predication.net

 Jesus answered: “Can the wedding guests mourn?… But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast.”

Verily, we are not in a position of marital joy. One of the reasons is that our homeland is also close to war, and we have war refugees here. That is also why Pope Francis called for prayers and fasting for Ukraine. If we pray well, we cannot stop at prayer because worship should lead to action. Actions, that’s fasting. In the prayer after the offering (preface) during Lent, we pray to imitate God’s goodness by sharing the bread. We also help materially war refugees, especially women and children. Many Ukrainian men remained to defend those who could not escape. Many have run out of gas; trains are not running… Terrible situation.

The question is, should we also help them in defense, for example, with weapons? We can think from this point of view: Imagine that someone attacked your children and family. You would defend them. Let’s move it: Someone attacks the neighbor’s family. You should probably help. Let’s expand it: There is a big family of Slavic brotherly nations: Greater Russia and weaker Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine. Children, women, and civilians are also dying. Should we watch or help?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church can help us with the answer, which is text number 2265: “Justified defense can be not only a right but also a serious duty for those responsible for the lives of others. Defending the common good requires neutralizing the unjust invader. For this reason, the rightful representatives of power have the right to use weapons to repel the invaders of the civil society entrusted to their responsibility.”

In text number 2308, we read: “Every citizen and every government official is obliged to contribute to the avoidance of wars. As long as there is a danger of war and there is a lack of a competent international authority equipped with adequate military power, governments cannot be denied the right to legitimate defense if all means of peaceful settlement have been exhausted.” I will also remind you that Ukraine is not a member of “a competent international authority equipped by adequate military power.” Does she have to defend herself?

Many understand the term repentance as “turning away from sin.” This is not the biblical definition of repentance. In the Bible, the word repentance means “to change one’s opinion or thinking.” The Bible also tells us that true repentance will result in a change of behavior (Luke 3:8–14; Acts 3:19). Acts 26:20b declares, “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and do works worthy of repentance.” The full biblical definition of repentance is a change in thinking that leads to a change in behavior.

So what is the relationship between repentance and salvation? Acts seem to focus primarily on repentance rather than salvation (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 11:18; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20). To repent about salvation is to change your mind about Jesus Christ. Peter ends his sermon at Pentecost (Acts 2) with a call to repentance (Acts 2:38). Repentance of what? Peter calls the people who rejected Jesus (Acts 2:36) to change their thinking to recognize that He is indeed “Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36). Peter is calling people to change their minds from rejecting Christ as Messiah to believing in Him as Messiah and Savior.

Repentance and faith can be understood as “two sides of the same coin.” It is impossible to place your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior without changing your mind about who He is and what He has done. Whether it is repentance from willful rejection or repentance from ignorance or disinterest, it is a change of mind. Biblical repentance to salvation is changing one’s mind from rejecting Christ to believing in Him.

We must understand that repentance is not an activity that we do to earn or obtain salvation. No one can repent and come to God unless God draws him to himself (John 6:44). Acts 5:31 and 11:18 indicate that repentance is something God gives—it is only possible through His grace. No one can repent unless God provides repentance. The result of all salvation, including repentance and faith, is that God draws us to Himself, opens our eyes, and changes our hearts. God’s patience leads us to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), as does His kindness (Romans 2:4).

Although repentance is not a work by which salvation can be earned, repentance to or for salvation results in works. It is impossible to truly and fully change one’s mind without it being reflected in actions. In the Bible, repentance leads to a change in behavior. This is why John the Baptist called people to “bear fruit worthy of repentance” (Matthew 3:8). A person who has truly repented from rejecting Christ to having faith in Christ will have visible evidence of a changed life (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 5:19–23; James 2:14–26). Correctly defining repentance is necessary for salvation. Biblical repentance changes your mind about Jesus Christ and turns you to God in faith for salvation (Acts 3:19). The definition of repentance is not turning away from sin; that is just one of the results of sincere, faith-based repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ.

