St. Joseph was chosen by God as the bridegroom of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as the foster-father of his only-begotten Son, as the head, breadwinner, and guardian of the Holy Family. Today the Church worships and invokes St. Joseph also as his heavenly patron, as his special protector and intercessor with God. St. Joseph was born in Bethlehem.

Although he was one of the descendants of King David, he was very poor. He moved to Nazareth, probably for work. There, the Holy Scriptures mention him already as a mature man. He was a carpenter. That’s why they also called Jesus the carpenter’s son. In Nazareth, he became engaged to a girl named Maria. According to the Jewish custom of the time, an engagement was already considered a marriage, but the betrothed did not live together for a year. The Holy Scriptures say that the Virgin Mary was already betrothed to Joseph when the Archangel Gabriel announced to her that she would become the Mother of God.

However, the secret of the Son of God was to remain hidden from people. Even Joseph did not know about him at first. When Joseph noticed that Mary, who was engaged to him, was in a blessed state, although they had not yet lived together, he wanted to release her secretly, that is, give her a release letter, where the reason for the release should also be stated. Josef did not think about an official, that is, a public release, because he was convinced of Mary’s innocence. In a dream, the Lord’s angel urged Joseph not to be afraid to accept Mary, his wife, because what was conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and he will name him Jesus. Here, God’s secret and God’s plan are revealed to us: Joseph, the Nazareth carpenter, Mary’s groom, will be Jesus’ father before the Israeli law, thereby saving Mary’s honor and taking care of her and Jesus.

This was the main cause and purpose of Joseph’s marriage to Mary. We can imagine how much Mary would have suffered from people if it wasn’t for Joseph! Mary would not have been able to refer to the secret of the angels announcing that she conceived Jesus, overshadowed by the power of the Most High. The world wouldn’t believe her. Even Jesus would find it difficult to perform publicly if he could be accused of an illegal origin! Thus, before the world and before the law, Joseph was Mary’s husband and Jesus’ father. The honor and good name of Mary and Jesus were saved. In addition, Mary and the baby Jesus needed a provider and a protector.

About the size of St. Joseph is expressed by St. Augustine as follows: “In heaven, not all are holy in the same way, they do not shine with the same light: the brightness and magnitude of these stars of paradise also depend on whether they are more or less close to the Sun of righteousness, which is Jesus Christ, and to the Immaculate moon, which is the most holy Virgin Mary.

Among all the stars of heaven, among all the saints of paradise, no one can be closer to Jesus and Mary than St. Joseph, since he is the foster-father of one and the purest bridegroom of the other. And it is precisely on this double dignity, which heaven grants him, that his superiority and exaltation over all holy and blessed spirits is based”.

Pope Francis, who has been criticizing armaments since the beginning of his pontificate and who has been expressing support for Ukraine almost every week for two years now, mentioned several causes of the war. The main Russophiles do not take note but repeat what the Pope was wrong about. This was gradually proven by Putin, whose war caused enormous damage not only to Ukraine but also to Russians and people with low incomes all over the world. This is also shown by a brief calculation of Russian losses and the costs of the war.

The Soviet Union, ruled by Communists from Moscow, whose collapse Putin describes as the greatest disaster of the 20th century, expanded its territory by forcibly occupying other states, whose territory it then Russified. Mainly when Stalin and Hitler divided Europe, and then Moscow occupied the Baltic states. The USSR collapsed in 1991 due to its economic incompetence caused by the communists. After the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine renounced nuclear weapons, and Russia, in 1994, committed to guaranteeing its freedom, independence, and territorial integrity. (Budapest Memorandum)

In 2013-14, mass protests began in Ukraine after President Yanukovych rejected the association process with the European Union. The topic of grand corruption was also added. After weeks of protests, the parliament removed him from office. (similar change to our November 1989) In November 2016, Yanukovych admitted that he had written a letter to Putin with a request to send Russian troops to Ukraine. Then, in 2014, Russia forcibly occupied Crimea and Donbas, effectively starting the current war. (around 1900, 53% of Ukrainians and 28% of Russians lived in Donbass. More here: Donbas.

