predication.net

Let’s try to analyze what the present moment is in its essence, discover its actual value, draw on the richness of the present moment, and live it to the full. The moment cannot be analyzed by reason, for it no longer exists. It is not a passing time but a glimpse into eternity. In religious terms, we can briefly define it as follows: the present moment is the point of the soul’s encounter with God. The present moment is, first and foremost, a connection point with God. Whatever its form and content, by its very nature, it is, for us, an expression of God’s will. It is in this minute that God wants us to see how we do this act, which very often will not be exceptional nor spectacular but trivial and insignificant, and its only value will be that it is God’s will. But more is needed?
The present moment is not only an expression of God’s will but also brings us into the presence of God. If, at this moment, we are expected, the Lord asks us to be in this place and to do this, it is because he expects us to be here. It is at this point that we will meet him, and if we seek him elsewhere, we will miss him. He is waiting, therefore, for us to give Himself, to communicate Himself in his entirety. Let us specify what the present moment represents to us. God’s will and presence in the sense that the place ceases to be necessary; only the presence with God and in God has meaning, for in all times and places, we can give thanks to him.
Every time, there is a place where we are to give thanks to God’s presence in its eternal moment, which delivers us from the duration of
time. Various similes can illustrate this definition. Encompass each row in its entire length. Before or then, we see only an uncluttered jumble. Imagine two spheres, one of which is infinitely large and contains infinite energy potential, and the other is an image of the first but is infinitely tiny and immobile. They touch at only one point, but at that single point of contact, the power of one sphere flows into the other. It’s not the same as when we come into contact with God? However, this simile is correct because we do not forget that we belong to God; the small sphere is also contained in the big one: nothing exists outside God.
Every single minute of our life is indispensable. We approach God only in a single moment: in this and the next. Our whole existence is but a continuous succession of moments. And this gives it a semblance of continuity. This contact with God in every single moment thus gives birth to a moment that lasts forever, a permanent union with God through all things. Even when the soul is absorbed in active life, it remains with Jesus in constant renewal, in profound solitude with him alone. He can continually yield himself to the presence of God – in every event and every circumstance. Now, we can easily understand that the saints can accomplish much work, solve many difficulties, and take on heavy responsibilities without losing control of themselves, without ceasing to be all things to all men in all things. Therefore, when St. John of the Cross recommends the purification of memory, he means nothing else than that we should live in the present and free ourselves from the past.
The present moment, then, is the very basis of our connection with God. The divine presence certainly shines through more in prayer or suffering. And especially in the sacraments, God gives himself to us entirely uniquely. But every moment gives us God. We could also say that the present moment is, in a certain sense, a permanent sacrament, a sign of God’s hidden presence. Then, any waste of this moment is a heresy—the imitation of the present moment. To complete our analysis of the present moment, let us now look not directly at it but at how it is imaged in life and the chosen people, the living image of Christianity.
Let us open the Bible, the book of Exodus (15:22). Through Moses, God has just delivered his people from Egyptian bondage. A place to lead them to the promised land by an easy coastal route; he led them into the desert to strengthen their souls. Israel’s entire journey is full of uncertainties: every obstacle becomes an opportunity to fall, to grumble, or, on the contrary, to show confidence and faith. God is constantly intervening, always answering Moses’ prayer. The Jewish people hoped that once they had crossed the Red Sea, they would find themselves in the promised kingdom. It didn’t happen. It was forced to live in the desert in constant uncertainty. Egypt was undoubtedly a place of slavery, but there was safety. And in the hearts of the people of Israel, pity sprouted: bread and meat to the full for more valuable to them than freedom. What is the use of being free if …when one has nothing to eat? Would that we had died in Egypt! At the first test is the Jewish distrust. Scripture and tradition see this life in the wilderness as a foreshadowing of Christianity. The Christian, redeemed from sin as Israel was. Delivered from Egyptian bondage, it is not immediately called to eternal happiness, just as the Jewish people did not reach the promised land. The Christian, too, must wander through an earthly life where all sorts of difficulties and dangers await him. Every day, he must rely on the Word of God instead of trusting his impressions and personal decisions. He must agree to live by his beliefs, not what he sees. Faith replaces his sight and, in some cases, even reason. The Christian must rely on God every day, even in the most concrete problems, such as what to eat and what to drink. And just as Israelites, Christians grumble. Everything is perfect when God makes life humanly easy. Once the trial comes, the sickness and loneliness, there is no escaping the experience of the people of Israel. Like manna in the wilderness, we receive grace every day. It is, and we can’t stockpile it, even though we often see in it a cure for our pains, a solution to our issues, the removal of difficulties. It is nothing of the sort.
After we have received the favor of heaven, they reappear as issues and obstacles. Nothing is absolute; grace is not certain. Today, we are vainly being captivated by grace, experiencing spiritual joy, gaining assurance of eternity, and feeling that nothing will be complicated anymore; the new dawn will not find us stronger; perhaps, on the contrary, we will be a little weaker, helpless, and burdened by our burdens. Where are yesterday’s graces, the certainty, the certainty of peace, the victory over every fear… Where is the heavenly bread we thought we had enough of for a lifetime?… Where is the joy that our hearts overflowed with?
We have received so much, and now we have nothing. We’re living so
like those who have no hope. We grumble… One bad news, one failure, has dispelled our sense of security. We have only one certainty: we are alone, abandoned, at the bottom of an anxious abyss. Everything is exactly as it was before. Israel has seemingly yet to advance one step further. It wasn’t worth it to cross the Red Sea or leave Egyptian slavery when grace God’s grace was no longer with them. It must be so. We must learn that grace is always entirely new; it is only for this day. It is always complete and whole. If God gave us something yesterday, it doesn’t mean we won’t need it today. Although we are filled with grace, we must remain poor, exempt from everything. Every day and every minute of every day, we must surrender our being to God. The prayer of the completer should constantly flow from our hearts. I commend my spirit, O Lord (Psalm 31:6), into your hands, which Could you hold me at this moment? If God tests His people, it is to teach them to rely on God alone, to know that they are in His hands. What the chosen people have done for forty years, we must do continually. Without the slightest insurance for the future, with daily risk, trust that God will hold us tomorrow as he does today, to accept poverty and beg for God’s mercy. And when this act of faith is performed, the Christian must repeat it at every moment, for it is usually after the act of faith that God comes to our aid. To the end of our lives, we are to seek without ceasing the presence of Him who has promised to be with us always (cf. Matthew 28:20). He who is the same yesterday and today, the deliverer, the comforter, whom we need today and will need tomorrow. Without Him, we are as helpless today as we will be tomorrow.
The Christian, like wandering Israel, is also a pilgrim, accompanied by the uncertainty of grace. At every moment, he requires God as his guide. He is a creature in waiting, a pilgrim on the way to the Father’s house. He knows no rest. He does not dwell in this life; he does not say, “Let us stop here.” He is essentially a man of desire, inquietude, cor (= restless heart) until he finds eternal rest in God. And yet he is full of joy, security, peace, tranquility, and brightness, for he knows where he is going and in whom he has believed. More accurately, he does not know where he is going, but he knows that there he is going. Another – and what a perfect – representation of the present moment, we can ponder and marvel at the Blessed Virgin Mary herself. Her whole life was one series of moments, sometimes inconspicuous, but she lived with the utmost love. Her entire being, wonderfully pure through her immaculate conception, certainly gave at the disposal of these successive moments in perfect and total absorption; in each moment, she was exposing her entire being to the light that illuminated it, transformed it, spiritualizing. In Mary, the sun did not cast shadows. She was the pure dwelling place of God, body and soul belonging only to heaven, and we know how she pondered the meaning of things: But Mary kept it all. In her heart and considered it (Luke 2:19). And so to Mary belongs glory, in terms of her merit, for living fully in the present moment.

