The Son of Man must suffer a lot … Dear brothers and sisters! When Jesus asked his disciples who people thought he was, his disciples answered as they usually heard in conversations with people. Some considered him John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others one of the ancient prophets. Thus, the apostles expressed the opinions that other people had about Jesus. We also sometimes express the opinions that other people speak about Christ, the Church, and those who serve us in the Church. But the final question, which was directed from Jesus to the apostles, directly concerned them: „And who do you think I am? Do you adhere to the opinion you hear from other people, or do you have your own opinion? Are you satisfied with what someone is telling you, or are you forming your own opinion, your own opinion that you know, or are you getting to know, and which you are also trying to stand behind with your life?“ When Peter answered this question and called Jesus God’s Messiah, God’s Son, he gave the truest and fullest answer. However, he gave it not based on what people say but on what he experienced and tried with Christ and God. Brothers and sisters, every opinion of ours that is formed and that has a relationship with God, with the Church, with the people who represent the Church to us, be it a bishop, a priest, or the Pope himself, is created from personal experience with Christ. We see that the apostles spent time praying with Jesus. And this prayer was followed by questions and answers. This is a guide on how a person can form opinions correctly. If we catch an opinion that we hear from outside, and it becomes our own opinion, but I don’t have it prayed over inside, we are always in danger of being wrong. What many people like at first glance, or what they talk about, does not always carry the absolute truth. We can come to the truth only when we pray with Christ. The apostles could very easily accept the opinions that people had about Christ. And yet they expressed a completely different, fuller, more profound truth than everyone else. Prayer leads us to know the truth in full. But it also leads us to other values. If a person once recognizes that this is Christ, the Son of God, he is willing to accept everything further related to it in this truth. After Peter’s confession, after learning the whole truth, Jesus made it clear to Peter what would be related to it. He added: „The son of man will suffer a lot, they will imprison him, they will kill him, but on the third day he will rise from the dead.“ What was Jesus bringing closer to him, what was Jesus bringing closer to the Twelve at that moment? He brought them closer to the truth that whoever recognized Christ as his Savior, whoever recognized him as the Messiah, the Son of God, should be willing to accept from God’s hand all that God gives to man in life: moments easy and difficult, pleasant and unpleasant, crosses that push us, or even moments when we are completely helpless, when we no longer know how to deal with ourselves or others, when we are at the very bottom. Jesus continued to say to Peter: „ Only he who loses his life for me will find it.“
Brothers and sisters, when a person finds himself in his helplessness, this is the most fertile time in a person’s life, when God’s life, God’s kingdom, is born in him. While we still seem to have something in reach, what we think we have in our niches can prevent us from accepting what God offers us. We can also protest when we have nothing and can’t do anything anymore. We do not like to identify with such a state and defend ourselves against it as best we can. Furthermore, we are actually resisting what can help us know God in our lives. Did you not become rich in the very moments when you had nothing but trust in God? But we like those moments when we have a lot of wealth in our hands, when we want to be something. And when God takes it from us, or leads us to it, that He wants to take it from us, to let it go, and embrace him, then we can protest a lot.

We see it in the family, in the workplace, anywhere! We immediately stand up for ourselves and protest against what God offers us. How many such protests are at home? Let’s look at children as they begin to grow up. Occasionally, some protest against something: „I don’t have a word here anymore! No one here takes me seriously, “your daughter will tell you. „Why don’t you take me into account, how long will I have to nod to everything?“ – your son will tell you. And finally, he tells you: „ I’ve had enough.“ How many times will the wife, the mother in the family, say: „ I’ve had enough, I won’t be a slave to everyone here!“ Why do you reject your weakness, your impotence, and limitations? Even the husband and father sometimes say that he has had enough. And he has reasons for it. In our weakness, when we show our discontent, we indirectly protest against what God is giving us reasonably to our measure. Have you ever received anything in your life that exceeded the carrying capacity you could handle? God tests us to the extreme, but never so we can no longer bear it. Even in Elijah’s life, we know the moments when he protested against God.