Putin got away with it because the sanctions were weak, they were not enforced, and the West still naively believed that good relations with Russia would be achieved through mutually beneficial trade. Putin evaluated it in such a way that he could afford to occupy Ukraine militarily, install a pro-Russian non-democratic government in Kyiv, as in Belarus, and tear off another territory. On February 24, 2022, he ordered the attack. He miscalculated because the Ukrainians began to defend themselves successfully, and the free West supported them militarily. The biggest war in Europe since the end of World War II began.

Destroyed lives and families

The greatest tragedy is the destroyed human lives. According to qualified estimates from September 2023, Russian military losses are approaching 300,000. This includes 120,000 dead and 170,000 to 180,000 wounded soldiers. Ukrainian losses are estimated at nearly 70,000 killed and 100,000 to 120,000 wounded. Since then, the death toll has risen. According to a January 2024 estimate by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the war, including 587 children. On the 2nd anniversary, President Zelenskyi said that Ukraine has 31,000 soldiers killed, and the with the fact that the actual number may be twice as high. Putin and his Verchuška caused the most immense slaughter of Slavs after Hitler.

For a long time, Russia has had many more abortions, murders, and suicides than the EU. Putin’s propagandist, political scientist Rostislav Išenko, on the state TV Russia Today about the Ukrainian victims of the war: “We count it dry. 100,000. 300,000, half a million. I don’t feel any sadness about it; quite the contrary. The more we kill, the closer the end of the war is.” Russland verstärk Angriffe auf Ukraine: Entrüstung nach Propaganda-Aussage  • Russia’s average offensive war losses in February 2024 were 983 people a day – Those sent to death by Putin to murder Ukrainians and steal their freedom and territory.

In two years, the Russians attacked medical facilities more than 1,500 times despite international agreements.   

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archbishop Šefchuk says how Russian aggression destroys families. “The Russians kidnapped 20,000 children from Ukraine… We also have 35,000 missing soldiers.” He quotes a devastated woman: “Am I a widow? Should I pray for my husband as a living person or as a dead person?”… “Today, most families are divided because men are in the army and women with children have left the city or even the country.” There are 4.5 million refugees in Europe alone; others are displaced in Ukraine. “The worst months of my life” – children taken from Ukraine, Eduard Buraš, who is dedicated to helping Ukraine, describes in an interview. Children carry the war with them; they have empty eyes and are afraid of the screeching of trams.

Persecution of the Church

The Russians also destroyed more than 600 temples and church buildings and abolished religious freedom. (Statement of the Chairman of the IRFBA on two years of Russian aggression against Ukraine accompanied by abuse, killing of priests, and destruction of places of worship here: In the occupied territories, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was pushed underground, Senior Archbishop Shevchuk explained. “There are no more Catholic priests in this part of Ukraine. We received information that our people in Donetsk went to pray in the church every Sunday even without a priest, but the church was confiscated and the doors were closed. In the occupied territories around Zaporizhzhia, the Russian authorities issued a special decree banning the existence of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and confiscating our property. That’s why people pray in their homes, and if they can, they participate in our services via the Internet.”

The ongoing imprisonment also reminds the danger faced by Catholics in occupied Ukraine of fathers Ivan Levický and Bohdan Heleta, who were arrested in November 2022. “Are they alive or dead? We have not received any news since their arrest. “They dragged Jaroslavovič out of the house barefoot, with a bag on his head. Later, they came and took his wife to identify him,”. I wrote about how a Slovak priest was kidnapped a year ago here. He died in the ruins of the church. A six-year-old girl and her grandfather were killed in the village of Veliki Burluk near Kupinask.

But some misguided Christians still proclaim Putin the savior of Christian culture and justify his aggression. 

