predication.net

Hardly anyone can count the number of rifts for Jesus. On the one hand, they are unnecessary, unnecessary, and unpleasant things. On the other hand, they are beautiful, helpful, and necessary when believers can stand up for their faith.

Even in the days of Jesus’ ministry, there were controversies over his person. Today’s Gospel tells us about one. The Pharisees say to the servants, “Have you also been deceived? Did any of the leading men or Pharisees believe in him?” (Jn. 7:47-48).

In this case, the Messiah’s origin question is at issue. Some of the leading religious leaders of the Jews were convinced that the Messiah could not have come from Galilee. Therefore, they viewed Jesus as a forewritten case. They rejected him before they could be convinced of anything or give him a hearing. They were speaking, actually quoting Scripture. The book of Deuteronomy (cf. 18:15-19) tells us that Christ will come from the seed of David, from the little town of Bethlehem, where David dwelt (cf. Jn. 7:42).
This was the cause of the division in the multitude. We know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. These disputants did not know – because of their poor information because Jesus lived in Nazareth after His return, where Joseph and Mary lived all the time. The birth in Bethlehem took place at the behest of the emperor Augustus because of his desire to know the number of his subjects for the census.

Among those present was Nicodemus, who is considered a secret disciple of the Lord Jesus because he came to Jesus under cover of night, and they talked together. To him, he gave those precious words about being born again of water and the Spirit. This Nicodemus, though he was respected in the high council, stood up for Jesus, saying, “Will our law condemn a man before it hears him and finds out what he has done?” (Jn. 7:51). Here Nicodemus, still in fear but already publicly confessing to Jesus. He stands up for the law, which is on Jesus’ side because the Great Council wants to pass judgment on him before they would hear him. This was the falsity of the leaders of the nation.
Perhaps even Judas didn’t mean it badly in the beginning. He may have thought that the high council just wanted to hear Jesus, but when he saw what followed, he returned the money, and the wrong attitude toward his guilt drove him to suicide. Indeed, Jesus would have forgiven him if he had mourned as Peter did or come to the foot of the cross and forgiven Jesus. Here, however, we see the behavior of Nicodemus, who his fellow members suspected in the high priesthood that he, too, had believed Jesus. So, they ask him an uncomfortable question: “Aren’t you also from Galilee! Examine, and you will see that a prophet does not arise from Galilee.” (Jn 7:52).
From this, we can see that Jesus is opposed by the arrogance of the leaders of the nation and the scholars, as well as by the brutal violence of the officials. Few were to catch Jesus. We see this from their words when they expressed themselves: Never did man speak so. They were impressed by Jesus’ preaching, speaking, and approach to life in general.

We may rightly ask: What has changed in our relationship with Jesus in the last two thousand years? Nothing. In the same way, even today, many similarly appeal to various things so that they don’t have to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah…
It is suitable for today’s modern Christian believers, both older and younger, to strive to live according to the teachings of Jesus Christ and seek to have solid knowledge in the area of faith, the teachings of Jesus Christ. Today, more than at any time in the past, we need educated but also believing Christians. However, we must follow a reasonable approach to the issues. Never by force and at any cost and with everyone engage in endless discussions, debates. Just as we believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, in His love, power, light, so in their hatred and bias they will endlessly speak their minds, and so will their opponents. They cannot be persuaded, they twist the facts, and what is more, they have no knowledge, and they want to give reason away! That is why it is necessary to take a suitable stand or convince by living.

Our life is an open book of faith. In church and wherever God wants us to be, we strive with all our goodwill to give a good testimony of faith. If the Pharisees had found out where Jesus was born, they would not have said to Galilee that the Messiah could not have come from there. We know that Jesus has the surname of a Nazarene. When we know the teachings of Christ better, we can better and more easily translate His teachings into our lives.

Principle: Never violence in faith, but a severe approach! This, too, is worthy of a Christian when he leaves a place where there is no effort for dialogue, where hearts close before mouths open.

And comfortableness and they did not have the strength to overcome their comfortableness, and they did not have the power to get rid of these weaknesses. They felt fear, so they preferred to settle for a neutral position.