An intemperate person is one who has gone beyond the proper limits in eating and drinking. It is, of course, not easy to say where this begins and ends. Moralists, therefore, usually content themselves with four general guidelines. The first rule is external, social. The immoderate is one who cannot abstain from food or drink that is expressly forbidden, e.g., who eats meat on days when abstinence is enjoined, who cannot withhold it even on the two days of Lent days of the ecclesiastical year (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday).
There are, however, other forbidden foods. The sick are sometimes ordered to doctors put the sick on a strict diet. It is, understandably, an unstrict one who breaks it despite the damage to his health. The one who is considered intemperate we also consider one who cannot control his eating and conform to the rules of decency and good customs of the society in which he lives.

The second rule concerns personal moderation. We eat and drink to make the body strong. Thus, immoderate is anyone who weakens himself by eating and drinking, who destroys his health and efficiency, who gets drunk, etc. Everything that God has created is to serve good. Sin is the misuse of God’s gifts. Usually natural feeling and experience are enough to know, when we are full and when harmful overeating begins.

The third rule is more subtle and seems to apply only to
those who strive for greater perfection. Spiritual writers consider both intemperance and pickiness in eating to be intemperance,seeking out expensive foods and delicacies. As a reason is that it feeds the senses while weakening the will and the endurance to endure the hardships of life. The experience of daily life, however, confirms that they are ill-equipped for life those who have not learned fastidiousness and avarice from youth. Nevertheless, most good people have feel as if they were touching their honest right to make a profit and enjoy themselves with their own money. Naturally, this cannot and should not be denied to anyone. For we eat not only to keep ourselves alive, but also to feel good, to be satisfied. However, there are limits here, too. Social justice demands that others feel good too. Can this fully justify the unnecessary and exorbitant expenditure that goes down our throats when a third of the globe suffers malnutrition and outright starvation? In that case, is it really ‘our own’ even that which is unnecessary?
The fourth rule, in turn, is related to the spiritual ideal. The perfect Christian is to bear witness to the power of the spirit. It is difficult to speak here of the virtue of spiritual values when one sees in one who professes them, that he is blindly subject to carnal inclinations, and that during meals everything else takes a back seat. It is thus considered immoderate to eat and drink, which is undisciplined, with animal predation, where the appetite and the stomach become stronger than ourselves.
Of the dangers of intemperance to the health of the body the physicians have spoken sufficiently. They say jocularly that they have taken over upon themselves today the old ecclesiastical duty of imposing upon the people fasts. It is not, of course, only intemperance in eating. We know well how sad are the effects of alcoholism, of excessive smoking, and especially of the use of narcotic and irritating
poisons.
The ascetic writers are more concerned with spiritual damage. Intemperance is the manifestation of a weak will and a lack of interest in the higher values. He who cannot control himself in such small matters will soon, as it is figuratively said, sell his birthright in the kingdom of God for a lentil (cf. Gn 25:29). Immodesty is called “the mother of fornication.” Strong diet, understandably, feeds the carnal urges, and strong drinks diminish the sense of responsibility.
According to St. John Climacus, intemperance is “the hypocrisy of the stomach, which laments that it is empty even when it is filled to the top… Gluttony of food is the cause of sensuality; mortification of the stomach leads to purity. If you pet a lion, sometimes it can be tamed, but the body, the more it is indulged, the wilder the animal becomes… Control intemperance before it controls you”!

Of all the challenges facing Christianity in modern times, perhaps the most difficult to explain is the problem of suffering. How can a loving God allow suffering to continue in the world he created? For those who have lived through enormous suffering themselves, this is much more than a philosophical problem, but a deeply rooted personal and emotional one. How does the Bible address this question? Does the Bible give us some examples of suffering and some pointers on how to deal with it?

The Bible is surprisingly realistic about the problem of enduring suffering. First, the Bible devotes an entire book to solving this problem. This book is about a man named Job. It begins with a scene in heaven that provides the reader with the background of Job’s suffering. Job suffers because God wrestled with Satan. As far as we know, Job or any of his friends never knew this. Therefore, it is not surprising that everyone tries to explain Job’s suffering from the perspective of their ignorance, until finally Job rwrestlesests in nothing but loyalty to God and the hope of his redemption. Neither Job nor his friends at that time understood the reasons for his suffering. In fact, when Job is finally confronted by the Lord, Job remains silent. Job’s quiet response does nothing to lessen the intense pain and loss he so patiently endured. Rather, it underscores the importance of trusting in God’s purposes in the midst of suffering, even when we do not understand its meaning. Suffering, like all other human experiences, is governed by God’s sovereign wisdom. Ultimately, we learn that although we may never know the specific reason for our suffering, we must trust in our sovereign God. That is the real answer to suffering.

