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It is useless today to even refute the claim circulated. At the last century’s end, of a “joyful antiquity” and a sad Christianity. The early success of Christianity, the religion of the poor and uneducated, in the cultural world of the Roman Empire, can also be explained by the fact that it promised victory over everything against which man felt powerless: fate, death, pain.
The proclamation of the doctrine of Christ was given the name eu-Evangelion – the good, glad tidings. Christianity is a religion of grace. The Greek word chara means joy. We translate the angel’s greeting to Mary as “Hail Mary.” The Greek chair is literally “Rejoice!” (Old English liturgical texts have the expression “Rejoice!”)
Scripture encourages prayer with a sense of joy (cf. Ps 31:11; 9:5; 99:1; 104:3, etc.). We are often reminded of the words of St. Paul: “Not out of grief nor out of compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7). The culmination and goal of Christian perfection is love. Whoever loves, gives gladly, even with sacrifice, speaks gladly to the one he loves. He who prays and joyfully denies proves that he does his duty out of love. The work which we do joyfully goes, as it were of itself a hand. Aristotle writes: “Joy perfects the work, sorrow destroys it”. St. John Chrysostom explains in this sense the verse of the Psalm (118,32): ‘I will run in the way of thy commandments. Joy gives strength, and strength gives freshness. Everything goes much easier and faster. He who has a joyful attitude towards life, the little, and overcomes great ones with courage.

We are not worried about his future. On the contrary, if we see someone permanently sad, we rightly fear that he will not last on the path he has started, especially if there are major difficulties. The joyful performance of religious duties is an effective way of apostolate. It does not attract the company of sad people and discontented; on the contrary, all would like to go where they see, that there is happiness and joy. St. Leo exhorts the religious to their “modesty to be holy and not sad”. St. Francis wished to see a joyful countenance on his brothers, a desire to do more than they have been doing, and not weariness and weariness. That is how they are to go out into the streets. Christian morality teaches that a virtuous life is a life according to God and according to a happy and innocent nature,  as it came from the hands of the Creator. Whoever strives for virtue and is in doing so joyless, denies the truth he wants to believe. At least, the impression he gives to others.
Hence Hermas (2d cent.) ranks sorrow among the evil desires which are to be banished from the heart. The only praiseworthy sorrow, as the Ascetics uniformly teach, is regret for sin. This, however, soon becomes the source of true joy. As his biography tells us, St. Francis of Assisi warned against sorrow. The sorrow of man is the joy of the devil. A sad man is easily led to despair or to seek illicit pleasures in the world. This is in agreement with what St. Gregory the Great wrote:
“The soul cannot be without pleasure, so it seeks pleasure in low things if it has none in things noble.”

Through Baptism, we received participation in the life of God. But how does God live? What does his life consist of? Jesus Christ told us something about this when he revealed that God is one but triune. Jesus made visible the goodness and love of the heavenly Father. He lived to the extreme for the fulfillment of the will of his Father, even to the cross. He also spoke about the Spirit who comes from the Father, who receives everything from Christ and proclaims it to us. God’s Spirit guided Jesus in fulfilling his mission, and Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.

From these few indications, we can guess that the life of God is the life of individual persons, one for the other. Their relationship is so strong and deep that he is also a living person, the Holy Spirit. From this brief indication of what creates the life of God, we can guess that we, too, as baptized people, are called to cooperate in the growth and development of God’s life in us. This practically means that we develop our relationship with the triune God and our relationships with people and human persons.

We heard about these relationships with people and convenient situations in today’s reading from the Old Testament. These are challenging requests. They require overcoming our egoism, an effort to respect others and do good to them. God challenges us as a motive for such an effort: “Be holy, as I, your God, am holy!” Holiness is God’s perfection. Practically, it means a challenge to grow in likeness with God. We are to express this similarity in our relationships with people.

In the Gospel, Jesus gives us yet another motive for such an effort: The other person, a person in need and suffering in various ways, a person who requires our service and overcoming our egoism, is a person with whom Jesus Christ himself identifies: “What have you done – or they didn’t – to one of these least of mine, you did it to me – or you didn’t.” There can be no stronger motive for doing good to one’s neighbors, for showing love to people. And in his caring love for us, Jesus reveals that these deeds will judge us. Jesus will reward us for manifestations of serving love in our neighbors by accepting us to direct and full participation in the life of the triune God – or, God forbid, exclude us from this participation if we were oblivious to the misery and suffering with people and closed ourselves in our egoism. When we think a little about these words of the Gospel about the last judgment, we realize how little we cooperate with the development of God’s life in us and how, in our daily circumstances, we must increase our efforts for concrete and practical love towards our neighbors – following the example of Christ himself, who loved us to the extreme, to complete self-sacrifice. But this complete self-giving for our salvation out of love for the Father led Jesus, even as a man, to full participation in God’s life at the moment of his resurrection.

