predication.net

Jesus tells us clearly and forcefully: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34).

Jesus encourages guides, directs, and cares for his “little flock,” the Church. This is why Jesus came into the world as the God-man, why he suffered and died, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, and sent out disciples, “… for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom” (Lk. 12:32). Jesus is concerned that the Church takes the correct attitude towards the world. The actual thing until the end of the world is for the Church to have an accurate and proper self-concept. At every age, the Church must have the right way of life, mold itself, and have a duty to develop itself. In other words, the Church must guard her doctrine entrusted to her by God; that is, the Church must be vigilant and always ready to do God’s will. Jesus gave the Church the words of encouragement, “Keep your loins girded and your lamps burning” (Lk 12:35). We know that the Lord Jesus always does the will of the heavenly Father. He rightly requires His own to keep watch: “If the householder knew at what hour the thief comet… Be ye also ready, for the Son of man cometh at an hour which ye know not” (Lk. 12:39-40). We are being taught the responsibility of knowing God’s will. Live in the presence of God.

The Church has several spiritual families, such as the Camaldolese or Carthusians, the Poor Clares, and various contemplative religious orders, who are a remembrance of life for the wholeremembrancein their strict renunciation. The same greeting with which the members of these communities greet each other says it all: “Memento mori.” – “Remember death.” They are a call or an address to us to live in God’s constant presence. Today’s Gospel is a call for us to know how to listen. To listen to our God who has prepared a kingdom where entrance cannot be bought, but where the door is secured by purses that will not be worn, where the thief does not enter, and where the moth does not destroy.
In today’s society, in the economic, cultural, political, and sporting spheres, the principle is more valid: to be vigilant, to be alert, and to be on the lookout if we want to prove something, achieve something, or gain something. It is, therefore, a challenge to us in spiritual matters that the Lord, that is, Jesus, should find us watchful at his coming. The words, blessed are they whom he shall find ready, speak of the reward, that Jesus will gird himself, sit down, and minister to them. This is the reward for the wise steward who faithfully performs his duties.
Our time is more and more spoken of as apocalyptic. We have signs that call us to watch. Man’s life is indeed waiting for our Lord. Waiting must not become idleness, doing anything, or dead stillness. Christ, our Judge, has the right to come at any time; during our lives through prayer, encounters with people, events, and signs. We must have a kindled heart. In natural life, we can discern the steps expected. In the spiritual life, shouldn’t this be true? How often are the words of the preacher, confessor, or exorbitant such actions for us? We know that this is not scaremongering.
The book Preach the Gospels describes the story of a man who was considered both rich and a great sinner. He decided he was going to change. He made plans to go to Rome and confess to the Pope himself. And so he did. He had the opportunity to meet the Holy Father, whom he then asked for Holy Confession. He was granted it. He received instruction, repented of his sins, and received absolution. As a parting gift, he was given a ring with the Latin inscription, “Memento mori” – “Remember death.” This man initially thought like this. It didn’t even cost me that much effort or wasted time, and I still received a lovely gift from the Pope himself. He became more and more aware of the words on the ring. Remember that you are going to die, that death awaits you, that you will leave everything you possess today, that before God, different values apply, that death is the gateway to another life… More and more began to live in the presence of God. The words from the ring led him to re-evaluate his relationship with things, events, and people. What had previously had first place and value began to recede, and in that place came matters he had not thought of before. His change in life was not only felt by him, but those around him felt it very soon. What was the biggest surprise for him? He began to feel calmer, happier, and more aware of the love of the people around him.