Yes, there is much talk and reflection today about God, faith, and Jesus Christ. We see both negative and positive attitudes in our surroundings. Each side and decision has its reasons. Even today, we come to Mass to be strengthened by the Word and Body of Jesus in the Eucharist. In doing so, we remember the death on the cross, that is, our redemption, our liberation from sin. We come to be strengthened in our relationship with Jesus, which our Church teaches us about. Often, we realize that we must not be Christians only in church or when we pray privately at home. Let us draw strength and resolve to persevere in our journey to follow Jesus before the Lord’s Supper. Yes, we often feel that it is challenging, that it hurts to follow Jesus wholly and completely.
We know from our own lives that even though this decision was painful and complex, it was the right and stunning conclusion. As a priest, I can also say from my own life that I have never regretted my decision to be a priest. For Jesus said: “And everyone who for my name’s sake leaves houses, or brothers and sisters, or father and mother, or children, or fields, shall receive a hundredfold more, and shall inherit eternal life” (Mt 19:29).
Today, after having been a priest for several years, I know that the vocation of a priest is difficult, but I can say that if I had to decide on my work again, I would not hesitate for a minute.
However, I also know from your life journeys that many of you have had to and must make difficult decisions in your faith and journey to follow Jesus. Many of you have also seen that when you put Jesus’ words into practice in your life: “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Lk 9:23) that Jesus will not owe anything to His faithful.

Once we have decided for Jesus, we must not think that it hurts just once in our lives. Indeed, we don’t want Jesus’ words from the Gospel to be true for us: “You also know me, and where I am from your knowledge. And I came not of myself, but he that sent me is true…” (Jn 7:28).
We believe that Jesus is our God, the eternal Love, who loved us above all things. We prefer not to be among those whom John wrote about who tried to seize and kill him when Jesus told them who he was and what he had come for. Even if they did, it was only because he wanted it and not them. He tried to prove his love, saying, “Greater love has no one than this than he who lays down his life for his friends.” (Jn 15:13).

Let us pray for ourselves today that we may always make the right choice, even when it is difficult. Let us not hesitate even in such difficult moments, and let us trust Jesus above all else. May the words help us: “Behold, I am with you until the world’s end!”

Witnessing plays a severe role in controversial matters—the more credible the witness, the more his testimony gains in importance and necessity.

John the Apostle recorded a significant testimony of Christ that we should know and not bypass in our faith. Jesus said to the Jews, “If I bear witness of myself alone, my testimony is not true. But there is someone else who testifies about me, and I know that his testimony about me is true” (Jn. 5:31-32).

Jesus is doing the right thing in acting like the Messiah, rightly so according to the laws of the day. In Jewish law, a judgment could only take effect when two witnesses attested to the facts of the offense. This regulation was known to the Jews from the book of Moses, which we call Deuteronomy. It says: “One witness will be of no value in any guilt or crime committed; on the testimony of two or three witnesses, the decision will depend” (Deut. 19:15).
Jesus knows and recognizes these regulations as legal standards, and he attempts to prove that he is sent from God through several testimonies:
1. the testimony of John the Baptist
2. by his works and miracles
3. 2. the witnesses of Jesus, the miracles of the Jews, the testimonies of Jesus, the testimonies of Jesus, the
4. by God himself, who is his crowning witness

The works that Jesus does are the works of God, and the Father’s voice calls for faith in Jesus Christ, as anyone unbiased knows.

From this, it follows that everything that is of the nature of authority among the Jews, such as the prophets, the Law of Moses, John the Baptist, and even God Himself, testifies that Jesus Christ is God’s ambassador. Here we must remember that he who rejects such testimony is outside the law; his judgment is false and invalid. Centuries and now millennia have changed nothing for some.
Even in our environment, some people try to place Jesus in some group they have created, only to not have to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their God and Lord. So they say of Christ that he did not exist at all, which is denied by Josephus Flavius, the Jewish historian, Pliny, and others who accurately captured in their works the time that we believers also say Christ lived among us.
Others want to assign Jesus to the philosophers, others to the reformers. Some consider Jesus a politician and a man like us in general, but with a higher intellect for his time. But we know that Jesus cannot be classified anywhere. He is not a social agitator nor a dreamy thinker. He is God’s ambassador; he is the agent of salvation. Therefore, his words apply to us, too, that we should believe and be saved.