Kremlin against Ukraine

The Russians occupied 42,000 km2 of Ukrainian territory until the invasion on February 24, 2022. Then, another 119,000 km2, which is 27% of Ukraine. In 2022, the Ukrainians regained 74,500 km2, leaving over 14% of the territory of Ukraine under Russian control. (Note – Hitler and the Hungarians took away 20% of Slovakia’s territory through the Vienna Arbitration) The Russians devastated an even larger territory. A joint report informs it of the Ukrainian government, the World Bank, and the United Nations. Housing, transport, trade, and industry are the most affected. (For comparison – according to the budget for 2024, revenues of the Slovak Republic should be €53.48 billion and expenses €61.32 billion.) The two-year war has so far cost Ukraine more than $19.6 billion in tourism revenue alone…

Under Stalin, Moscow caused a famine in Ukraine that killed 3-6 million people. For months, Moscow planned not only military operations but also how it would steal twelve thousand tons of grain worth a billion dollars a year. This did not work out for the Russians, but Ukrainian grain producers will lose 3.2 billion USD. The war caused food prices to rise worldwide, including in Slovakia.

It contained 300 tons of humanitarian aid, including generators. Shortly before, a transport with 33 pallets of assistance for 660 Ukrainian families arrived at the warehouse. (Caritas. pl)

The Russian government most harms Russians.

Little is said about the price the Russians are paying for the war. Since the end of World War II, no one has harmed the Russians as much as their government. In the material, social, cultural, and moral areas. (Facts here: Now, I will list only part of the material costs and losses from the ongoing war:

The average monthly salary in Russia (2023) is €712. (Slovakia €1,373; Austria, where the communists never ruled, €2,850.) Almost half of the people in Russia do not have enough wages to cover basic expenses. Also, 300,000 people died or were injured in the war, and also because There was a shortage of doctors. Two percent of doctors and health workers went abroad to avoid conscription. In addition, 3,000 medics were mobilized to provide care on the battlefield. In January 2024, the Russian media also published reports of desperate residents of Russian cities who were freezing in their apartments, where they were a few degrees above zero. In some places, there was even ice in the rooms. The reason was cracked water lines that had not been maintained for years when the funds intended for this were stolen corruptly. 

The Church did not invent fasting but merely adopted and developed the fasting practices of Judaism and the ideas of the Greco-Roman world regarding fasting. Judaism knew only one fasting one-day binding on all: the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).
But the mark of holiness was to fast twice a week – Monday and Thursday. This is observed by the Pharisee in the Gospel of Luke (18:12). On special occasions or in times of need, public fast days were proclaimed to solicit help from God.
The Jews understood fasting as a supplication to God, a sign that they meant their prayers, and also as repentance and reconciliation. In fasting before God, they confessed their sinfulness and asked for forgiveness and help. The two aspects belong together for the Jews because it is for them; every need is a sign of their disobedience to God. By fasting, they want to return to God. The early Church adopts the practice of two fast days a week. But it consciously separates itself from Judaism by commemorating Christ’s arrest and crucifixion by declaring Wednesday and Friday as fast days. In the East and Spain, Christians also fast on Mondays, and in the West, often on Saturdays in preparation for Sunday. In addition to the not-so-strict weekly fasting, Christians were preparing for Easter by fasting for one or three days, then for the whole of Holy Week, and then, from the end of the third century, for the entire forty days. In the two days immediately before Easter, the perfect abstinence from food was required; on Wednesdays.

