predication.net

Let us be responsible for everything that God has entrusted to us.

Jesus reminds us of this in the parable of the talents: “For to everyone who has, more will be added and he will have more. And from him who has not, even what he has will be taken” (Mt 25:29). Our task in life is to fulfill the will of God and thus gain a share in the kingdom of God. they received. Jesus compared the gifts from God to talents so that the listeners would better understand the magnitude of the facilities. Talent was the most significant financial unit in Asia Minor. To create a correct picture of the value of the talent, let’s remember that the Jewish talent was divided into 30 minas or 3000 shekels. One mina weighed about 436 g of silver, the shekel 8.4 g. It took about 15 years of work to earn one million. A talent was equal to 26 kg of silver, which meant that for the average Jew, wealth was practically unattainable. In today’s situation, one talent would be worth 70 thousand US dollars. This means that whoever receives more will rightly be asked for more; if expectations are not met, a harsher punishment comes. The parable of the talents does not exclude anyone from God’s love. Everyone gets talents. As humans, we were given health, beauty, family, various smartness, skills, talents, and how have we dealt with them so far?

When Edison was asked what he owed to his discoveries and inventions, he answered: “One percent talent and ninety percent hard work.” Louis Pasteur, the inventor of the cure for rabies and the discoverer of pasteurization, spoke similarly. As Christians, we received gifts in the sacraments – baptism,  confirmation, reconciliation, the Eucharist, marriage, and the priesthood. We must not only turn our attention to him regarding rights, but we also have obligations. The world admires Blessed John XXIII, who amazed those around him with his moral, human, and theological principles. Those who read his “Diary Soul” know that he worked on the values ​​he possessed gradually and slowly, from his student years until he died Pope; he worked on himself again and cooperated with graces from God.

Talent is not only a gift but also a task, an obligation. Sv. Augustine realized the principle: “God, who created you without you, will not save you without you, without your cooperation.” Talent does not only require natural, physical work but also spiritual and mental engagement. In the parable, Jesus is concerned with our cooperation. We do not want to be like the servant who buried the talent and returned it as it was received. It is not enough to produce; when God wants more, we are obliged to fulfill the task with which we have been entrusted. The righteous, dishonest servant deserved the statement and the follow-up: “Throw away servant out into the darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 25:30). Man need not fear God the Judge when he lives as God expects him to.

Symbol of oil▪ The lamp does not burn without oil. So, it is a symbol of death. When does death occur? Even doctors distinguish between so-called clinical death and the natural end of life. There are sure signs that life in the body is ending. Is it over? But with death, we don’t even know the beginning. According to a Spanish song, one begins to die at birth. But this is about natural bodily life. We Christians believe in eternal life but also the eternal death of sinners. When do they start? Life here is equated with grace, symbolized by the lamp’s oil. So when does a person die? He loses energy in the truest sense the moment he loses sanctifying dignity. That is why grave sins are also called “mortal sins.” Although the sinner continues to live on earth, it is only like the flickering of the last remaining oil. Bodily death will reveal what was inside. So there is a big difference between people. Wolves are all wolves; sheep are sheep, writes Pseudo-Makarius. They look the same and are the same. However, people only look the same on the outside. There are sheep or wolves inside; they carry life or death.

Arrival in the middle of the night▪ The oil is stored in the lamp but lit when it gets dark. That is why all lamps look the same during the day, whether they have oil or not. When does it get dark? In the complete sense, only at physical death. But already in this life, there are many moments in which it seems to us that it is getting late, that we are in a fog, that we have lost our way. In these moments, one already recognizes that someone has or does not have the light of grace. It is a light that does not burn brightly but still enough so we do not lose the right direction. Even great saints sometimes experience periods of anxiety. It seemed to them that heaven was closed to them. Theresa of Lisieux also had such an impression before her death. But she had one certainty, and all believers have it: the certainty of faith, of trust. We cannot see ahead, but we still feel that our path is the right one and that we cannot leave it. Pseudo-Macarius, who we just quoted, explains these states by using the example of someone walking with a lamp against the wind. The fire blazes in all directions, but it does not go out. That’s why we value it all the more and are sure it will flare up thoroughly when the wind dies down and there is calm.

