predication.net

“It is written: My house will be a house of prayer. And you made him a den of thieves.” And he taught daily in the temple » Lk 19, 45-46.

 And which place to stand? To the place of the expelled or the expelled? Doesn’t the place of the outcast belong to us, at least sometimes? There is a threefold temple: the material temple, the human temple, and the Church. The building is a temple not only in its style, but especially in its purpose, what it is dedicated to, and what happens in it. This makes it different from a factory, a department store, or an entertainment company. The temple is a place of God’s presence, prayer, and sacrifice. Every temple must be protected from pollution and desecration. It is necessary to take care of it regularly. Otherwise, it will start. In bad weather, we clean our shoes on a mat in the temple vestibule.

Lord, when I enter your temple, help me to get rid of all materialistic, worldly, and business concerns already in the hall so that I can come before you with a free and pure heart. And when those material worries get to the altar with me, let it be like our daily bread got to the Lord’s Prayer. But we are also a temple. Somewhere, the vestibule ends; somewhere, the sanctuary begins, the place of God’s presence, prayer, and sacrifice. Your word is like a barnacle that relentlessly shows what does not belong in the temple, what has moved there over time due to our inattention.

Chasing is a tough act. It is easier not to let in than to expel. The more careful the inspection at the entrance, the less is left to remove. The Church is also a temple. It also needs cleaning. Which temple should be cleaned first? The big one or our little one? It is sure that whoever cleans his small temple also indirectly tends to the big one, the Church. There is usually no other way for us, little ones. I have the most fantastic right to the  scourge on myself.

To encourage believers to open their hearts and thus let Jesus act. According to St. Irenaeus: “The glory of God is a living person because the true life of a person is the vision of God.” In the Gospels, we can capture something of this “vision of God” because it is there that we can observe Christ as an example of a living person. “When Jesus approached Jerusalem, and when he saw the city, he wept” (Luke 1941). Jesus is the holiest man who ever lived, and yet we can see him filled with sorrow and grief. What brought Jesus to tears? The city that he loved so much but which did not know the most essential thing in its history: the coming of the Messiah and his gifts to all the inhabitants. Do we not give reason to cry to Jesus over our sins and neglect of good?

Have we ever let the Lord wait for us? If we do not love Jesus, we cannot follow him. Let’s remember Jesus’s anger when he drove the sellers out of the temple (cf. Jn 2:13-17). Why are we afraid of our emotions, or why do we try to hide them? When God created us in His image, He declared that all things are good. However, the wound of original sin brought the growth of selfishness, disordered passions, and hostile aggression. Because of human sin, we have all been hurt in our search for love and experienced how destructive emotions can be. We have built a whole complex of defense mechanisms and internal fortifications to protect ourselves from further injuries. Our unhealed wounds and unfulfilled needs remain locked in our hearts. And finally, our inner walls can close us to bitterness, emotional coldness, loneliness, and only “half”. However, God wants us to live fully to witness a healthy, balanced Christian life. He wants to free us to rejoice or grieve, express anger at injustice, and show love for all that is true, fitting, and beautiful.

The next time you find yourself in an emotional situation, don’t deny your feelings or judge yourself for not being holy enough. Instead, bring your reaction before the Lord. Ask him to cleanse your feelings and let him fully revive you.

The view of today’s fields is sad. We harvested and stored the harvest a long time ago. As long as he lives on earth, man is aware of his responsibility for everything that God has entrusted to him. Jesus reminds us of this in the parable about the talents, the mines that have been entrusted to us, with which we should use appropriately because the words will be fulfilled on us too: “For to everyone who has, more will be added, and he will have more.” And whoever does not have, even what he has, will be taken from him” (Mt 25:29).

Our task in life on earth is to fulfill the will of God and thus gain a share in God’s kingdom. The Church not only reminds us of this, but also helps us. The very fact that we live is a gift from God. None of us took our lives alone. Parents are just an instrument that God used so that we can live. We live only from the love of God. God has given us various gifts necessary for our life in his wisdom and love. We have to give the gifts to the donor – “a certain person.” Still, before that, we are obliged to treat them in such a way that we not only return them all but that we return them appropriately multiplied by our involvement, our work, and the activity performed consciously and voluntarily. God, in his justice, distributes gifts. God will not ask the impossible from the gifted. However, every gift must be used. Then God, as he gave a reasonable number of gifts, will also provide a just reward.
By giving a gift, God calls a person to responsible work, a conscious approach to the duties and tasks to which the gift obliges him. Multiplying the gift is a matter of human effort. With each gift, God fills man with adequate happiness. If a person responsibly handles gifts, he gains even greater inner happiness. The words of Jesus express this: “Everyone who has will receive more…” (Lk 19:27). At the same time, it is also a reminder that those who do not cooperate, who do not handle gifts appropriately, become a witness to Jesus’ words: “And my enemies … beat for me” (Mt 25:29). This means that whoever received more will rightly be asked for more, and if expectations are not met, a harsher punishment comes. Everyone gets talents. What the recipient must not forget is – adequate work with talents. God gives and rightly demands commitment from man. 

