The Lord calls to Himself always. Jesus says to those whom he has called: “…the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Mt 10:7). Have we also heard God’s call? Have we responded to this invitation? How?

The Lord chose us to be with him. He wanted us as we are. He was not bothered by our mistakes and shortcomings. Even through them, he wanted to use us for his highest goal – the salvation of souls. Are we aware of this noble distinction? Are we aware of how much love God has shown us? That’s why we don’t need to worry about what we can’t change. On the contrary, we should strive to live as Jesus lived. He is our role model. He is an example for us to follow. But we must remember that Jesus does not call the able, but gives ability to the called! God in us, based on the grace of baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit, can and will do miraculous things.

One personal testimony. It was delivered at one meeting by a young man, possibly a future priest, who says: “I had the opportunity to live one of the formative years of my preparation for the priesthood in a religious order whose charisma, among others, was zeal for new priestly vocations. It was at the time of my inner rebirth. I did not know to whom and where I was going. However, I knew that I wanted to leave the previous way of life, which no longer fulfilled me. I thought I had everything I needed for life. But I was wrong. Only when I reached this place did I know that here, completely surrendered to the will of God, I could start my new life. The road to the priesthood was winding… I realized that the priesthood is a service. It is a service in which we must die completely to ourselves and live to Christ. The Lord did not choose us because we are perfect. The Lord decided us because He liked us just the way we are. Simple, often with a lot of mistakes, which we may even try to hide from the world. But the Lord knows everything about us, and yet loves us even with our faults.”

So let’s think together now, what does our life mean to us? Is it just a certain designation or privilege that sets us apart from other people or represents for us something that is foolishness in the eyes of the powerful of this world? However, it is certain that those who accepted and responded to this call of God, God gave the power to become God’s children.

Holidays, days of rest and doing nothing… Let’s leave them filled with Jesus’ call to pray and go into the world and proclaim everywhere his message of love and peace that he himself brought us. And so once, together with the psalmist, we could all exclaim: “Try and see for yourself how good the Lord is; happy is the person who takes refuge in him” (Psalm 33:9).

You have girded me with joy » Ps 30, 12.

God is a God of joy. And if Christianity is a religion of joy, it is essential because it directly shares in the joy that dwells in the Holy Trinity. Joy is like the air that reigns in God. We used to say that God is mercy, love, and peace. Under certain life circumstances, a person can understand the divine attributes revealed to us with his heart. He experiences, for example, the paternal goodness of God, who takes care of his personal needs, or the mercy of Jesus Christ, who forgives his sins.

To enjoy joy, we must immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of the Holy Trinity. May God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit experience complete and perfect joy together thanks to the love with which they love each other. The perfect love in God results from the mutual self-giving of the persons of the Holy Trinity. Because as soon as there is a gift, there is potential joy. In God, this gift is complete, so his joy is complete. The Father is the joy of his Son when he gives himself entirely to him. The Son is the joy of his Father when he also gives himself entirely to him. They are each other’s joy. And to imagine it, we can say that the explosion of love between them is the person of the Holy Spirit.

Despite the noble doctrine, the Holy Scriptures do not despise the simple joys of life. He knows the joy of a rich harvest or vintage, the joy that we are among brothers and can glorify God together, the joy of the birth of a child, and the joy that springs from the admiration of creation. Perhaps we are little aware of it, which is why the statement of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is still valid: “You all seem to me to be little redeemed people.”

Christian joy presupposes a person capable of naturally rejoicing. Human joys are pleasing to God. Let’s not forget to offer them to him to purify, sanctify, and intensify them. However, the discovery of true joy presupposes that we will be able to advance higher, not stop at the horizontal level of the joys offered, but that we will find a vertical direction in them.

Because Christian joy is primarily spiritual, it is usual to radiate into all-natural and emotional joys. She makes natural joys the true joys of the human heart. He who stops at human pleasures, however uplifting, without trying to connect them with their source, only verifies their transitory character. His desire for authentic joy will not be fulfilled.

Man is a being who desires. Therefore, he can now joy. He cannot live without her and is looking for her with all his might. Very often, the desire for joy and happiness inspires his actions and life decisions. However, man is primarily a spiritual being. God created him to live in union with him. Therefore no joy can satisfy him. His heart will be filled only when he receives true joy, which the world cannot give, but God gives to those who ask for it.

The personality of Benedict of Nursia needs no introduction. A giant who invited European people to look deep inside through prayer and work. These two dimensions of his life and preaching were to be manifested in social and political life. The situation of society and the Church at that time was not far from the current one. I would even say that, in many aspects, she was the same. Society under the pressure of new peoples, cultures, and ideas; A church distant from gospel truths and vision; a society without spirit and direction. But unlike his contemporaries, Benedict does not run away from this world – on the contrary, he realizes that it is necessary to “build a house on a rock.” The rock for him is prayer and work. They will become an aspect of the new society for future generations, preserving faith, education, and culture.