On Fridays and during Lent, one ate in the ninth hour (= fifteen hours) or, as St. Benedict prescribes in his Rule, until the evening. The monks, for themselves, the Lenten practice of the universal Church. Many ate only every other day, and others – especially in Lent – fasted for five days and ate only on Saturdays and Sundays. In addition, they imposed restrictions on their food choices. They abstained from meat, eggs, milk, cheese, and wine. Their usual fasting food was bread, salt, and water, legumes, herbs, vegetables, dried berries, dates, and figs.
– “Yet the heroes of monastic asceticism preferred …raw food over cooked food. Cooked vegetables had already the character of a festive meal.” (2)
The universal Church forbade the eating of meat and wine during Lent. However, some movements within the Church called for a general abstinence from meat and wine, such as the Manichaeans, the Apotactians, and the Montanists. Against these dualistic tendencies, the Church defended itself by pointing out that all animals and plants were created by God and given to man for his enjoyment and that they were, therefore all good. The Church opposed the ideologizing fasting and the prohibition of certain foods and fought for the freedom that Christ brought us, freedom from the law and all legalistic thinking.
The clash between the Jewish practice of fasting and the practice of some of the Greek world can be felt in the New Testament. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christians are supposed to fast. They have distinguished themselves from the Pharisees, who disfigure their faces
to let people know they are fasting. The disciples are to fast in secret, not before men, but before the Father, and they are to with a cheerful countenance (cf. Mt 6:16-18). It is said of Jesus that he fasted for forty days in the desert. But he does not impress the Pharisees as a man who fasts. On the contrary, he eats and drinks with the people and shares their joy, so much so that they even call him a glutton and a drunkard even his disciples have to take the rebuke, why do they not fast like the Pharisees and John’s disciples? And Jesus answers: “Can the guests at a wedding mourn while the Bridegroom is with them? And the days will come when the Bridegroom shall be absent from them. The Bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast” (Matthew 9:15).
For Jesus, fasting is a sign of mourning. For grief, however. He has no place among his disciples, for in Jesus, the time of salvation and thus of joy has already begun. Now, it is time to let God gift God. This place indicates a dispute between the early Church and Jewish practice. On the one hand. Fasting is overcome by the coming of Jesus as the Messiah; on the other hand, it is not yet final. There is still sin and death. Only when these are finally destroyed will Lent lose its meaning. Now, the disciples are fasting because they are waiting for the Lord. So, their fasting takes on a new meaning. It is no longer a manifestation of grief and repentance but a fast in anticipation of the Lord’s coming.
It has an eschatological meaning. In fasting, Christians confess that salvation is not yet here so that they are entirely penetrated by it. In their fasting, they look back to this salvation to be filled with joy more and more, which, for them, is the joy of the coming of Christ, the joy of the wedding celebrated with them by their divine Bridegroom.
Acts tells us that the community of the local Church fasted before sending Paul and Barnabas. Fasting was in preparation for laying hands before being commissioned to preach (Acts 14:1-3). The Didache, the first non-scriptural Christian text, requires fasting in preparation for baptism. “The baptizer and the baptized and others to whom it is possible, “Let them fast before baptism. Instruct at least the baptizer to fast for a day or two.”

When we talk about God’s justice, we often think of revenge, but God is not like that Not being angry with my brother, even if he has done something to me and some retribution is expected, is fair. That is what God would do in our place.

Today, St. John discusses the parable of the pond at Bethesda. It looked more like the waiting room of a trauma hospital. After all, many sick people were lying there—blind, lame, and paralyzed. And that’s where Jesus came. It’s pretty strange. Jesus can always find himself in the middle of a problem. Wherever he goes, there is always someone who needs saving. And yes, He comes to save and make people happy.

On the other hand, the Pharisees were only concerned with the fact that it was Saturday. Their eternal issue. Their incredible faith kills their spirit. There is no worse person than the one who hears but does not want to hear. 

The protagonist of the miracle was an invalid for thirty-eight long years. Jesus asks him if he wants to be healed. For a long time, he was suffering in emptiness, and suddenly he found Jesus, who does not promise him but directly offers healing. The voice of Jesus Christ is the voice of God. In the pool of Bethesda, the sick people were healed of their bodies, while by receiving baptism, the same sick people were healed of their souls. However, only the one who entered it first was healed in this pond—baptists.