When, after several calls to the nation to return to faith in one God, he saw that these people were soon returning to their gods again, he said in his inner bitterness to the Lord God, „Lord, enough is enough. Better take me in than talk to this nation that doesn’t listen to you anyway.“ Elijah expresses his protest. But God does not take this defiance into account. He leaves Elijah his mission, which he entrusted to him. Ultimately, Elias himself will discover that it can still be managed. It can be endured both with God and with an unyielding nation.

Brothers and sisters, everything that comes into our lives, whether it’s people or different circumstances or situations, is tailor-made. If we can confess that the Son of God is the Messiah and that our following Christ, the Son of God, does not consist only in stating who we consider him to be, but we express throughout our lives, that we are willing to receive from God’s hand everything he gives us, we will never become people who will grumble about everything. Of course, in the heart we can disagree with many things and struggle hard, but the moment we put them before God, before Jesus Christ, a decision is born in us to accept anything from the hand of God.

You may know a legend about a husband who could no longer carry the burden of his wife. He came before St. Peter and complained that he had too heavy a cross. And St. Peter generously says to him: „ Whatever you like, come and see, here are different crosses, you can choose a more appropriate one yourself. But don’t look at the name of that cross that is written on the other side. “ And the husband, when he received this opportunity from Peter, ran between the crosses to choose the better one. At first, he headed for the smallest, but when he caught it, he found that he wouldn’t even move it, since it was heavy, although it was minimal. You said it wasn’t for him. Immediately after that, he went to another cross and caught it, but although it was very light, it was so long that it was impossible to walk with it. Then he liked one adequate cross, but it was very prickly and could not be carried away because of its thorns. And so he passed between all the crosses. One was cold, another square… and no and no to choose. Finally, he liked one and said to himself, „Neither of them is proper for me, but hopefully this one will be the most suitable. “ When he came to Peter with him, he says to him: „Then now read the name of that cross.“ And he read: „Emilie Bačová.” – „It’s my wife!“ – „Well, you see, you chose what is most appropriate for you, what God gave you long ago in his providence. She is your most appropriate cross. But don’t forget that you are an equally appropriate cross for her.”  

Brothers and sisters, these are relationships with people. We could also similarly see relationships with things. They are always adequate for us, tailored to our measure with God’s thread and needle. Let us not resist them, let us generously accept them, and if we can confess: „ You are the Christ, the Son of God,“ then let us admit: „ You are the Christ, the Son of God, in all that we can live daily.“

They ate, and everyone was fed …

The immodest liturgical holiday invites us all to be more aware of the need for physical food and the great need for spiritual food. Just as man needs physical food to live and work, he also needs spiritual food to experience his faith and relationship with God more here on earth and prepare for an eternal encounter with God in eternity. The Gospel introduces us to Jesus, who teaches the multitudes about the kingdom of God and heals the sick. When evening is given to the apostles, who urge him to disperse the multitude, he expresses his demand for the satiation of this multitude of people. „You give them eat“. Subsequently, Jesus performs a miracle of the multiplication of bread and fish. „Everyone ate and was satisfied.“

What a miraculous multiplication of spiritual bread – the Eucharist, we can all always experience during the celebration of every Holy Mass. Where a piece of bread becomes the Eucharist – the body of Jesus, it is bread for us to persevere in walking on the path to Jesus, so that we do not faint on this path and have life. Jesus offers us his body and blood to eat and be full. After all, he calls us to this when he says: „ If you do not eat the body of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you“. Therefore, this challenge of Jesus and an invitation are crucial. After all, who among us does not want to live and enjoy life? After the end of this earthly life, who among us does not want to live in the glorified Church in heaven? For a Christian, these words of Jesus and the invitation to the Eucharist must be precious. When Jesus spoke these words of his to the Jews, they were horrified by them. They asked: „How can this one give us to eat his body…“ They could not understand what Jesus was offering them. We already know today that he provided us with the Eucharist.

