Allegiance to the true and only God.

During the last week of Easter, we will discuss one of the six truths of our religion every day – as an echo of the biggest holiday of the year. Some people like small objects for good luck, amulets or talismans, which they expect to help them in life. Then we have people whose goals in life are various things, such as nowadays television, car, and food, and that gradually becomes a god for them. However, let’s admit, dear brothers and sisters, that sometimes this happens in our lives as well. But today’s Gospel reminds us: “Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord” (Mk 12:29).

Jesus did not say anything new in today’s Gospel. Already in the book of Deuteronomy, we find that God gives the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai and obliges the nation of Israel to observe them. It is the first and greatest commandment that God gives to people. The Lord is God and we are to love him with all our hearts. In the aforementioned book, it is further written that we should follow this path of commandments to live and prosper (cf. Dt 5:33). And God has mercy on those who love him and keep his commandments. He blesses those who truly love him. In today’s Gospel, Jesus confirms this when he answers the lawgiver: “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mk 12:34). But on the other hand, in the book of Leviticus it is written: “And the person who turns to those who summon spirits and soothsayers and will commit idolatry with them, I will set my face against such a person and will cut him off from her” (Lev 20:6). When the chosen nation arrived in the promised land, they found pagan nations who practised polytheism, occultism, divination, conjuring, witchcraft, and other forms of magic. Moses forbade these practices, even under the threat of death. Let’s remember what Moses did with the people who worshipped the golden calf. All this was against God because it insulted his holiness.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church or religion classes, we were taught that only God should be worshipped. Worshipping God or, in other words, adoration is the main virtue of religion. Other virtues are prayer, sacrifice, promises, and vows. In opposition to these virtues, sins stand against the virtues of religion. They are superstition, idolatry, divination, sorcery, magic, spiritism, atheism, and disrespect for God, such as tempting God, sacrilege, sacrilege. I mention these sins on purpose because they affect us, either directly or indirectly. Even in our personal life, it often happens that we have very good periods and other times when nothing works out, and we are chased by one misfortune after another. Then it’s as if God doesn’t exist, we look for Him and He hides. We are desperate, so we are looking for help. First maybe with a priest, then with loved ones and friends, and when that doesn’t help either, we grab the last straw. We go to healers and card readers, ask spirit summoners, or visit occultists, thinking that they will help us. These are difficult moments in life. Other times we might do it out of curiosity, just like that. And so we come under the power of darkness and often don’t even know it. The devil is the father of lies, full of hatred. He tries to deceive us, deceive us, and thus deprive us of grace and, ultimately, of God’s kingdom (cf. Mk 13:12). When we visit such people because of illness, it often happens that people are relieved and feel healed. But after a certain time, they start to have severe depression, even despair, and further psychological problems, and sometimes it even leads to the urge to commit suicide. It is even worse when we do it out of curiosity, wants to know the future, or have other “honest intentions”. Here the young people are most at risk, and we find that even then the devil is at work. It is like approaching a rabid dog that he is tied in. In vain that we have the best of intentions when we cross the border of his territory, he will bite us.

“A twelve-year-old boy is very seriously ill. He suffers from a severe skin and respiratory disease. The doctors can’t help him, so his parents – on the recommendation of friends, visit a magician who will perform an occult magical ritual on the boy. After a few days, the boy feels very well. He has no health problems. But a few weeks later, an unusual phenomenon occurs. The boy begins to demolish the furniture of the apartment, and when this happens again and the punishment of the parents does not help, the parents again go to the doctors, whose findings are negative. After various attempts, the child’s mother turns to a Catholic priest. He asks the mother to call him when the child’s aggression returns. After a few days, the priest is called because the child is again destroying the flat. The priest finds the child in peace. Nevertheless, she takes him into the next room and begins to pray over him. After a moment of prayer, there is a huge rage in the boy, who this time attacks the priest. He curses the priest vulgarly, kicks him, scratches him, and has such strength that the priest is not enough for him. The boy screams and asks an “unknown person” for help during the priest’s prayer with the words: “…don’t leave me, …stay, …I want you, …let him leave you.” After an hour of prayers, the boy calms down and both the priest and the boy become very exhausted.

A person can only go so far. God appears to man to help him (cf. Dt 18:9-15). He loves us immensely and wants to be with us all the time. He completely revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ and thereby gave us everything. What more could he give us? He gave himself to us. It is up to us whether we give him our whole heart, whether we belong to him entirely, or whether we pursue something else. God gave us a precious gift – and that is freedom. It is up to us how we use it. We know God and his love for us. Let us follow him faithfully, let us walk with him on the path of life, so that he may bless us in everything we do and do. Let it be seen in us that we belong to Christ, so that we may testify to our faithfulness to him.

True happiness is only in God. During these days, let’s consider the fact whether my life belongs only to God, or I have my own “gods” that I hardly give up