our faith teaches us that our coming here into the world was no accident and that the end, the death of man, is not a definite end but a transition to a new life.

This is also what today’s Gospel teaches us. To the Jews who did not want to accept the teachings of Christ, shortly before his death, when Jesus knew that the accomplishment of his mission on earth was near, he said: “You are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world.” (Jn 8:23).

From all the events surrounding the words of the Lord Jesus that we have been dissecting in the last few days of the week, it is well known that the Jews cannot accept and understand two things. They do not know where Jesus is coming from and where He is returning to. They don’t understand this, even though He keeps telling them that He came from the Father and returned to Him again.
Jesus knows that going to the Father will be accomplished by his death and suffering. The Jews seem to understand his departure as a suicide death, and they do not and cannot follow him on this journey. But those who genuinely want to follow, find and understand the Lord Jesus must believe that his death is the ransom price for our world. This means that when Jesus is lifted on the cross, He will be able to heal and cure all people who are bitten by the serpent’s sin. Through faith, people can understand that Jesus is the Son of God who, by dying on the cross, atoned to the Father for our sins and thus showed us the way to His Father. Therefore, He became “the way” for us.

These words are not a path to pessimism and hopelessness for us believers; on the contrary, they are hope and optimism for us. Even if it is difficult when to say goodbye to his dear ones at the moment of death, a believer knows that it is not a definitive end, and that is why death must not be taken tragically. The memory of it is not a cause for us to break down in our attitude. The Lord Jesus is our model and example. We see that for Jesus, His death was a triumphant ending of life by going to the Father.

It is necessary for us as believers to adopt this attitude of Jesus and learn to live with the thought of death in mind. It is a beautiful thing when one does not have to fear that end may meet him wherever and at whatever moments, that he is always ready to come before this Christ in whom he believed, by whose words he tried to live, and in whose reward he hoped and believed. It is wonderfully beautiful and precious to live in the presence of God, to be able to accept his will, whether it be at midnight or in the morning.
For us, then, today’s Gospel is a lesson that the suffering and death predicted by Jesus is a guarantee of new life.

In his poetry collection Through Your Eyes, Michael Quist writes in the poem “Lord, I have no time…” and then, having already recognized the meaning and value of Jesus’ words, he concludes by exclaiming: “Lord, I have time!” This should resonate with us as well. We should not only realize that we have to make time, but we should also say it to Jesus more often: Lord, I have time!

Good confession presupposes the following steps:
– Ask your conscience – what sins have you committed since your last Holy Confession.
– Sincerely repent of your sins, mainly because you have offended the good God.
– Confess your sins to the priest.
– Take good care to confess all your mortal sins, even the number of them.
– After Holy Confession, do the act of penance appointed for you by the priest.
– Pray daily for the strength to avoid the opportunity to sin, especially those sins for which you have just received absolution.

FIRST COMMANDMENT
‘I am the Lord your God! Thou shalt have no other gods but me to worship..” (Ex 20:2,3)
– Have I doubted the existence of God, or have I denied it?
– Have I refused to believe in what God reveals to us?
– Did I believe in fortune-tellers, horoscopes, dream interpreters, occult practices, good luck charms, card reading, palm reading, various séances, and reincarnation?
– Have I denied that I am a Catholic?
– Have I abandoned the Catholic faith?
– Did I devote time to God in prayer every day?
– Did I love God with all my heart?
– Did I despair or presumptuously rely on God’s mercy?
– Did I have false idols in my life that I paid more attention to than God, such as money, profession, drugs, TV, fame, pleasure, possessions, etc.?

SECOND COMMANDMENT
‘Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain. ” (Ex 20:7)
– Have I cursed or offended God?
– Have I taken God’s name in vain or with indifferent carelessness?
– Have I cursed or broken an oath or a promise?
– Have I manifested anger toward God?

THIRD COMMANDMENT
“Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.” (Ex 20:8)
– Have I missed Sunday Mass or Mass on a commanded feast day through my fault?
– Did I arrive on time for Mass? Did I leave early?
– Did I work on Sundays, even when it was not necessary?
– Did I set aside Sunday as a day of rest and a day for my family?
– Did I show reverence for Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar?

FOURTH COMMANDMENT
“Honor thy father and thy mother..” (Ex 20:12)
– Have I disobeyed or disrespected my parents or legitimate superiors?
– Have I neglected my duties to my husband, wife, children, parents?
– Have I neglected to set a good example for my family in religious matters?
– Have I neglected to take an active approach to facilitate religious education and formation for my children?
– Have I neglected my education in the actual teachings of the Church?
– Have I offended in word or deed, especially about young people?
– Have I been the cause of someone abandoning their faith?
– Have I caused tension and conflict in my family?
– Have I cared for my elderly and sick relatives?
– Have I fully earned my daily wage?
– Did I give a fair wage to my employees?