In Turin, Italy, in 1976, Vitoria Messori’s book was published by the SEI (Societa Editrice Internazionale) under the title H y p o t e s of J e s s I o n . By October 1988, this book had already been published in 18 languages and 33 editions in Italian. The number of copies has reached one and a half million. Few Catholic books have achieved such success in such a short time. It engages in a severe and severe evaluation of the critical hypotheses about the “mysterious Palestinian.”
He concludes that of all the possible and impossible hypotheses about Jesus, the one from the Gospels that is correct is the hypothesis that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ the Son of God. In the book, the author describes his honest and unbiased research. He convincingly shows that all the hypotheses about Jesus have already been told, that all the objections have already been refuted, but they are being raised and refuted again. He has pointed out that some conjectures do not deserve a “scientific hypothesis.”

For us, the teachings of Christ are the teachings that show us the way to eternal bliss. With St. Paul, let us continue to repeat today, “I know whom I have believed, and I am sure.” (2 Tim. 1:12). The great certainty that can endure all things for Christ’s sake that can move mountains, and this is for us the testimony that Jesus speaks of Himself in the Gospel.

The testimony of Christ is unshakable when we have given ourselves wholly and entirely to Him.

The Church WANDERING
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If Jesus says to strive to enter by the strait gate, we must necessarily seek to follow in his footsteps on his way. And his footsteps are in the form of human feet: there are two of them, and the footprints from them lead in only one direction, always only forward. Never to the left, or the right, or backward.

Our faith is not confined to the precincts of churches but is to permeate our whole earthly life.

The vocation to holiness – that is, to communion with God – is part of God’s eternal plan, which embraces all the men and women of the world because it is a universal vocation.

The life of faith is a matter of the moment. Just as life is made up of individual events, the life of faith is made up of moments. What is missed in a moment, no eternity can restore. Our life of faith is to be judged by how it manifests itself at the moment. Our eternity, our salvation, depends on moments.

God excludes no one, for his plan is only love…

The Church PURIFYING
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Let us look at the heart of Jesus and listen. It is a heart that overflows with God’s all-giving love, and even the most significant pain does not prevent it from loving. He loves with love and willingly suffers. His heart is a fountain of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. In such love, every sin burns.

To pray for the souls in Purgatory is a duty of love.

God lets us “suffer in the storm to test our faithfulness. He does so for our greater spiritual welfare. At such times He seems deaf to our prayers. But let us be assured that God hears us, secretly helps us and strengthens us by His grace to repel every enemy attack. He assures us of this in the words of the Psalmist, “In trouble thou didst call upon me, and I delivered thee; behind the veil of the storm I heard thee, I tried thee.” (Psalm 81:8).

To rid oneself of oneself, ridding oneself of all reservations, makes one truly accessible, and then one becomes a fundamental instrument in God’s hands.

We must all be convinced that we are hanging almost over the precipice of all sin, and that we are held only by a hair of grace. If this hair were loosened, we should fall into this abyss and commit the most terrible crimes. “If the Lord keep not the city, his watchmen watch in vain” (Ps. 127:1). If God does not guard the soul against sins, in vain will the soul defend itself in its strength…

The church BLESSED
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We believe in eternal life. We believe in a God who rewards and also punishes. We believe in a Teacher – Christ – who has taught us everything we need for salvation. Let us not underestimate our salvation! We look upon the soul as a great gift and grace.

The Lamb of God shed His blood on the wood of the cross and won for us salvation from eternal death. He gives us His body and blood, offered for us at Mass in the transfigured bread and wine, as spiritual food, and as a deposit of our resurrection. He becomes for us the bread that strengthens us on the way to true freedom and to the new promised homeland, which is the Kingdom of God.

The resurrection is the center of the Christian faith. Without the renewal, everything would lose its meaning.

If Christ has not risen, then our faith is futile, then our preaching is pointless, and everything is empty, and we would be the most miserable of creatures. But since Christ is risen, then everything takes on a new dimension, everything takes on the true meaning, then it is joyful to live, but also pleased to suffer because everything leads to one goal – the loving arms of God, which has been prepared for us from eternity.

To love means to live fully.

There was an intense exchange between the boys. They were arguing about something. One says and thinks it should be this way; the other wants it his way. And the third summed up his argument, his opinion, in these words. The boys reflected and put on the terms of the boy who did not say how he imagines wishes but how he saw his father doing it. The authority, the experience, perhaps the love of this father for his son prevailed.