Even today, many people do not want to accept this spiritual dimension of Jesus’ body and blood. Even today, many people reject the Eucharist, and even many humiliate it. Yes, our human mind cannot fully understand this great mystery of the Eucharist, but faith and heart help us accept and understand this gift of Jesus. In one well-known song about the Eucharist from the unified Catholic hymnal, we sing: „My sight and taste would like to deceive me, but my hearing teaches me to have firm faith“. These are excellent and concise words, because my eyes in the Eucharist see only a piece of white bread, and when I receive it, I will also feel only the taste of bread, but faith tells me, this is the Lord Jesus who sacrificed himself for us and me.

This is his body and the blood he gives me so I can eat and be satisfied. Can I even understand and accept this fact? Here comes to mind an excerpt from the book Blazing Fire by Wilhelm Hubermann, a German priest and writer, in which he describes the biography of Pope Saint Pius X., when little Joseph longed to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, but he did not yet have the prescribed age. When meeting the bishop, he presented him with his request that he would like to receive the Eucharist. So the bishop asks him whose question he even knows. What is the Eucharist? Joseph’s answer was very apt. He is the living Lord Jesus in the form of bread. And at the same time, he complements his answer as if with a question for the bishop. Do you know more, Mr. Bishop?

Indeed, we also know about the mystery of the Eucharist only that it is Jesus, but we should make a great effort to love Jesus in the Eucharist, and especially to receive him often

An experienced gardener knows that if he wants to have an abundant harvest in his garden, he must sow abundant seeds. Not every seed comes to life, not every seed brings more fruit. Of the ten, maybe two will take over, maybe three, maybe four. When a gardener sows ten seeds, he may only have two or three new fruits. However, if he sows a hundred, he will have many more fruits. Today, our words in the Holy Scriptures talk about sowing and harvesting. He who is generous in sowing has a rich harvest. However, those stingy in sowing must be satisfied with a modest harvest. That is a rule that applies not only in the garden. These words can be downloaded just as well to man as to God himself. God is the sower of his word. It also reminds us of this in the parable, which he says he sows abundantly. If he had spread a little of his word worldwide, there would have been a small harvest. He expects that something will fall by the side of the road, something on a rock, something among thorns, and only a quarter will bring a harvest. He considers it and therefore sows a lot, so the quarter is as large as possible. But he not only sows his word but also his love and blessing. Again, assuming only a quarter will react, a quarter will bring a harvest. God has sown his love and blessing worldwide, in every single heart. So at least some hearts should react and bring forth a harvest. Now let’s ignore the global statistics and try to look at our hearts. After all, we also received from God the abundance of His love and blessing. After all, we were allowed to work and care for ourselves and our loved ones during the past year. We were allowed to live here, receiving help in difficult moments, and blessings in beautiful ones. We were allowed to grow spiritually and listen to His word Sunday after Sunday, we were allowed to belong to the community of religious people and live a social life.

Furthermore, we live to this day and are allowed to be gathered here again. Isn’t that enough of all this? And I’m not talking about the blessing of our work, our crops in gardens or fields, or the blessing we received at work. So the sowing of God’s love was also abundant with us. However, we want to investigate whether our heart brings harvest.  How is the harvest manifested, that is, the reaction of the human heart to God’s love? Scripture tells us that the heart that brings forth the harvest feels especially gratitude and generosity. Gratitude is directed towards the originator of love and blessing, towards God. If we have received abundant gifts from God’s hand and are aware of it, our hearts should be grateful to God. Gratitude can be expressed with a word, a prayer, or a joyful song. Even the fact that we are here today and aware of God’s blessing can express our gratitude. But it is only half, just as gratitude is only half of the harvest in the living heart. The other half is generosity. And it’s also a practical way to show gratitude. So one is closely related to the other.

If I said at the beginning that the words about sowing and reaping can be applied to man and God, they concerned God while we were thinking about His sowing of love and blessing towards us, and talked about his generosity. But now we want to talk about our generosity, so these words begin to touch us. Again, we come across the wisdom of gardeners, which is also expressed in the apostle Paul’s letter. He who is not very generous also reaps little. But he who is abundant in generosity his a harvest that is also plentiful. Our thanks to God are therefore manifested by our generosity and the degree of our generosity. Someone gives only a little, and someone only when they have to. Another is the mandatory minimum, some occasionally even more. And again, someone else regularly and more. Our options are very individual. However, the Scriptures admonish that we give willingly in the first place and not out of compulsion.