Practical instruction: Manifestations of serving, attentive love towards neighbors, motivated by the belief that I am serving Christ himself in them.

Prayer: Merciful God and our Savior, turn our hearts to you and teach our minds with the heavenly doctrine so that we may improve in the Christian life through fasting and repentance. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who is God, lives and reigns with you in unity with the Holy Spirit forever and ever.

Voluntarism. The human will is a tremendous force. It can do a lot. Without it, we would not save ourselves. “He who created you without you…,” writes St. Augustine, “will not save you without you.”But even this power must not be overestimated as if it alone is sufficient for everything (so-called Pelagianism) or if Christian perfection should be judged only by performance, especially external performance. At the end of the last century, some said that the time had come to replace passive virtues with active ones. We should worry less about humility, contemplation, adoration, and denial but instead put all our strength into doing something properly for the Church, social justice, and the law. These counsels were often well-intentioned, and there was a piece of truth. However, their one-sidedness quickly leads to consequences contrary to Christ’s life and the teaching of the Gospel. Related to voluntarism is so-called moralism. He who loves God keeps the commandments (Jn 14:21). People with a valid will are better able to keep the laws of morality and the rules of the Church and are faithful in their duties. Can it be said that they are genuinely holier, better than others? We are sure that keeping God’s laws sanctifies a man. The life struggle of Christ against the Pharisees shows how easily
it is to go astray here, too, and how outward integrity can become a mask that covers the fundamental deficiencies of many actual values.
Sentimentalism. The presence of the Holy Spirit purifies all our faculties, hence our affections. The ear of the trained musician becomes sensitive to the harmony of tones and the flow of melody. Religious life awakens sense and feeling for what is, as St. Paul says above (Col 3:1), for the world of God, for holiness. There is an inner joy, a consolation, a peace that the world cannot give. In the words of the Apostle, such is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22).
Spiritual writers have always wondered whether such inner states are inevitable, whether they are infallible signs of grace and the presence of the Spirit. What if someone completely lacks and feels comfortless, full of contradictions, temptations, and disgust? The “consciousness of grace” question is being addressed again in theology today, even though it is aware of the difficulties. Certainly, the long-convicted need to avoid errors, e.g., Messalianism (4th century), which claimed that we have grace only when we feel it. Temptation and restlessness are said to be symptoms of sin. Even in the early modern period, there are some profound statements from the Church. Feeling and believing in our justification to be saved is not enough. Again, it was emphasized (against Baius) that “the evil lust, though it has its origin in sin, leads to it, but is not itself a sin.” Spiritual writers to this day say of consolations and consolations that often alternate.
Thus, one cannot infallibly measure life by good and bad feelings in God’s grace. Nevertheless, the presence of the Holy Spirit usually gives a person peace and tranquility, an inner contentment. They have, therefore, also right those who testify that they have found happiness and joy, such as the world cannot give in the spiritual life. This, however, every Christian gratefully receives. But he will never substitute for it the search for sentimental “sweet.” devotions, artificially induced enthusiasm, or exaltation.
Exaggerated spiritualism. We believe that Jesus Christ is the true God. But He is a God who became incarnate, was born, lived as a man died, and sanctified human activity and values. Spiritual life is in the Holy Spirit. He, however, “spiritualizes” the whole human person. He is thus given a true sense of what exaggerated spiritualism despises: daily life, its concerns, interests, feelings, and relationships. In contrast, however, compared to God, the world is nothing, not even worthy of attention. The world in God and with God, however, is the beginning of the heavenly Jerusalem, towards which the development of history is directed. Exaggerated spiritualism manifests itself in many ways. Some overestimate miracles, expect extraordinary interventions of God’s power and do not make sufficient use of the means at hand to accomplish good. It is good to think of eternal bliss, but it must be remembered that it is the reward of love. Nothing is more holy to a Christian than prayer, but to it also belongs work, as symbolically the two sisters in the Gospel, Mary and Martha (Luke 10,
38 ). Save the soul, for the rest does not matter! Nevertheless, we cannot throw up our hands in condescension over the misery and needs of our neighbor, over social injustice, over oppression. So-called Quietism (from the Latin word quies – peace) longs for God’s grace to permeate man’s heart. It forgets, however, that God is action, so God’s life promotes activity. Spiritual experiences are not for that, to be drunk with them, as it were, and to fall into passivity, inactivity.
 One-sided Christian sociologist. Love for God, however, is realized through the love of neighbor. The latter, then, is to meet the needs of modern life and be organized. Christians as a whole cannot be alienated from public life, neither from politics nor from culture. And yet, even in the heat of enthusiasm for a good cause, they must remember Christ’s words: My kingdom is not of this world (Jn 18,36). The Gospel is not just a social program.

