Who is Christ for people? Are we living according to his teachings? Whoever carefully reads the biography of Jesus Christ, the Gospels, will find in it inspiration for the open activity to which Jesus directly calls us. The unclean spirits said: “You are the Son of God” (Mk 3:12).

Mark talks about the moment when Jesus wants to rest after a tiring day, by the seashore. The crowd, however, changes Jesus’ intention, and Jesus is the same act here: he heals, teaches… Jesus had to solve the controversial issue of fasting, and the sanctification of the Sabbath and Mark presents him as a miracle worker to whom Jews and Gentiles come, so that at least by touching him the dress was healed. Marek does not write about these events on purpose. They gave Jesus the title “Son of God”, which indicated his dignity. Jesus does not want them to recognize him as the Messiah, since the moment of his supreme mission – the resurrection – has not yet come. This fact means a manifestation: the victory of Jesus over evil.

Jesus gives us an example that our life should be active. Serious work on self-improvement must be based on the thought: “We are unprofitable servants, we have done what we were obliged to do” (Luke 17:10).

Let’s remember that some people do not have confidence in the activity, while others rush into the activity without thinking and without love. Jesus did everything with love, which also gives value and meaning to our lives, and must be in the first place in every action. It is easy to tear down a house, but it is more difficult to build one. It is easier to criticize and more difficult to act. If we spend all our time criticizing, we will have no time for action. An active life is not dreaming, building only on planning; all this must also take place.

An example for students.
You don’t just dream of being a good student, but do everything to be one. Do you put your duties as a student first before entertainment, hobbies, television, and the Internet? Not only the students but also all of us must realize that our good intentions are useless if they are not realized, if they are not transformed into action. God not only promised the Comforter – the Holy Spirit, but also sent him. A person who is not active declines. A thing, a machine that just sits and is not used, also wears out. Let’s face it: we only achieve perfection when we act.

Observe the people around you. How many people are lazy, waste their precious energies and the result of their life is deplorable? The effectiveness of the action is not given by the intensity of the movement, but by the weight of the spirit, which it contains thanks to its effort. We see it in life too, that some people accomplish a lot in a short time, with a few actions, and with little activity. Others, on the other hand, perform very little over a long time with several actions, with greater activity. This means to us that the whole difference lies in the quality of the soul of those who acts. The activity of the animal is instinctive. Human activity is deliberate and should be experienced with faith. 

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 that have been 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 that exists 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 completely to him. The Son is the joy of his Father when he also gives himself completely to him. They are each other’s joy. And to be able 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, that we will 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 joy. It is normal for it to radiate into all-natural and emotional joys. It is she who 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 know joy. He cannot live without her and is looking for her with all his might. Very often it is the desire for joy and happiness that 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 which God gives to those who ask for it.

Bodily restrictions in favor of the dominance of the spirit are the way to achieve, not only to strengthen, the will of a person, but also to increase asceticism.

A Catholic Christian can adopt it as a great spiritual exercise at the beginning of the church year, without which spiritual growth is indispensable. Jesus did not introduce this means of self-improvement. Jesus heals a man with a withered hand in the synagogue on Saturday. It was enough that he said to him: “Stretch out your hand” (Mk 3:5).

Jesus is God. God ordered that people dedicate the Sabbath rest to him, but God is not only concerned with love for him, but also with love for his neighbor. Therefore, when he heals a sick person, he teaches everyone that he is the Lord of the Sabbath and that the Sabbath is established for man, and not the other way around. When it comes to love for a person, he can use the Sabbath for that.

What does this mean for us believers in practice?
Even though the church regulations oblige us to participate in the holy mass on Sundays and on public holidays, when someone needs our love and help, for example in caring for a small child, then he does not sin. However, we must also ask ourselves this: What good would it do us if we were at three holy masses and did not help the one who urgently required our help right then? With a little goodwill and a proper assessment of all circumstances, things can be arranged in such a way that we fulfill our religious and other obligations. Will the excuse: be “I’m tired after a whole week – and still go to church?” What is fatigue? For those who correctly understand the Sunday meeting with Jesus, the hour is not only not a burden, but they cannot even imagine their life without it. Sunday without Holy Mass means nothing to him. Festive lunch – we can cook it on another day. Even time for a hobby, a hobby with a little love for God, can be solved differently. Constant non-fulfillment of obligations speaks volumes about your faith. Here, it is not enough to say, “I am a believer.”