When Edison was asked what he owed for his discoveries and inventions, he answered: “One percent talent and ninety percent hard work.” Louis Pasteur, the inventor of the cure for rabies and the discoverer of pasteurization, said the same thing. We respond with our faithfulness and responsibility to the gifts from God. Because we will give an account to God for everything in our life

 Pious submission tells us that the God-fearing couple, Joachim and Anna, had no children. They often prayed to God to bless them with offspring. They promised that if their prayer were answered, they would sacrifice the child born to them in the service of God. God, who listens to his chosen ones, “who call to him day and night” (Lk 18, 7), also heard their prayers. They had a daughter, whom they named Maria. Faithful to their promise, they bring her to the Jerusalem temple in the third year of her life to serve God with her pure life. Today’s holiday reminds us of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We sing about it in church services: “The Virgin gloriously enters the temple of God.” He announces the coming of Christ to everyone…” (Troparist). The liturgical texts further recall that “the angels were amazed when they saw the Virgin entering the sanctuary of the saints” at this event.  Why does the Eastern Church sanctify this arrival of the Virgin Mary in the Jerusalem temple with such emphasis? Was her arrival such a profound moment? Yes! The Virgin Mary entered the Jerusalem temple at the age of three, and there she lived her entire youth in prayer and the most incredible purity to become worthy to be the mother of the Son of God and our Redeemer. The Holy Fathers say that the Virgin Mary accepted God as her Father and sought to find grace with him. Precisely because of her perfection, God “looked upon the lowliness of his servant” (Lk 1:48) and chose her as the Mother of God and our Representative. With this service, she also set an example for us so that we can find grace with God in our lives. A specific Catholic writer wanted to convince his readers that everyone can achieve holiness independently of their life’s work. He wrote: “There is no difference before God whether you scrape potatoes or build cathedrals. Potatoes and cathedrals will not enter the kingdom of God. You will be judged solely according to your good or bad intentions.” In his memoirs, National Artist Rudolf Deyl writes: “Many actors preferred to leave the theater rather than play the small roles assigned to them. They usually didn’t make it anywhere. Great actors did not disdain a small role. There are no small tasks; there are only small people.” We did not receive and will not receive the extraordinary graces given to Our Lady… We were given small tasks that each one of us could handle. We all have our role in this world and must fulfill it consistently. In one of his songs, the famous Czech singer Waldemar Matuška sings about his father, a weak but modest man who did not excel in anything but was more significant than the king in that one thought: “You must never be lazy, you must not be afraid of work. Just try to do as well as you know what you are doing; enjoy doing it.”
Very nice words. May they be applied not only in song but also in life. And that is what we believers are all about when we worship the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God. So that we sing nice words about her, pray to her, and live according to her example. The Virgin Mary was entrusted with a tremendous task: To be the Mother of the world’s Savior! She confesses it in her eulogy: “He who is mighty has done great things for me” (Lk 1, 49). God did not entrust us with such tasks. We only have small tasks, sometimes many, some difficult, but still doable. God asks us to fulfill and love them as best we can. If we follow in the footsteps of the Virgin Mary in such a service, we, too, will find grace with God.

Everyone excels at something. No one is incapable or destined to remain passive all his life. The black plague for anyone with any savings is the loss of value of money. High amounts in Excel spreadsheets are not a win if you can buy less and less with them.

Inflation is the scourge of economists and ordinary people alike. We have vivid memories of the shock of looking at the price tags of basic foodstuffs a few months ago. Those not indifferent to this are looking for a banking product or an investment to ensure that their financial assets’ value stays the same. With activity and creativity, it is possible to think about the future.

Jesus tells a story about three servants entrusted with money by the owner, trusting that they will use it well and increase their wealth. Traders and financiers know proper alchemy is turning money around to yield the highest return.

Success requires knowledge, experience, intuition, and the proverbial luck. In the abovementioned story, the first two showed the owner a 100% return. The last one behaved conservatively and adopted a “sock” tactic. He put the money aside and, being afraid to do anything with it, returned it to the owner, for which, of course, he did not praise him. Few people like this: they don’t trust banks and prefer to keep their cash under their pillow or in a sock. They may have no interest, but they have cash within their reach.