Jesus says to the Jews, and us today, in solemn words, full of authority and love, “Truly, truly, I say to you: The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does likewise.” (Jn 5:19).

In this Gospel, Jesus explains to the Jews his relationship with God the Father. He emphasizes that God did not cease to be active even after the work of creation, as the Jews thought, but is constantly sustaining and administering the world. The Son is equal to Him in nature, power, right, and majesty. This relation is explained in theology by the doctrine of God in three persons in dogmatic – De Deo trino.
John in the Gospel gives us a severe thought about this: God has entrusted all that he possesses to his Son, namely: power, life, and judgment.
We see from the Gospel that Jesus does not make claims for people to believe in him; he does not base them on human authority but the power of God. The Jews believed that God continued to sustain the world; he continued to work even on the Sabbath, which they interpreted rather strangely, that children were born even on the Sabbath, a day on which the Jews did not work.
Jesus also heals on the Sabbath, which offended the Jews. What God can do: raising the dead, judging the works of men, this He also gave to Jesus, His Son. From this, Jesus infers for them that whoever therefore does not honor him does not honor God the Father either, but whoever believes his words obtains eternal life.

You may ask: Why is this so? Why can the Lord Jesus do what His Father does? He explains this by saying that He also does whatever His loving Father shows Him. Here is a simile that Jesus did not use but that the hearers inferred because it was widespread and familiar. The simile is about how a craftsman’s father initiates his son, his successor, into his art.

He who sees the Lord Jesus sees God. He who can listen to him listens to the Father, but also, he who does not listen to him rejects the Father. Without him, there is no life with us, no salvation, no way to God. And yet we accept the words of the Lord Jesus, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (Jn 14:6). That is why we look to Jesus as a landmark not only of the ages but of humanity. This means to us that indifference to Christ does not exist. Each one of us must decide either to accept or reject Jesus.
We want to accept him decisively. That is why Jesus is close to us; we see in him our Judge, who at the hour of our death will be the landmark of blessedness or damnation. He earned this rank by his love for God the Father and us, his brothers and sisters when he came among us out of love to redeem and save us.
We believe that Jesus is “the truth.” We believe that the judgment upon us will be what we deserve and that it will also be, for he will not punish for himself but for the Father whom he has reconciled. Therefore, we endeavor to live life fully and respect his authority. Those who do not respect authority on earth offend and deserve punishment. He who does not respect authority for eternal life despises the love of Christ and therefore prepares for eternal damnation. Even as we prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we are to remember that this may be the last opportunity we have to forgive God for our sins. The thought of encountering Jesus as a Judge will lead us to a responsible approach to eternal values.

Therefore, in asking our conscience, or in various discussions about the fulfillment of the Decalogue and other commands, let us not say and persuade, what is my opinion, how do I like it, how does it suit me, but let us look to Jesus who tells us. As the boy in today’s opening reflection did, we will say, My father does it this way. And let us say: My Jesus requires it of me like this.

Some religious people have several wrong attitudes towards holy things and are prone to expect, for example, a miraculous medal, scapular or water for their salvation and healing. Thirty years ago, pilgrimages were widely made to Turzovka, where Our Lady was supposed to appear to the forester. At that time, the Episcopal congregation had to crack down very hard because people were coming to this place to beg Our Lady and at the same time transgressing the Church’s injunction. On Sundays and the commanded feast, these pilgrims did not go to Mass. Nay, there was much talk of healing. But there was none when the bishop-appointed commission investigating this suddenly asked for serious evidence. Only in the words of Jesus is their salvation.

This is what this Gospel teaches us, too, when Jesus says to the sick man who had been lying at the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, near the Pool of Beth sat, for thirty-eight years, “Get up, take up your bed, and go.” (Jn 5:8).

In both of today’s readings, there is talk of healing water. Ezekiel tells of the fertilizing water that transformed the desert into a rich garden.
John in the Gospel, on the other hand, tells of the healing power of the water in the pool of Bethsaida. This was not the natural power of water. We might compare it to the effects of the water in Lourdes today, where many unexplained healing have taken place due to a sick person being immersed in that water. In the book Lourdes Beacon of the Atomic Age, these events are not written about in a superficial sense because a committee of doctors investigates each case, and the doctors may not be believers. When the Church gives proof of unexplained healing, it is provided after a thorough investigation. Thus, nothing superficial, fanciful.