Let’s also recall some distracting events, which are deliberately scheduled for the morning hours, to lure the faithful away from the Holy Mass. Some organizations also hold their meetings for this hour and organize various events, and it’s funny when they even do violence that you have to…

The Lord Jesus did not desecrate the holy day by helping the sick. If the circumstances require it, we can miss the Holy Mass in exceptional cases out of love for our neighbor. It must not become a general rule. The daughter comes to visit, and the mother no longer goes to Holy Mass because she has to cook! How many know how to arrange things to their satisfaction anyway and can understand it correctly? Goodwill. We want goodwill from others, and when God wants it from us, then we are deaf. 

It is far from Lent. How about starting to prepare for Lent today? Let’s ask ourselves, as part of this preparation, have we understood the true meaning of fasting? But how can giving up food become an expression of Christian love? Jesus explains the answer to this question and others, how to understand the meaning of fasting, the fasting practice, and the fasting period, by asking: “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them” (Mk 2:19)?

We read how Jesus healed the sick, strengthened the weak, and comforted the suffering. But how did it all begin? In many cases, these people sought Jesus, or someone sought him on behalf of a sick or suffering person. The words about Jesus’ power and miracles were enough for them to follow him. Jesus talks about filling old vessels with new wine. The new wine is the Holy Spirit, which he wants to pour out on us out of love to heal, strengthen and renew us. However, Jesus will not impose himself on us. He wants us to turn to him and invite him to us. And that means being a new vessel. He is waiting for us to put aside everything “old” that separates us from him so that we can accept the “new”.

However, there is one catch. If we want to experience the presence of Jesus, we must change. We need to set aside some time for him. We must give up bad habits that distance us from him. Even so, we are never sure whether we can make the necessary change on our own. However, the good news, the gospel says that Jesus will not only help us on this journey but will accept our small efforts and bless them a hundredfold. Sometimes it changes us without realizing it; it will carve out our personality the way a grinder grinds a diamond to make it shine and become a real gem. Jesus wants to help us, but he is waiting for the moment when we turn to him. He expects at least a little effort on our part so that the old vessels are not broken by receiving the new wine. Our decision to devote at least fifteen minutes a day to prayer can be an excellent start.

Let’s give God a little time, and he will bless us, heal us and lift us because we have given something up. Let’s ask Jesus to show us what we can do to draw closer to him. And then let’s take that small step and ask him to act. Religious people often have difficulty accepting differences in other people’s lifestyles, especially in religious matters. We can find something similar in the rebuke of the Pharisees, which they addressed to Jesus Christ: “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, and your disciples do not fast” (Mk 2:18)? But this rebuke was not justified.

Peter Chrysologius, a teacher of the Church (Raven bishop 424-450), teaches: “People came to Jesus to be healed. Jesus loves each of us and says: “The healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick…” (Mk 21:17) ! The gospel for each of us. Sin is a terrible disease.

Two men fall into a chimney. One comes out with a dirty face, the other comes out clean. Which one is going to wash? The one with a clean face. The dirty one looks at the other and says to himself: “How fortunate that we did not get dirty.” The one with a clean face looks at the dirty one and hastens to wash. But it depends on the point of view: When they look at their hands, the clean one recognizes, that he doesn’t have to wash, but the other one notices that his hands are full of soot and so he goes to wash (from the Italian TV series Don Matteo).