Everyone has some challenges in life. They depend on his age, life situation, and other circumstances. A child is a pupil and has to fulfill his school duties. At least try to. The teacher usually appreciates the effort but will not feel sorry for the pupil if he does not see the interest. Activity with creativity distinguished the two servants in the gospel from the third.

Each was given a certain amount of money commensurate with his experience and was to evaluate it somehow. Each could be active and wrestle with this task. Two tried and passed; the third didn’t even try.

“He could have at least done something, at least tried to do something, but he didn’t do anything.”
Life is God’s gift, but it is unpredictable. We are still determining what will happen an hour or a month from now. But we have our little tasks in life as fathers, mothers, priests, children, students, employees, parishioners, and citizens. We are to do our best to stand in them. Everyone is irreplaceable, and we can do a lot of good. Those roles change over time.

We begin as children and students, continue as parents and employees, and later become retirees and grandparents. Those who take their “role” as a pupil seriously are usually also responsible as an employee. If we have treated our parents with respect and love as children, we can pass these attitudes on to our children and raise them well.

Everything has its time and sequence. In Parliament, those citizens’ representatives who have already been active as MPs at local or regional level inspire more confidence.

One thing is sure. Coping with any task in life requires activity and creativity. Not to be just a passive recipient. In evaluating the first two servants, the owner in Jesus’ story highlighted that they were “faithful in a small way,” caring, responsible, active, and creative. Therefore, he offered them more responsibility.

The third one failed all along the line. That he lacked courage is understandable. He could have at least done or tried to do something, but he did nothing. Such passivity in dealing with the gift was rejected.

There is only a man with talents and a life task. We may live in different circumstances, and some may be difficult, but that can’t stop us from trying to do something with our life, our ‘task.’ Everyone excels at something.

No one is incapable or destined to remain in passivity all his life. Yet even those who, for objective reasons, cannot produce material values for society can be active and creative in imparting so many spiritual goods.

To live is a call to activity and creativity. Minor earthly tasks are not only for temporal career advancement. If we live bravely and godly, each mastered life role is a means to a definitive end: an encounter with the Lord.

Why don’t we beg anymore? We’ve already resigned from correction…? It is suitable if each of us wants to hear the words from the mouth of Jesus: “Look, your faith has made you well” (Lk 18:42). The well-known incident about the healing of blind Bartimaeus. What important can we notice? What do you think is essential? And why? And can Jesus, who is “love” (1 Jn 4:16), answer other than: “Go, your faith has made you well” (Lk 18:42)?! The incident is an entire of dynamics. The climax and, for us a challenge, an appeal, and the memento are not the words of Bartimaeus, nor the words of the witnesses of the event, but the remark of the evangelist St. Luke: “And immediately he saw and followed him” (Lk 18:43).

How many times have we met Jesus in our life? They were meetings in prayer, with our neighbors, through events, through things… They were experiences; we felt the dynamism, showed a particular activity, made resolutions… And in a day, I’m guessing an hour or something shorter in time, we already forgot, and we were where we were before. Jesus forgave us, healed our souls, we regretted our brother’s insult, and let’s face it, life went on in the old ways because we forgot the important thing. “To follow Jesus, praise him, thank him, bow down to him, and glorify God.” Like that, I woke up to a new day, that I’m healthy, that I can work, and so on… they forgot.

Jesus is passing by even now. Today, when the Church gives us to read this pericope of the Gospel, she wants even more from us. It can be expressed in the following words: So that we step onto the next path of our life, no longer sick, that is, no longer in sin and with sin, about God, to our neighbor or ourselves, but to continue walking with God as his friends, so that we they were indeed brothers and sisters to each other. We realize that Jesus rightly asks and expects personal commitment from us.

An Asian monarch brought sundials to his subjects from his travels because no one in his kingdom had a clock yet. This wonderful gift changed the life of the entire kingdom. The subjects quickly learned to use the clock. The clock helped them to be on time, fulfill their duties on time, and so on. In a few years, they learned to use sundials and gain wealth with them skillfully. When the monarch died, they wanted to build him a monument that would remind them of the monarch. And since the sundial symbolized the sovereign’s goodness and the source of their wealth, they thought of building a magnificent temple with a golden dome. When they finished the work, the golden dome covered the sundial, and the clock stopped working. The clock lost its aim, and as a result, the nation began to decline.

The teachings of Jesus have undoubtedly benefited us. It is fitting that we want to draw from God’s word and not look at it only sometimes or when it suits us. 