I expect a groom. ▪ Faith is like a leap into the dark. At least, that’s how it seems to the great converts when they finally decide to accept the faith. But why does he finally leap? One of them explained it nicely. We don’t understand anything at that point. The darkness is complete. But we feel that it is not empty. Someone is standing there, and we know that they will catch us, that we will not fall or hit each other. Oil is a symbol of eternal light. But what would be the use of lighting the house if it was empty and no one was waiting for us there? The comparison to the virgins and the bridegroom is appropriate in the biblical tradition. Scripture is the message of the living God. His life is not in time, not in place. However, there is an eternal meeting of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three persons in unity, in an inaccessible light. Nevertheless, we have been given access to this. Therefore, we await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in blessed hope.

As James Pitre says, to worship something as a god is to bring to it sacrifices. “And Jacob made a vow: ‘If God is with me, if he will protect me on this journey, by which I now walk if he will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, and if I return happily to my father’s house, then Yahweh will be my God, and this stone I have set up as a monument will be God’s house. And, of all things, I will give you tithes” (Gen 28:20-22).
This is the first and primary form of sacrifice. Where is your tithe going? Because that’s where your God is. That is who you worship. “Mortify therefore your earthly members: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil lust, and covetousness, which is idolatry!” (Col 3:5) “Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and shame is the glory of those who the earthly-minded.” (Phil 3:19)
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Faith, hope, and love…
Do you believe that to be like Jesus in Heaven, you must be like Him
like Him on earth because He is the same Jesus and the exact likeness and unity? Do you have the sure hope that in the power of God’s grace, you really can? And especially love – do you want it? Do you like Jesus and desire to be like Him? Not just in His abilities (power, immortality – who wouldn’t desire that?), but also in His qualities such as love, mercy, and goodness, because one without the other does not exist.
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The more we immerse ourselves in Christ, the more our inner man.
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In the Church, you will encounter two kinds of people: the native and the stranger. Strangers attend the Church but do not live or work in it, for it is foreign. Domestics live and work in it, for it is theirs. By this, you will know them from one another.
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There are two ways to approach Scripture. The first is to take Scripture as a foundation and, on that basis, as some detectives, start deducing and looking for the Messiah and all that and everything that goes with it. That’s what the scribes and rabbis did at the turn of the century. But the result was that they had Jesus crucified, and Bar Kochab declared Messiah… The second is that the foundation and starting point is Christ – and in His light, we approach the Scriptures, and they are revealed to us because they are illuminated to Christ. So it was that the Emausite disciples first experienced this when Jesus “opened to them the Scriptures” and “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, expounded to them the things concerning Him in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). Since then, the Church has done just that
and continues to do so to this day. There is no sola scriptura, but only one truth: Jesus Christ. He is the Alpha and Omega, no one else, nothing else. After all, even Scripture testifies that “no one can lay any other foundation, but then that which is already laid is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11).
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Be like a child. To be born again. To be a new creation. Scripture describes the depths to which we must go, leaving behind the ideas and patterns of our thought to accommodate the reality of Christianity, God, and the real world. To see things in a whole new way. Truly. As they are, not twisted by the illusions of the world. Also, one must leave, or rather, legally leave the human family of the world when he chooses to live that way. This, too, the Scriptures call our attention to as the price of the new life, including the hatred of the world, which is terrified of what is taken from it that differs from it, that it does not understand, that it cannot control, and that which transcends it. Sometimes, we call it mysticism and think it is unique
for the few. The opposite is true. What else is Heaven but mysticism?
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To pray is to dwell in God’s world. That is why prayer is so important
(though not only for this reason): to get used to God and the things of God and God’s world can only be done by dwelling on it as much and as intensely as possible. The community in which this world materializes has a similar function, and we also learn to live it and live in it by unlearning each other, by inspiration, and by example.
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Not only the Eucharist as such, but also the liturgy of the Eucharist itself is Heaven at Earth – precisely because it is not anything but liturgy. Whoever loves Heaven loves the Liturgy of the Eucharist because, in it, he experiences it. He who loves the Liturgy of the Eucharist loves Heaven because he already knows what it tastes like.
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When one sees all the barrenness to which many separated brothers
grow up, one understands better why Jesus did not leave us here with the book of Scripture in our hands but chose to stay with us on earth, clothed in the Body of the Church, which He created for this purpose.
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We prefer to flow with reality rather than flow with ideas.
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Rejection of God and His actions – whether atheists or separated brethren – is similar to conspiracy theories. As a friend wrote to me atheist on Lourdes, “The commission was investigating whether a kind of healing was a miracle – I’m not going to discuss that; I don’t believe in miracles; the whole idea is absurd.” You don’t need to know anything. You don’t need to know anything at all to use reason. Just repeat the magic words “demagoguery” over and over again, “absurd,” “I don’t believe,” “bullshit,” “the Church is a criminal organization,” “Religion has caused all the wars,” etc. The problem, then, is that while knowing the facts and drawing logical conclusions require courage, some effort, and even the art of correct thinking,  The latter involves nothing – and yet it is also convenient because we are confirmed in our ideas, which gives us a sense of importance (I’m the one who knows how it is, not those stupid sheep) and comfort (I don’t have to change anything about myself or undergo no effort of thought). Therefore, in the end, attempts to show similar people the reality essentially ring hollow – because their problem is not ignorance; it’s just a consequence of their laziness and their feeling of superiority over the rest of the filthy “plebs.”
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Adulthood is about self-actualization – I know who I am! – and transcendence – I know who I serve! Both are autonomic.

