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Apostleship is most effectively through sincere repentance

Brothers and sisters, you can imagine how much time, effort, worry, and money it takes to build a family home. Many of you have made it. And you will agree with me when I say that you had to prepare thoroughly for the construction of such a work. It was not enough to think about the whole thing, but it was also necessary to find resources. After all, what would you do without money, materials, masons, workers? Nothing! Your plans would not materialize.

The Lord Jesus also decided today to build a great work. He decided to send the apostles to proclaim the message of salvation. We have heard him send apostles among men and give them power over unclean spirits. Christ cares so much about the man that after the proclamation of the message of salvation, he shows the apostles to discard all secondary things and interests.

Brothers and sisters, you may say: Perhaps two thousand years ago, the apostle could proclaim the Gospel according to Jesus’ desire. The world was different, less developed, and less demanding. But today? Today we need much more to preach the Gospel. What can we do without the necessities of life that Jesus forbids us? But it is inhuman. Jesus sends us as universal priests to man. And precisely for man to accept us, I must be deeply human. We have to be healthy, sober, not weird. In this world, everyday personal needs can no longer be enough to proclaim the Gospel. We need the press, television, radio, schools, theaters, and cultural houses for the apostolate. Don’t our brethren who proclaim atheism have all this? Acknowledge us, Chaplain, that we are far behind them. In a word – we need all available means because otherwise, it is impossible to the apostolate.

Yes, brothers and sisters, I acknowledge. You are right. Indeed, our time requires different practices, different forms of apostolate than the time of the apostles. But please, let’s look at the past together and find a surprising fact. You who are older here and remember well when the church had many of these means in their hands, you remember when schools, offices, and workplaces were highly ecclesiastical. You remember when the youth had their Catholic organizations. Even today, there are states in which the church has all this, at a high level. I ask you, brothers and sisters when you say that today, in proclaiming the message of Christ, the means mentioned are the most important, how is it possible that, where they have all this, the results are not very satisfactory? How is it possible that where the church is free to implement her principles and principles, there is a terrible moral and religious emptiness? And I’m not talking about violence, murder, and other inhumanity. How is it possible that some people who were brought up in a time of ecclesiastical influence are now explicitly unbelievers? Tell me, how is that possible ?!

We now see that it is not the external means that are most important to the true apostolate, but something else. What do you think, brothers and sisters, what can it be? Right! It is an inner force that comes from God’s favor and grace. God’s truth is a paradox that, throughout the history of salvation, is most effectively proclaimed not by human power but by weakness. The apostle Paul is fully aware of this when he says, “God has chosen what is weak in the world to be ashamed of the mighty” (1 Cor 1:27). The interior is the most important. Must the apostle be full of Jesus How? There are a thousand counsels to do this, but only one way, and that is sincere repentance, such repentance that means not only confession but pity, but much more repentance that means real effort and effort to be better and more perfect This is an apostleship  has extreme power in itself That it is true, look at this event with me.

Many of you have read or seen on television the novel by the French writer Victor Hugo, Paupers.

The main character Jean Valjan is imprisoned for six months because he stole bread for his sister’s hungry children. He experiences inhuman conditions in prison. That’s why they try to escape twice, but they always catch him. His sentence increased from six months to a full 19 years. During this time, abandoned and often nailed to a wooden log, he learned what human anger and cruelty were. He thoroughly believed in the right and love of man. Scourge and the violence in him aroused indescribable hatred.