To live in the presence of God, we don’t have to receive absolution from the Pope, nor do we have to be given a ring. It is enough that we reread today’s Gospel or remember the words of the ring. Most importantly, we begin to live with God on our weekdays and holidays, our duties and our relaxation, and realize the beauty of living in union with God. God’s mercy is our strength. For Jesus has won the most significant victory for us. Our struggles have a pattern. We are not alone in our efforts. We realize that the day turns into eternity and our longing to see God into reality. And for this, it is worth giving up everything that means nothing before God. It pays to take up our cross and follow the Crucified One. Indeed, only He can give us the very thing we need. He cannot disappoint, lead astray, promise what He cannot fulfill… He is truly the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Fortune smiled at Jana. She got to study in the USA. She got into a crisis from the environment, the different lifestyle, the lack of friends, or the problematic beginnings. Young people on the street approached her. She didn’t know anything about the mooners. First, for a weekend, then for a whole week, she was talked into staying among them. “It was beautiful,” she recalls. “They noticed me, they showed me attention, they helped me… It was only after a while that I began to realize that I was completely dependent on them. I began to lose the ability to act independently. I was fortunate that I still realized that they were emotionally blackmailing me. It was when the leader Sun Myung Moon determined who I should marry. I went through three weeks of hell. Today, I know that others were caught up in it for months or years. Today I know this movement leads to the disintegration of human identity, beliefs, behavior, and ways of thinking. They can bring a person with beautiful words about the perfect family to the brink of human happiness. Today, I know men’s psychological manipulation techniques are more effective than the brainwashing practiced in our prisons and educational establishments in the fifties. Covert hypnosis techniques can make a person into a lamb who lives for others. He is not ashamed to beg, sell, lie, cheat, and be noticed by the leaders to get into the movement’s higher spheres. That is how one learns to exploit others for one’s benefit. One loses the consciousness of morality, honor means nothing, and character is not to be spoken of. Until one does not realize it. One is even unhappy that others do not follow his way and reject such a style of life… So family ties are broken, marriages are destroyed, family members and friends condemn, and one does not realize that one is a modern enslaved person at the end of the second millennium. All this in the name of the teachings of the sick man and his ilk, which can often sanitize weak and naive people, people who are in misfortune, in crisis, who have had someone die and feel alone.”
We say they are false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing, bloodthirsty hyenas, trained frauds, murderers of human happiness…

We need to live in the presence of God and help others not to be seduced and deceived by those above.

I want to begin today by asking: “What does the word assurance mean to you?” Are you sure about yourself, your life partner, your life?…. We can safely say that this question is a crucial one for many. Few things on this earth are as important to us, consciously or subconsciously, as feeling secure. It is very uncomfortable for humans if we are not confident in anyone or anything. Today’s Gospel provokes us with the words of the Jews in the Temple Column, “If you are the Messiah….” (Jn 10:24).

Is Jesus the Messiah for us? Are his works a sufficient witness for us? Do we believe? Our days are filled with images of this type – a group of journalists hastily following a certain personage and asking him probing, provocative, and all sorts of other questions. Also, Jesus in the Gospel comes to the Temple entrance about mid-December – it is the Feast of the Cleansing of the Temple, and he is surrounded by a group of Jews who ask him a fundamental question.
A question that is all too personal and provocative: “If you are the Messiah, tell us.” Too bad there was too much provocation and so little truth-seeking in this question, in this seeming search for certainty.

He whom a nation of centuries has been waiting for, who has manifested Himself by much deeds-in speech and power-is thus provoked in the temple of His Father. Jesus, however, calmly replies, “I have told you, and you do not believe… For you are not of my sheep” (Jn 10:25). So the gentlemen of the Gospel were not looking for certainty about Jesus; they were looking for themselves. They did not hear the voice of the shepherd…

But indeed, this question from the temple has already crossed our minds in our personal lives. Doubt is perhaps as close to the man as the desire for certainty. “Does God love me at all? Can he save me? Does He even know that I exist?”

It would be no good if we did not have these questions, if we did not ponder them more deeply. They are part of the equipment of our hearts, and we must not ignore them. For it is only when our hearts – when we understand and personally experience the reality of Jesus’ Messiah ship, that we begin to find the proper assurance of life – Jesus Himself.

It would be worse if the words were applied to us: “But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep” (Jn 10:25). If by our freedom and will, we would like to place ourselves outside of God’s game. Anyone in love knows what it is to be in the arms of a loved one for even a moment. To leave that embrace is difficult, even painful. A mother cannot let go of a child from her heart just like that. A father knows how to hold his son with all his strength. And Jesus says with all firmness and certainty: “They shall never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

Yes, the Father has given us into the hands of His Son. He has placed us in the hands of the most excellent expert on man and the human heart. None of us would entrust our most precious human being into hands he did not trust. Jesus and the Father are one. We have the assurance that God does not toss us around in His hand like an uncomfortable hot potato, but holds us with love. This is the point at which we can hang our lives in peace and have the assurance that it will never end.

Only to do that, we have to tame our false self-assurance – we have to find the humility in our lives to say: “My Lord and my God.”

I wish for you and myself in this life the certainty of faith in Jesus that will carry us into the eternal security of communion with him.