But now we can ask: What do “make” willingly give us as much as possible? What motivates us to do this? Of course, motivation is rightly asked, because it depends a lot on human action. So why should we give something to someone? We find the answer again in the scripture, where we read the promise that God loves a willing giver. The same God who has the power to multiply his love with us, so that we always have enough of everything if we decide to sacrifice something for the good of others. God promises us that we will be enriched ourselves. Therefore, even if we wanted to look at the human sacrifice of material means for the good of others as egoistically as possible, we still find a reason and a motive for resorting to it repeatedly. If we give something to someone, it is perfect for us. We will be enriched, and God will multiply his grace with us. And here the words of Jesus Christ are also fulfilled: It is more blessed to give than to take“.

And the others who will become the object of our generosity? Maybe they had material-financial problems. Perhaps in the silence of their hearts, they begged God to send someone in their way to help them. And maybe that someone is us. We can become instruments of God’s help for the person we gift with something. Perhaps we don’t even know how much we helped him, how much good we did. Even the apostle Paul writes that our generosity can cause further gratitude to God and further generosity. And again, we are at the heart that will respond to the sowing of this time our love and generosity by feeling gratitude and generosity. And so God’s love can spread through the world. Here we see that without our generosity, it could not have happened. If we were to remain only with that verbal thanks to the Lord God, no one would have anything from our joy and gratitude. However, someone else is also affected in this way. And we? We are enriched and blessed again by God to the extent we have measured to people. And here the cycle of God’s love closes. God gives it to us in his blessing; if we return it and pass it on, we will receive another from God’s hand.

It is similar to the water cycle in nature. If water in the form of rain falls to the ground, it must never remain there. That would already be an ecological crisis. Water must rise to the sky again in the form of steam, so that it falls on us again in the form of rain. Even if God’s love and generosity only fell from heaven into a bottomless abyss, it would be a severe imbalance and a critical state, perhaps similar to Sodom and Gomorrah. However, if it continues to spread through our gratitude, love, and generosity, it seems to return to heaven in the testimonies and gratitude of the people we show it to. They thank God for us, they bear witness to us. Testimony that rises to heaven affects the measure of our following blessing that the heavenly Father is preparing for us. If we sow abundantly, we will also harvest abundantly. Let’s remember this wisdom so that, bypassing it and ignoring it, we do not show the world and God that we know less about life than the most ordinary and simple gardeners.

There is no such insignificant moment that is not worthy to receive God’s grace. Each is big enough for love for God and neighbor. And we believe so little in the present moment, as if the true one, the saving one, the great one is yet to come or as if it has already passed. And so we rest on the cushion of memories and dreams. And the moments, these vessels of God waiting for the contents, escape empty, because neither memory nor vision of imagination can fulfill them. Parent et imputantur. They go through, but they add up, they add up to our account, they burden us.

Now is the time of grace, now is the moment of salvation. Lord of eternity and every moment, you inexorably return us to the present moment, to the “now”. You awaken those who wait for great extraordinary opportunities that may never come, and neglect the small ones that are certain and abundant. A moment decides eternity. The present moment saves her or threatens her. Now, on this occasion, wearing nothing special, not even anything religious, it is my salvation.

Nothing is provisional, transitory, negligible for salvation, or everything is provisional, transitory, negligible. What does it matter, what fills this moment with, joy or sorrow, glory or disgrace, health or rest, anxiety or peace, or the whole catalog of contradictions of the cross, as stated by St. Paul. This mundane tiny moment is a vessel for love for God and people.

Therefore, together with John XXIII. Let’s fulfill the resolution: Experiencing the present moment as if it were the only moment, the only task for which the Lord sent me. The only one on which my salvation depends.

People say, there is a war, innocent people are dying there, women and children are dying there. How can God view it? After all, he is an almighty god, so why doesn’t he intervene? Because God isn’t like us. If God has given freedom to man, then He respects it. We don’t think that God. He suffers less than we do. God thus suffered for human hatred, God called man to cooperate with him, not to be a slave. That would be the easiest way to destroy bad people. But we would have to kill almost every person, because every person has made a mistake. But God gives a person room for conversion. God offers forgiveness to man. Let’s not blame God for something for which we are responsible.