Our morality teaches us that love triumphs even over duty to the law. But we know that God is Love.

They did not want to admit this and stubbornly upheld the laws of the synagogue leaders when the Lord Jesus healed a sick woman on Saturday who had been hunched over for 18 years and could not straighten up. He said: “The woman is freed from her illness” (Lk 13:12). Because of this, a sharp exchange of views occurred between Jesus and the superiors of the synagogues about celebrating the Sabbath rest. The people, although they saw and heard what the Lord Jesus was doing, did not accept his offer to enter the kingdom of God; he rejected his calls to repentance and stubbornly maintained his external understanding of religion. The head of the synagogue is angry that the Lord Jesus heals on the Sabbath. According to him, it is a great job. But he no longer considers it heresy to take care of his cattle. He goes to water because he is thirsty. He can understand this, but he cannot understand helping another – the help shown by the Lord Jesus to this sick woman. What can be delivered to an animal cannot be delivered to a person. Such is the opinion of the head of the synagogue. Such teaching is Pharisaical. In this beautiful example, we can see the far-reaching consequences of the love of the Lord Jesus and the ossification of the paragraphs of the Law of the nation’s leaders. Saturday was a memorable day for the Jewish people to free the nation from Egyptian captivity. That is why even the head of the synagogue should have been happy that one of the nation’s sisters found relief from her illness. The superior may not have been the wrong person, but he stuck to the rules and knew little about love. For him, the prescription was more than an act of love.

