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God is immutable – how could he retreat from our insistence and change our eternal burdens?
Origenes is already trying to answer this objection at the beginning of his book of prayer. He points out that all the trouble comes from the fact that we pass on to God our way of human thinking in the categories of time. In the rhythm of our life, first one event, then the second follows. But God is out any time. There is everything in him about the eternal view present – both our request and its hearing. He so nothing changes when he hears us. And if he objects then someone that, assuming that God has decided everything from eternity, our prayers are illusory. Origenes corresponds with a nice example: God from eternity decides on the arrival of individual people into the world
and their vocation. Yet, our parents are the real cause of our existence on earth. Similarly, continues by the same author, our prayers are like fathers and the mothers of events that take place in this world.

The same problem is presented humorously in the famous book about Don Camilo. He reportedly heard from Jesus explains: ‘You go carelessly, you cross the dormitory, you stumble and fall on the sleeper. You hear him coming by train. You say a prayer quickly, asking for the train to leave for a college other than the one where you fell. And indeed, so it happens. Then you thank the Lord for hearing you. But how he could hear you when the train left the station, and he couldn’t dodge another college? ” Don Camilo can’t answer but hears Jesus’ explanation: “Before the train came out, I saw your fall, and I heard your prayer, so I arranged everything to make your prayer she was heard, and the timetable was not disrupted. “Here we hear a folk explanation of what Origenes explains metaphysically. However, Berdyaev’s disciple, S. L. Frank, concludes from these considerations even deeper conclusions – because so ours The message for today prayers enter into eternity and become one with God’s eternal decisions, we can say that the voice of our prayers to Heavenly Father was already heard on the beginning of the creation of the universe at the same time as the word of the Creator. And because God created the world at the same time as us, we participate in his work. This conclusion corresponds to what we really believe in. God the Father creates and preserves the world through the Son. Christians who are one with Christ participate in this work. So we can apply to ourselves what in the parable of the prodigal a father tells his older son, “Child, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours “(Lk 15, 31). And God has life, love, and doing good. On we share this as sons in the Son.

To realize that the Father’s love is above the Father’s justice. Raniero Cantalemessa, a papal preacher, a Dominican, said: “King He can realize his “I” in confrontation with his subjects, the child himself aware about parents, the citizen in contact with the state. However, how endless “I” will gain value the moment God becomes his measure. ”1 And just about mine value about God speaks today’s gospel through the image of a father and his son.
“My son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours” (Lk 15:31).

These are the words that a father shall answer to his eldest son when he shall answer his father; he rebukes that after many years of service, always obedient to his father’s command, he never received as an expression of gratitude or just a kid so that he can have fun with his friends. Older, the son perceives his relationship with his father on the principle of exchange justice, which is certainly correct, for the son shall restore his father’s care through his labor and labor. And certainly, it’s normal when he expects the inheritance of property from his father. But in the relationship of the older son to the father, yet something is missing, something more substantial, he lacks love.

The older son had no desire and effort to leave his father; like his younger brother, he did not desire freedom and independence. What he longed for and what in a way he had been that what he was doing for his father now would one day be his. Through his fathers’ eyes, he had before he perceived property and his relationship with his father as an exchange relationship justice. However, he is offended and touched when a father towards his younger son, who deprived him of his property, did not exercise the relationship of justice. He would expect his father he accepts the younger son as a servant. “My son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours ”(Lk 15:31). In this answer, the father clarifies to the older son that before righteousness, love, the Father’s love for his son comes first in his heart. He doesn’t answer to his older son, “For all I have is yours,” but my answer begins with the words, “My son, my son, you are always with me.”

The father’s loving heart is most importantly; she has a son, she has a son she loves and is always with him. The Father reveals to his older son that he is a son, that he is with a loving father, and in the father’s love also has everything that belongs to the father. We experience fasting time and liturgy, prayers, and more often, even sermons are the repentant character. We are more and more intensely aware of our sinfulness, unbelief, and ingratitude against God. But all this would be something absurd if we didn’t have it in front of our eyes God, the Father who loves us. Neither God nor the relationship of justice is applied to us; we must not perceive our relationship with God as exchangeable justice. We want to live holy, just, and without sin, not for God to give us heaven for it once. But we want to live holy, just, and without sin because God gives us in his love or already donated because he loves us; we are his beloved children.