Another example of suffering in the Bible is the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis. Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers. In Egypt he was accused of false accusations and thrown into prison. As a result of Joseph’s suffering and perseverance, Joseph, by God’s grace and power, is later promoted to the governorship of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. In a time of famine, he found himself in the position of caring for the nations of the world, including his own family and brothers who sold him into slavery! The message of this story is summed up in Joseph’s address to his brothers in Genesis 50:19–21: “Do not be afraid! Am I here instead of God? You planned evil against me, but God turned it for good, so that it became what it is today, to save the lives of many people. Don’t worry now! I will feed you and your children. So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.”

Romans 8:28 contains some comforting words for those who endure hardship and suffering: “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who have been called according to his purpose.” God, in His providence, arranges every event in our lives—even suffering, temptation, and sin—for our benefit both temporally and eternally.

The psalmist David suffered much in his time and this is reflected in many of his poems collected in the book of Psalms. In the 22nd Psalm, we hear David’s anxiety: “My God, my God! why did you leave me You are far from my salvation, far from my cry, my God, I call in the day — you do not answer. I call at night — I can’t calm down. You, the Holy One, are enthroned over the praises of Israel. Our fathers hoped in you, they hoped, and you delivered them. They cried out to you and were saved. They hoped in you, and were not ashamed. I am like a worm, not like a man; I am a laughing stock to people, even my own people have rejected me. All who see me mock me, sneer, shake their heads: He trusted in the Lord, he should save him. Let him tear him out, because he is fond of him.”

For David, it remains a mystery why God does not intervene and end his suffering and pain. He sees that God is enthroned as the Holy One, on the praises of Israel. God lives in heaven, where all is good, where there is no crying, no fear, no hunger, no hatred. What does God know about all that people endure? David further complains that “The dogs surrounded me, a band of evil-doers seized me, they pierced my hands and feet. I can count all the bones. They are watching, their eyes are on me. They divide my garment, they cast lots for my clothing.”

Did God ever answer David? Yes, many centuries later, David received his answer. About one millennium later, a descendant of David named Jesus was killed on a hill called Calvary. Jesus endured the suffering and shame of his ancestor on the cross. Christ’s hands and feet were pierced. Christ’s robe was divided among his enemies. They looked at Christ and mocked him. In fact, Christ spoke the words with which David begins this psalm: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” So he identified with David’s suffering.

Christ, the eternal Son of God, in whom dwells the fullness of God, lived on earth as a man and endured hunger, thirst, temptation, shame, persecution, nakedness, sorrow, betrayal, mockery, injustice and death. Therefore, he is in a position to fulfill the desire of Job: “There is no one who judges between us, who lays his hand on us both. Let him remove his rod from me, and let not his fear terrify me, then I will speak and not be afraid of him, for it is not so with me” (Job 9:33).

Christian theism is actually the only worldview that can consistently understand the problem of evil and suffering. Christians serve a God who lived on this earth and endured trauma, temptation, death, torture, hunger, thirst, persecution and even execution. The cross of Christ can be considered the ultimate manifestation of God’s justice. When asked how much God cares about the problem of evil and suffering, the Christian God can point to the cross and say, “Like this.” Christ experienced rejection from God and said: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”. He experienced the same suffering as many people today who feel isolated from God’s favor and love.