But the Gospel wants to tell us that all our salvation comes from the Lord Jesus. We have talked about the three stages of faith, and the gospel seeks to reinforce this effort of ours to improve our confidence.

The sick person lies in the pillar by the pond where he came or had himself brought to be healed in the water that restores health. But he had no one to carry him into this water when he was coiled; that is when he acquired healing power for a while. It was something strange. The water in the pond, after the beast, healed only one, and that was the first one who entered it. This sick man is, therefore, sad. When Jesus asks him if he wants to be made well, hope dawns on the sick man. But the sick man sees only an ill body, and Jesus wants to give him his salvation. The sick man thinks that Jesus wants to take him there, but Jesus prefers not to become a nurse. He would like to heal by his word. The sick man is not healed thanks to miraculous water, nor with some tried and true practices, but with the love of Jesus. This was to lead him to seek both Jesus and salvation. Jesus, who healed his body, can also heal his soul, so we understand Jesus’ words of admonition, “Behold, you are healed; sin no more, lest something worse befall you.” (Jn 5:14).

Our faith is not based on the power of sanctified objects. These objects, such as scapulars, numerals, and medallions, are merely visible objects designed to inspire and sustain faith in the power and strength of the teachings of Jesus Christ. When we take such things in our hands, let us not then yield to superstition, to magical charms, for our pious reverence for these objects is only intended to deepen our dependence on God.
There is a difference between wearing a cross around one’s neck or a rosary on one’s finger to invoke God’s help and protection and one who carries these objects around as a talisman for good fortune or success. May these objects, these symbols, have a place in our lives and remind us of the salvation of our souls. But may they help us grow spiritually and move forward in fulfilling God’s and the Church’s commands.

In some schools nowadays, it is said that it does not bother some teachers that young people behave vulgarly and do not fulfill their study duties. Still, when young Christians have a rosary on their hands, they are already bothered by it, and they say that it interferes with their study duties. I know many who achieve good results and have exemplary behavior because they are believers. They set an example. Yes, we must not provoke anyone, but neither must we passively resign. Let us enjoy these and similar things with discretion for the salvation of our immortal souls.

In these things, let us submit ourselves to the discipline of the Church, and in so doing, let us convince ourselves that it will only be to the benefit of the cause and our salvation.

God has offered man to trust Him. Why should I trust God and not, for example, doctors…? Jesus said (to the centurion), “Go, your son lives!” (Jn 4:50).

Capernaum was one of those larger cities. At that time, this city, like all the rest of the territory, was under the rule of the Roman Empire. In this city lived a certain centurion, a Roman citizen, who had about one hundred people under his charge. The centurion had a high position in society and was a pagan. He sends the Jewish elders with a request to go to Jesus and intercede for the sick man. Each synagogue had a congregation of elders who managed the community’s affairs. A Gentile was considered unclean, and the centurion did not want Jesus to defile himself by coming to him. This centurion cared very much for his servant. The servant must have been a very good man for the centurion himself to stand up for him.

The elders come to Jesus and intercede, not for the sick man, but the centurion, extolling his virtues. They praise his goodness. He deserves you to do this to him because he loves our nation and built us a synagogue. The centurion loves the people. He notices their needs, so he is popular in the community. Jesus hears their plea and goes to him, but others come to Jesus saying that the centurion doesn’t consider himself fit for Jesus to come to him, and he says that he too has his subordinates, to whom if he says something, they will do it. Here Jesus highlights his great faith.

The centurion is a Gentile and has believed in Jesus. The evangelist points out that those who receive him are not the scribes and Pharisees. Those who should recognize in the person of Jesus the Messiah, but they do not, but Gentiles and sinners believe in him. Miracles are signs of the coming of the kingdom of God. God is almighty. Just one word, and you are healed.

St. John Mary Vianney said: “God is almighty, he can always work miracles and do them even now, but people lack faith.”