Jesus often comes into contact with the scribes and Pharisees. We hear that even today, he addresses them: “Woe” (Mt 23 27). The Pharisees demanded the observance of many rules derived from tradition and unreasonably limited personal freedom. By interpreting certain parts of the law, they imposed on the people such obligations that they secretly overlooked and even deliberately avoided. They saw their primary mission as ostentatious piety. Nothing was too holy not to serve this purpose. God told Moses about His commandments. These words have a deep meaning. If a person thinks about God’s word and lives according to it, he is exalted by nature. God’s law’s principles will manifest in just and compassionate action. Man will not succumb to bribes and various other seductive temptations.

Thus, you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who killed the prophets(cf. Mat 23,29-31). The Jews were very eager to decorate the tombs of the prophets to show their respect for them. However, they did not heed their messages and words of warning. In the time of Christ, superstitious attention was paid to the graves of the dead, and their decoration required considerable expense. It was idolatry before God. By their indecent worship of the dead, people showed that they did not love God above all, nor their neighbors as themselves. Much of the same idolatry can be observed today. They widen their prayer straps and enlarge the fringes on their robes. They like to have the leading places at banquets and the first seats in synagogues, greetings in the squares, and even when people call them Master! Jesus says: But do not let yourselves be called Master, for one is your teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth father, for one is your heavenly Father. Do not even be called leaders, because one is your Leader, Christ (cf. Mat 23,5-10). Here, the Savior revealed their selfish ambition, striving for a position of power, and exposed their false humility, under which a heart full of avarice and envy was hidden.

Jesus warns when, on festive occasions, the guests were seated according to rank, and those given the most prominent places were the center of attention and unique favor. The Pharisees still sought this honor. Jesus condemned these customs. He also reprimanded the vain desire to be addressed as rabbi and master. What is it like to be the guest of honor at a lavish banquet? You enter the banquet hall door, and your host gives you a big smile and leads you to the place of honor behind the top table. When is a person proud? How to distinguish pride from pride in the work done, which is only a natural reaction? A person should know his gifts and strengths and be healthy and proud of his accomplishments. There is only a tiny step between healthy pride and pride. It is in the view of others.