After this explanation, we will think. Aren’t we like the head of the synagogue? Aren’t we just prescriptions? It can become an opportunity for us to say goodbye to chronic faith. Adults, try to develop your faith, leave childish ways, and start living the faith of your time. Living your faith means living it ever new and new, ever young and enriching. We have to get rid of such thoughts that still bother someone, that faith belongs to the Middle Ages, that it does not appeal to the youth, that it is far from the mentality of a man. On the contrary, we are witnessing the fact that faith, for those who try to know and understand it better, becomes a beautiful impulse in life and helps them to solve problems. The Lord Jesus healed a sick woman on Saturday. So he brought a new atmosphere to the celebration of Saturday. The Church does not distance itself from the teachings of Christ when it understands the temporal and regional needs of believers.

For us, Sunday is a day of rest, but that does not mean we are idle. It is a day to experience the family community. A day to deepen your knowledge in the field of faith. It is a day when we can visit each other and use the meeting to comfort, encourage, strengthen, or bring joy to the sick and old.

An interesting legend is about St. Jude, the well-known patron saint of those in need, whose feast day we celebrate today. In ancient Turkey, there lived a king suffering from a severe illness. He heard about Jesus and wrote him a letter asking him for healing. Along with the letter, he also sent an artist who was to draw the face of Jesus. Since Jesus could not go to the king, he sent Judas with the artist’s painting. Thanks to the portrait and Judah’s prayers, the king was healed. That is why St. Jude is still depicted with the image of Christ’s face in his hands.

This legend says something about Judas but also other saints. They didn’t heal anyone themselves. In the legend, the key to the king’s recovery was the image of Jesus. All the healing power that the saints had was from the Lord. “He bore our sicknesses and was burdened with our pains… with his stripes we are healed” (Is 53, 4-5). Jesus is our healer, our comforter, our Savior.

This legend illustrates yet another important fact: Jesus needs saints. Judas was an ordinary man, a sinner whom Jesus redeemed. But God commissioned him to bring healing and hope to thousands – and he continues to do so today, many centuries after his death. Jude shows us that we carry in our hearts the treasure of the Holy Spirit, which gives us the power to change the world in the image of God. He shows us that we can become saints just like him.

Have you ever looked in the mirror so that you did not see yourself in it but in the image of God? Like Judas, you, too, bear the face of Christ. His divine life flows in you. Even if you don’t perform miracles, He lives in you. Therefore, give him thanks for this grace. Praise him for creating us “capable of sharing in the light of the saints” (Col 1:12). Look for the opportunities it gives you to share this light with the people around you.

One of the topics discussed before the synodal assembly was the ordination of women as deaconesses. However, according to the Crux Now portal, the synod participants say it is too early. They told the media that while various topics are being discussed, no decisions will be made on specific issues, such as the issue of deaconesses.

Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi from Tokyo, during a briefing, when asked if the time has come to decide on the diaconate of women, replied that there are different opinions on it within the synod.

According to him, there is also a difference in the understanding of terminology, which is highly dependent on cultural background. According to him, there are very different opinions on this issue, so it’s almost time to decide.

According to Irish religious Mary Teresa Barron, president of the International Union of Superiors General, the issue of women’s diaconate is on the table.

“The beauty of the Catholic Church is that we have both ends of the spectrum in terms of what we believe,” she said, indicating the different perspectives on the issue.

Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of Vilnius, Lithuania, and president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE), also thinks a decision is unlikely. “Focusing on different services in the church, or discovering new services in the church, is part of the discussion,” he declared to the media.

“Very often, we try to put things in black or white, yes or no, go or stand, but I think the discussion that is going on is one of how we live the church in a completely different way or the same way in a better dialogue,” he said.

A prayer for migrants and refugees led by Pope Francis in front of a bronze statue in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday, October 19, 2023, was part of the synod delegates’ program. 

The Syrian nun Houda Fadoul, representing the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Middle East, pointed to her experience leading a women’s congregation in Syria. He considers it essential that “each of us, male or female, takes his role and uses the gifts in the church, regardless of who he is.”

This week, the synod also considered the church’s authority, the need to avoid clericalism, and various elements of authoritarianism in leadership.