When we open the Bible and follow the journey of the chosen people of God in the deepening, clarifying, and purifying of their faith, we come to see how difficult this journey is leading to the mystery of God, how difficult is the journey of faith. And not only for Israel, but also for us. Every day, we can see how we are affected by every… on every corner of our lives. And we must not forget that faith itself is darkness and uncertainty. That is why we speak of the drama of faith. So when we enter this real tunnel, we should remember Jesus’ invitation, “Strive for this, to enter through the narrow door.” (Luke 13:24) The test in the desert.
In several places, the Council presents the life of faith as It, even compares it to a pilgrimage (LG 2:8, 65). Israel’s journey through the desert. This journey certainly meant for the faith of Israel in the Lord a trial by fire. But while it is true that faith Israel’s faith came out of this test strengthened, we can see in this journey, we can observe both adoration and blasphemy, obedience and rebellion, faithfulness and apostasy, calling on the Lord and protesting against him. All of this can be a great symbol of our relationship to God while we’re “on the road” and most importantly, and I’d like to emphasize, it is also a symbol of all the fluctuations and confusions that each person suffers as they ascend to God in their lives of faith. As we see it in the Bible, few people have been of these weaknesses have been spared. When the time was fulfilled, God entered the scene of human history.
He stepped in to touch people, to set them free, to make them equal to himself. God’s friend and the leader of the people, Moses, stands up Pharaoh, gathers the scattered people and sets out with them on a to the land of the free. Out of Egypt, the great journey of faith to light begins. But even after the first steps, the hearts of the people begin to twist like a crisis of faith. Doubt makes them cry out: “Was it not in Egypt enough graves for us to die in the midst of?” (Ex. 14:11).
“It has come to that which we talked about in Egypt: Let us be, that we may serve Egypt. For it was better for us to serve than to die in the wilderness.” (Ex. 14:12). The people give prefer security to freedom. In the midst of confusion, the only thing Moses keeps his faith alive: Fear not, O Lord. “he will shine in his glory” and tomorrow you will see his glory (Ex. 14:13), for the Lord “will fight for us and with us.”
After these words, the faith of the people was rekindled. And on their own …they observe with their own eyes phenomena never seen before. Suddenly, a strong wind arose, that parted the waters of the sea. And the people passed through the middle of the sea on dry land, the waters were a wall to their left and right, while the Egyptians were trapped at the bottom of the sea. In the face of this, the people believed the Lord and his servant Moses” (Ex. 14:31) and sang him a song of victory (Ex. 15:1-18). Yet they needed one more “sign”, to renew their faith. “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believed” (John 20:29).
They went out into the wilderness of Sure and wandered in the desert for three days. And in the desert again the faith of the people is put to the test. The silence of the earth and sometimes the silence of the of God falls upon their souls, and they feel fear. They have run out of supplies. What will they eat? And despondency and longing fall upon the people like a ravening, and rebellion is born. “But you have brought us out into this wilderness, only to starve this whole congregation to death. Would that we had had died by the sword at the hands of the Egyptians” (Ex 16:3).
The people eventually succumbed to the temptation to repent and began again crying out: “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember
the fish we had for free in Egypt, the cucumbers and melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.” (Nu 11:5) Moses, whose faith remained unshaken as he daily spoke with God “as with a friend,” he told them: “I with your I have nothing to do with your grumbling, it is a grumbling against It is a grumbling against the Lord. But I assure you that in the morning you will see the Lord’s and your murmuring will be ridiculous.” (cf. Ex. 16:5-9) The quail flew in toward evening and descended on the camp. And in the morning something like dew fell around the camp, and every morning the people they were fed every morning. (Ex. 16:13-16). The wandering continued in the blazing sun through a sea of hot sand towards Pradesh-Barnes. And as they walked, again their souls were seized with despondency and temptation; the temptation to stop, to abandon the wandering and return to the old comfortable life, albeit in slavery. “Therefore hast thou brought us out of Egypt, that thou lightest bring us , our sons and our flocks to quench our thirst” (Ex 17:3).
And at this moment a piercing doubt casts away the memory of so many wonders, criticizes the foundation of faith, and expresses itself in that terrible question: “Is the Lord among us, or is he not? ” (Ex. 17:7) Doubt has reached its highest peak. Therefore, the place was called Massey (because they were protesting against God) and Meribah (because they tempted the Lord). This was a test in the wilderness on the road to the land of Canaan. Few people who take God seriously have not had to go through some severe test.
New trials in new deserts
The journey of faith has always been rough and difficult, but in our time the difficulties even more so. The Church today is going through a new desert. For those wandering in the wilderness are threatened with what they once were: the petulance of being God is not seen, new “gods” who want us to be to worship, and the temptation to stop on this hard road of faith and return to the comfort of “fertile Egypt”.