Once the prisoners repaired the stone walls, he managed to escape. The hungry and exhausted will ask for help in one house. The old lady is frightened when she looks at Valjan’s inhuman face. In fear, he catches a broom and expels a stranger. It was the house of a bishop who, when he noticed a rough and overgrown man, said, “Leave him alone!” Brother, like it, come to the bottom. – After a moment of surprise, Jean enters and sits down at the table, startled. He examines with his eyes what kind of person is sitting in front of him. He sees a pastor in front of him, who shows him an incomprehensible tenderness. He thinks: What kind of person has accepted me as his best friend? He can’t keep his thoughts a secret and asks: – Tell me, why didn’t you fire me? Why are you giving me to eat? Why are you helping me? – The bishop smiles at him and answers: – Because you are my brother. And all this mine – it’s yours too. –
At night, he gets up quietly, steals the silver cutlery, and leaves. The bishop saw it. He folded his arms helplessly and prayed silently. Jean Valjean did not go far with the stolen valuables. In the morning, he was caught by two gendarmes and brought to the bishop. Jean froze, waiting for sharp, threatening words and remorse. But instead, the bishop takes two silver candlesticks and hands them to him with the words: – You have forgotten these candlesticks here. Why didn’t you take them, because I gave them to you too? – So it’s true – the gendarme jumps in, – that you, Excellency, gave it to him? We thought he stole it from you. – No, – the bishop replies, – I actually gave it to him. –
And at that moment, something incredible happens. Jean will feel human kindness for the first time after 20 years in prison. The goodness of man with wonderful love manifested in the form of forgiveness. All his long-term stubbornness is broken.
He falls to his knees and cries. The bishop stretches out his hands over him and, moved, says, “The devil no longer has power over you.” From now on, you belong only to God. – At the moment, Jean is becoming a new person. He leaves, and his next life is filled with the apostolate of sincere repentance. He not only believes himself but also proclaims the goodness and love of God for man. Jean has become the mayor of the city and shakes his hand mainly to the poorest. He takes a little girl with him, whose mother dies and takes care of his upbringing all his life. Wherever he walks, he does as well as Christ once did. And to the question: Why do you do it, he always answered: – Because I have met a man in my life who has helped me a lot. Can I not help? -Brothers and sisters, have you understood now that a true apostleship does not require as much human means as sincere repentance?
Although today’s saint – Maria Goretti lived a pure life and did not need repentance, her life and death were an address to many, but especially to her murderer. Maria Goretti was born as the third of seven children in Corinaldo near Ancona in central Italy.
Maria lost her father as a child. The mother was left alone to raise seven children. Although misery, like hunger and weak clothing, were daily guests in the Goretti family, there were never any complaints of Providence.
The mother prayed and accustomed her children to prayer and the fear of God. They prayed the rosary daily. During that prayer, Marienka developed respect and love for the Blessed Virgin every day.
From the first Holy Communion, she lived exclusively for the Divine Heart. She begged the Heavenly Mother to protect her so that she would be as pure on the last day of her life as she is now.
Her last day came soon.
Barely 12-year-old laid down her life to maintain her purity, stabbed with the dagger of 18-year-old Alexander Serenelli.
Suffering and bleeding, Marienka could still express her Golgotha forgiveness to her killer: – Out of love for the Lord Jesus, I forgive with all my heart, and I want to have him by my side in heaven! –

The apostleship of Mary Goretti is fulfilled after her death.
The strength of her forgiveness was later answered by the life of her murderer, who died in penance in 1970. He announced his punishment in writing to the whole world: – I ask the entire world for forgiving my crime against the martyr Maria Goretti and against purity. I swear to everyone to protect themselves from immorality, immoral theaters, dangers, and every opportunity that could lead them to sin. –
How do we respond to this challenge and the apostleship of the little martyr? Let us all realize what the apostleship asks of us. Above all, it is a change in our lives for the better. It will be useful if we take a little commitment together today. Let us try to understand our religion and the proclamation of Christ’s message of salvation, not only as a duty to go to church on Sundays and feasts. Let’s stop saying that when we go to church, we’re better than those who don’t. But we will judge our religion, our apostleship, according to our relationship with a man. And how can we most effectively establish a loving relationship with everyone? An apostleship of sincere repentance!

Brothers and sisters, we now know that both the construction of a family house and every human work, to have any hope of success, must be based on strong means. It must be based on power, knowledge, and the favor of society. However, God’s work is based on the opposite. To win is based on the defeat of the cross. And the apostleship is the work of God. His success does not depend on human means as well as on God’s grace. Don’t we forget that?