The older son did not see his father’s love; there was property between him and his father. When looking at the love of God the Father, sometimes it obscures something to our and eyes. Either it’s us, our interests, worries, work, or even happiness and success, our false security. Younger, extravagant, the son, only because he lost everything, was able to discover his father’s love and in it find everything you lost again. Only when we lose ground do we have a kind of life security; only then do we turn our gaze to God, then look like a younger son.
Let us stay with God as an older son, but as a younger son, let us lose everything. At the end of the week, students from the university were given the task of embracing their father for a long time and sincerely.
“I can’t do it,” one protested, “my father would die.” “And finally,” said another, “My father knows I love him.” “It’s that easy,” the professor said. “Why wouldn’t you do that?” On Monday, everyone was surprised to talk about their experiences. “My father cried!” He said one. And the second: “Strange. My father thanked me. ”2 Maybe we look like a younger son than he felt in our lives, and we have discovered the love of God. Maybe we are like an older son; we have a relationship with God. To the Father, our distorted image, we fulfill our religious duties and wait for in return for it or. The students hugged their fathers and sincerely expressed their love for them and gratitude. Let us also stand before God the Father and realize that we are God-beloved sons and daughters loved by God. Let’s try to remove everything we have to prevent seeing Heavenly Father’s love.

Faith is, in a sense, an adventure. If we want to express it precisely, we encounter another great difficulty. We come to the gap between the “visible” and the “invisible.” A new difficulty is also emerging in the words “then” and “now.” The paradox lies mainly because faith appears in ancient clothes and seems to be something outdated and carries over modern life, something from a bygone life. Efforts to “modernize” the faith, whether we call it academically “demystification *” or “aggiornamento,” do not change anything; on the contrary, they only arouse suspicion that he pretends to be convulsive here Today’s something is actually old that once applied a long time ago. Only when we try to bring today’s faith closer, do we realize that everything we encounter here was yesterday.

Faith seems like a bold and generous leap from this apparent “everything” in the visible world into an apparent nothingness world of the invisible and incomprehensible. Faith seems more as an incentive and a commitment to something yesterday today as to something still valid. And who would want something like that stood at a time when a new idea of ​​”progress” was taking the place of “tradition”? We only briefly come across one peculiarity of today’s situation important to our question. For spiritual flow in the past, the term “tradition” meant a defining program. The tradition was something safe; one could rely on it rely on. If one could refer to tradition, one believed correctly and was in place. Today, the opposite is true. Tradition seemed to be something yesterday, surpassed, and progress is declared the promise of the future. Human does not want to be rooted in tradition and the past but the space of progress and the future. If he encounters faith under his name of tradition, that is, something surpassed, such faith cannot show life’s direction. But that means the first outrage of beliefs, the distance between the visible and the invisible, between God and what God is not, is overshadowed by the second outrage contained in the word then and now, the contradiction between tradition and progress when one is asked to recognize what was true yesterday. And so does faith. It is clear that neither the demythologizing of faith nor aggiornamento they can’t quite convince. The outrage of the Christian faith is going on so far that no theories or actions are absolutely enough. Yes, In a sense, this scandal in Christianity is still happening more striking when we talk about Christian positivism. This means that the Christian faith is not just about eternal, namely, beyond the visible world and time. It deals with a lot More God in history, God-man. Faith, it seems, bridges the gap between the eternal and the temporal, between the visible and the invisible, by introducing us to God as man, the eternal God in time, as one of us. Faith declares it a revelation. He justifies his right to revelation by bringing something eternal into our world: “God no one he has never seen the only-begotten Son resting on his heart Father, he told us about Him. ”(John 1:18) –

Jesus became the “exegesis” of God. We can take the original Greek text literally: Jesus actually explained God, brought him out of himself. Even more clearly says St. John in his letter: »… of that whom no one has ever seen, we have seen, they have spoken we are with him, touching him with our hands. ”(I John 1: 1-3.)
At first, it seems to be the highest possible degree of revelation of God to man. Jump to infinity as if it were crammed into human possibilities, and take a few steps to the man from Palestine in whom he walks towards us God himself. But even that is a double-edged sword: What is and will remain by radical revelation, it, in turn, becomes dark, incomprehensible. To see in God a fellow man, being able to follow in his footsteps, be able to touch it, just that in the deeper sense of the word became a prerequisite for the “death of God.” And it manifests itself throughout human history. God has come so close to us that we can kill him, and thus he ceases to be God for us. And so we face this great “revelation” with greatness question, especially when compared to the religious thinking of Asia. Perhaps it would be easier to believe in something eternally hidden and to confide in him. Maybe it would be better if God would leave us at an immeasurable distance.

