In 2005, sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton researched American teenagers’ religious and spiritual lives from a wide variety of backgrounds. They found that in most cases, teenagers adhered to a vague pseudo-religion, which they described as moralistic-therapeutic deism (MTD). MTD has five basic principles:
1. There is a God who created and rules the world and oversees man’s life on Earth.
2. God wants people to be good, kind, and fair to one another, as the Bible teaches, and most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about yourself.
4. God does not have to be especially present in a person’s life, except when needed to solve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven after death.
They found that such a creed is particularly prevalent among adolescents belonging to Catholicism and the mainline of Protestantism. Evangelical teenagers performed measurably better, but they were still far from the historical biblical, orthodox faith. Smith and Denton claimed that the MTD was colonizing existing Christian churches, destroys biblical Christianity from within, and replaces it
pseudo-Christianity, which is “only loosely associated with a true historical Christian tradition ’. MTD is de facto the religion of not only American teenagers but also American religious adults. Young adults have remarkably taken over the religious attitudes of their parents. And when many of us were disguised, we had been a nation of MTD for some time. “America has long-lived off its thin Christian façade, which the Cold War partly forced, “Smith told me in an interview. “This façade is finally torn down by the combination of mass consumer capitalism and liberal individualism. “

Data from Smith and other researchers make clear what many of us desperately want to deny: the flood rises to the American church’s trusses. Every congregation in America must alone ask herself whether she has not gone so far in compromising with the world to compromise her own fidelity to learning. It is the Christianity that we have lived and continue to live in our families, congregations, and communities, as a means of deeper conversion or as vaccination as we take faith as seriously as the gospel requires?
Rob Dreher, Benedict’s Choice

I will try to respond to them gradually. Today, there are several hundred comments in the inbox, and my time options are limited. Thank you for your understanding,

You like to solve puzzles, puzzles, crossword puzzles for your inner enrichment. He who reads the Gospel today gets into the role of a deciphered, who can be enriched not only for this world but can also serve him for eternity. Let’s judge. Jesus says to Nicodemus, “He who comes from above is above all” (Jn 3: 31-32).

Those who compiled liturgical texts omitted the entire ten verses between yesterday’s and today’s text from the Gospels. In the previous text, John the Baptist gave a testimony of Jesus. Today, the Lord Jesus speaks of a double testimony. “He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks earthly” (Jn 3:31). He meant John the Baptist. (Jn 3,31-32). And that’s Jesus. From this, we know that man can accept Christ and his words, but he can also reject them. He who accepts them becomes a Christian and at the same time accepts the word of God. However, this does not end everything. Christian tasks await. It is our duty to pass on this knowledge of Christ to others. In the Gospel, therefore, we reveal the mystery of the person of the Lord Jesus, acknowledging that he is God’s envoy, the Savior of the world, but also the Judge of all. We are all witnesses. Even John the Baptist is only a witness, even though we consider him the greatest born of a woman.

Like John the Baptist, the baptism we have received also obliges us to bear witness to Christ. This means that not only our words but our whole lives are to speak of Christ. At the same time, the Christian must not put himself before Christ. Like John, the Christian stands aside as a witness because he is only a mediating element between the two sides. Let us ask God for the light of faith so that we can bear a good testimony that is credible and does not obscure the truth.

Although we accepted baptism as children and did not realize its significance for our earthly and eternal lives, in a state where we have acquired the use of reason and are aware of our responsibility to have free will, we should multiply baptismal grace. Knowing Christ is the duty of every baptized person. Prayer – conversation with Jesus, Holy Mass – meeting with Jesus, sacrament – receiving Jesus. All this is not only our duty but also our need because by doing so, we are fulfilling what God rightly expects of us, but at the same time, we are gaining the necessary merits, without which salvation is not possible. From the earliest days of Christianity, followers, including us, have been called Christians. We have a name after Christ, and therefore a duty to truly bear witness to Christ after baptism.

There are many things in faith that we will never know or know completely. We accept many things, we believe, and although we cannot explain them, we feel that this does not prevent us from accepting them. The personality of Christ is the culmination of our lives.