Syncretism – God’s and human activity
The Son of God descended from heaven, the Fathers say, just because
so that we may ascend to heaven. According to the old definition, prayer, and therefore religion itself, is the ascent (Greek anabasis) of the soul to God. Ascent means effort and work. And what if it’s a job in vain? Who performs on the top, although closer to the light, is almost as far from the sun as the one who remained below. It is no wonder that Christian doctors have shown a fundamental distrust of human endeavor. We are not saved by works, but only by faith. Faith is then a gift, not merit. It is a well-known sentence that became a slogan at the time of the Reformation. We humans don’t ascend to heaven, but God has come down to us, to save us. In ascetic theology they pose the same problem in form questions: What is the function, what is the importance of human forces there, where is it about God’s life in us, about gaining grace? If we call human endeavor “asceticism” and connection with God “mysticism”, then the authors ask: What is the relationship between them? We know very well that in both the Eastern and Western Churches monasticism became the main revival movement. Catholic even non-Catholic church historians are then united in when they consider as one of the main pillars of religious life a firm belief that there is unity between asceticism and mysticism. Progress in the spiritual life corresponds to the effort of a person who works with grace. Greek this is often referred to as synergism, the joint action of human forces and the Holy Spirit.  “But then grace is no longer grace, voluntary and the gift of God! ” objected by the opponents. With a simple and nice comparison, he responds to the objection already in the 4th century Pseudo-Makarios. Human effort is like work farmer. Everyone knows that it is not enough just to plow and sow. The harvest depends on the sun, rain, weather. It happens that they come a year} ‘, when little is gained with great effort, or vice versa. And yet it is normal: the better the field is cultivated, the better the yield. The same is true «Normal law of grace». Here, too, it is true: “Man, do it and God will help you! ” But grace is a free, voluntary gift from God. What God gives, is life, activity, and it animates the whole man, all his heart, mind and all his strength (cf. Mt 22:37). God’s love must meet human love here.

The birth of a child will make us happy. In the first place it is the parents who are enjoying. But even grandparents, friends, have a part in this joy. I’m sure your dear parents congratulated you on the birth of your child and expressed a wish that it was healthy, happy to develop well. But simultaneously, when we pronounce it, it’s not an illusion. There’s not so much trouble in the world. How many people have health problems. And doesn’t death cost death at the end of every life? We know  unmistakably that summer is followed by autumn and winter. God is the God of the living, not the dead. God’s life has a different quality of life. It’s not an infinitely long life. It’s a different life. It’s a life that doesn’t threaten death. This life came through Christ to the  people. The resurrected Christ is the first to carry this life. Lazarus was resurrected, too, but it was only in the resurrected Christ that we meet life without every limit. This new life is the promise and hope of us Christians. He’s pointing to the future. He tells us that the future of this child is not 80-90 years in this world, but the future of this child is in the fullness n eternal, divine life. A new life doesn’t begin until life on this earth is over. This child’s new life begins now that he enters the community with Christ and the church through baptism. Because  that new life is a community with God. This child will live in God, too. This new life will accept the child as a gift. And it will be our task, who we know of this gift, to help him enjoy this gift and to prove worthy to him. The message of a new life brings us real joy. Power and hope will drive us to push for a better world. When we light a candle, it will be a symbol of a morning without an end,  a symbol of life that even death cannot destroy. Being baptized, belonging to God, that’s such a big thing, we can’t even appreciate it.

Lack of faith is reflected in all our relationships with God. Prayer becomes distracted and boring if we are not firmly convinced that we stand before God and that he hears us. Confession, receiving the body and blood of Christ and other sacraments are easily forgotten because we do not realize their effectiveness. First, recite the main parts’ breviary began with the prayer I believe in God. It was small point out how good it is to awaken your faith before we begin pray.
The contact with one’s neighbor, which loses out of faith in the mystical body of the Church, in the brotherhood in Christ, flattens into purely human relationships, which so easily become inhuman.
He who truly believes that what he has done to his neighbor is passed on to Christ does not so easily violate his love of neighbor. Faith promotes modesty in judgment. The believer is used to it that he must be able to submit his own judgment. He knows not it is so easy to know what is in Scripture and what the teaching really is all believers, the whole Church. He likes to hear who he has heard. Stubbornness, intolerance, stubbornness, haste in judgment there are signs of weak faith. Faith simplifies our relationship with the world and with all his problem. In the light of God’s truth, many so-called burning issues becomes irrelevant. With confidence in providence, one walks safely through the world and its events. Nice it is illuminated by the words of St. Robert Bellarmine: «The mountains are with us they seem big because they are close, and the stars, though they are much larger, look like bright dots. If we were in the sky, the stars would seem huge, as they really are they are, and the mountains would seem like a powder of sand. People on this world, who have hearts here on earth, consider it something of a great possession and wandering in this world. If they inherit something, if they reach the rank, they are happy with each other. When they lose the pennies, infuriate everyone around. But who serves God, he lives on a high tower of faith and is so far from things down there, he got all those big and important problems they seem like children’s games. If he compares them to eternity accidents of this world, they are no more afraid of them than the bites of a fly.