Maybe so it was more acceptable to believe in an incomprehensible secret than to accept this one figure – to accept this Christian one the positivism of faith – and in it, as seen in man’s single point of salvation. Just being narrowed down to a single point, God did not have to die definitively in the image of the world where man’s history is considered a mere powder in space. Only in the naivety of childhood can he think he is the center of everything? But when he grows up with children’s pants and wakes up from sleep when he shakes off a beautiful dream and corrects himself into the reality in which our tiny life unfolds, does not have just in accepting this tiny life to seek his new sense? Behind the secondary outrage of the words “then” and “today” is emerging a far deeper outrage in Christian “positivism,” in narrowing God to a single point in history – and now we are just reaching a crucial question of the Christian faith, as the modern world also formulates it. Maybe we can at all still believe? Or let’s ask even more radically:

We can also use fasting time to get to know ourselves and our place in the environment and make the necessary correction.

At the end of the incident, John the Apostle, when Jesus cleansed the Jerusalem Temple from cattle, money changers, and other grievances with his whip, “He knew everyone, and he did not need anyone to bear witness to him. For he knew what was in man ”(Johan 2: 24-25).

The third Sunday of Lent tells us that we are in the middle of Lent. The Gospel of the Purification of the Temple of Jerusalem by Jesus is a challenge to realize our responsibility for our souls’ condition and perhaps for the condition of the church. Jesus was aroused by righteous anger, saying, “Do not make my father’s house a marketplace” (Johan 2:16).
In the Jerusalem Temple, God precisely determined through Moses what could take place, who and why could stay there. The sanctuary played a role, the courtyards of the temple, where bloody and bloodless sacrifices were offered, where only priests, believing Jews and pagans, had access. Over time, the desire to sell and gain the best has led some to places not designed for it. We can understand Jesus’ behavior in another light. Jesus is sovereign as the expected and foretold Messiah. By his behavior, he proves who he is and what the temple should be. He presents himself as the Messiah and acts not only in word but also indeed. The event took place shortly before Jewish Easter when Jews commemorate their liberation from Egyptian slavery. Many have forgotten the essence of why this event is celebrated in the nation. The feast became a time of travel, trade, visits, and sacrifices, perhaps out of habit, but the nation forgot that the Messiah would come with a different mission. The nation was waiting for the Messiah to free them from the hated Romans. He united the Jewish temple and saw it as something most sacred. Jesus comes to die for the nation, so they ask, “What sign will you show us that you can do this?” Jesus replies, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it.” he spoke of the temple of his body. ”(Johan 2:21). The Jews did not understand this answer. Jesus desires to focus the Jews’ attention on himself, his mission, his life. He is a sanctuary of God in the full sense of the word. He is God, although people see only his body. Jesus clearly represents his divine-human nature. Enemies do not understand Jesus’ words about the temple. Jesus knows why he came to earth; he wants to die for the sins of all and allow them to return to the Father.

Today we understand not only the words of Jesus but also the words of the apostle: “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor 3:16) We understand that the whip with which we expel God from our hearts is sin, and sin we ruin the sanctuary of God in us. The interior of man after sin is a marketplace. Screams, riots, trades, words and words, our deeds and thoughts insult God. One can sell one’s God, soul, and eternity in such a market, and one does not have to get thirty pieces of silver for it. Am I not a bad trader? Lent prepares us for the greatest feasts of the resurrection of the Lord, but also our resurrection. Let’s stop shopping in our lives; let’s stop selling God and our Christianity. If we find that things unnecessary have accumulated in our sanctuary – the soul, and we have turned our hearts into the cave of Satan, it is time to go to work to cleanse it and return to God. When we renounce sin, our hearts are purified, and at the same time, the ruined temple of our soul is transformed into a sanctuary.
Already in the Old Testament, God said in the Ten Commandments what we are obliged to keep (cf. Ex 20: 1-17). If it was ever necessary to keep these commandments, it is today, and it is we who are obliged to keep them because we decide for ourselves. God knows what is in us, but we decide freely and consciously about our eternity. Our behavior, thoughts, words, and deeds are to be by the commandments of Moses’ two tablets of stone.