Peter and the other disciples had spent enough time with Jesus to understand that there was something extraordinary about him. He taught like no one else, performed miracles, and even called God his “Father.” And because of that, they hoped that he was the Messiah. But Peter went even further and expressed it out loud. Not only did he call Jesus the Messiah, but he even declared that he was the Son of the living God! Jesus responded by assessing that Peter’s confession came not from “flesh and blood” (Mt 16:17) but from revelation. It came from God. Like Peter, we may know much about Jesus: what he said, what he did, and how he prayed.

From all this, we can logically conclude that Jesus must have been more than human. Moreover, we can be reached by the testimony of other people who profess to believe in Jesus. But if we want to believe in Jesus personally, we need something more than reason or logic, rumors or feelings. We require God’s revelation. Only God can bring us faith in Christ despite our limitations. The Catechism says: “There is another kind of knowledge which man by his efforts can by no means attain, namely, the kind of knowledge from divine revelation. God reveals Himself and gives Himself to man out of an entirely free choice…when He sends His beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit” (CCC 50).

Amazingly, the infinite God has made Himself known to us in Jesus! Moreover, He gives us His Spirit to enlighten our hearts so that, like Peter, we may know that Jesus is the Son of the living God. All you have learned and experienced in your faith journey has created fertile soil within you. And your relationship with Jesus can deepen as the Holy Spirit gives you the ability to perceive the nearness of Jesus. All you need is time and an open, willing heart to use this ability. Reread today’s passage and ask yourself: “Who is Jesus for me?” Call on the Holy Spirit to search your heart and strengthen the faith you already have. Ask Him to reveal who Jesus is – to reveal it more and more each day.

One can get excited about different things and activities. It depends only on how the thing – activity attracts us and spiritualizes us. Thanks to such determination and denial of people, various good and beneficial things for humanity have come into being, but sometimes also harmful and dangerous things.

Let’s look at today’s top sport. When an individual or a team wants to achieve some success, some good performance, it requires talent, of course, and nowadays also enough money, but first and foremost, undoubtedly, soulfulness and determination to perform to the best of one’s abilities. It requires a lot of effort and toils on oneself, a lot of self-denial, and renunciation of other activities usually done by the people around. They must approach all training processes responsibly, many from their early childhood, and make something of themselves, to make something of themselves in top sport.

Any time something is to be achieved, it requires considerable effort. In today’s Gospel, we hear how some determinedly decided to go and follow Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go” (Lk 9:57).

The phenomenon of enthusiasm for different things is quite specific to our times. Many, even among our Christian ranks, can become enthusiastic about Jesus, but very few persevere in this decision. We know that even Jesus asks of us a specific effort: to take a firm or suitable Christian stand in some difficult situations.
It is not always so simple and easy. It isn’t easy to endure and maintain Christian ideals when we see how today’s secularized world lives. It requires a strong will and a persistent character of a person who cannot be discouraged by just anything. We cannot be like those people in today’s Gospel who needed to do many other things that they considered more important than what Jesus wanted them to do.

Therefore, let us strive to be `well trained’ for Jesus and our faith. We know it will not be easy or without sacrifice, but the more we toil and strain now, the more we will be accountable to the Lord. Without toil and trouble, nothing comes easily and quickly, but hard and slowly …and yet the result of such work is exquisite and exemplary.

Our epoch, drowning in economic, productive, and consumption problems, is losing its meaning in life and, consequently, the exact value of sexuality. We see the disappearance of the vision of the human being that allows us to face all the issues associated with human existence from a global point of view, which is aware of what man is rather than what man should do.
Today, man’s problems are solved in terms of “doing” rather than in the sense of “being.” In other words, one can say that man today forgets who he is; he loses himself. We are slipping gradually but inexorably into a sense of absurdity, distrust, dissatisfaction, and emptiness. To diagnose this phenomenon, we must look for its causes: they are not only in mass conformism and totalitarianism but also in a nihilistic and restrictive indoctrination that sees man as nothing more than a bundle of instincts and values, nothing but defense mechanisms. From such a perspective, it is not at all surprising to see the deep existential frustration that unexpectedly befalls a person who seems to his existence has lost all meaning. And in response to absurdity and emptiness, suicide inevitably comes.
An anthropological perspective is necessary to regain ground, which considers it fundamental to search for authentic meanings, values, and contents. This is where Frankl’s view, which presents an image of a man in constant motion, focused on the accomplishment of a personal task, with features of uniqueness and certainty, the fruit of true freedom that can be no one can trample upon in defiance of any situation in which man is placed. Life thus no longer appears as something to be faced with fleeing, but as a reality to be intensely experienced, even in its dramatic aspects, as a good to be which must not be missed, which must not be thrown away, as an altogether a personal and original task that each individual, and only he can carry out.