Let us protect God in our hearts
Surely we have all come across that well-meaning advice, help offered
was, on the other hand, misunderstood and rejected. The Lord Jesus experienced a similar situation. After banishing the evil spirits from the two men came to him from the city and “begged him to leave the region” (Mt 8.34). Everything rushes out to Jesus, but not to greet him as a victor over the demons, but they want to ask him to leave their region. The reasons for this request there can be two. The first reason may be that people blamed Jesus for giving destroy the whole herd of pigs. However, this view is gradually abandoned and the biblical scholars they incline to a second explanation of why Jesus had to leave. Gergesens is not happy that two possessed men were healed. They did not recognize the miracle healing that God’s prophet – the Son of God – the Messiah – came to them. They feel only terror and fear of what happened and begs, “Get away from us.” The Gergesens  did not accept Jesus, although he did everything to attract them to himself to make them sons of light. Not only heals the obsessed, but also devils destroy in the depths of the sea. Do we sometimes behave like Gergesens?   Jesus came into the world to offer us free forgiveness of sins and eternal life? It also offers us God’s grace and truth. Am I accepting God’s offer? Am I not behaving like Gergesens?
On London’s busiest street, an unknown tramp offered pedestrians five pounds banknotes for one penny. He held a bundle of banknotes in his hand. Most pedestrians don’t either she didn’t look away. Some considered him a fraud, others saw a new fad advertising, and yet the five-pound notes were genuine. About this pleasant surprise took care of a popular actor disguised as a tramp. He stood with the director of the theater for that he will not find a single person interested in the money he will offer on the street in one hour. That’s how it happened.
Similarly, the Lord Jesus and his apostles marched on the other side
Lake Gennesaret. The inhabitants of Gennesaret did not receive from Jesus the love they had given them offering. Let’s not be like them. Let us accept him into our lives, may he be always with us, for it offers precious gifts: love, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life altogether free. Amen.