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT
“Thou shalt not kill” (Ex 20:13).
– Have I killed or physically injured someone?
– Have I had an abortion or counseled someone else to have an abortion? (One who provides an abortion is automatically excommunicated, as is one who participates by cooperating in an abortion, Canon 1398. The ex-communication may be lifted in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.)
– Did I use birth control pills or require my wife to take them (whether or not I was aware that birth control pills abort the fetus at conception)?
– Did I attempt suicide?
– Did I participate in or approve of so-called “mercy killing” (euthanasia)?
– Have I been angry, impatient, envious, unloving, unkind, proud, vindictive, jealous of other people, lazy?
– Did I set a bad example through drug abuse, excessive drinking, conflicts, fights, and arguments?
– Was I destroying my health?
– Did I hurt children or other vulnerable people?

SIXTH AND NINTH COMMANDMENTS
‘Thou shalt not commit adultery. ” (Ex 20:14). “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife!” (Ex 20:17)
Note: in the area of deliberate sexual sins listed below, all are considered mortal sins if accompanied by full knowledge and full consent of the will. “Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor covetous, nor adulterers, nor concubines of men, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”(1 Cor. 6:9-10). “Whosoever looketh on a woman with lust hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”(1 Cor. 6:9-10). “If any man looketh on a woman with lust, he hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Mt 5:28).

– Have I deliberately harbored impure thoughts and desires?
– Have I used dirty or suggestive words? Have I told impure stories and jokes? Did I listen to them?
– Did I intentionally watch unclean television programs, videos, games, pictures, movies? Have I deliberately read impure material?
– Did I perform dirty deeds on my body (masturbation)?
– Have I committed unclean acts with another person – fornication (premarital sex), adultery (sexual intercourse with another person outside of my marriage)?
– Have I practiced contraception (pills, other means, intermittent coitus)?
– Have I married outside the Church or counseled a Catholic to marry outside the Church?
– Have I avoided opportunities for impurity?
– Have I tried to control my thoughts?
– Have I participated in homosexual activity?
– Did I respect all people of the opposite sex, or did I view other people as objects?
– Did I have myself or my spouse sterilized?
– Did I abuse my marital rights?

THE SEVENTH AND TENTH COMMANDMENTS
“Thou shalt not steal.” (Ex 20:15), “You shall not covet your neighbor’s possessions or anything that is his. ” (Ex 20:17)
– Have I stolen, cheated, aided and abetted, or encouraged others to steal or keep stolen things? Have I made restitution for stolen items?
– Have I fulfilled my contractual obligations? Did I give or accept bribes? Did I pay bills and invoices? Did I gamble, did I speculate? Did I deny my family the necessities of life?
– Have I wasted time at work, at school, at home?
– Have I envied other people for their possessions and property?
– Have I made material goods the meaning of my life?

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT
‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. ” (Ex 20:16)
– Have I lied?
– Have I intentionally lied and deceived others or hurt and harmed others with my lies? Have I repaired these harms?
– Have I sworn falsely?
– Have I slandered and gossiped, published about other people their faults and sins?
– Have I failed to keep secrets in matters that are supposed to be confidential?

OTHER SINS
– Did I fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday? Do I strive to perform some act of penance at least every Friday?
– Have I received Holy Communion at least once a year and during the Easter season?
– Have I gone to Holy Communion in a state of mortal sin? Have I kept the Eucharistic fast before Holy Communion – one hour without food and drink (except water and medicine)?
– Did I make a bad confession?
– Have I contributed to the needs of the Church and the poor?

Imagine God as mercy. “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” (Jn. 8:11).

The Gospel shows us sinners at the moment when we accuse other sinners before Jesus. We can have multiple perspectives on the passage about the woman caught in sin and the behavior of those who brought her before Jesus, as well as the behavior of Jesus. It is important to remember that the gospel leads us to humble ourselves, acknowledge our sinfulness, and that forgiveness of sins comes from Jesus. We are the recipients of the gospel, each one of us. The Pharisees are satisfied with their pseudo-righteousness and will not receive the mercy that the woman they brought to Jesus received. The woman is aware of her situation. According to the Law of Moses, for her weakness in which she was caught and is now accused, she faces the penalty of death by stoning. Indeed, in the days of Christ, such punishments were rarely carried out. But the Pharisees were not so much concerned with the woman as they were with attacking Jesus, whom they hated because He thought differently from them, rebuked their hypocrisy, and drew people after Him.

They tempted Jesus so they could accuse him. The response they expected from Jesus was, in their view, to be either rigorously rigoristic or lax. And one answer or the other was to be used against Jesus. Jesus found himself having to take a stand on the fate of a man dragged into accountability through the authority of power. But Jesus did not reject justice and righteousness, nor did he reject mercy, but he gave justice and mercy a true meaning. The Pharisees did not count on such a masterful response. Jesus said to them: “He among you who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” (Jn. 8:7). In these words, the Pharisees understood that they, too, were not without sin. There are other sins, such as adultery. They, too, have their vices. Jesus taught them a moral lesson in a few words. Someone may immediately ask: “And where was the accomplice, the accomplices…?” John writes: “As they heard these things, one by one, beginning with the elders, they fled away, until he (Jesus) was left alone with the woman who stood in the midst.” (Jn. 8:9). They left, but their shame had nothing to do with humility.