The  Apostle James asks. Where do the wars come from, and the hatred between you? We confess that God is almighty through His love. But God is also powerless by his passion, in the parable of the prodigal son. A father allows his son to squander his possessions. God allows us to distance ourselves from Him and decides what to do with us. A man who prefers sin before him. It is similar to a child who breaks a window, reproaching his father for breaking the window. Many want to use God to confirm their wrong principles. Why don’t we tell someone about to commit evil?  Instead of God punishing you, God loves you. Many people think that living with God is restricted. You can’t do this, you can’t do it. They do not see that to live with God is to be enriched by his love. It’s absurd you know that god is the truth and to have a mouth full of lies. The essence of Christianity is not that God controls us. God has united himself with human nature in this Christ; what do we want more? God has given us the Spirit that leads us to freedom. We need to be fascinated by a god who is always merciful.  Which man wants to save? Man is what he has an idea of God. Does he have an idea of God who will destroy this world in the end, punish everyone, even if I do not love in my heart? What good is it if I tell people dogmatic precepts, there will be no God in my heart, only my proud me. God did everything for man so that man could live  with Him. Such a God cannot but loved.

The painting “Saint Anthony” by Francisco Zurbarán shows the penitential preacher (1195-1231) with the radiant baby Jesus in his arms.

Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) heals a young man who cut off his leg.

Statues of St. Anthony still stand in almost every church today. In Italy, he was the most popular saint for centuries – and only since the 1960’s has he faced competition from Padre Pio, whose tomb is said to be visited by even more people annually. In Padua, the Basilica di Sant’Antonio is simply called “il santo” (“the saint”), after all it can only be the most important saint in the country. There, the remains of Anthony can be viewed up close: the intact tongue of the penitential preacher is kept in a huge golden reliquary from 1436 in the reliquary chapel of the basilica. In 1946, Pope Pius XII. The saint was inducted into the circle of doctors of the church.

Patron of Padua, Lisbon, Paderborn, Hildesheim; of the poor and social workers, lovers and marriage, women and children, bakers, miners, travelers, swineherds, horses and donkeys; Against infertility, devilish powers, fever, plague and livestock diseases; in shipwrecks and in times of war; for finding lost objects, good delivery and a good harvest

This makes them unable to love such a god. Many people seem to be afraid of God. Many people remember from their childhood when someone told them. Obey. If not, God will punish you. It is an obstacle to the spiritual life. I can’t love someone  I’m afraid of. People have often created an image of God according to their liking. The truth is that many nations invented a god according to their ideas, just as it seemed to them that a god should be like that. Voltaire said God made man in His image, but man repaid him.  That is, man has created a  God in his image. He created an Image of God, into which he put all his negative qualities. But the  Christian god is different. That’s such a beautiful god. It’s impossible not to love such a god; that side is so good. A person who knows such a god is fascinated by his love and greatness. If a man knows God, it means an excellent facilitation for his life. In Jesus, we recognize Gog as He is. The pagan people thought that God should be propitiated and that sacrifices should be made to him. God does not want the death of a sinner; God wants man to convert and live. God reconciled mankind to Himself by sacrificing Himself. Reconciliation with God is a gift from God and not a human feat. God does need our human sacrifices. He needs us. Many think the more self-denial we make, the happier God will be.  But God doesn’t need it. He longs for one thing. All God requires of us is our consent. The Christian sacrifice is that I allow God to treat me the way he wants, to use me for his work, so that the wall still gives me gifts. Working with a living god sometimes requires a lot of commitment. Self-denial should not be an end in itself, but it should also serve to express love. God loves life and accepts death only so we can live. God has given meaning to our suffering. Many people think our prayers will make God act as we want him to. 1 prays that it rains, two prays that it does not rain. We want God to act the way we want. But we don’t know what’s good, but God knows. How can a person impose his will on God? Only God knows what is good for us. It is not right to impose our will on God. Jesus did not pray, Father, as I want, but as you wish. No one wants as much good for us as God.