Who are you, Salome? Young, beautiful, talented, and somewhat inexperienced. Sometimes, it is more visible, less. Salome had an excellent opportunity to show herself. Perhaps she thought that her potential husband was among the diners. So she wanted to establish herself in her best beauty. And she succeeded. They noticed her. The king, who was her stepfather, tried to repay her. After all, she became his stepdaughter, so he saw an opportunity to gift her. And he was truly generous. Half a kingdom is not enough. Someone will say that he has gone crazy – for one dance. Herodias was worse off. She wasted a great deal. She also impoverished her somewhat naive daughter with her egoistic act. And it was great, after all. Beautiful “tinsel” for unwrapped and showed emptiness.

It would be easy to judge us… Salome is in each of us. We are young (80 years to eternity), beautiful, talented, and inexperienced. Sometimes more, sometimes less. We like to show off because profit is helpful for us. And we can enjoy generosity. And there are always kings who jump on our “honey.” They want to get us. And so they promise us something. They are successful in this – they call us drunk with dry bread. Then, we will also waste more significant offers than “half the kingdom.” The problem is not only in the menu but also in the fact that we are willing to sacrifice anything for the “dry roll.” We are so glad that we even offer the heads of our neighbors. This is the emptiness that convicts us. It would be easy to judge us… but God does not judge us… He wants to forgive us… Do we want His mercy?

Come to the deep: How do I react to the various offers of the world? How long will I be here on Earth, and how long in eternity? Am I paying adequate attention to this fact? Am I thinking about God’s offers?

Tip for you:  Let’s try to do something for those worse off than us. But let’s not do it because they are miserable, but because they are people like us. We are equal.

What does it mean, and how do we imagine living in God?
God is a unique being. If nothing else, he is invisible, for example. Why? Is he playing hide and seek with us? Or is the cause somewhere else? Scripture whispers an exciting insight. First, it tells us how the world exists: “The earth came into being by the word of God…[God] sustains all things by his mighty word” (2 Pet. 3:5; Heb. 1:3 ). And then he says where this world exists, “[God] is not far from us.
For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:27-28 ). If we put the two together, an exciting picture emerges: the world, the Universe, which exists as an idea in the mind of God. God imagined us – and thus created us. God thinks of us – and we live. If He thought of us, God forgot us – we would cease to exist. We would cease to exist.
Nowadays, we can liken it to something familiar: a computer game. When you play a computer game, there is a real world: there are mountains, there are rivers, there are cities, there are people; this world of the computer game has laws that govern its running and functioning. But it is a virtual world. Compared to us, it is unreal. It doesn’t exist in reality; it exists only in the memory and the computer’s processor. In a way, we can imagine ourselves in relation to God. God is spirit. You might also think to yourself as you say this that it means God has nobody. He is not material, as if he lacks something we, unlike Him, have. The terms “body” and “spirit” in ancient Hebrew thought, which permeates the Scriptures, mean the exact opposite: God is spirit, that is, the real, the real, the true, the One Who Is. This also means His Name, JHWH: the One Who Is. And we humans, the Earth, the Universe, are just a body, just something like the world of a computer game in a computer. The computer is real, it’s hardware, whereas the game world is just virtual, it’s just software. God is the spirit, the “hardware,” the real one – and we are just flesh, just “software” running in His Mind. So God is not even somewhere in the Universe, as Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin thought when he flew up a little over three hundred kilometers above the surface of our planet and said: “I have been in space, but I have not seen God there”; nor somewhere outside Universe, somewhere beside it or above it, whence he looks on like some researcher on a petri dish with his experiment, but it is the Universe that exists in God.
This has exciting implications.