After the rich young man leaves Jesus sad because he cannot fulfill his desire for eternal life, which is conditioned for him by the last unpleasant change in life expressed by Jesus’ call: “go, sell what you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me!”; Peter asks Jesus: “Look, we have left everything and followed you. So what will we get out of it?” Jesus points out that this step is a gift because it brings freedom. Or even better, it “makes a person free” – that is, it makes a person a son or a master and not a slave of creation—those who know how to use things and are not slaves to things.

Thus, the Christian is invited to understand that pure ownership, pure pride, and pure power (let’s try to remember the three temptations of Christ in the desert) are the weapons of the Evil One and the World with which they want to rule over man. On the contrary, poverty, purity, and obedience are radical and visible testimony of freedom. That’s why the world doesn’t like them. He orders not to wear a habit and other signs of such a decision. But this is not enough; for completeness, it is necessary to fulfill one more step – to follow. That is so that the Christian does not become a wanderer who does not have his goal and fulfillment in life—leaving everything that enslaves him so that he can freely follow Christ and bring his word to his neighbors – to be the voice of Christ.

Someone said that God laughs when we plan something. If God is calling you, He has His plans for you. We can also say that we will not find peace if we oppose him. If God calls, it is right to follow his way. We must not run away. After all, there is no escape. Even though we know that God respects our freedom, when God calls us, we must not resist. If he is calling us, he has plans for us. Even in today’s Gospel, we heard how our Lord Jesus Christ said to his disciples: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest” (Mt 9:38).

The activity of the world is often manifested by a lack of time and especially by a lack of workers who will selflessly care for the good of those who do not realize that they have become slaves to their activity, that they are betraying themselves, that they have degraded the meaning of life, exchanged it for fleeting values ​​that they lose their meaning with death. It would be wrong for the Church to leave the field in which Christ commissioned her to care for those afflicted and depressed in their lives. Jesus pointed out that others, not with pure thinking, sincerity, and honesty, will be interested in these people. They will be like ravenous wolves in their methods and activities. The Church has the duty of shepherd even to those outside the Church. The world’s activity will always be more significant so that the harvest will be great, and the Church needs workers to remind the world of their purpose, goal, and mission of life. There will never be a surplus of workers in the world. The activity of workers always requires sacrifices. Many will also accept the vocation to become a worker in the harvest, but because of the worker’s sacrifices, some will resign at the beginning, others will be deceived, and others will be deceived… Those who persevere to the end will bring a rich harvest. Jesus draws attention to this situation by saying: “Therefore, ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers into his harvest” (Mt 9:38). This means that without prayer, any apostolate cannot stand.

The names of the apostles and the power with which Jesus bestows and entrusts them indicate that the Church is apostolic because it is based on the apostles, in the sense that it is based on the apostles as witnesses, whom Jesus entrusted with a missionary mission. With the help of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the Church, the apostles will protect and pass on the teaching, entrusted treasure, and healthy words until Christ’s return. The Church is apostolic, which means that all members of the Church share in its mission, although in different ways. Through the sacrament of baptism, a Christian receives a call to apostolate. The fruitfulness of the apostolate of ordained ministers of the Church and lay people depends on their vital connection with Christ. The apostolate takes on the most diverse forms according to vocations, the times’ demands, and the Holy Spirit’s various giftst. 

We could compare the whole world to such a harvest. Each of us is an ear of corn, and our earthly life is a time when our souls, like ears of corn, 

Is it easier for a believer or an unbeliever? We don’t even realize how many situations we are faced with every day. Believers and non-believers must believe. Where whom and where we believe what. The event of the gospel, which has just ended, directly introduces us to the crowd behind Jesus. We become spectators of the Gospel story, even more. We can be in the center of the action and hear Jesus’ words with our own ears: “..daughter, your faith has made you well…” (Mt 9:22).

It is impossible not to notice her supernatural faith, which Jesus points to as the reason for the healing: “Daughter, your faith has made you well.” It consisted of two actions: First, you made up your mind, and said in your spirit: “As soon as I touch his clothes, I will be healed.” (Mt 9:21). That was an act of reason. And then they will work, an act of faith, a deed. As she made her way to the center of the crowd and touched the robe. It was not banality. She did so, despite the prohibition of the law. According to him, her touch made others unclean. It could have had unpleasant consequences. This also requires faith. How is it that the healing did not take place at the moment when the woman said to herself “if I touch?…” An act of will was also necessary. And why was even the act of touching itself not healing? After all, so many touched Jesus and power did not come from him. .. Supernatural faith is always about cooperation: human reason and human will with God’s grace. And if natural faith is based on trust in experience, agreement or technique, supernatural faith is based on a much stronger foundation – on the authority of God. I believe because God said. Experience can disappoint, there is usually a malfunction in the technique, the agreement is broken. God – absolute Truth, is infallible. He cannot will, think, speak otherwise than the most perfect. In this lies the certainty of faith. Perhaps out of habit we follow Jesus in a crowd. We listen to his words almost every day. Maybe we can be excited by the singing of a crowded church or the idyllic idyll of church holidays. Is that enough for us?