It must be as strong as that of today’s centurion. The centurion believed, believed very much, and did not doubt. That’s why Jesus praised his faith. Even the Israelites did not have the confidence that this Gentile had. Do you think miracles don’t happen now? They do happen; you have to have faith. God knows very well what will befall us. Physical suffering is not the worst thing that can occur to a man. In suffering, one feels more the nearness of God, faith is more alive, while those who suffer nothing forget the good Lord God.

In the greatest of Dostoevsky’s novels, The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan challenges his brother: “Assume, that you are constructing the edifice of human destiny with the ultimate aim of making people happy, to give them peace and tranquility, but to make all this to do this, it is necessary to allow the suffering of one man of one small child… and to base his work on his tears – can he dare to do so with this condition? “No, I cannot,” replied Alosha. If we cannot dare to do it, for what then, what does God do? After seeing a small child slowly dying of brain fog, a man said he could no longer believe in a God of love. Others have the experience of caring for a spouse or a wife, a child or a parent who has fallen into total depression:
In the realm of suffering, there is perhaps nothing more terrible than to watch a human being in helpless despair. What is our answer? How do we reconcile faith in a loving God, a creative …who says that there is a “good beyond measure.” With the existence of pain, sin, and evil?
I must admit that the answer is not easy, even if it is obvious, but reconciliation is possible. Pain and evil touch us as something irrational. Our suffering, and the suffering of others, is an experience we live, not a theory a theoretical problem that we can push aside by explanation. If it can be explained, it can be explained in other ways than words. Suffering cannot be “justified,” but it can be experienced, accepted, and transformed through this acceptance. X suffering and evil,” says Nikolai Berdyaev, “is resolved in the experience of compassion and love.” But if I am distrustful of any easy explanation of the “problem of evil,” we can look at the description of the human fall as given in the third chapter of Genesis – interpreted literally or symbolically – where we see two vivid indicators that need to be carefully considered.
The account of Genesis begins with the speech of the “serpent” (3:1), that is, the Devil and – the first in the host of those angels who turned away from God and to the hell of their own will. There was a double fall, the first of angels and the second of man. For the Orthodox, there is no fall of angels but spiritual truth. Before the creation of man and the South, there was a separation of paths in the spiritual realm: some angels remained steadfast in obedience to God; others rejected it. This “heavenly war” (Rev. 12:7) is the subject of this question, we have hidden messages in Scripture, no narrative of the details that took place; we know little of God’s plans for a possible reconciliation in the spiritual realm, or of any (if any) the Devil may eventually be redeemed.
Perhaps, as the first chapter of the book of Job depicts, Satan is not
as black as he is usually painted. At this stage of earthly existence, Satan is the enemy, but Satan also has a direct relationship with God, of whom we know nothing, and has no, so there is no point in speculating about him. Three questions may interest those trying to understand the problem of pain. First, beyond the evil we are, we humans are personally responsible for, are present in the universe forces of immense power whose will is turned to evil. These forces, which are not human, are nevertheless personal. The existence of such demonic powers is not a hypothesis or a legend but – for many of us, perhaps – an object of direct experience. Secondly, the existence of fallen spiritual forces helps us understand why there was disorder, devastation, and brutality in nature before the creation of man. Third, the rebellion of the angels makes it clear that evil has no origin “below” but “above” that it is not of matter. Still, Evil, already been pointed out, is not a “thing,” it does not exist in itself, as a substance, but as a bad attitude towards that which is good in the thing itself. The source of evil lies in the free will of spiritual existences, endowed with moral responsibility, which has this power so much for our first indicator of direction, the mention of the “serpent.” But (and this may serve as a second indicator) the reports and Genesis clearly show that although man comes into existence in a world already corrupted by the fall of the angels, at the same time, nothing compels him to sin. Eve was tempted by the serpent but was free to refuse. She and Adam’s “original sin” consisted in a conscious act of disobedience, a deliberate refusal In freely choosing to turn away from God and himself, God’s love. ( G n 3,2, 3, 11).
By stating that man has and uses free will, we want to avoid giving a complete explanation but to show that there is an answer to our problem… Why does God allow angels and man to sin? Why does he allow evil and suffering? We answer: Because he is a God of love! Love and desire to share contain freedom. How about the Trinity of love? God desires to share his life with created persons in his image who can freely resist him. In a relationship of benevolent love. Where there is no freedom, there can be no love. Submission excludes love, he says.
Pavel Evdokimov. God can do absolutely everything except to make us love him. God – because he desires to share his love, he does not create robots but angels and human beings, who have the capacity for free choice. God is aware of the risk that he has also given the possibility of sin with this gift of freedom. But those who refuse to take risks do not love. Because of space, there would be no sin. But without freedom.
The man could not be the image of God. Without freedom, there is no
a man fit to enter into communion with God in a mutual love relationship.