It would not be bad for similar boards to hang in a visible place, at least during Lent, with the words: Keep quiet during your stay in the church. The place where you stand is holy. God wants to talk to you. At least listen to him here. Realize that God wants to be in your body like in a temple. Purify your temple in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Gain strength so that when you leave, the temple of the soul is not endangered. When you leave the temple, take God’s words for yourself and talk to others and others.

We can remember that from the state of our souls’ temples, one can also know the material state, the church in which we meet. We can say of the church that it is the house of God, the house of prayer, the earthly house of our God… Jesus himself says: “Do not make my father’s house a market.” (Johan 2:16) The concern for the material church and the concern for the temple of your body cannot be underestimated.

There was a strange fall in a goldsmith on a busy street. In a store with more buyers, he began smashing glass cases and stuffing gold into bags. True, the police detained him. During the interrogation, the man was asked, “What did you think of looting in a store where there were many people and still in the middle of the day?” answered? “Really? I overlooked that. I only saw gold. “
Yes, the man was sick—a strange disease. The sight of gold, so to speak, obscured his mind and free will. He did not think; he lost control, he lost his judgment… Why? For a very long time, he had only been concerned with the desire for gold. Have as much gold as possible; own all the gold.

When the apostles saw Jesus casting out merchants and money changers, they remembered the words of the psalm: “I am consumed with zeal for your house” (Psalm 69:10). I am consumed with zeal for your house ”(Psalm 69:10), and they have acted responsibly against their souls and the temple in which we meet.

Lent time enters the second half. It is time for the actions of a Christian. We don’t have to see a video of a part of our lives; we need to use our time and want to see ourselves in the right light. Then we can drive out the older man and start living like new people. And so is everyone like the parish. Participation in the liturgy, singing, access to the sacraments, and the cleanliness and maintenance of the church, the condition in which it is, says something about us.

Donate and be gifted. We got something from parents, friends; we did something we gave. We give and receive in life. Abraham says of the rich man and Lazarus that they also received something of God. Abraham says to the rich man: “Remember that you have received all the good in your life and Lazarus, of course, only bad. Now he rejoices here, and you are troubled ”(Lk 16:25).

Notice that Abraham tells the rich man that all the good in his life he got. So all that the rich man had, what he had earned, he got it all. It “got” we can understand it in a positive sense as God’s blessing. But it is possible that you, the rich man acquired his property dishonestly, by theft, deception, and greed, and then we “got it” in a negative sense, as God’s permission. Rich from God, he was given time and opportunity to repent. God allowed him to do with his wealth much good, among other things, to help Lazarus from his difficult fate. We learn from the story that Lazarus also got something; he only got the bad one. And even here, he “got” it can be understood in both positive and negative senses. In a positive sense, maybe Lazarus He received a test from God, just as God tested Job by sickness and misery to Lazarus perfected in suffering. Or in a negative sense, which is more likely, God admitted that Lazarus suffered misery for human anger and was an opportunity for others to prove love and mercy.
Next, we must realize that the rich did not go to hell because he was rich, but because he did not do the good he had and was obliged to do. The rich man had his heart reserved only for himself, did not help Lazarus in his difficult position, did not prove to his mercy. And Lazarus also did not automatically enter the sky just because of his ulcers and poverty. Lazarus found himself in the bosom of Abraham because he endured his difficult fate patiently; he neither lamented against God nor against men. And one more fact is interesting: Lazarus is silent in the whole parable. When someone is silent, he creates space, to God said. The Lazarus is thus depicted as being still present God and thus patiently bears his destiny.
We, too, often experience God’s blessing in our lives or from God passing the test. We also get the good or vice versa, the bad. It is often our life status and the existential situation resulting from our efforts or our sins, errors, and mistakes. God also gives us time to be all the good we have, our natural talents, talents, education or material good, social status, or simply the happiness lived in marriage to pass on our good. Let’s be careful to be, as the rich of parables, in a situation of personal happiness and success, did not close their eyes to the misery and misery of others. Love is inventive. Let’s look for where to whom and how in our area it is necessary to help. Who is around me, the Lazarus who needs help? Now and only now do we have the opportunity to help; let’s not waste it like the parable’s rich man.