They brought the grandmother to the intensive care unit. She kept moving her lips. After a few hours, the nurse put her ear to the grandmother’s lips. Although it was impossible to communicate with the grandmother, she did not answer the questions of the staff; the nurse heard the quiet words of prayer. Grandma was praying. Those who knew her knew, and many of those around her said it aloud: “How can this woman bear it in her life? When she was carrying her fifth child, her husband was killed by a tree in the forest. They burned down that year. She took care even then about her father-in-law, who was bedridden. And this woman didn’t complain to anyone. She also found time to go to Holy Mass at least once or twice on working days of the week. The children were clean and decent, and she sent them to school… When they got married and they got married, she took care of her grandchildren. She didn’t say much, but they often saw a rosary in her hands. No one said a bad word to her in her life. She didn’t get angry with anyone. No one could deny her something when she asked for something.” On the third day in the intensive care unit, as quietly as she had lived, she died quietly, just stopped moving her lips.

Prayer. What is hidden behind this word? What do we know about prayer? What about our prayer? Even today, topical questions.

Evangelist St. Luke wrote: “Jesus told the disciples a parable about how always to pray and not give up” (Lk 18:1). The text of the Gospel speaks about the last things of the world, for which it is necessary to prepare – and that through prayer. We would be wrong if we claimed that we should only pray from morning to evening and be always on our knees. However, this does not mean there should not be a place in our lives for regular, pious, focused, persistent prayer of various contents in every place we live. Our life should be an intimate conversation with God. Prayer teaches love for God, neighbor, and self in the figure of a judge who is not a heathen but a Jew who does not practice the faith, who lives as if he never had to appear before his God the Judge after death. He was not interested in justice or public opinion; he passed unjust judgments and did not care about the oppressed. The second character of the Gospel, the widow – represents misery and helplessness; she is alone and exploited. But the widow is persistent and unyielding. She will not give rest to the judge until his patience runs out. The judge, although not in the interest of justice but to have peace from the widow, takes over her dispute.

The parable is our lesson. If the unjust man obeys the nagging widow, how much more will the reasonable God uphold the just cause of his faithful ones against their enemies? Indeed, many do not pray today. We pray little. The quality of prayer is declining. And yet prayer belongs to our lives at least as much as we breathe. We know the body needs oxygen, and the soul should not need prayer. Do we not doubt the right human way of life, and should we underestimate the way of life of the soul? Prayer recharges heaven.

How differently we can treat each other and ourselves. What characterizes our behavior? By what do people know each of us?
Jesus tells us: ” But let your speech be “yes – yes,” “no-no.” What is more, it comes from the Evil One” (Mt. 5:37). And elsewhere, we hear “the kingdom of God will come unnoticed” (Lk 17:20). Jesus wants to fulfill his mission to the letter, reading everything as it was in God’s plan from the beginning. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). If this is the meaning of the Law, whoever wants to be in fellowship with God is obligated to keep God’s laws and God’s way of thinking, this is what the Ten Commandments lead to. Which of God’s commandments can be the least? Many people would like to adapt God’s law to their capabilities. The law and the commandments do not want to enslave man. On the contrary, the man who realizes what God wants by prohibitions commands faithfully keeps them. He sees in them the God who is Love. The greater the knowledge of Love, the more resolute the attitude against sin and the more determined the attitude toward Love. An erring conscience obliges. (St. TA II/II q.19 a.5.

Paying attention to the education of a person’s conscience is necessary. It is not enough that a person learns the commandments; he must confront his actions with the commands. If a person understands well the meaning of individual orders and the meaning of their whole, then he reaches the ideal of life. It can happen that under the influence of the environment, life circumstances, and other circumstances, a person loses a clear view of some commandment, and this is where the mission of the Church is to guide him so that he does not remain in error. The Church is the authority in the field of faith and morals. Jesus gave power to Peter and promised the Holy Spirit. Therefore, only the Church has the right and duty to explain the commandments of faith and morals. He cannot leave it to personal opinion or a group or leader’s opinion. Morals begin where words end. History and today are proof of false ideologies and false leaders. Jesus clearly says, “Many false prophets will arise and will deceive many” (Mt 24:11). It is recommended to stop occasionally and reconsider or check your conscience seriously. This is how we talk about the evening examination of conscience, which is recommended as hygiene of the soul; when hygiene of the body is equal, we pay attention. A short examination of conscience is at the beginning of every Holy Mass. It is appropriate because the Mass is the most holy sacrifice, and we should prepare for it accordingly. The Church order speaks of an annual confession. Even if we receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation more often, preparation is essential. According to specific mirrors, there are also manuals or prayer books; according to age condition, we should check our implementation of God’s and the Church’s commands in our life. Leave nothing to chance. It’s time to look at our conscience. It’s time to learn to apologize for our transgressions and pray. It’s time for you to use today’s Holy Mass to ask for the necessary graces.