Evangelism in the digital world was also a key point of discussion, with many participants noting that young people are increasingly online, making the internet a new form of “mission territory” for the church.

According to Archbishop Grušas, regarding specific decisions or conclusions for the topics themselves, they will not come this year or next.

The archbishop sees many issues, such as the position of women in the church or the inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals in the church. According to him, these questions will be around for a while. He pointed out that the synod does not seek to decide on doctrinal or dogmatic issues.

Grušas perceives that the goal was to allow the participants to express their opinions and let the problems “bubble” along the way. He says, “There is no preconceived notion of how it will end at the synod, which takes a bit of faith when walking into the unknown.”

“As much as people would like to see some decisions made, I think the process is more important here than the conclusions,” he said.

What does the day of a synod participant look like?

Finally, let’s look at the human side of the event – how do the synod delegates live these days?

I get up around six. 30-year-old priest Ivan Montelongo from El Paso, Texas, one of the eleven delegates from the USA, told the Catholic News Agency about his usual synodal day.

If the everyday morning mass is not celebrated in the Basilica of St. Petra, it is at 7:00 a.m. along with other priests residing in the Pontifical North American College. This is followed by a quick breakfast and transfer by minibus to Paul VI Hall, where synodal meetings are held.

The work program starts at 8.45 and ends at 12.30, interrupted only by “sacred moments” for coffee. The American delegates will have lunch and a siesta in their college on the nearby Gianicolo hill.

The afternoon program lasts from 4:00 p.m. to 7:15 p.m., followed by dinner in the college and a free program used to prepare work documents or relax. The day, of course, ends with evening prayer.

The youngest synod participant, 19-year-old Wyatt Olivas from the American diocese of Cheyenne, who is in the Eternal City for the first time, is trying to use the little free time to get to know Rome.

“I am very grateful to be here and to participate in this historic moment in the church’s life. I am ready to return home and bring all the wealth I saw here,” said the young college student.

When talking to the younger ones, the elders sigh: It wasn’t like that in our time. Now is the wrong time. A person’s most incredible wisdom is to live honestly and responsibly. We cannot change what happened yesterday; we try to learn from it. And we don’t have to worry about what will happen tomorrow when we experience what we are experiencing now as we have.

The Lord Jesus tells us: “How is it that you do not know how to judge the present time? Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is just?” (Luke 12:56). The Lord Jesus called us to this world in these circumstances. He would have taken care of it if he had wanted us to live in the past or the future. From this, you can also sense the wrong teaching of some religions about reincarnation. But about that in another place. Old age, illness, and increasing years are signs of the times the meeting with God is approaching. True, we do not want to remember this. The Lord Jesus said: “..Hypocrites, you can judge the appearance of heaven and earth. How is it that you do not know how to judge the present time? Why do you not judge for yourselves what is just?” (Luke 12:56). These words speak of our frequent irresponsibility towards God’s things. We care about transient things but not about eternal things. And yet eternal things cannot be put off. Jesus points out this to us in the parable of the journey with the adversary to court. The debtor is sued in court because he does not want to pay. The only option is to use the road to court and get it sorted out on the way because it is sure that he will lose the court case and find himself in jail until he pays the debt to the last penny. The parable’s meaning is that we are all debtors, and the one who invites us to the court to repay the debt is Jesus Christ. In this context, God is the judge. God gives us the last opportunity to take advantage of the seriousness of the present hour and cope with the offer of the Lord Jesus to live for him and with him. Our judgment is approaching, so it is necessary to act quickly while we are still on the road, that is, here on earth. Otherwise, we risk imprisonment.

What is the sign of our times? What does God ask of us in this hour?  The life we ​​have entered is unparalleled in human history. Excellent scientific and technical progress brings difficulties that were unknown in the past. Today, we often talk about ecology, the pollution of our planet, and not only the land, that trees are drying up, barrenness is increasing, and the desert is growing, but we are infesting our rivers, oceans, and seas. The air is unbreathable. Scientists discovered the ozone hole, which causes the temperature in the air to rise, the so-called greenhouse model, and one more essential thing: man has lost not only his face and becomes a stranger to each other, but he has also lost a view of his soul, he has stopped caring about the most important thing: What am I in the world for?

That’s why this gospel sounds the alarm so that we use all our abilities given so that now, and not tomorrow, we can recognize what God asks and wants from us in the first place. Time and difficulties remind us to think about our future and our death.