A solemn remembrance to each of us – a rebuke? Proverbs says: “The crow sits by the crow, and the equal seeks the equal.” Or: “Wolf to wolves.” They have no trouble destroying their consciences and others as well. We are weak people. But when we confess our sins in humility, when we awaken in our hearts the pain of our sins and those of others, we can expect mercy from our God. He is our God. When we renounce sin repeatedly, we are strengthened in our love for Christ. We realize the significance of Christ’s suffering for our sins. God is a just Judge, but He is also merciful. We want to live in Christ, and Christ to live in us.

It is interesting to read the purification prayers of other religions. For example, the ancient Hindu supplication reads, “Purify, O God, my soul, see to its innocence! The evil spirit has deceived her; the flesh has deceived her… ”
How very differently Christianity explains sin and guilt! Origenes has calculated what all tempt us to sin: The world, i.e., the evil influences of the environment, the flesh, i.e., the sinful passions, the devil, who gives us evil thoughts, penetrating like arrows into our hearts. Who, then, is responsible for sin? But the answer is “Neither the world, nor the flesh, nor the devil!” God punished the devil for his sin. But for our sin, we bear the punishment ourselves because we alone are responsible for our willing consent to evil. Therefore, the only actual cause of sin
is our own will, which chooses evil. If the cause of sin were something other than ourselves, then the responsibility would fall on God Himself, who put us in this predicament.

The Christian, therefore, does not lay the blame on anyone or anything else; he beats his breast and says: “My fault!” Our purification prayers take this typical form: “God, have mercy on forgive me, forgive me, a sinner!” Transgression of God’s law Preachers uses analogy, a simile of moral and natural laws. Let’s build a house regardless of the laws of gravity, collapse it, and sow grain in the opposite season and in different climates; what will we reap? That is the result of even human life, which is contrary to the moral law given by God.
The simile itself is not bad. The good, which is eternal, is permanent and necessary; the necessity can then be expressed theoretically, expressed in law. They are thus natural laws of morality, of sound. Even in revealed religion, God has expressed His will in direction. Faithfulness to the Lord was judged among the Jews by how one kept the Law. Christ, the apostles, and the Church formulated their doctrine in certain principles. Christian morality collected them, sorted them out, classified them, and worked out a system. From time to time, however, the opposition is manifested to such a “legal morality,” where all sin} is as it were already pre-weighed. The Phariseeism that manifested itself at the end of the Old Testament is a sobering example of how the letter of the Law has replaced a personal, respectful relationship with God. The danger of Pharisaic then will always be alive, not in vain, is spoken of so many times in the Gospel. But it will not be eradicated by discarding and neglecting the Law. In a sense, the thought of St. Paul in his letter to Romans; the law is good and holy, but it is no substitute for Christ, and without him, it is meaningless.
But he who loves Christ keeps the commandments (Jn. 14, 15), thus expressing his love for him. Therefore, he is rightly afraid to break even the least of God’s commandments, lest he is the least in the kingdom of God (cf. Mt 5:19). According to St. Basil, the commandments of God shine like stars, according to which swimmers are guided at night not to lose their way. The alphabetical Psalm 118 has been figuratively called “the rosary of God’s law,” which is light and life for the one who walks without blemish “in the ways of the commandments.” For the Stoics, the moral law was an expression of the necessity of the world; for the Pharisees, it was a code of national duty and customs, but for the Christian, it must remain ever alive word of the heavenly Father, whom we daily assure:  Thy will be done! God’s insult.
Not only philosophers but also Catholic theologians have often had difficulty explaining expressions in Scripture and religious language: sin offends, grieves, anger, and therefore punishes God. Even St. Thomas Aquinas thinks that this can only be understood in a broader, figurative sense. Sin only harms us ourselves. I am not breaking the sun by boarding up the window, but I am depriving myself of its light. In dealing with people, we call the refusal of a gift an insult. Sin is the rejection of God’s love, the greatest gift, which is why we humanly call it “God’s insult,” even though it cannot touch God Himself. For it is eternally unchangeable happiness. However, such an explanation of the term does not quite satisfy spiritual authors. It seems to them too philosophical. Statements of Scripture and the saints would thereby lose their force and whole meaning. At understanding sin, we must not lose sight of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. He became a man. As a man, He endured pain and suffering. Sin made him accurate and complete…offended him. According to the Histological principle, then, the …that which is in Christ’s humanity is transferred to God. Right we say that God was born, suffered, died. God, therefore, sustained
insults for sin. The value of Christ’s life is eternal. It is not just something past. Furthermore, Christ lives on in His mystical body, the Church. There, too; therefore, he suffers, he dies. If we insult our neighbor, we insult Christ: whatever you have done to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you have done to me (Mt 25:40). In its more profound consequences, every sin, even solitary and private, offends our neighbors and, therefore, Christ and God. It is not, therefore, merely a distant figure of speech. We are touching on here the deepest mysteries of faith when we read, for example, the simple words of the devotion of the Stations of the Cross: ‘It was my sins that brought thee down to the ground, for they spat upon the divine face.