Maybe one of us is in Lazarus’s situation; he is experiencing suffering in his life, difficulties, troubles, maybe with you, maybe with someone close. For Lazarus, it was his fate so a little secret; in silence, he surrendered to God; he believed that God did not forget him. Not even God does not forget Lazarus; he sends them rich people to help them. Sometimes they help not. If we do not help, we will bear the consequences. Let’s be careful and research whether we neglect the good in something. Lazarus waited for help, waited for surrender, patiently, he begged to persevere. Sometimes a little is enough: a smile, a word, a visit. Sometimes more: give something or give up something, forgive, forget, start over, maybe something… because it will be late tomorrow, there will be no time for that tomorrow.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta recalls: “A large group of people recently came to me Of the United States. They asked me, “Tell us something useful.” I told them, “Smile to each other. ” I think I told them with too much seriousness. One of them asked me, “Are you married?” I replied, “Yes, and sometimes it’s hard for me to smile. to Jesus because he is very demanding. ”  Give and be gifted, give and receive. Yes, sometimes just a smile is enough; sometimes more is needed. Today is the time; tomorrow is too late.

We all work like Christ to live, but our selfishness can be revealed. The history of James and John is also great compassion for us. Jesus said: “The human being who is not, to whom he can be, to study the day and his life as a solution for many dies” (Mark 10:45). The brothers James and Johannes were two famous Apostles of Jesus, who had everything on and following them. You are blessed and hate an unfortunate bit of Jesus, but you can see the treasure; you have no right to war, you also have to come to the present. It is again important, and this necessity is necessary so that your apostles can see their human beings’ size their human beings’ size.

Despite this, a manifestation of selfishness, James and John set, James and John set in his mission fort and was raised to solid columns. James and John try to book the best places on the banquet table in the Kingdom of God. It’s the “Sons of Thunder” peak. Jesus said: “It is not done, to be able to live, to study the days and his life as a great gift for many children” (Mt 20:28). James took this attraction for hearts. The burdensome Herod of the Great began to publish the Christian church in Jerusalem: “He has received Johannes’ brother through the sword” (The Act 12: 2). In ancient times, the offer, from the same cup to drink, contains a real excuse for friendship. James is not going to or near the cup of Jesus; there is a lack of knowledge, it is available in the service and the Passion of master  is doing. Jesus is not all our friends (cf. Johan 15: 14-15),, and he also offers his bag.

The examination of power is as high as humanity. It has always been managed and checked. Today is no choice. We can also visit houses in political life, in our cities or municipalities. It’s current. Every will rule, he will have power, more …

What will Jesus say to us? Through the self-employed service, the kingdom of good business. “He who is great in his will be his servant. And he is in his own being, he is a servant of all his people” (Markus 10: 43-44). On the first look at an elementary logic. The way to this kingdom of god is only for those who, when he comes to the day of Jesus’ desire and only for those who are members of the Brothers in Love, still has the service of the Board of Directors of the Kingdom. Jesus is his life for us in the service, the father has been working for him, and he will be the same. Ready to go.

The people are also for others and people. It is not possible, Christ to be and despite over God to swing. We are all professing to share the gospel. And the teeth show that people like them, a path will be found, this world will be used for you.

Explain and point to the Pharisaic in our lives
Some time ago, I bought 2 kg in one store apples for a good price because I like apples. But what was my surprise when I started them gradually to consume? About half of the apples were rotten from the center of the core. They were on the outside beautiful, but inside they were rotten. Unfortunately, apart from the world of fruit, something similar is possibly observed in people’s world. In today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus points out: The Pharisees, whatever they do, do only for the people to see, but they are inside fulfilling hypocrisy and iniquity (cf. Mt 23: 5-28).

A sevenfold woe follows the gospel we have heard in the Scriptures addressed to the law and the Pharisees. Jesus points to the scribes and Pharisees and keeps his disciples’ multitude before him. What is Pharisaic? That they speak and do not act, they bind unbearable burdens, but they do not want to move them with their finger. We know it in Slovak: I preach wine and drink water. But it would still be characteristics of Pharisaic were not enough. In one of the seven woes, Jesus the Pharisees criticize: “… on the outside you seem righteous to the people, but on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity ”(Mt 23:28).