Doesn’t that helpless, disabled man near the water remind us of our powerlessness to do good? Every day, we can see around us a large crowd of disabled people who would like to but are unable to get rid of their lack of freedom. Sin paralyzes and kills a person. That is why we must focus our gaze on Jesus. We need His mercy to immerse us in the waters of prayer. After all, we don’t want to be eternal invalids.

Thoughts for today’s Gospel: 

Let us be dissatisfied with ourselves when we sin because sins do not please God. And since we are not really without sin, let us at least be like God in this respect, that what displeases him we displease › St. Augustine. 

The doors of the Church are always open. The Church is Jesus’ house, and Jesus receives. And if people are hurt, what will Jesus do? Does he blame them for being hurt? No, He comes and carries them on His shoulders. This is called mercy › Pope Francis. 

Jesus Christ did some works, such as forgiving sins, that revealed him as God the Savior. Some Jews did not recognize in him God who became man but saw in him a man who pretended to be God and condemned him as a blasphemer › KCC 594. 

We need to cultivate good desires. In today’s Gospel, we see that waiting a very long time for their fulfillment is possible. A long wait can put desires to sleep: when Jesus asks the sick man if he wants to get well, he doesn’t answer “I want”; he sees only obstacles. So pay attention to your long, unfulfilled desires. With time, the power of the desire fades, and when the moment of its fulfillment finally comes, you may find that you have already forgotten the desire and see only obstacles. That is why it is necessary to revive the desires in oneself until they are fulfilled › Key to victories: Lesser Conventual brothers – Minorities.

Part of our life is our loved ones, whom we love and who love us. We cannot imagine life without them. Our love for them also shows that if their health or even life is threatened, we do everything possible to help them so they can continue living. We do it for them, but also for ourselves. A typical example of this fact is the royal official from today’s Gospel. To restore the health of his Son and save him from impending death, he turns to Jesus, who has just arrived in Cana of Galilee, with an urgent request for help. Jesus was already known as a miracle worker (he turned water into wine there), so this father confidently asked him to go with him to Capernaum to his sick Son.

Jesus’ reaction is strange – he resents this man’s request for a miracle. Well, not only him. He says in the plural: “Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe.” So he wants us to believe in him as a savior from all our dangers – even though we are experiencing the loss of our dear ones, that we too are subjecting to sickness and death.

The father from the Gospel receives Jesus’ assurance that his Son lives and is to “go.” The road from Cana to Capernaum measures approximately thirty kilometers and could be covered in about six hours. According to the Gospel, when the father set out on his journey around one in the afternoon, he could come home in the evening of the same day. However, he returned the next day. He probably spent the night somewhere and probably stayed behind to take care of some things related to his duties. So he wasn’t in that much of a hurry. From his calm behavior, we can conclude that he relied on the word of Jesus and believed that his Son was alive and that he was doing well. His servants also confirmed this when they informed him that the boy got better just when Jesus said, “Your son lives!”

Of course, we must do everything for our dear ones to help them protect their health and life. On the other hand, we are not in a position to protect them from every danger, from disease and death. Our love for them should not lead us to anxious fear, which cannot protect them from threats but somewhat complicates our mutual relations. We must realize that our lives and theirs are in God’s hands. He is the friend of life but also its giver and sustainer. We need to turn to him with confidence. The fact that we believe in him must be confirmed by the fact that we “go,” do what God tells us and fulfill the tasks that he has entrusted us.

When we pass through the night of death, we, too, will have a joyful meeting with those we loved and for whom we prayed to Christ. Fellowship with them will be part of the fullness of our eternal happiness. The path to this goal leads through trust in Jesus Christ as the source and guarantee of life. However, we must show him this trust by “walking” toward our eternal home. Along the way, we must pay attention to the care of those we love and everything God expects of us.

Practical instruction: Sincere prayer for sick or otherwise endangered loved ones. However, worries and fear about them must not paralyze us in doing good. I focus on my duties with the confidence that the health and lives of those I care about are in Christ’s hands.