It can also be said in the words of St. Louis IX. († 1270). Leprosy is a terrible disease, but it cannot be compared to sin. Leprosy destroys natural life, and sin destroys eternal life. What is worse? Different people may give different answers. Their relation to eternal life is decided. King Louis once asked a courtier a question: “Which would you choose, to be a leper or to commit a mortal sin?” The courtier replied: “Better thirty mortal sins than to be a leper.” And to this, the king said: “You speak of very unwise, for you ought to know that no leprosy is so evil as sin. Sin in the soul makes a man a devil, and no leper is like the devil .”

I believe in eternal life. Let’s say these words now in silence.
If we apply this encouragement to ourselves, we will be convinced of the great power of the love of the Lord Jesus, that even in today’s sick, often hopelessly exhausted, disappointed and tired age, the word of Jesus has its power. It is beautiful when we realize that the world is healing through us, that he has recognized us as worthy of his great love, so that we can help others find the values ​​of life that “moth does not eat, rust does not destroy, and a thief does not steal”. Then we too will be even more amazed at his teachings, we will have a personal experience with Him that He has a power that nothing can match.

Today we already confess that Jesus is the true God who has unlimited power, is the Teacher of the ageless gospel, and we are his co-workers. And one more time. Let’s learn to say them whenever we are tempted to commit a grave sin knowingly and voluntarily. I believe in eternal life. Let’s imagine before our eyes Jesus saying to us: “I want to, be clean” (Mk 1:41)!

We are not interested in the lepers of the world. And because the shirt is closer than the coat, we realize what to do with sin. In the following confession of faith, let us be aware of the words: “I believe in eternal life.”

A Christian’s life obliges him to bear witness (Jn 1:29-34)

We are required daily to witness life for sacrifice

We know that there is no testimony like testimony. The testimony of a responsible and mature person has more value and meaning than an irresponsible or possibly a child. The argument of one who knows the matter from his own life and experience will carry more weight than one who has only heard about it. They say that reading about something is beautiful, but being there once, seeing it, experiencing it – that’s more than reading about it a hundred times.
Our faith teaches us to know and to want to testify about what we know, what we know, and what we have already experienced. The world around us rightly expects us Christians to show them our faith not only with words but especially with deeds.

We see an example in St. John the Baptist, who confessed about Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb of God” (Jn 1:29), but the Gospel also speaks of another example of testimony, when St. John the apostle writes: “And I have seen it and bear witness that this is the Son of God” (Jn 1:34).

John the Baptist was the first Christian who understood his calling. The vocation of a Christian is to bear witness. The mission of a Christian is to bear witness to Christ with his life, even when he is not directly aware of it. A Christian must not be indifferent to his mission. The power of example either builds or destroys. The figure of John the Baptist and subsequently also the apostle John in today’s Gospel do not encourage personal correction, nor do they emphasize some religious truth as usual, but they make people more familiar with Jesus Christ. The texts of the readings have a common idea, an experience of personal life. They bear witness not to remain silent when it is necessary to speak and even shout about God. John the Baptist, when he recognized Jesus in the crowd, surely with the help of the Spirit, that he was the awaited and predicted Messiah, cried: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). John fulfilled his mission. He prepared the way for the Messiah, and it is still necessary for the Messiah to be presented to both the nation and all people until the end of time, so that he may die quietly in Herod’s prison. When he refers to Jesus as “the Lamb of God,” he refers to him as the Messiah. Already in the Old Testament, the Messiah was presented as a lamb or a ram, which scatters enemies with its horns and wins over the world, and cleanses the world of all evil.
More than sixty years passed from the event – when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist – to the writing of the Gospel by Saint John the Apostle (baptism in the 28th year – the 95th year of the creation of the Gospel). And this period is proof that Jesus was the Messiah. First, Jesus himself teaches the apostles and the crowd for three years, proves his power and mission by word and deed, and dies on the cross for our sins, so that on the third day – as he predicted – he will rise from the dead with his power, when he meets with the disciples for another fifty days before with his ascension to heaven, he returned to the Father, so that his work could be continued by the disciples in the power of the Holy Spirit, whom he had sent upon them with the Father. And at this time, the title “Lamb of God” was not only confirmed, but many are more and more aware of the importance of Jesus Christ in their lives. Jesus died at the moment when the lambs were being slaughtered in the temple before the Easter holidays.
The secret of our salvation is the secret of love. John the Apostle bears witness to this: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3, 16). And the apostle St. Paul says about God: “… he did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” (Romans 8, 32).