Jesus said to his disciples “Whoever  listens  to  your listens to  me; whoever  rejects you reject me rejects  me and  whoever   me rejects the one sent me. Luke 10,16
More quotes
2 Thessalonians 3: 14-15  Matthew 8,15-1 7  1 Timothy 3,14-15, 4, 11-16
Hebrews  13, 7-17 , 1 Peter  4, 17.
Although St. Paul does not use the word church in Tim 3, 14 – 1 5, it suggests it, along with its authority, to teach, exhort, and even excommunicate heretical members if necessary. Tim 4, 1 1 – 1 6 we see St. Paul commemorating St. Timothy, the young bishop, the teaching authority which he has by virtue of his episcopal office. But this special authority and duty to teach, which Paul mentions to Timothy, extends to the Magisterium of the Church as a whole, i. j. to all the bishops in the world who they teach the faith in communion with the Bishop of Rome. The term house of God is appropriate for the description of the Church.
Saint Peter uses this image in 1 Pt 4, 1 7
in his encouragement to persecuted and suffering Christians.
Church: a sign of unity In John 17, 2 0 – 2 1 is the main idea Christ’s unity prayer, the unity of Christians: “Father … well, I ask not only for them, but also for those who through their word believe in me to they were all one as you, Father, in me and me in you, that they too may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. “To achieve this Christ established his Church as a visible sign of his presence in all ages and a unifying power in the lives of those who they love and remain in it. “Stay in me and me in you. As a branch, it cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains in the vineyard neither do you, unless you remain in me. I’m a vine, you are the branches. Who abides in me, and I in him, bears many fruit; for without me you cannot to do nothing “(John 15: 4-5). This unity in Christ and through Christ, which the Church shows, is not it is not only the unity of believers, but also the unity of teaching. For the last two thousand years, the Catholic Church has embodied the “fullness of the Christian faith.” And this is where the Christian he will find true unity with Christ, with other Christians, and with the teachings of Christ passed on to the Church (compare  Matthew / 28, 18-20). * Roman 16: 17-18: “Please, brethren, give beware of those who provoke strife and offense in opposition to the teachings which you have received, and avoid them. For they do not serve Christ ours To the Lord, but to His belly, and with sweet words and with deceit they deceive the hearts of the innocent. “* 1 Cor 1:10: “I beseech you, brethren, for a name our Lord Jesus Christ, all say the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that ye should be perfect in the same mind, and in the same judgment. ”
More quotes
Matthew 12.4-5 F / Philippians1.27 – 28; 2.2 1 Cor 10:17; 12,12-2 7
Colossians  / 1.14 3.15
In Titus 1: 4-16, as well as in the Apostolic Letters to Timothy, we see St. Paul speaking with another bishop – Tito on the importance of unity in the teaching of the Church. It also emphasizes the authority and duty of the bishop to teach the gospel faithfully and accurately and to choose a capable man as his follower in the role of bishop.

THE CHURCH
Existence, mission, visible characteristics and its authority Catholics are often attacked by non-Catholics, especially Protestants, for their belief The Catholic Church is the only true Church founded by Christ. Catholics should never explain or defend this teaching exalted or “triumphant.” to seek to show that, despite the unworthiness of many Catholics, Christ founded his Church, to be a visible, recognizable body with his holiness, unity, apostolic ism, which transcend sinfulness and other imperfections its individual members. The nature and mission of the Church never need to be explained in the light of how good or intelligent Catholics are. On the contrary, it must always be presented in light how powerful the grace of God is – more powerful than human sin and how faithfully Christ loves your bride, the Church. The following texts are useful to prove that Christ intended to establish a particular Church, not just an indefinite association of like-minded believers. His the intention was to establish a Church that would go further into the world with a universal mission to teach, to sanctify and rule (this is the ecclesial expression of Christ’s own triple office of prophet, priest and king). Naturally, Christ could choose many methods to intervene the world with its message of forgiveness and redemption, but the fact remains that he has chosen a special one method: he used the Church as his own body, he equipped him with power, leadership (cf. Luke 10:16; John 16:12) and by its promise that this Church, which will be composed of good and bad members (Matt. 13: 24-30), will exist until the end of the world (cf. Matt. 28:20). * Matt 16, 18 – 19: “And I say unto you, Thou art Peter and on this rock I will build my Church and hell the gates shall not prevail against it. ” * Matt 18, 15 – 18: “When your brother sins against you, go and admonish him among the four eyes. If he listens to you, you’ve got your brother. If he ‘s not listening to you, take another or two, so that each statement may be confirmed by the mouths of two or three witnesses. If not for them disobey, tell the church. And if not the church he did not want to obey, let him be to you as a Gentile and a toll booth. Verily I say unto you, What shall ye bind on the earth? It shall be bound in heaven, and what ye shall lose on earth; it shall be loosed in heaven. ” In the previous verse, one can you could almost hear the tone of terror in Christ’s voice as he said, “And if the church would not to listen … “suggesting that ignoring the Church, his Church, would be the pinnacle of stupidity and folly. Unfortunately, in recent for two thousand years many have chosen this tragic one the way of ignoring the teaching authority of the Church. Note also that Christ shows the Church as the court of last instance, the place from which it flows final decision on disputes.
This clearly shows that the Church was founded with a teaching authority that transcends the individual. And Christ did not plan things that way to hinder or put the individual believer in a “jacket,” but to protect him from the dangers of delusion, disunity, and sin. By establishing the Magisterium of the Church as the “court of last instances “in the matter of learning and equipping the Magisterium with its authority to preach and teach in its name (cf. Luke 10:16), believers are protected from theological and moral misconceptions that appear when involved in the game. The principle of “private interpretation” of Scripture and Tradition (i.e., separation from the teachings of the Church). More quotes Luke 13, 20; 14.16 – 17. 26 9, 31; 15, 28 – 29 John 18:18; 20, 21 – 23 1 Corinth 27 – 30, Mark 5.13, 10.40 1 / f 2.15 In these supporting quotes it is worth special mention as follows:In Matthew 5: 1 3 – 1 6 Christ explains that every Christian is called to be “the light of the world.” However, the added meaning here is that this the characteristic of “visibility” is simultaneously the identity of the Church itself. The individual Christians together form the Church, which means that the Church itself is the city built on a hill, visible at all ages to her all they saw and knew.