Prayer: Almighty God, by your sublime sacraments, you renew the world; we ask you to let the Church be strengthened by these signs of your presence and never be left without your paternal help through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who is God, lives and reigns with you in unity with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. 

In a particular city, there was a judge who did not fear God and did not shame people. A widow in that city came to him with a request: Protect me from my adversary. But he didn’t want to for a long time. But then you said: Although I don’t fear God and I don’t shame people, I will defend that widow when she tires me so much so that she doesn’t keep bothering me. Jesus said: Listen to what the unjust judge says! And God will not defend his elect, who call to him day and night, and he will not pay attention to them? He will protect them in no time. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? › Luke 18, 2-8.

The Lord wanted to emphasize persistence in prayer in the parable. The widow felt threatened and begged the judge to defend and help her. There is a similar situation in the relationship between man and God. He often gets into a dangerous state where God is the best defender. Just as the judge defended the widow, God will help him too if he can humbly, persistently, and with faith ask.

Let’s also think about the second issue of the parable: Will the Son of Man find faith on Earth when he comes to the end of the world? God knows His creatures well and knows the fickleness of their free will. He did a lot to bring them into his kingdom and did everything to keep them there. The magnitude of his sacrifice screams at each of us: Realize the value of your soul and how dearly Jesus paid for it on the cross! The judge, in his vanity, decided to protect the widow from annoying him.

God is not frivolous but excellent, caring for each one of us. He knows very well how the first people betrayed him when they let themselves be deceived, and today, there is much more lying since people have not changed much. Even today, they are curious, want to command others, and want to be meaningful, just like the first parents were. To achieve the same goal, the modern man does everything and commits fraud, lies, bribery, and corruption. At the same time, there is no activity that he does not apply in the struggle to “have more” and “be more.” He wants others to respect him for his wisdom because he wants to enjoy himself more. He uses unfair means to do this, forgetting that his time on earth is limited, and he does not know to whom it will all fall when his soul is called before the eternal judge.

The simile belongs to the parable of the friend who granted the night’s request (Luke 11:5-8). A genuine Christian should combine perseverance in prayer with faith that he will be heard. Confident and persistent prayer is a constant surrender of our life to God without dissatisfaction, despair, and doubt. Persistence in prayer does not consist in the need to persuade the Father to do something that he would not otherwise do but is a constant self-surrender to God, his love, and wisdom. This creates a connection of life with God, who loves man and blesses him, and he, in turn, hands over his life, work, worries, and joys to him in prayer. For Christian prayer, two concepts are correct: God and prayer.

The correct understanding of God about prayer is the one who imagines God not as a helper in need but as an almighty Father. The man was given gifts: reason, will, feeling, physical strength, and the material world with the command to rule over it. Pray is often misdirected because a person needs to do what he wants to pray for. He will always have reason to supplicate prayer in natural matters, especially in matters of salvation, where he depends entirely on God’s goodness. We must also understand the meaning of prayer correctly. Prayer is not a dialogue but a sign of human devotion to God and trust in his love and wisdom. God must be silent so that prayer is a test of trust and love. The greater the trust and love, the more God’s goodness is open, as the apostle also says: I know that all things work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28).

The parable ends with a melancholy question from Jesus: Will the Son of Man find faith on earth when he comes to the end of the world? The reason for this doubt was that many false prophets would arise to deceive the people, and because iniquity would abound, the love of many would grow cold, and many would fall away from the faith. Many only outwardly fulfill their religious duties, but their trust and love for God have grown cold. In his wisdom, Jesus knew well how a person who completely neglected his duties towards the Creator would lose faith and, finally, his wealth and social career. This is precisely the question posed by Jesus: Will the Son of Man find faith on earth when he comes to the end of the world? The prediction is also accurate: Many are called, but few are chosen. Election depends on the fulfillment of the conditions in the Law, and the one who does not love the Lord does not want to be elected, while his mindset is similar to the mentality of the Sadducees and Pharisees.