The testimonies of John the Baptist and the apostle John are a challenge for us to bear witness to God’s love for man. The Johns began the life of witnesses of Christ. They set an example. They accomplished their mission. Our task, who have believed in Christ, is the obligation in our own time, in a way appropriate to us, to continue what the Johns started. The Johns grew in their testimony. In the beginning, their testimony was not the same as at the end of their lives. We should also pay attention to that. We have all been washed by the blood of the “Lamb-Christ”. And so Jesus’ words about the cross: “Whoever wants to come after me…” (Mt 16:24), but also the words: “And everyone who leaves homes or brothers and sisters for my name’s sake…” (Mt 19,29), became a challenge for many and gave their lives to testify to God’s love.

In mid-February 1958, the state police tracked down the priest Štefan Vlk, who had been hiding for several years, and was accused of spreading religious literature. The policeman noticed that the bench in the hideout was covered with a tarpaulin. When he lifted the blanket, he found no anti-state material, but a board studded with nail tips. He was horrified and shouted: “And what is that?” And when the priest did not answer him immediately, he asked loudly: “Why are you doing this?” Priest Štefan answered after a while: “When he died for us on the cross, it is fitting that we also suffered something.” When he was already in prison for the fourth year and was transferred to the camp in Valdice, he brought with him from Příbram a sentence of 250 days of correction, which means that the prisoner only got to eat once every three days, and that’s why that he never did on Sundays.

Testimony needs to be given even today. Although not immediately by prison or by his blood, but each by his own life. We do not live in such a time and society where everything is in order about the orders of God and the church. And that’s why. When the world does not believe in Christ today, it means that one reason is weak: we Christians are weak. If there are unbelieving people or non-practicing Christians in our neighborhood today. It must not and cannot satisfy us that each of us is the mastermind of our happiness, and possibly that what doesn’t burn you, you don’t put out. Our insufficient example of faith in our life must burn and torment us. It is not enough to be a good person, it is necessary to be a holy Christian Catholic. If the “good guys” were really good, there would be a lot fewer bad guys. The example ignites, both bad and good. The challenge for us: is to ignite ourselves so that we can ignite others. He who does not burn cannot ignite. Who is dead in soul

It is right that we want to be among those who are not silent in their lives when they have to talk about God, faith, about what is essential in a person’s life. Even in our surroundings, many people know very little about God. And there are even more who hear more about God and see only negative and bad things from Christians. And in this wide field, there is a place for each of us. The life of a Christian is correct when it is the life of a witness of Christ. The world is waiting for our testimonies. Indeed, words are often not enough. We know it from our surroundings and life.

The woman talks sweetly and often about God, but people run away from her, avoid her, and even laugh at her. He goes to church every day. He wears a rosary around his neck. Catholic greetings to everyone. He does not miss any pilgrimage or church celebration. All right? She is angry with the priest because he does not do as she wants. In the church, they pull away from her because she wants to excel in prayer, singing, and piety. When the children grew up, they stopped fulfilling the duties of Christians, because in childhood it was often a terror of faith, violence, and not an example of love. It is a memento for many of us.

God wants our cooperation. God sees even in secret. God likes our faithfulness, perseverance, sincerity, and humanity… Therefore, let’s know God in heartseart and through love in humility let’s open the door to him in our actions. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph lived in the silence of Nazareth. And everyone fulfilled their mission in their own time. Challenge? Memento? Addressing? Yes, to each of us.