 Well, how to take it… There are many beliefs in the world. Christians
believe that there is only one God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jews also believe in one God, but they believe that there is only one person, the Three Saints of YHWH, who loves them and has chosen their nation as your property. Muslims also believe in one God, just that his name is Allah; he hates Jews and calls for unbelievers. Hindus believe that there are many gods. Buddhists believe that God’s question does not. It is important, especially if one reaches nirvana, that matters. Agnostics believe that no one can do anything to find out if a god really exists or not. Nevertheless, atheists firmly believe that neither God nor the gods do not exist. And the Rwandan Hutu’s equally firmly believe that if they eat a forest dwarf, they will gain an extraordinary ability to orient themselves in the bush – that is why they have killed and eaten most of them to this day a population of pygmies in the territory of their country… Good galimatias, right? And that’s much more faith!

The world encourages us to consider all these beliefs as equal. According to him, everyone has some faith; no one’s faith is better or worse; we, therefore, have all the beliefs and opinions, accept them with the same respect, and tolerate them as well. We Christians are then still prone to it to add as “they are also believers” (except for atheists, of course), because “in something there they believe above “and that is great because first they will be saved even after death, when those believing people they are, right? But… Imagine this situation: Four friends meet and want to go to the cinema. One believes that the film, Shack, is shown in the Cinema, Star, a smile for 10 € at 20:00, the second believes that it is at 16:00, the third believes that it is at the  Cinema, Metropolis, for € 15 and the fourth believes that it is free and therefore does not take any money with you.
Are their beliefs equal? Certainly not! Or one will come early, or the other late, or one he comes to the wrong cinema, or they don’t let the other one go to the movie because he doesn’t have a ticket. Just the one who he believed the right information – that is, the truth, and therefore his faith is also true – has no problem. Others have problems and inconveniences at best, at worst they lose the film completely…
Both the Hebrew and the Greek word for faith (the Holy Scriptures are written in these languages) have both meanings of certainty – something that we are convinced is true. So we can do it completely reliably and unconditionally accept. In other words, faith is faith in the Christian sense of the word only if it is true. Belief in something that is not true is worthless, even harmful – and from the point of view of Scripture. Therefore, there is no faith in a saint because certainty cannot be false or untrue! It’s not important that I am a “believer” and “I believe in something” – I have to believe truthfully and truthfully! Only then is true faith and has a price – precisely because of the truth that I receive with it and which alone matters!

That is why Jesus says, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, 32 you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free ”(Jn 8: 31-32 NIV). Notice, not “faith in something will set you free,” but “the truth will set you free”! He also says that “foolishness” defiles a person “(cf. Mk 7: 22-23). He also speaks the parable of the virgins, where the wise come to marriage and the unwise – literally vulgar, blunt in origin – they stay sprained out, in the dark. The sower’s parable repeats that while the evil heart does not understand God’s word, a good heart listens to it and truly understands it. Not even that
we are not talking about Peter, who loves Jesus, sincerely wants only the best for Jesus – and yet Jesus punches hard in the face, “Get out of my way, Satan! To offend me, because you have no sense of God’s things, only for the human ”(Mt 16:23)! In other words – your faith is untrue because it does not correspond to God – and that makes you, even caring and loving, my satan, the adversary and enemy of God because out of ignorance, you seek things that are contrary to God!
As we can see, it is essential that we not only “believe in something,” but that our faith is clear, understood, clear and sure, indeed true, to be a true vision and understanding of the world, of herself, of life, of God, of all as it really is, in fact, and objectively. But many in this Christians are reprehensibly reckless! How many times have you heard how someone, even a Catholic, says: “I believe it that way…”, “I think it’s kind of like that…”, “I feel that way…”, they taught, and this is how I believe… “,” It is enough for me to use it suits… “- without any verification, is it really so! On the most important question of life and death, eternal life and eternal death, in that the only thing Jesus says about: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and himself lost or damaged ?! ”(Lk 9:25) – they are recklessly satisfied with feelings, with assumptions, with uncertain conjectures and tales, and they don’t mind at all that they have no certainty! Terrible, isn’t it? Let’s be; therefore, they are very vigilant and careful not to fall into something so reckless with ourselves!

Violence has always been, is, and will be condemned by free people, in all life areas. Although it sometimes seems that success will not be successful without violence, it is still necessary to hold the right opinion and opinion. History has shown that injustice and violence have taken place in the Church as well. Yes, even in the Church certain circles led the so-called. “Holy” wars. Violence understood in this way is an obstacle, not progress. Even the teachings of Christ given non-violently will certainly attract more and also strengthen man in faith.