And in the gospel, we heard, “All they do is do it so that men may see them ”(Mt 23: 5a). Thus, Pharisaism is not in conflict spoken with the executed because no contradiction is seen here, but in conflict with man’s internal values and with his external manifestation. Thus, Pharisaism is a contradiction inside a man, but on the outside, it is covered by camouflage. And only he knows about this discrepancy; he who camouflages can hardly be seen on the outside. We don’t see any on the outside contradiction. People did not see this contradiction, but Jesus, seeing into the heart of man, him in the hearts He saw the scribes and the Pharisees, and therefore he says, “Outwardly you appear to men righteous, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity ”(Mt 23:28). But why did the scribes and Pharisees camouflage? Why were they Pharisees? We will find the answer in the fourth woe. “For you give tithes of mint, dill, and cummin, but you have neglected what is in the law. More importantly, justice, mercy, and faithfulness! ”(Mt 23:23). They neglected what more important was to be righteous before God, faithful in the fulfillment of God commanding and exercising merciful love for each person. Instead of that, the Pharisees and scribes sought their interests; they did not want what God required them.  Inside were full of robbery and impurity, full of hypocrisy and iniquity, honesty, and foolishness (cf. Mt 23,6-7,17.25.27).

They didn’t want to change, nor did they want to admit theirs sin; they did not want to humble themselves; they did not want to repent for their sins. Values ​​that they professed to be contrary to God’s values. Therefore, they chose a different tactic. Tactics eye masking. With their false, superficial, internally empty piety, they wanted to deceive the eyes of your conscience, the eyes of men, and the eyes of God. They were such excellent liars that they convinced themselves of their justice and were proud of it. The Pharisees were deformed, a distorted image of God and oneself. They created their own inner world, which also God was happy with them, and they did what they wanted. The idea of ​​God and oneself has thus distorted Pharisees. It is the blindness of the spirit caused by pride. Consider whether we are ever in a Pharisee, or whether it is not in us my distorted image of God, of ourselves, of our faith. The Pharisees thought you were mine by superficial and empty piety. They will secure God’s favor that by such piety. They turn a blind eye to God so that God will not see their sin, which they did not want to give up. Not even from us, God does not want us to perform our religious duties, and acts without our lives have really changed and changed. Come on Sunday for Mass, come here and there to the sacraments to close my eyes on God. Our relationship with God must be carried out in specific events of the day. Forgiveness, malice, greed, indulgence, we may all carry it in our hearts without seeing it. In doing so, we approach the sacraments and become such little Pharisees. I will also give God, what he wants, and I live as I want. Such mathematics and logic do not apply to God. For the witness of our lives must be our religious acts. If not, they become from us Pharisees.

One master worked in a large construction company for many years. He was once ordered to build a demonstration villa to your liking. He could choose the place he liked the most and don’t look at expenses. He immediately set to work but was tempted to use a blind trust. Furthermore, he used inferior material, employed non-experts for low wages, and saved money in this way. He shoved it into his pocket. When the construction was finished, the master handed it over during a small celebration, the key to the company’s director. The headmaster returned it to him with a smile, squeezed his hand, and said, “This one accepts the villa as a gift of respect and gratitude. ”1 God cannot be deceived, his eyes cannot be covered by empty piety, and he cannot think that I am even with the Lord God. God expects us to be as Christians to live and not to be transformed and camouflaged as Christians. Let us ask for the light of the Holy Spirit; let us enlighten the eyes of our hearts so that we may know what is Pharisaic in us, what we camouflage before God. Please ask for the power of grace to change that.

Explain the process of forgiveness and thus initiate forgiveness1
Undoubtedly, each of us had experienced a situation in our lives when someone caused us some wrong, either they were false words to our address, insult, or did not get what we were entitled to, maybe something, word, understanding, respect, or thanks. And something in our hearts stabbed us, it hurt us, and we said, I will not forgive him, I will forgive him I will return, I will remind him or: I forgive, but I will not forget. In the gospel, we have heard some tips in life. Be merciful, do not judge and do not condemn, give and forgive so that God may do the same to you (cf. Luke 6.36-37).

Notice today Jesus’ call for forgiveness. Let’s ask ourselves questions at the beginning: When to forgive? Why forgive? How to forgive? So when? Jesus says, “When your brother will sin, rebuke him! If he turns to forgive him! And when seven times behind the daily sins against you, and seven times he will return to you and say, “I’m sorry,” forgive him! ” (Luke 17: 3b-4). At first glance, it would seem to us that we have to forgive when the culprit regrets his actions. Jesus wants to tell us something else. He doesn’t tell us, “Forgive me then and only when the culprit regrets, “but Jesus emphasizes to us,” If he regrets, always forgive ‘. If someone has hurt us but regrets their action, we are always obliged to forgive. But The Lord goes even further in His teaching of forgiveness. To Peter’s question: “Sir, how many times should I forgive my brother if he sins against me? Maybe seven times?