1. INVISIBLE, BUT ALL THE MORE REAL.
A character from a computer game cannot “jump out” and look at the computer in which it exists or at the programmer or player. Therefore, The computer is essentially invisible to her and cannot be visible because it exists on a completely different plane from the computer game world. Although the computer itself is “invisible” to the virtual world of the computer game, it is nevertheless actual – more accurate than the game and its world!
In the same way, God is inaccessible to our senses, and we cannot meet Him “face to face” like some other creature in this world. He exists on a completely different plane of reality than our created world. Because of this, God is “spirit” and not just “flesh.” In the complete sense of the word, he is the accurate – the most real of all that we consider fundamental.
“Lord, what is man that thou shouldest confess him, and the son of man that thou shouldest think on him? Man is like a mirage; his days are like a flying shadow.” (PS 144:3-4 )
2. “HE WHO IS MANIFESTED IN THE FLESH
Suppose the programmer wants to somehow “manifest himself” in his created game. In that case, he can do so in various ways, for example, by using an “avatar,” or character, to represent him or herself in the game. This is, after all, how computer games work: the player is defined in the game world by the character through which he plays the game. But  It would still be true that he and the feeling that represents him are not the same thing: the player is NOT an avatar; he APPEARS to be one and thus makes himself “visible” to the game world!
Similarly, God sometimes reveals Himself through “visions” – often very symbolic “characters” or other visible phenomena, through which He makes Himself visible in our world and, simultaneously, reveals something of Himself (that’s why they are symbolic).
3. ALL THINGS
The computer and the programmer have complete sovereign, absolute power over everything they create. The programmer creates the very world and the laws of the computer game, which apply absolutely to its characters and world. But at the same time, the programmer himself can, at any time and in any way, do anything in the game (program) that can change, break, or bypass and is not bound by anything in the world of the game he has created. Similarly, in many games, players can do the same thing, called “cheating”: they put some code into the computer or press a secret key combination and cause a “miracle” in the game. There is nothing that a computer (and, through it, a programmer) cannot do, create, make, or cause within the world of a computer game – if only because it runs on the computer and only as the computer determines and “allows” it to run.
Likewise, by the very nature of things, God has absolute power and sovereignty over all He creates and exists in His mind. He makes the very natural laws of our world but is not bound by them himself. He can act outside them at any time, he can bypass them, he can change anything and in any way, in precisely the same way as the programmer of a computer game. When God “cheats” in this way, we call it “miracle.” “For you can always exercise your great power. Who can withstand the power of thy arm? All the world before thee is like powder on balance and like a dewdrop that falls to the earth before the dawn.”(Wisdom 11:21-22 )
4. THE ALL-FATHER
Anything that exists and happens in a computer game and its world exists only because it is constantly maintained and created by the computer’s processor, which is thus present in everything – down to the last pixel – and “permeates” everything. Without this “presence” of the computer, nothing in the game’s virtual world could not exist. Similarly, God is present in everything and permeates everything – from giant supergalaxies to the last quark – simply because of this,
if it weren’t in God, in God’s mind, if God wasn’t thinking about it, and if it weren’t “present” in this way in everything that exists – then it simply would not exist. Whatever exists only exists because it is in God, and God is in it that way. “God “sustains all things by his powerful word.” (Heb 1:3 )
“Whither can I flee from thy spirit, and whither can I escape from thy presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend into the underworld, you are there. Though I pin my wings to my eyes and find myself on the farthest sea, even there, thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say to myself: “Perhaps the darkness will hide me, and instead of light, the night will cover me,” for thee even the darkness will not be dark, and the night will brighten like the day.