You may have sighed more than once, too: How long will this last? You turn on the radio or the television and find yourself being attacked for your faith. You pick up a book or a magazine, and again the attacks against faith. Often under this pressure, many of us doubt, and sometimes our faith seems useless.

The Gospel offers us strength. Jesus Christ looked at faith quite differently. If He praised anything in people, it was faith, and He did not spare words of admiration. He looked with respect at the massive pillars of the temple and knew to admire the expression of solid faith in the same way. Faith, in the eyes of Jesus Christ, must have been something more precious and valuable than the mighty building of the temple. Why did Jesus value the gift of faith so highly among men?

We could get the answer right away. Jesus saw deeply into people and knew most perfectly the innermost part of man. He knew that faith was first and foremost if anything could lift a person. Modern psychology is beginning to give credence to this view of a man held by Jesus. Many exciting discoveries have recently been made in the field of this science.

Scientists have discovered that most illnesses are psychological: negative ideas, fear, hopelessness, loss of meaning in life…
Scientists did a fascinating experiment to show how fear can affect a living organism. They put a cage with a cat next to a cell with a mouse. They waited to see how the mouse would react to the presence of its mortal enemy. What was the result? Although they fed the mouse properly, it died after a few days. It died of fear. On the other hand, scientists say that a positive attitude toward life, optimism, the right life goal, and especially faith gives a person strength for life.
The German scientist Hans Lindemau speaks from his own experience about how strong faith can be in a person’s heart.

Many before him have tried crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a small boat. Not a single one succeeded. The journey took 70 days, and many did not make it. That is, when they were alone on the ship for about 50 days, they began to hallucinate. They went crazy. Lindeman says: “They perished because they didn’t have strong faith.”
And he began to prepare himself for this journey. His preparation consisted of strengthening his faith every day for six months. He constantly repeated to himself: “I can do it!”
By these exercises, he acquired such a strong faith that it was equal to the certainty of conviction. And he did it! He stayed alone in the boat for 70 days and didn’t go crazy.

Even though it is human faith, his words have great gravity. How much more can a supernatural religion, a belief in God? With this faith, a man can do much more than cross the ocean in a boat. We can safely and fearlessly cross the sea of life and withdraw to God. When we have faith, nothing terrible can happen to us.
When we lack faith, we resemble an out-of-tune violin that even the best musician cannot play. Those who do not have faith are like broken violins that cannot be played. God can only work in a heart that has faith. That is why Jesus demanded loyalty from everyone He went to help with His divine power: Do you believe I can do this for you?

To believe in God is to have unwavering confidence in him; come what may!
What does that look like with our faith? Sometimes we witness the words, Oh, how much I have just prayed to the Lord God, and He won’t hear me! God hardly hears such a prayer because it lacks faith. And what is our prayer without faith? Empty chatter. Faith gives power and efficacy to worship.

Let us also begin to look upon faith as a real jewel. It gives us strength for life. On the contrary, fear, pessimism, hopelessness, and unbelief rob us of our spiritual power. These are the actual scourges of humanity. Today’s science also confirms the beneficial effects of faith on one’s mental equilibrium. This is confirmed by a statement from the book How to Survive Stress. In it, the author states an exciting thing: Give someone the gift of faith, and you will decimate their human strength!

So Jesus was right to emphasize faith in people. Faith is the power that helps us get through all obstacles and prolongs our life to infinity. 

You’ve probably stopped in front of an antique shop on your walks. Collecting old furniture, irons, plates, chandeliers, and other items is fa, fa, fa, fashionable. Once repaired and cleaned, one takes pride and enjoyment in one’s collection.

Therefore, do not be surprised when the Lord Jesus reproaches Peter for doubting. Who knows how it was with him? Even today, many people regard faith as the property of the ancients, a relic of the times.