Andrew joyfully announces to his brother. In the Gospel, we hear how Andrew and John were interested in Jesus and how they came to know him. We who gather around the altar also want to know Jesus, for through him, we know the mysteries of life. Without Christ, we do not understand what life and death are. We are still determining who we are and what our destiny is. Someone has said that knowledge of God gives birth to pride, and knowledge of man gives birth to despair. The prideful are those who claim to know the ways of God and supposedly know what to expect from God. And those who know man’s misery and what he can do fall into despair. Jesus Christ came into the world to reveal God’s love and show us man’s greatness. For man’s salvation, God consented to the death of His Son. Happy are the first disciples who came to know Christ, but we see that the knowledge of Christ is not the goal but the starting point for them. They bring to Christ, other disciples, and then whole nations. Thus, our task is also to bring religiously indifferent people to Christ and open their eyes to heaven. It is a sad fact that the Messiah has already been born and is in our midst, and many have not yet come to know Him.

You know that feeling when you’re trying to steal a little time to devote to God, but your responsibilities won’t let you? And you fall asleep feeling guilty that you didn’t do enough for it every night. You struggle with remorse until you reach an impasse… What wins? Your pride, your fear, or your humility? In your pride, you say: “God will wait, but duty will not,” in fear you mumble to Our Father, “For what if…” and in humility, you say: “God, forgive me, for you are the Lord of time – here I am, I am listening.”
You are not alone in experiencing the struggle with time, but it is a little different. Our busy, duty-laden lives are not the only reason we don’t have time for God…

Why do we forget God?
We are used to giving out of our surplus. If we give something to people experiencing poverty, we provide not the most beautiful and precious things we have but what we no longer need. Piles of clothes that are no longer fashionable occupy the closet. Or the money we donate to people in need only at the end of the month because it has increased to us. So, we are used to giving God the leftovers of our time.

It is not an art to give in excess but to go out on a limb and trust God implicitly. To be frugal, to sacrifice a little of our comfort and give it to those who need it most. Those who love to sacrifice for others sacrifice most of their time for God. Don’t give him your leftovers – the time you have left before bedtime. If you never want to forget God again, start with Him when you wake up first thing in the morning.

Time with God is like a meal you must eat several times daily to fill you up. It is said that appetite grows with food, so why not speak to Him in the morning, at lunch, and at night before bed, but every time you have a moment – in the doctor’s waiting room, on the way to work, or while cooking? Make every opportunity to spend time with God your number one priority.

How can you spend time with God every day? Here are six tips
Start as soon as you wake up. Not all of us are early birds to get up, but what about sacrificing a few minutes of your sleep to God? Pray, give thanks, praise the Lord, or read a few scriptures. If you start talking to God, He will bless your day, fill you with the Holy Spirit, and multiply your time. Sacrifice your discomfort for the souls in purgatory or for your own sake.

Listen to God’s Word while you work.
Sitting down during the day and reading the Holy Scriptures or other spiritual literature is often challenging. However, audio versions can be downloaded to your cell phone and listened to anytime. You can download free Holy Scripture, Christian audiobooks, praise or sermons, and lectures by inspirational people. Listen to them on your way to and from work or home while doing chores that don’t need your full attention. Make the most of every moment and fill your mind with the Word – you will have a wonderful time with God, whom you will never forget.

Read the Holy Scriptures while you wait.
We try to make the most of every spare moment while waiting. It is unthinkable to wait and do nothing at all. We pass the time by surfing the internet on our mobiles or tablets and don’t even realize that we could have spent it more meaningfully. We must remember about good old tried and tested manual work or reading. How many people have you seen today doodling or reading a book in a doctor’s waiting room or while driving to work?

Shorten your wait by reading spiritual literature or Holy Scripture. Why is it important to read God’s Word daily? Reading the Holy Scriptures should guide how we live our lives so we can be saved. It is a source we can draw at any time – in a state of joy, sorrow, fear, or pain. Holy Scripture is a constant reassurance from God of His love for us.