The personality of Nicodemus of the Gospel also convinces us of the truth of this opinion. Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish council, often visited Christ, but especially at night. The main theme of these meetings was faith. Nicodemus was convinced that nothing is as important to man as faith. Christ explained to him that without faith it is impossible to be like God, and the victory that the world will triumph in is our faith. Nicodemus believed in Christ.

The Church today wants to point out the circumstances that are to prepare us for a proper understanding of the truth about the death and resurrection of Christ. The Church wants us to be broken not by suffering, nor by torture, nor by death, and so they believe more in Christ, the Savior of the world.

We often read in the Gospels that Jesus often demanded strong faith from his listeners during his public ministry. The next path in the following depended on it. The Church wants to convince us of the great role of faith in human life. He refers today to an event that once took place in the wilderness during the journey of the Jews from Egypt to their promised land (cf. 4 Cor 21: 5-9). On the way, they were attacked by poisonous snakes. Then the Israelites realized that this was God’s punishment for their grumbling. They asked Moses to ask God for mercy. According to the commandment of God, Moses made a copper serpent, placed it on a pole, and declared that he who looked at the serpent with faith would be saved. And it really did happen. In the Gospel, the copper serpent is an image and a symbol of the hanging, dying man on the cross – Christ. His suffering and death cannot be the cause of our doubts, nor of melancholy, but, on the contrary, are to revive our faith and strengthen us in overcoming the hardships that Christ must suffer for us and thus enter into his glory (cf. Lk 26, 26).

As we reflect on the suffering and death of Christ at this time, we desire to establish ourselves in our faith and fully believe in Christ, and if we are convinced that God did not send his Son into the world for the world to perish, but who believes in him to have eternal life. Thanks to Jesus Christ for being saved by his suffering and death, which is not the dramatic end of his life because he carries with him a new life. It carries him to all who believe in Jesus – they want to draw from his fruit, albeit painful. Let us look with faith at the cross of Christ, on which, as the liturgy says, the salvation of the world hung.

Like faith in a copper, the serpent saved the Israelites bitten by snakes from death, if today the same faith will certainly save us from eternal death and open the locked gate of redemption for us again. So let’s go! Therefore, let us be in charge of our faith. Today, let us also realize that faith is born in our human hearts, develops in them, and grows and matures as a small plant. It may happen that in time it will wither, weaken, but never perish if it leans on Christ! The Church does not want to lead us by the hand to Christ so that we may see with him the answer to the problems of our faith. We can say that the suffering of Christ determines for us a kind of invitation to faith. He wants to lead us to think and to suggest that a righteous man lives by faith and that his faith is nothing but a response to God’s call.

The liturgy of the Holy Mass today shows us the despised and troubled Christ, who bears the cross for our sins, but also Christ falling under the cross for our weaknesses, and says: You must believe in this Christ! If you choose this faith, you will not be misled because it will be your testimony of maturity and inner spiritual strength. By doing so, you will present to the world a personal witness that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor present, nor future, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (cf. Rom 8: 38-39). We can boldly say that the suffering of Christ does not frighten us. Our faith will not give up reason, but on the contrary, it will give us strength. This is in line with what St. John in his First Letter: “And our faith is the victory that has overcome the world” (1 Jn 5: 4).

In 1976, Catholics met murderers in Rome, Protestants in the spirit of ecumenism, whose predecessors had murdered John Ogilvie. Ogilvie was an Anglican, raised in the Protestant-Calvinist spirit. His parents belonged to a higher class, and John was educated in France. Here he encounters Catholic teaching and converts as a 17-year-old. He asked us to join the order in Olomouc. He performed his novitiate in Brno. Then he returned to his homeland, where at that time there was a strong departure from Rome. The apostate spirit intoxicated them.

We cannot imagine human progress without signs. We don’t just call characters different drawings, but the characters include fonts, notes, various objects, and words, ideas …
The Gospel says: “As Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted, that whoever believes may have eternal life in him” (Jn 3:14).