The great philosopher Thomas Carlyle once wrote: “Let everyone become what he is capable of becoming, what he was created to be.” A better definition of success, I can’t think of it. Life is a daily challenge to maximize our abilities. We succeed if we go within our abilities to the highest goal – giving our best. The quote before this chapter says that success is about doing, not getting. I want to emphasize this point to you. Life from us doesn’t want us to always be on top. It only asks us to be at the top… to do our best in our current experience. That’s precisely what successful people do in some of the most critical areas of life:  Successful people take life as it is, with all its difficulties and challenges. They adapt to it rather than complain about it. They accept responsibility for their lives rather than blaming others or making excuses. They embrace life despite its negatives and always make the most of it.
Successful people develop and maintain a positive attitude towards life. They look for the good in other people and the world around them and usually find it. They see life as a series of opportunities and possibilities that must be explored. Successful people build good interpersonal relationships. They can perceive the needs and feelings of others. They are considerate and polite. They can inspire others to perform at their best; successful people have a sense of direction and purpose – they know where they are going. They set goals, achieve them, and then put more. They like to take on challenges. Successful people crave new knowledge about life, the world, and themselves. Themselves. Learning is a pleasure for them, not an obligation. They are constantly enriching their lives with new knowledge and self-improvement. They are always discovering something new and growing internally. Successful people are active. They finish what they start because they are unafraid of hard work and have no time. They use it creatively. They don’t get bogged down in routine, and they don’t get bored because they’re always looking for new experiences.
The moral level of successful people is high. They know that honesty is
one of the most essential parts of a reasonable person’s character. They honor the truth in their personal and public lives. Successful people understand the difference between merely existing and living and always choose real life. They get the best out of life because they put their best to it. They reap what they sow. They rejoice in life as much as they can.
What opportunity do we have to be genuinely successful? Many people in today’s society … don’t take advantage of their opportunities. Perhaps it is that their environment doesn’t encourage them; maybe it holds them back… SIA, creativity, and society’s growth depend on how much we can develop people’s talents and abilities. John Gardner: This quote was printed in large letters and hung on my classroom wall for years. It reminded me and my students that many have not realized our self-fulfillment. John Gardner was Secretary of Health, Education, and Social Services, founder of the Common Course, and author of several books. He wrote that too many people must take full advantage of their abilities in one of them. This is because of environmental influences. I agree with him. We are blinded by much information that has nothing to do with success. We’re forced to look for quick fixes instead of focusing on our internal resources. If we focus on them, we will find them and our capacity remains untapped. We will only end up realizing our limitations, not our possibilities.
But once we become aware of this situation, we can do something about it, and that’s the positive thing about the whole thing. That’s why I used to have another one alongside Gardner’s quote: Good news: You have the best part of your life that may be ahead of you. And if you choose to take advantage of it, neither in age nor in It doesn’t matter at all – because you have yet to start using 90% of capabilities and have yet to discover them. This is not just word, but downright incredible news!
Tim Hansei
Tim Hansel is an adventurer, speaker, author of six books, and a man who wants to get the most out of life. He’s also a former colleague and close friend of mine. When we taught psychology together a few years ago, he constantly urged our students to look inward and inside themselves. To discover what’s good in them and what their potential is. We encouraged them to become more and do more. What a surprise it was to find that these 18-year-olds had never done anything like this before. About a year later, I challenged the University of San Francisco students to do the same task. They were in their thirties and forties; some were older. And guess what I learned? They had never studied anything about their capabilities. At the end of the extensive class discussion, one forty-seven-year-old woman summed up the issue this way, “I would say that …you’re right. We spend a lot of time on superficial activities. We seem to be we don’t realize our potential.” But as she reminds us in the quote, Thus – it is good that many of us have yet to discover our possibilities. And that’s also one of the most important messages of this book. Whether we are young or old, whether we have a nine-year degree or a doctorate, we can still learn something about our possibilities, about how to become the kind of person we are capable of becoming. Looking inside ourselves, we will find the resources needed to become successful people.