Speak to God with your words.
How many of us wander our minds thinking about ourselves, our actions, our problems, or how others treat us? Our thoughts have great power. They make us proud as we constantly remind ourselves how wonderful we are. Who can praise you more than your ego? Or who can give you more credit for the fact that your neighbor or colleague hasn’t been fair to you than yourself?

Instead of looking at yourself and your neighbors, turn your attention to God, and you will not lose your value. You can only gain. How about talking to God in your own words? Just like with your best friend. Just speak; your God is the best listener. Don’t be afraid to ask him for help because he responds with deeds – undeserved gifts and infinite mercy.

Be receptive to the gifts of the Holy Spirit all day long.
Being close to God also means being receptive to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit, from whom we have received in the Sacrament of Confirmation the gift of wisdom, discernment, counsel, strength, knowledge, piety, and the fear of God to walk in the Light in this world. God’s love and the Holy Spirit guide us through the obstacles in our path. If you do not feel the blowing of the Holy Spirit in your life, there is a mistake somewhere.

The problem is that we often need to remember to thank the Holy Spirit for help, not realizing that the Holy Spirit lives within us. The Holy Spirit can help you make small daily decisions by whispering. If you listen to Him and discern the “feelings” that the Holy Spirit is giving you, you will have fewer problems. How to listen to the Holy Spirit? In the Holy Scriptures, it says: “By their fruits, you will know them…” (cf. Mt 7:16). The fruit of the Holy Spirit is “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance” (Gal 5:22-23).

Would you be able to sleep? Start praying
No, this is not meant to sound funny. Even if someone says it’s good to start counting sheep to get to sleep quickly, sometimes it doesn’t work. What to do at that time? Have you found yourself yawning while praying? It’s strange, but it works. Can you think of a better and more beautiful way to fall asleep than with a prayer on your lips?

Now, we don’t mean that you should save evening prayer for the late hour of the night when you fall asleep to it. It is intended to be one way of devoting the last minutes of nothingness to God. After all, it is possible to fight insomnia by prayer.

When you give God your time, He will multiply and bless it with graces. God uses a mysterious equation: He does not divide the time you give Him but multiplies it so you will have time for many other duties.

The Cathars, a heretical movement of the Middle Ages, had one more feature besides its gnosticism: it divided people into the perfect and the imperfect. The perfect lived an impossible life, or at least very difficult, for an average person. Thus, so that even a normal, ordinary person might have some hope of salvation, there was a belief that if such a perfect one, a psychic, as they were called in Gnosticism (or a good person, as the Cathars called them), gave an average and therefore still human person, a special absolution, the so-called consolamentum to the dying, before death, then that person would also be saved as a result of it. The perfect one was saved because he was perfect, the others because they received this absolution from them, and based on it, God took pleasure in them and accepted them, even though they were still sinful and carnal.
Does that remind you of anything? It certainly does. Today, we call it clericalism, and this delusion is rampant among Catholics.
It, too, believes that there are men, clerics, or “parish priests and nuns,” as it is popularly called, whom God has chosen for a life of holiness and perfection. In this understanding, holiness and perfection mean that they only pray, read the Bible and the holy books, and do nothing but deal with the Lord God. Therefore, they have neither family nor any other occupation and live in a rectory or monastery, separated from the rest of the world. They are called to holiness, and they save themselves for their holiness.
And then there are the laity who live in the world, have families and jobs, and cannot live anything like that; it is not in their power or ability, and no one expects them to. They are weak and sinful, but they will save themselves because of God’s mercy when God has mercy on them, and despite their sins of worldliness, they will still receive into Heaven. And He will do this if they will at least somehow “support the institutions of the Church,” and if they will at least confess and receive absolution from the priest before they die so that, cleansed of all guilt, they may pass clean before the Judge. And, of course, it is best if such purification occurs regularly, say once a month, and if church attendance is added as insurance, ideally every Sunday, or at least occasionally, on major feasts. Then it should be a sure thing!
It’s similar, very similar.
There are a lot of misunderstandings and misconceptions in the background, from the idea of holiness as basically a superhuman burden or “just praying all the time” to the concept of Heaven as a place where God will let us in or out at will – and whether He will do so is up for debate, will be determined by whether He is still angry with us for our faults and sins and will pursue us with punishments for them, or whether we have managed to “wash” and cleanse ourselves of everything in confession beforehand and come before Him already clean. He is satisfied and graciously lets you go to Heaven. ..
Oh, it’s all been here before. As Ecclesiastes says, “What has been is what will be again. And what has already happened will happen again. Nothing is new under the sun. If there is anything that man would say: “See, this is something new!”, it was already there in the times that were before us.” (Eccl 1:9-10).