We know that as the chosen nation departed from slavery in Egypt to the promised land of Canaan, the nation in the wilderness led by Moses often betrayed God’s will. People often grumbled. In one such grumbling, God sent poisonous snakes at the Jews. These bit people and the nation began to realize that it had offended God. Therefore, they turn to Moses to ask God to save them from the horrible death of being bitten by snakes. And God commanded Moses to hang upon the rod a serpent, which he should cast from the brass. When he did so, anyone who touched or looked at this copper snake, even though snakes bit it, did not die. These people were saved through the Savior and Redeemer of all men, Jesus Christ. When Christ died on the cross, then on the cross, he nailed the power of evil, its power. The cross has become a new life source; it has become a source of healing.

This event wants to tell us that he who looks at the crucified Christ wants to find eternal life. It is essential to find time and look at the crucified Christ. When his gaze meets ours, he pierces our pride, and we feel the power of healing.
All this is Jesus ‘answer to Nicodemus’ question: “How can this happen?” (cf. Jn 3: 9). Nicodemus was troubled; he still did not understand how a man could believe and be born again of the Holy Spirit. This is the moment when one wants to solve everything on his own, that is, before the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants Nicodemus to believe in the redemptive death of the Lord Jesus. Just as those who have been bitten by serpents and have been healed by the sight of a copper serpent, so anyone who looks at the crucified Christ with faith will receive eternal life will be healed, saved, and saved. Just as for the Lord Jesus, his death on the cross was a necessary entry into his glory, so for man, faith is a condition for attaining the justification of sins before God, through being born again of the Spirit through baptism and attaining glory in heaven.

For us, baptism’s sacrament not only becomes the gateway to eternal life but in this sacrament, we are also forgiven of all our sins committed before baptism. By baptismal grace, we have regained what our grandparents lost in their disobedience in paradise. When we renew our baptismal vows, for example, in the ecclesial community at the first st Communion, on White Saturday, we realize that we are renouncing all sin, professing our faith, and thus growing our friendship with God. This, then, is our testimony manifested in gestures, words. Behind all this, there is something invisible to our eyes, yet so necessary for our lives of faith – contact with God: this unites us and makes us true brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus. In this, we see amazing progress, which does not meet its goal here on earth, but once in eternity.

“Today, I would like to talk about the disappointment of God. (First) something significant to you. Ranking of your values. What is the greatest value in your life? The greatest value in life. For me, it is that God has redeemed me. The biggest value in my life. Because I could have everything, and I would then take it all to hell. And when you are not grateful to God until death for redeeming you, and you demand from Him, as a claim for your life to be healthy, happy, he has a lot of money blessed to prosper. When he does not give it to you, you will be angry and disappointed, so you’re ungrateful. If it is not enough for you that the precious blood of the Son of God has been shed, if it is not enough for you to have life forever, if it is not enough for you to be rewarded 100 times more in this life, albeit in another way, if it is not enough for you, that you have eternal life, but you want you to be healthy, content, to prosper, to be respected, to be recognized, to God finally and in time to give you a partner, let him kindly wake up to wake up, then you are very ungrateful. We once talked to a brother about this topic, and he said to me: “You know, I am grateful to God for saving me; I am grateful to Him as a dog. And if he didn’t give me anything for the rest of his life and just kicked me, I would still be grateful. I’ll be happy anyway because he’s already given me everything. ” That is why I tell you if you are disappointed in God if you are disappointed that your ideas, dreams, and ideals have not come true for you, great and noble majesty, and if you say that, as God could only afford, it does not come true for me, how do I even have to wait as long as possible that he doesn’t answer me, as he even dares to be silent. You get a little angry; then you get a little angrier, then you are disappointed, then you walk like those whom God he hurt so much, whom God hurt so much, then you are very ungrateful. “
In other words: God is calling me to deification – and will do in my life all that will be necessary for me to be deified, no matter what it will be: poverty, wealth, pain, bliss, good living, homelessness, home, exile, respect whether the persecution…
This life is not a hotel but a training camp for saints – deified people. His goal is not a “comfortable life” but “hard training.”
If you expect anything else from God — for example, to be your personal servant, bodyguard, and financial advisor in one person — you will naturally be disappointed in God. This is, after all, HELL: A place where people go, to whom God and His offer do not sit and want to do their own “projects” there, in no way disturbed by God…
“Whenever there is oppression or tribulation, it is a rebuke to us and a rebuke. For not even our Scripture promises us peace, security, and peace, nor does the gospel conceal affliction, oppression, and offense. But “he who endures to the end will be saved.” (St. Augustine)