To thee, the darkness is as light. For thou hast created my bowels and woven me in my mother’s womb.” (PS. 139:7-13 )
5. OMNISCIENT (ALL-KNOWING)
The computer perfectly, accurately, and infallibly knows everything in the virtual world of the computer game it creates. In its very essence,
there cannot be anything in this virtual world of the computer game that the computer does not “know” – simply because the entire game exists only in its memory, and everything that happens in it happens only in its processor. If the computer didn’t “know” about something, it couldn’t even exist because nothing can exist outside of its memory, and nothing can happen outside of its processor.
Similarly, God not only knows but, in a way, “co-exists” with everything that happens in the Universe, including the fate of
every single human being. If He didn’t know about anything, it couldn’t exist because everything exists only in God’s mind and only because God thinks about it. So if God does not know about something, it is only because He is not thinking about it, and it is not in His mind. But in that case, it is neither does not exist. “Lord, you are testing me, and you know everything about me… You have perceived my thoughts from afar … all my ways are known to You. Though the word is not even on my tongue, you, Lord, already know what I want to say. You surround me front and back and lay Your hand on me.” (PSALM 139:1-5 ). Can we somehow “meet” this God at all? Based on all of this, it would seem that God can act at will in our world, and we can experience His Power on ourselves – Can we also encounter Him? Doesn’t that seem somewhat impossible from the above?
Everything in our world corresponds to the corresponding sense with which we perceive a given thing. We can see colors but not hear them. The music we can listen to but not smell. We can smell a scent but not feel it. But there are other, stranger senses. For example, why do we perceive the three-dimensionality of the space we live in? Sight shows us objects and the world – but how do we perceive three-dimensionality? Or beauty, aesthetics – by what do we perceive it? These, too, are forms of the senses we have. On the whole, we can formulate the following conclusion:
 Each reality corresponds to an appropriate way of perceiving and knowing it: colors to sight, smell to smell…
 We know some facts beyond the traditional five senses: beauty, three-dimensionality, mathematical truths,…
 Each reality is generally knowable in only one way and not in others – we can only hear music, we can only see the light, Mathematics can only be understood – it doesn’t deny its reality. Is there any similar sense by which we could “see” or perceive God? C. S. Peirce, philosopher and mathematician, said: “To see God, we have only to open the eyes and the heart, which is also a sense organ.” In our common parlance, we tend to identify the heart with Feelings. But Peirce uses the term heart differently- similar to how various mystics speak of the “depth of the soul,” the “tip of the soul.” all of which terms consistently describe the same experience: there is a sense within us that ‘heart,’ ‘tip,’ ‘depth,’ capable of perceiving God in the same way that the ear perceives music and the eye perceives colors. And this perception is just as accurate. The light does not become unreal because we perceive it only with our eyes and not otherwise. Nor is music fake because we only hear it but no longer see it, nor can’t smell it. Mathematical truths do not become unreal just because we also perceive them with a unique sense, while neither seeing them nor hearing them nor anything like them. In the same way, the perception of God is reliable, accurate, and confident because we also perceive Him with the sense by which we are equipped for this purpose – and it is in no way diminished by the fact that from the very nature of the thing itself, God, such as He is, can be within the world, neither to see with our eyes, nor to hear with our ears, nor to feel with our hands, nor to smell, much less to taste…
“There is an organ of knowledge of God which perceives Him in its way, just as there is a mental faculty that makes us agree with the principles of mathematical reasoning, but which does not coincide with another faculty, reason, by which we can deduce the proofs of propositions.”