Hearing impairment is severe because it can significantly affect a child’s development. The degree of disability and the age at which the disability occurred are essential. The way of communication is significant. They are hearing disability results from an organ or functional disorder in any part of the auditory analyzer, pathway, and cortical centers. A person is born with congenital deafness. In this case, the child does not even learn to speak, it becomes deaf and dumb, which may be hereditary deafness, an infectious disease of the mother during pregnancy or others. Deafness can also be acquired during life as a result of overcome diseases. According to the evangelist, it was deafness from birth.

Muteness is the loss of the ability to speak or communicate using speech. In contrast to the deaf-mute, hearing is preserved, so mutes hear but do not speak. Loss of speech can manifest as an inability to speak normal language, with the affected person being able to make certain sounds. Deaf mutes from birth could not learn to talk because they were born deaf. In our case, it was such a person. Even modern medicine cannot treat this disease. The lives of such disabled people can only be improved with the help of technical aids, but it cannot cure deafness and muteness from birth.

From the above we can see that 2000 years ago Christ also healed such a severely disabled person, which we cannot explain otherwise, except by confessing that only God can prove it. Thus, Jesus is the God who usually healed with simple words three times, even at a distance (Mt 8:5-13; Mk 7:29-30; Jn 4:46-54). In this case, he first used external signs: he touched his ears and his tongue, looked up to heaven with a sigh, and worked a miracle with his powerful words. 

Another peculiarity is that there is no mention of the condition of faith for healing. The sick person is healed, not because of his proven faith, but because the mighty Son of God came into the world to indicate the final salvation with a miraculous sign. Both peculiarities can be explained if we consider that the miracle took place in the Decapolis, a pagan resort with a famous bath on the eastern side of Lake Tiberias. The Lord thereby gave a certain message to the Gentiles while using the signs of the practices of the ancient doctors.

The physical healings performed by Jesus always have an existential relationship to salvation because sickness and death are the consequences of sin, and its definitive overcoming also includes the elimination of sickness and death. By healing the deaf and dumb, he wants to tell us: You, too, are often deaf and dumb, unable to listen and give an excellent response to God’s word. 

We can say that today’s first reading and the Gospel form such a frame of the picture. We could also compare it to a series and say that the first reading is the first part and the Gospel is the last, final part. The final part went well, the sick man was healed, so we could leave with a good feeling. When you watch a series, you end up saying to yourself: “Well, after all, it’s happening somewhere on that TV, it doesn’t concern me”, but this series, which today’s texts are talking about, concerns us, it concerns every one of us. But I will start with the disease and the history as it was.

The Israelites were very afraid after they left Egypt. They were afraid that some calamity, some epidemic would befall the nation, and therefore they tried to eliminate, eliminate all risks, reduce them to a minimum, and therefore here with these diseases that they could not cure (they did not even know how to treat them, not as cure it yet), so they were already putting forward what are called quarantine measures, isolation. And that measure was very harsh, because as we heard in the first reading, three symptoms were listed there: a sore on the skin, a scab, or a bright spot. But all these are far from the symptoms of leprosy. These are the symptoms quite extensively of other various diseases. But because there was that great fear, this person was isolated, immediately.