P.S .: CATHOLICS have always been aware of the reality of spiritual growth and what St. Augustine. But PROTESTANTISM, with its thesis of “sola fide” and “once saved – forever saved,” largely rejected this idea (although it is slowly returning to it, and that is good). From a Protestant point of view, a sign of God’s grace and forgiveness should be that God will bless me because He no longer has a reason not to do so. So it will remove my problems, I will prosper, I will be successful, rich,… – finally, out of the desire for such a “confirmation” of God’s grace and forgiveness, that “Protestant work ethic” was born. But if success does not come and is replaced by a crisis and “night,” the Protestant is confused and disappointed – unlike a Catholic who (for example, thanks to St. John of the Cross) knows that it is a necessary part of the “training” of God’s sons and daughters, as the Bible finally says: and beaten whomsoever he received a son. 7 What you bear for your correction. God treats you as sons. And whose son wouldn’t a father scold? 8 If you are outside the upbringing in which everyone has participated, you are illegitimate children, not sons! 9 And then our fathers of the flesh raised us and respected them. Won’t we submit more to the Father of spirits and live ?! 10 And they rebuked us for a short time, and as they saw it, yet for the sake of that which is useful, that we might partake of his holiness. 11 True, every education in the present does not seem joyful, but cruel; later, however, it bears the reassuring fruit of justice for those it has trained. 12 Therefore raise weak hands and broken knees! (Heb 12: 5-12)

Thank you for all the comments, but I cannot reply to them all at once for many of these comments. I will try to respond to these comments gradually as time allows me. Thank you.

We have completed the Easter octave of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We will spend the Easter season until the Feast of the Sending of the Holy Spirit, which is the fiftieth day after the Lord Jesus’s resurrection. We will talk about the Easter season’s current topic, and that is the sacrament of baptism.

When Jesus met Nicodemus, Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say this: Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (Jn 3: 5).

This third head of the Gospel of St. Johan. We can also call John the Apostle “baptismal catechists,” teaching about the sacrament of baptism. He himself visits Jesus and talks to him, the conversation makes him so impressed that he comes again after Jesus under cover of darkness, and so we can say that this is where the faith, which was aroused by the miracles of Christ, begins in him. Nicodemus was a man longing for the truth. He sees, and therefore he tries to dedicate Nicodemus to the mystery of salvation. This was what Nicodemus was about because otherwise, he would not even call Jesus a teacher. Through rebirth from the water and the Holy Spirit, that is, with the help of the sacrament of baptism, there is a new birth, a new life – the supernatural. At first, Nicodemus mistakenly thinks that this is something absurd – not born. However, this is not a matter of physical rebirth but of spiritual rebirth with water, which is a symbol of life. This visible sign – the baptism of rebirth – means that the Holy Spirit awakens in the baptized a new life, a new principle of life, namely sanctifying grace. This is how the physical person becomes spiritual, that is, filled with the Holy Spirit.

We believe Christians speak of dual existence; that is, we have obtained a spiritual existence from our parents. This act is a matter of faith. It’s a secret to us. However, in the surrounding nature, we see various secrets, such as the wind blowing where it wants, without our consent. Likewise, the Holy Spirit opens the way for us to a new life without our intervention. To be born of the Holy Spirit is to receive God’s inspiration and to believe in God. Only when a person decides to receive the Holy Spirit in faith does a person without his merits be reborn by the Holy Spirit. This means that we can receive baptism only once in our lives, but the grace that began at baptism can be multiplied, regained, in the sacrament of reconciliation, when we put our conscience in order.

It follows that we must constantly strive to renew the baptismal grace we have received, to increase it constantly, that is, to grow spiritually. We know that Nicodemus did not understand this at the first encounter with Christ. He left that night, and yet it was a significant night not only for him but also for us because as the moment came with Nicodemus, after death, Christ would stand in not only the council but also Pilate himself would ask for the release of the dead body of the Lord Jesus.

Even in our lives, we had experienced the moment when we were willing to give up not only many things, events, and people for our spiritual growth, but we also found that what is not connected with Christ has no value or meaning for us. Let us often remember the value of our baptism. Let us remember gratefully for the parents, the godparents, and the priest who baptized us because at that time, he gave us a great treasure that opens the gates of heaven. Let us pray for ourselves that we will never lose our baptismal grace.

At this Easter time, may our awareness grow that we have been born again to new life through baptism.