 Jesus told him replied, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Mt 18: 21b-22). And even today in the Gospels, we have heard: “Forgive and be forgiven you” (Lk 6:37c). Jesus to us does not say: “forgive if… forgive only if…”, so forgive with conditions, but he tells Peter seventy-seven times, that is, always, to forgive we always have, without conditions. Let us now answer the question: Why forgive? This is our forgiveness to others important that there is only one place on our demand among the seven prayers of our Father’s prayer: forgive their culprits. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in paragraph 2840, we read these words: “Love is indivisible: we cannot love a God we do not see if we don’t love the brother or sister we see. If we refuse to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed, and his hardness makes him impenetrable to the Father’s merciful love. By confessing sin, however, our hearts are opened to his grace (CCC) 2840). ”Non-forgiveness is evil. If I am not willing to give up the evil that is forgiveness, then I refuse to let God transform my heart into becoming God’s child. I refuse to eradicate evil from myself, and thus I refuse in my life, God.

How should I forgive? Someone once told me that forgiveness is a matter of reason and firm will. He meant that everyone has the power to forgive is themselves. But mine and apparently your experience is different. If someone hurts us, we perceive pain on our own inside; a wound is created in our soul. And although we often know that we have to forgive, somehow we can’t; the pain is too great, it is not in our power to overcome pain, anger, insult, and forget about her. Often our forgiveness becomes superficial, external; we say: I forgive, but I don’t forget. Our forgiveness is imperfect. What about that? Where to take strength on forgiveness? The solution is the Spirit of God. Only the Spirit of God can do the Holy Spirit our thinking as it was in Christ Jesus (cf. CCC 2842). The heart that passes on to the Holy Spirit transforms our heart’s wound into compassion and purifies our memory by converting the insult into a persuasion (cf. KKC 2843). Brothers and sisters, only The Spirit of Christ and His grace working in us can forgive us from the heart. Grace us it can inwardly seem to ferment so that we can become like Christ I in forgiveness.

Michel Quoist, a well-known author of many books, explains: “You don’t even get hurt by wounds that you get from the outside, but rather everything bad that you close in yourself, that moves there ferments and rots. ” Let us cast out of our hearts that rot in us, let us cast out of our hearts forgiveness! Did we ask ourselves at the beginning of the question: When to forgive? We always have to forgive; always we are to have forgiveness in ourselves for all and ourselves. Why should we forgive? Because forgiveness is the pus of my heart’s wound, and if I love pus, I can’t love it balm of God’s healing grace. How to forgive? In the Holy Spirit and with the Spirit
To the saints, that is, the sacramental life, confession, the Eucharist, prayer, prayer to us, The Holy Spirit healed and helped forgive. I wish each of us to experience in our hearts the grace of forgiveness.

If we start from these two sources – reason and revelation –
we can distinguish four basic characteristics of human nature. These give us a clear picture of who we are in the heart of our being. We are: 1. creatures, 2. creatures in the image and form God (we are rational and free), 3. composed of body and soul, 4. with nature wounded by inherited sin. So, first, we are creatures. Creation is what is created. You and I did not always exist; similarly, there were no human beings as a species. There are, of course, many debates about the way we are created or created. But the way the first human beings were created is less important than the fact that God actually created them.
The fact that we were created has several interesting consequences. I will mention at least some: for example; if we are sincere, we cannot deny that we are substantially dependent, internally dependent on God, our creator. We, modern men and women, like to think that we are completely autonomous and take care of it about ourselves. This is, of course, true, but only for the sure border. In the very origin of our being is the fact that we are created. We depend on God to lead us to existence and to maintain us in that existence. This is what we have in common with other creatures: stones, minerals, plants, animals, fish, comets, and angels. We don’t come from ourselves, but
from God.

Second, we are reasonable and free. There is something unique about our creation: we are created in the image and likeness of God. We are a reflection, a reflection of God in a way that none do another creature. God created us in His own image, “man and woman he created us, “we read in the Book of Genesis (Gen 1:27). As Chesterton wrote,” Man is not evolution, but rather a revolution. ” Human beings are revolutions because they are radically different from the rest of creation; they are the only creatures God created for himself. It is possible that we do not always act sensibly, but by our nature, we have the ability to think and know. We are reasonable Man – the basis of values’ 35 beings. In truth, this quality makes us most like God and separates us from the whole world of other living creatures. It also gives us the dignity of people. We are not things but people. I am not “something,” but “someone.” To the extent that we have a reason, to the extent that we are free. This quality opens up a world of possibilities and gives us dignity; unreasonable creatures are derived from our nature’s spiritual dimension. We think we dig, we consider and act. We plan and program the future. Freedom is not only a value in itself; it is also necessary a condition that allows us to shape our values. If we were pre-programmed and obliged to follow our instincts, as animals do, “freedom” would be pointless for us in the world. However, we can recognize values, and we are free to follow them.