The paternal providence of God frees us from the forces of the dark one  of destiny God created the world. The Catechism adds, “And it preserves and governs it.” Theologians claim that the preservation of the world is a continuation of creation. It is unthinkable that God could create the world and then leave it there destiny. He still works in them through his providence. To be prudent is to care about the world and have a responsibility for it, and especially for the people. This fact is supposed to rid us of worries and harmful worry. Primitive man fears gods and evil spirits. He tries to reconcile them through gifts and to avoid them to them. Science and culture set us free from the superstitious fear of mysterious evil beings. But science raises new fears. It shows us the helplessness of man against the relentless and unchanging laws of nature. In the great mechanism of the universe one feels like a little chick that can anyone step on the step of evil for a moment. Towards the end of the Greco-Roman era, when the Olympics the gods became only symbols of the forces of nature, the relentlessness of the laws of nature was given a special name – destiny, fatum (from which “fatalism” is derived). There was a popular saying that they fight fate in vain even the gods. What is “destiny” cannot be done to avoid. Fate is the law of the world, it is unchanging like the orbits of stars in the sky. We have nothing left but
to come to terms with destiny, or, as astrologers have said, to submit to the movements of celestial bodies. Astrology was very widespread in the ancient world. The argument put forward in its favor was as follows: ‘What it is perfect, it is the cause of what is less perfect; the regular orbiting of stars in the sky is much more perfect than human life full of disturbing elements. Therefore, human life must subordinate the position of the stars. “” Astrologers “considered themselves experts in the art of guessing which position of the stars is favorable to those which human action. Thus, the Church Fathers wrote controversies against Fate (title of one about the treatise of St. Gregory of Nazianz) or about God’s providence (for example, Theodore of Cyrus). There are inevitable laws in nature, it is useless deny it. But behind them, in the depths of divine life, there is one who has everything in his hands and who gives us
ordered us to address him as “our Father in heaven”, who feeds birds and dresses flowers (cf. Mt 6:30). and who assured us, “Ask, and you shall receive” (Mt 7: 7). Saint Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of Saint John evangelists, emphasizes in one of his letters that sages from the East sought Jesus born “under one star “, but eventually discovered that star he had to come to where he was born, that is, to listen the one who is the lord of the stars. This abolished astrology. St. Gregory of Nazianz discussed with one philosopher a fatalist. He liked to admit that it was more perfect the cause of what is less perfect. But it would be .It is a big mistake to believe that a planet without intelligence they are more perfect than a free man created
to the image of God, the king of the universe. One of the oldest images of Christ, the Greek Panto player (the almighty, who has everything in his hands), represents Christ on the imperial throne, under him o sometimes a rainbow is painted with your feet. Spiritual
the meaning is a rebuke: Do not be afraid of people, nor of the mighty, for I rule over human society; but don’t worry even the forces of nature are under my feet. Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, once visited a village school. A geography class was underway. The teacher wanted to show the king what his boys knew, and that was why he asked them, “Where are our villages?” “In Prussia.” “And where is Prussia? “” In Germany. ” “And where is Germany?” “In Europe.” “And where is Europe?” One student replied with a little hesitation, “On the globe.” The king noticed his hesitation and asked, “And where is the globe?” This time the boy replied firmly, “In his hands God. “After such an answer, the king had nothing left to do ask.