I believe that the betrothed, united by the mystery of love, perceive that ‘indefinable’ Light even more than it is made known in the beauty of the universe and the beauty of the human soul. If man’s vocation is to be the light of the world, his life must necessarily be directed in some way toward God. Love is a leap off a cliff, not a speculation to put into a relationship more than a partner. Love forgets when it is wronged, justifies everything, believes everything, never grieves over anything and endures everything. Love is a flight of steepness and not a business calculation. The French priest Daniel- -Ange founded the community Joie-de-Dieu, Joy of God. Marriage would also be a community where, along with the joy of God, there should be Joie-de-Toi, the joy of you.

At one time, a friend gave me a bungee for my birthday jump, a jump from a height on a bungee cord. Many years later, it occurred to me, that just as I was bouncing off the bridge and looking into the Danube
somewhere below me, I experienced for myself a very accurate image of what love must be. Love, like the jump, cannot be experienced only on trial, with the back door open. Love, like the jump, it either is or it isn’t. If it is on trial, then it does not deserve its name. One cannot give or die or love on trial! He said in one John Paul II. There is no point in just dating someone and not jumping into a relationship.

What can say more about God here on earth than beauty materialized, molded into the form of a girl? The rivers will not wash away love. The floods of the waters will not extinguish it. In one moment one suddenly understands why the Pope, after speaking from the plane, kisses the earth; and you have a similar desire: to kiss the earth that bears the visible sign of God’s invisible beauty. It is said of the Apostle John that at the end of his life, he was able to utter a single sentence, “God is love.” Of St. Francis, it is said we can read that in the same spirit, he made do all night long with a short prayer, My God, my all. Lovers may have a similar experience. There are nights during which the only thought the soul can utter is I love you – I love you – I love you, repeated as prayers of Russian monks, nothing more. Silence. Loving one another and praying – what more beautiful, what nobler, what better or what more worthy thing can we do in this world? What more worthy lot can a man have on earth? There is a difference between “loving” and “praying,” if the end of both refers to God.

Some informative statistics. In Latin America, it was 1970 registered 7,500 lepers.  In 1982, it was 279,000. There are 10 million lepers worldwide. Microbacterium leprae has adapted to the drugs used. About 130,000 people in Indonesia suffer from leprosy. The island country has the fourth-highest number of leprosy cases in the world, behind India (1.67 million), Brazil (283,000), and Bangladesh (136,000). Indonesia is among the countries with the largest population (195 million inhabitants).

Are you interested in these statistics? If I were you, I don’t know if I could repeat the numbers mentioned. Latin America and Indonesia are far away. Although as people and Christians, we are supposed to be in solidarity with the suffering. I often come across the content of the proverb: “A shirt is closer than a coat.” So our problems and difficulties affect us more. And what about leprosy? Is it enough to state that there are no lepers in Slovakia? leprosy, let’s remember that leprosy in the Gospel reminds us of sin. And sin does not touch us?

Jesus says to each of us: “I want to, be clean” (Mk 1:41)!

At the patient’s bedside, we often try to put ourselves in their situation. It is often difficult. Helping a sick person is a great effort for those around him who love him. The leper realized his situation. The Mosaic Law was uncompromising and yet necessary for society. The disease leprosy was contagious. We are not surprised that when he heard about Jesus performing miracles and signs, he begged him on his knees: “If you want, you can make me clean” (Mk 1:40). The life of the leper can be expressed by the words that he lived on the periphery, the edge of life social, family, religious… He was ostracized by society because of his illness. The Gospel does not say what was the cause of his illness. We know about the leper that he lived without hope of being cured. He lived in a state of waiting for someone to deliver him from this terrible condition, only death. And here comes Jesus. He hears about him as a miraculous healer. The leper suddenly has hope. Mark the evangelist wrote only one sentence about the sick person, with which he turns to Jesus. The sentence says it all. About the internal state of the patient and the external impact of the disease. However, he also talks about hope, but also about the humility with which the sick person turns to Jesus. The result of the sick man’s encounter with Jesus? Mark the evangelist notes: “Leprosy immediately left him, and he was clean” (Mk 1:42).

The disease of leprosy can be compared to the state of the soul after sin, with the fact that it is primarily the inside of a person, imperceptible to the human sense.