Third, we are persons with body and soul. These are not two separate parts that are artificially connected, but two essential dimensions of our one nature. We are unity. We are not ghosts trapped or buried in the body, as he was convinced, of Plato. Nor are we a combination of two different essences – one material and the other intangible – as Descartes reasoned. You and I do not have a body and a soul; we are body and soul. Because of this duality present in our nature, we are connected to the material and spiritual worlds. Some things we have in common with plants and animals and other things resemble us to angels. This concept is crucial because it helps us understand that we are more than just organic matter, and therefore our values ​​will go beyond what is good only for our body or what satisfies only our senses. Finally, our nature is wounded, distorted by inherited sin. Our personal experience confirms a certain division that exists within us. This explains why it is often hard to do what is right, even when we know it’s really right. Our body often tells us one thing, and our mind advises us to do the opposite. Doing what is right is not easy, and sometimes we have to work hard to overcome and manage our inclinations. “God and the devil are fighting in us, and our hearts are a battlefield, “says Dostoevsky in the Karamazov Brothers.

This inner rift at the center of our being is another key aspect of our nature and sheds light on the cause of many of our difficulties. However, by being able to grasp this fact, we will discover that one of our most important values ​​as humans 3 b BUILD ON A FIXED FOUNDATION beings are to gain the harmony of their being. We have to manage ourselves and organize their abilities according to a suitable ranking. These four human nature characteristics give us the key to understanding what is good for us as created persons to God’s image and likeness with reason and free will, body and soul, and nature wounded by sin. However, we still have to look at another dimension of our being: our goal and destiny (determination),

Through little things come to perfection in our lives.
Today, at every turn, advertisements that say everything are printing on us all is perfect; everything is great and perfect. In the Gospel, Jesus Christ called us all: “Be ye therefore perfect, as he is your heavenly Father is perfect ”(Mt. 5.48).

The Lord Jesus puts the perfection of Heavenly Father before the eyes of His hearers as an unattainable ideal, but he wants to challenge them to constant efforts about perfection.1 To be perfect as the Father means to be perfect in His love. We all are, after all, God’s children. Therefore, we can be perfect as our Father is perfect. A request The new law is much greater than the requirement of the old law. This is the requirement that opens the inner existence of renewed people, showing them that they can attain such a high degree and have such a high life.2 If perfection was absolutely impossible, Jesus would not pay attention to us at all. We can deduce that it is possible to obtain at least a certain degree of perfection.

The Lord Jesus encourages us to be perfect. But he didn’t stop at the words. He also gave us his example. Every act of Jesus was a testimony, and living testimony, that perfection can be achieved. Yes, our perfection will indeed be only a part of his perfection, but it is this fraction of perfection that will be our ticket to heaven. Since God sent us as a witness to His own Son, it is clear to Him for us; it matters a lot. He loves us very much. It is difficult for us people to understand and even harder to talk about it. But with the language of our heart, every single person can very well express God’s love. Then turn it into “change” and capitalize on it. Which means turn into petty and benefit? It is the daily activity of a Christian. These are good deeds to be on the agenda of each one of us. These little acts of love everyone should act so that all our brothers and sisters around us can live with us more pleasant. And also for everyone to know in our actions the message of Jesus, the message of love.

One story also tells that perfection needs to be built in small parts: The famous Michelangelo worked on the sculpture. A certain of his friends watched him work.  Sometime later, this friend came again, and it seemed to him that since his last visit, the artist did not touch his work. But Michelangelo told him, “You’re wrong. I wiped out this part, here I removed something; I changed the line there, I gave more expression to this pen, I made it stand out to this muscle. ” Very well, ” said the visitor. “But they’re just trifles.” “Possibly,” -replied the artist. “But remember that trifles add perfection, and perfection is not an easy business.” Our job is to bring these little things into our lives. Let’s try to be perfect, and let’s do it with everyday little things every day. Let us pray: Thank you, God, for sending us your only Son, who he gave us an example of how to come to you and become perfect. Please give us the strength to persevere this way.