We know that the Lord Jesus fed the multitudes with loaves and fishes. When they parted, Jesus went away to pray in a lonely place. The apostles got into a boat and, following Jesus’ instructions, sailed to the other shore. They did not know where Jesus had taken refuge. Then it grew dark and stormy. The stormy waves were rising, and the little boat was sinking.
The apostles were afraid. They had been bold, but now they were alone on the sea. Their Master was not there. They could not help themselves. Suddenly they saw someone approaching them, walking on the waves. They were frightened. They thought it was a mage, a phantom of the sea. They were more afraid of him than the waves, the wind, the storm, the lightning. Still, they recognized the voice of Jesus, “Take heart! It is I, do not be afraid!” (Mt 14:27). Peter wanted to be convinced: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water” (Mt. 14:28). He went, and the waves yielded and formed a safe path. But when the wind blew harder, he became frightened. The waves rose again, and he began to drown. He lost faith and cried out desperately: “Lord, save me!” (Mt. 14:30). “Believer, why did you doubt?” (Mt. 14:31). And Peter grasped the outstretched hand of Jesus.

So it is with anyone who wants to doubt, even for a moment, whether all the wisdom Jesus proclaims is accurate and will help us. Faith has a significant impact on life. The Church seeks and builds a relationship between belief in God and the Gospel, between real, whole and abundant life.

The French bishops have declared, “The deepest cause of all deformities is the poverty of faith.”
What can be hidden behind the weakness of our poor words? How much ignorance, fear, goodwill, and unacknowledged anguish of heart is concealed in them? Faith is often spoken of as something we have whole or half of.

The notion of “having faith” is a misnomer. Faith belongs not to what we have, but to what we are. I don’t have faith, but I am either a believer or an unbeliever.

Every day we meet people who are outwardly beautiful, bold like Peter, the apostle, but at the slightest bump, they become mentally ill, lose faith, doubt, and yet finally come to the wrong conclusion: that faith is only for others. Why should I, who am full of life, limit myself, keep the commandments, and not live to the full what this life gives me?
Brothers and sisters, no woman is stronger than the Apostle Peter. The calm boat of her life is often hit by a much stronger wave, a storm. She will not give in because she knows that faith is life!

Faith is not a disease that we can “catch” somewhere.
We didn’t get faith in the cradle or at the baptismal font.
Faith is not an appointed structure, a building from which the whole thing collapses when you remove the cornerstone.
Faith is life!
Faith is what sustains you, what you belong to, and what protects you.
Faith possesses you.
We cannot put boundaries on faith. That is why we must protect it, constantly strengthen it, so that it grows; it is always alive.
Only faith frees us from the bondage that is often the lot of unbelievers.

Sisters and brothers, storms, waves, and lightning also come into our life. We are often unhappy about them. Sometimes it happens that even the slightest wave that comes to wash over us, to keep our faith pure, often this wave catches the whole person who loses faith under its onslaught.
Let us tell ourselves honestly how many have been driven away from the church by such a storm! Many have stayed at home instead of strengthening their faith by attending Mass. But we need not stop there. We need only ask ourselves: What is my faith? How can we respond to all the surges and lightning waves against our faith? Don’t we stay silent when religion, the Church, and the Holy Father are berated? Can we confess our faith wherever we are or do we conceal it?

If we do not resist all the pressures that oppose faith, our life will never be peaceful. Our lifeboat will drift on a stormy sea, and we will never be saved there. If we depart from Christ, we are lost! Our only salvation is Jesus Christ. If we can fully connect with him and call him our brother and friend, he will lend us his helping hand. But if we want to turn away from him, we are lost. Jesus will not force us into friendship. Only Jesus will save us on the stormy sea of our lives.

We cannot agree that faith is only for the old. After all, we want to live modern lives. And whatever was old – the furniture, the iron, the plates, all the antiques – is modern. Just as faith is still current and belongs irreplaceable to our everyday life

Speeches, speeches, speeches… We listen to so many of them! Sometimes we are disgusted by them. We walk down the street and see all the enticements in the shops. Sign after sign, picture after picture… We get our minds boggled by the music because there’s a different style playing everywhere. We finally get in the car to go home, to peace and quiet. And as soon as we get in the car, we turn on the radio. We get home and immediately sit down in front of the TV. Talking everywhere…, constantly feeling the need to listen to something or someone. But how to hear? As soon as we think more about the talk, we find it empty. All promises, beautiful visions, advertisements… but the reality of the beauty promised is missing.

“But on the day of Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced in the circle of guests, and Herod was so pleased with her that he promised to give her on oath whatever she would ask” (Mt. 14:6). Herod, too, begins to speak just when he would rather be silent. He gives his word, he makes a promise, and even under oath, though he does not know for what purpose it will ever be used. When we fiddle with words, it most often doesn’t turn out well. When Herod heard of Christ, he immediately had John the Baptist in mind. Here we are shown how strongly our past is tied to our present. Our past, perhaps long forgotten events of our lives, are revealed to us in the sight of Jesus Christ and his love.