Jesus is the master of parables. He is good at them. He can say so much with ordinary stories from life that one is amazed. His parables are an inexhaustible source of life’s wisdom, even if one has heard them. In his parables, one could accuse Jesus of being very black and white, dividing people only into good and evil, the just and the unjust. But he does this right because there is no such thing as mediocrity lukewarmness in the kingdom of God. Either you belong to God, or you don’t belong to God. Either you give yourself wholly to him or outside him with all you have. God is ninety-nine percent: zero percent unless it is a full hundred percent. This parable is just a confirmation of what I am saying.

One was justified; the other was not. He who humbles himself will be exalted and vice versa. (Cf. Lk. 18:14).
Nothing in between. So, what is Jesus talking about today? A Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisees were those who kept all the commandments and were thus considered righteous and considered themselves to be such. The tax collectors were deemed to be public sinners because they collected money from the Jews for the Romans, and the truth is that they also fraudulently enriched themselves from time to time with that money. But I want to avoid talking today about how proud the Pharisee was and how humiliated the tax collector was. No.
Instead, I would like to point out another fact that dramatically influences our thinking – just as it influenced the review of the Pharisee. That fact is prejudice.

What is prejudice? It is the negative thing that first comes to mind when you hear a specific term. For example, I will immediately say `gypsy.’ We immediately think of everything wrong associated with people who hide under that label. And the worst thing is that we approach those people with coldness, aloofness, perhaps even aggression. And yet you don’t know what that person is like at all. You don’t remember his individuality, his uniqueness – and these are just our mistaken thought processes.

The Pharisee also had a problem with this, who lumped all the tax collectors together but couldn’t see into their hearts. He pigeonholed them all. He may have known two tax collectors who had made a fortune from other people’s money, so he concluded that all tax collectors were like that. And he treated them according to that prejudice. “Thank you that I am not like that toll collector.”

Therefore, it is impossible to live a whole Christian life with prejudice. They rob us of our freedom. A businessman is a man, not a robber of the state. A German is a man, not a fascist. Let’s take people out of these `boxes and drawers’ of ours and start looking at them as equals – as people who God loves, called to holiness, as people who have the same rights. They, too, have extraordinary gifts and can enrich us. Let us not immediately wave our hands over them and write them off. Let us find our way to them and dialogue with them. And we will find that the person may have a big heart, maybe good-hearted, and pleasing to God…

Adela, the prostitute, comes to heaven. She is very confused because she knows how she has lived all her life. But the Lord God looks at her with love and says, “Adela, I know your heart very well.” “My heart? What do you see there? The way I have lived miserably? Lord, you had better let me go.”
Then a little angel bursts into God’s office and says: “Lord, outside the gate, stands the director of the Pious Association of So-and-So, and with her, the head of the Christian Organization of So-and-So, and they are asking you if they might be received speedily.” “Let them wait,” replied the Lord God. But the angel urged: “They said you know them very well.” “That I know them? I must have seen them somewhere, but let them wait.”
And again, the Lord God gazed lovingly into Adela’s heart. “It is so generous, so real, so sincerely humble! There is not a trace of hypocrisy in it. No pretense. I wish my longtime believers had hearts like that.”
One of the ladies waiting outside, however, had an angel summoned and scolded him: “Listen, would you kindly remind the Lord God that we are here waiting for Him? We are tired. He has known us for a long time, we are close friends. And by the way,” continued the lady, “unless my eyes deceive me, we have been overtaken by one Adela, well known to all.” But the angel repeats to them, “The Lord God tells you to wait.” “I don’t understand,” – says the other lady, “he knows us; we come here tired because we have protected his interests on earth all our lives, and he lets us go through such a long purgatory.”

Our God always looks at a man’s heart-not at his outward appearance, nor his nationality, nor the color of his skin. We are made in His image, so we are called to be like Him in this. Therefore, let us learn to look at people with a heart without prejudice. Amen.