One of the paradoxes of Christianity is that many Christians still need to live as faithful followers of Christ. This tension of “good” and “bad” members found in the Church is foretold by Christ in Matthew 13:24-30. * Mt 5:13-16: “You are the salt of the earth. If the salt is lost, what will they salt it with? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled on by men.”* Mt 13:1 – 9: “On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And when he came to Jesus, he went down to the sea, sat on a table, and sat in the middle of the sea. Great multitudes were gathered around him. Therefore, he got into a boat and sat the whole multitude on the shore. He told them many in parables: The sower went out to sow. As he sowed, some grain fell by the wayside; birds came and devoured it. Others fell on the rocky ground where they had not much earthed, and immediately they sprang up, for they were not deep in the earth; but when the sun rose, they burned, and because they had no root, they withered away. Again, others fell into the thorns, but the thorns grew up and choked them. Other grains fell into the good ground and brought forth a crop: One a hundredfold, another sixty-fold, and another Thirty-fold. He that hath ears, let him hear.'”
Other quotes
MM3, 24-50 Mt 7:15-2 3
MJc3,19 Mt 26:69-75
Jn 6:70 Lk 22:54-62
MMO, 1- 4 ;er32, 22 – 25
Some Christians, as in the case of St. Peter, having denied Christ three times, fell into grave sin and do things that arouse Public outrage but are ultimately restored by God’s forgiveness and grace. Others persist in their iniquity and give the Church a bad name for their evil deeds. This fact of sinful men and women who are members of God’s covenant people is also seen everywhere in the Old Testament. Once again, we are confronted that God’s grace is more powerful than our sin. St. Paul wrote to Timothy: “If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself” (2 Tim 2, 13).

 Maybe it will surprise someone, but we are God’s debtors. We owe him respect. Illustration photo: cathopic.com They say that only taxes and death are certain in life. Paying taxes is rare. On the one hand, they finance public services such as education and healthcare, but it seems to most that they pay too much. We are not against taxes, only if we spend less. The hesitant willingness to pay is fueled by constant information about the tax fraud some individuals do and accomplish. Many will always need help to figure it out. Paying taxes is not just about collecting money from earning individuals. It’s a question of justice. We live in society; we are not abandoned islands; we bear joint responsibility for the whole society, not just for ourselves. The more successful we are, the more we should be in solidarity with those who, for various reasons, are not successful. Failure is not a matter of (in)ability. Sometimes, it is due to a bad social environment, few opportunities, lack of education, or simple illness. This is also what taxes are for. Jesus didn’t give many instructions about money, but most people know the phrase “give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” He should have uttered it to present economic theories. He responded to legal experts who looked for weaknesses in his communications and statements to question his authority. The fact that the Jewish people lived under the rule of the hated Romans offered them an excellent opportunity to pressure Jesus into a response that they believed would expose him as a traitor. His mission would be discredited and de facto over if that were the case. But the Master took the question of whether taxes should be paid from a different angle and presented a principle that is still valid: to give every one what is due to them. If we look at things this way, we will rather understand that each person has certain obligations that result from the environment in which they live. We are employees, students, parents, spouses, believers, citizens. Each of these categories has not only its rights but also obligations. We know about them, and we try to preserve them. If we don’t do it, our conscience will accuse us. But justice in the spirit of Jesus’ words has two scales. Justice to the “emperor,” society, school, work, family – various worldly realities. And then there is righteousness toward God. It may surprise someone, but we are God’s debtors. We owe him respect. We are to treat God as God. To realize that there is an insurmountable difference between us. “If a person stops worshiping God, it does not mean that he stops worshiping. Worse, he can bow down to anything.” We need him, not him us. God does not owe us anything; we do owe him. We are to worship God. This is not a matter of debate or discretion but an obligation from which one cannot be freed. That belongs to the Lord. Honoring God can be divided into small things in the form of prayer, but especially in the form of liturgical life. For Catholics, the peak of worship is the Holy Mass. Some people have such a mistaken image of themselves that they think this topic does not concern them. It is a fact that in today’s over-individualized world, many live in an illusion. They are said to be in complete control of life and its possibilities. They are self-sufficient, often have excellent material security, and think they are independent of anyone and anything. Even independent of God. They live as if they don’t need it. This lie leads to a dead end. The classic says that if a person stops worshiping God, it does not mean that he stops worshiping. Worse, he can bow to anything. As St. Paul says in the Letter to the Romans, it is not so difficult to exchange the Lord for some material things on an imaginary scale of values. People can worship success, money, beauty, education, and music. Transient things that will play a small role in the final reckoning before God’s face. Giving everyone their due thus remains a lifelong task. We will not get rid of her. Every camouflage, cheating, insincerity, and falsehood will return to us with interest. So, let’s be reasonable and not experiment with life. Let’s behave responsibly so that no people can say we are egoists without solidarity. It’s a matter of justice. We are giving everyone what is due, not forgetting the Lord. To believe in him, to worship him. Every day as long as we live, because we need it. He is not a despot who punishes our mistakes but a kind, merciful Father who waits patiently for us to come to our senses.