So it also became obvious that they isolated people who were not lepers, and who, on the contrary, were in great danger of contracting the leprosy. A man who was thus brought before a high priest or a priest, and he preached over him that lesson about the signs, that man was truly isolated. We can say, he was dead in three ways: medically, socially and religiously. On the social side, there was the fact that he had to move out of the Israeli camp. After that, when they lived in Palestine, in the Holy Land, these people had to leave the city, the village, and lived in some caves or in some shelters. They had to wear clothes that showed that something was wrong with the person, that he was dressed strangely, that something was wrong with him. And when they had to meet someone, they had to shout: “Unclean, unclean!” In later times, they “improved” it even more, so that if they were moving in a group, then at least one of them had to have a bell and ring it, so that a random pedestrian would not approach them. Other people were not supposed to approach them at a distance of less than 10 steps. Why? Well, because then they themselves risked being put in that quarantine. So great was the fear of this disease. The man was cut off from everything. He was actually surviving. There was a big mistake on the religious side. They believed that this terrible disease will be given to the person who has sinned in some terrible way, transgressed against God. And in this they made a great mistake, that they always connected it with sin and with the punishment for sin. This is definitely not the case. When we hear it like that, we say to ourselves: “So it was inhumane.” Yes, it was very harsh, and those people who were infected with leprosy, those people were actually sentenced to death, to a slow, gradual death. They actually justified it by saying that if they were left there, far more people would die. This is a question of prevention and these things, but we will look at it in a different way. When we talk about the lepers, about the fact that they were isolated, we say to ourselves: “That was once upon a time, that doesn’t concern us.” But let’s try to realize that every leper had a family – a father, mother, siblings, or even a wife , children. And for these people who remained in that company – their brother, husband, wife – it was not a stranger, but it was a person they loved, and he could not be with them at once.

So these relatives tried to make life easier for them. They brought them food, clothes, made appointments to have fun at a distance of ten steps and thus tried to support them in every possible way. They tried to show them sympathy. And now we come to what is in the gospel, and what concerns us. Every quarantine, isolation builds dams between people, barriers that are sometimes difficult to cross, that many times people don’t even want to cross. Many times we come across that those barriers are artificially created and people have no compassion. Jesus breaks down that barrier – he talks to him, goes to him, touches him. If that person was healed or if Jesus healed him, then Jesus would also have to be quarantined. And the fact that Jesus touched the leper, that he stretched out his hand to him, for all those around Jesus, was unimaginable, something unheard of. In doing so, Jesus really broke all the regulations of the time. He did it because he had compassion, could help, and knew how to help. Jesus does not stop at pity, but helps.

As a result of original sin, we all tend to build barriers around ourselves, to protect ourselves. In a way, when we think about it, we all want to live in safety, and we also try to build the space we live in to be safe. This means that people I like, people I like, people who don’t threaten me (at least that’s what I tell myself), people who don’t compete with me, for example, with those friends. Those who, in my opinion, could in some ways threaten, harm or overshadow me, I push them out: “They are not my friends. Let them stay somewhere, I don’t count with them in my world.” And this is how we build barriers.

As I say, we are all prone to it, it is a consequence of the fall of the first people. So, it can be explained humanly, but according to the Gospel it is not justifiable. The Gospel asks us, first, to realize that we have these tendencies, and secondly, the Gospel asks us to try to destroy them. I would point out that the emphasis is really on “trying to break down”, because we don’t always succeed. But now I am not talking about those barriers that are, we would say, worldwide, like enmity between nations, barriers between races, the gap between the rich and the poor, but I am talking about the environment in which each of us lives. It is not so visible there. We do not live in any tense situation, in any strained relationships. It’s all more “combed”. Perhaps it is not visible at first glance, but … There is a “but”. Each of us should ask what it looks like with those barriers around me, if he doesn’t like it and if he isn’t happy with it. The barriers are of all kinds: barriers of political opinions, economic situation, between the young, between the old, between the healthy, the sick and I don’t know what else. The first thing to overcome them: it is necessary to have compassion, to see the other person, that he has a face, that he is not an anonymous person, that he is not just some number in statistics, but that he is a living person. This is how Jesus sees him.

And then another thing: asking Jesus: “Lord, what can I do? How could I change it, how could I tear it down?” As I say, it doesn’t always work, but almost always it can be at least mitigated. We have to realize that the Church in which we live, which we create, does not belong only to some elite, some selected group of people, but all those who belong to it are healed and purified. From what? Well, from our mistakes, because Jesus is the one who heals us all the time. He heals us by forgiving us. We can say: “I belong to Jesus, but I belong there because He healed me.” Jesus is the one who came to heal, to purify, to unite. All these are the basic features of the gospel. We, as disciples of Jesus, should report to this and try to apply it. So let us succeed with his help.