Have you noticed how little is said about pride? It is a pity that we forget that the essence of satisfaction lies in self-deception. St. Terezka would tell us to take a realistic look at ourselves and reality as soon as possible and remind ourselves of what we live because it speaks of our value in life. And Jesus invites us to this kind of thinking and reflection when he says: “Whoever is greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Mt 23:12).

These words of Jesus are not so much directed at the Pharisees as a group of people who are hostile and alien to Jesus, but he points to Pharisaism as a danger residing right in the Church, in us, from which we cannot protect ourselves by any external separation, but only by that we will test ourselves to see if we act like the Pharisees. Pride controls the inside of the Pharisee. And then, there is a division between learning and action. They teach the commandments as the commandments of God, but their actions are actions for the eyes of men only. In the Gospels, we most often see Jesus full of love and mercy. In the “Magnificat,” the Virgin Mary says: “He scattered those who think proudly in their hearts” (Lk 1:51). The opposite of pride is highlighted by the apostle James: ” Draw close to God and he will draw close to you…Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:8, 10). Humility in people before the Lord is the source of many blessings. Let’s not be mistaken! Because Pharisaism as such did not die out. It is not only in our surroundings, but is it not also in us? Humility lives actively. As he accepts the applause for his successes, he lets the laughter his failures cause ring in his ears. He is healthy and dissatisfied with himself, which helps him grow in his apostolic work. He does not forget that even average people can sin with excessive self-confidence. A humble person is aware that his sadness can be a cloak for his pride if he does not drive it away. He who is proud does not triumph over himself and does not mortify himself. Pride distances us from Jesus, and humility makes us close to Jesus. It is fitting that we want and can give up our opinion. It is difficult, but dear to God. A humble person does not look at what others are like but at himself and what he should be. The meek is not similar to the “whitewashed grave” because he cares about the relationship with God and the fact that as many souls as possible belong to God. He is not held up as a role model and example. He lives his faith not only in words but also in deeds. A humble person realizes that it is necessary to maintain an objective view. Pride, especially in volatile people, arouses aggression. Pride is the beginning of other sins.

It is fitting that we are aware that pride’s power, which awakens falsehood, is at the birth of untruth and destroys an objective view. Satisfaction consists in the fact that a person takes credit for himself and forgets that he received all good things from God. Pride opposes God. Lucifer and his ilk got everything from God, and we know they rebelled against God.

Many of you know that when someone is sick, we often have to encourage them to eat and drink more fluids. The ill person is fighting back; he doesn’t want to, yet you don’t give up. Talk to the sick person, encourage him… And at the same time, no one objects or says, Why don’t you respect the free will of a sick person!? The patient needs to be helped. All the more so when we feel something more towards the ill person, love, friendship, and seeing him as a child of God.

The Lord Jesus comes to a sick world marked by original sin and personal sins of people. He comes as our brother to help us understand the command of love in our lives. We should remember “which commandment in the Law is the greatest” (Mt 22:34). When a man sinned, he became ill. However, even then, God did not stop loving people. He sends prophets, leaders, and teachers to his people, who inform and teach the people the commands of God. It happened that there were 613 commands. They began to divide these into big and small. And also into “commandments,” which were 365, like the days of the year, and “prohibitions,” which were 248, according to the time understanding as much as there are limbs or parts in the human body. There was still a rich commentary on these commands. The question arose from this, with which they also came to Jesus: “Teacher,

They ask Jesus about the “greatest” commandment. Jesus repeatedly fought with the teachers, Pharisees, and scribes. It was not only in the case of whether it is permissible to heal on the Sabbath but also whether it is permissible to do so on the Sabbath, like the apostles who passed through the grain field on the Sabbath and ate grains of grain. On these and other occasions, Jesus emphasized at least his freedom by relegating the other commandments to the commandment of love. Therefore, the pressing question became where to look for the measure and what is the “chief commandment” to which all others must submit. Those who come with the question to “tempt” him know very well that the first command is the command to love God, and they also know it because God often pointed to the command to love one’s neighbor. We must not be surprised that there were also what in the labyrinth of many orders they did not know. The answer of Jesus in the Gospel is nothing new, which would be unknown to His adversaries.

Let us pray for ourselves, for Christians, and all people so that we can always open ourselves to the command of love. Just as you, Jesus, our God, Savior, and Redeemer, taught us to love in word and deed, we also want to help each other because we are all marked by sickness and sin against love for God and neighbor as well as ourselves.