Why is there no healing in so many encounters with Christ? How to heal unresolved disputes with relatives, neighbors… To heal a relationship with an angry sibling or friend. Can we take two steps to heal? So simple and challenging at the same time. When we can realize with reason: if I get closer to him, I get closer to Jesus; we have taken the first step of faith. I believe, Lord, that you are in him, in her. Let us recognize his face in a sympathetic person, even in the one who does not remind us of Jesus. Christ is also in a sinful man, and he suffers. Do I bypass him? The second step is the deed, the very touching of Christ in the neighbor. It can take a variety of forms. Love for Jesus, whom I saw in a person, can be inventive..

The passage opens with opens with Jesus returning to his hometown,where a paralyzed man is brought befor him a on a stretcher. This encounter sets the stage for the profound events that follow.The paralyzed man’s physical ailment serves as a metaphor for the spiritual and emotional paralysis that can afflict us all.As we contemplate this scene,we are reminded of the various burdens we carry and the limitations they impose on us.

The faith displayed by the friends of the paralyzed man is remarkable.They believe in Jesus’ power to heal and are willing to go to great lengths to bring their friend before him. a When Jesus  sees  their  faith,he forgives the man’s sins,recognizing the importance of addressing the root causes of suffering.This act of forgigiveness emmphasinez the interconnection between spirituel and  physical healing,highlighting the transformative power of reconciliation and forgivess indeed lives.

The religious leaders present present are troubled by Jesus’ words of forgiveness,as they consider it blasphemous. Jesus,perceiving their  thoughts,poses a question that challenges their understanding:”Which is easier :to say, Your sins are forgiven or the say; Get up and walk? By demonstrating his authority to forgive sins,Jesus challenges conventional beliefs and opens up a new paradigm of understanding.This episode urges us to question  our  own preconceived notions and be open to the transformative  power of forgiveness and healing.

As we contemplate this narrative,let us strive to cultivate faith like the friends of the paralyzed  man,who were unwavering in their belief in Jesus’healing power. May we also have the courage to challenge conventional thinking just as Jesus did

It ‘s a strange story. How very relevant even in today’s time. Jesus arrives in the region of Gadara, and the first inhabitants of this region whom he meets after stepping ashore are two men tormented by an evil spirit. Possessed. No one can help them, and that’s why everyone prefers to avoid them by far. But not Jesus. Despite the fact that, according to the scribe’s record, Jesus did not say a word, the evil spirits immediately understood that Jesus was not indifferent to the fate of the two unfortunates whom they were tormenting. Unlike their fellow tribesmen. Jesus orders the evil spirits to come out from inside the two unfortunate people and allows them to enter, as they requested, into a herd of pigs that were grazing far away. Two men are single. The herd, into which the demons from the two possessed ones had just entered, ran to meet the waves of the raging lake.

As the evangelist Matthew states, she perished in the water. The shepherds, who saw all this, fled in terror and fear to a nearby town and told the story of what they had witnessed a while ago. We can well imagine what was going on in the city after this news. However, the ending of this story explains a lot to us. Instead of joy at the rescue of their two sons, brothers, maybe husbands and fathers, panic rose in the city. Matthew does not mention the welcome of his fellow citizens, who were finally freed from the torment of possession by an evil spirit, but he mentions “the whole city” that went out to meet Jesus to ask him to leave. The material damage they suffered from the drowning of a herd of pigs was probably more important to them than the spiritual gain of the freedom of God’s children, which was given to their two fellow citizens by the Son of God.

Awe are very similar to the inhabitants of this Gadar town. We are willing to accept God only when he does not reach out to our “flock”. If he does not demand anything from us, and after all, not the “sinking” of our sins and iniquities. We choose the security of our imaginary pastured pigs in various forms of material success and exchange it for God’s blessing, which we renounce. How often do we hear the complaint: Where was God when the unsuspecting victims were killed in a terrorist attack? Where was he when a British judge sentenced the innocent little Alfi to death, or when an old Canadian woman, fearing for her life, had to get the words Don’t euthanize me tattooed on her shoulder before entering hospital treatment?

Where was God at this or that disaster? He was where we wanted him. He was beyond our city, country, continent, from where we expelled him. Politely and politely, politically correct, in the language of diplomats and lawyers, we asked him to leave. And we even insulted him vulgarly and threw him out in “artistic clothes”, as happened recently in the theater in Brno. Just as he commanded the evil spirits to come out of the men they were afflicting, we asked him to come out of our civilization. Perhaps it is not too late to come to your senses. Hopefully humanity is not too far on its way to extinction and we will catch up with Jesus and invite him into our midst again.