Let us be very careful what we let out of our mouths. Every word spoken carries weight and power. Let us be cautious in our speech, lest we be convicted by our own terms! And not by someone else, but by ourselves.

If we forget ourselves and speak more than we need to, let us be people on the spot even then. Let us not put anything off, and if we have offended, slandered, or made fun of someone, let us apologize. Let us purify the environment in which we live by clarifying our own speech. Let us constantly review what we are going to say, but equally, let us also review back what we have said. Our intent can sometimes sound like Herod’s – `wanted to reward and killed’.

Let us live, so we can say with the psalmist: “`My mouth speaks wisdom, and my heart meditates on what is reasonable. To proverbs, I incline my ear.

We are in a season of holidays, vacations, a time of rest and recharge, but also a time when, while resting, there is more time to reflect on things, events, and relationships that we have not paid enough attention to in the rush of responsibilities, or that we have put off until later.
Among the issues worthy of reflection is respect. How much care do we give to our neighbors, ensure that we receive respect from others, and how respectfully do we fulfill our Christian responsibilities.

The Evangelist Matthew stated in his Gospel how the relatives of the Lord Jesus acted when he visited their city, “They were offended with him” (Mt. 13:57).

The Lord Jesus lived almost His entire life in Nazareth. He loved this city, even though its inhabitants did not love Him. He often returned to it during His public appearances. He spent his youth there, and he had his peers there, and his mother and his relatives lived there. Jesus meant well to his countrymen, but they did not understand him and did not want to understand him. They did not want to acknowledge that one of their own, the son of a carpenter whose family they knew well, could be the prophet, even the Messiah, that the nation was waiting for.
They did not understand his teachings. Therefore, they often questioned him: “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother’s name Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph, Simon and Jude?” (Mt. 12:55-56). And filled with wonder, they added another question: “Where did he get all this?” (Mt. 13:56). They did not esteem Jesus, and he felt pained at their attitude, so he sadly remarked to them, “A prophet is honored everywhere but in his own country and in his own house” (Mt. 13:57). Jesus, however, was not disgusted by this. He continually convinced them he was the true prophet and the expected Messiah. Jesus did nothing by force. He did not forcefully call anyone to himself. He spoke to the rich young man like this: “If you want to be perfect… Follow me!” (Mt. 19:21).

If you want to, because you may or may not want to, and you may or may not answer my call, but if you want to, you can follow me.

The parents of the Lord Jesus did not want to follow Him or acknowledge Him as a prophet, much less than the Messiah. They simply did not want to because they were sick of him. They saw nothing extraordinary in him. Perhaps they were thinking, as Philip, one of his disciples, later thought, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth!” (Jn 1:46).
And perhaps they had an exaggerated idea of the Messiah. We don’t know why they took such a view of Jesus. The Evangelists are silent about it. But we can surmise; that they were looking at Jesus from a human view; they had no supernatural faith, and here surely is the root cause of the problem. They could not understand that God often chooses simplicity to save the wise. Indeed, they were angered by the fame spreading around Jesus, which they were hearing more and more. After all, the miracles He performed in Capernaum made Him great in the eyes of the people. And they also had a different idea of the Messiah. They pictured the prophet as a man who was hard, unapproachable, and admonishing. But the conduct of the Lord Jesus was quite different; he was different. He could not be compared to any prophet. He was God! And this they could not understand.

How do we imagine Christ today? How do we look at him with our eyes? If we want to understand the teachings of Jesus Christ, we must be first all notice his humility. We must realize that Jesus did not come into the world to judge the world but to save the world. He brought the teaching of love, that virtue which, even today, the world does not want to know in its best and most beautiful sense. Those who do not daily strive to carry out his commands in their lives can never say that they know Christ. In this way, we can understand the words of Paul the Apostle, that the Lord Jesus was a stumbling block to the Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles, but the hope of redemption to those who believe in Him.
Whether the Lord Jesus succeeded in convincing His countrymen of His mission, we know from an incident written by St. Luke: “He came to Nazareth, where He grew up. According to his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and rose up to read. They handed him the book of the prophet Isaiah. When he unfolded the book, he found a place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…’ Then he closed the book, gave it back to the servant, and sat down… and began to speak: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled which you have just heard” (Luke 4:16-21). In other words: I am the man of whom the prophet Isaiah speaks: “… everyone in the synagogue was seized with anger. They arose and drove him out of the city and led him to the precipice of the mountain on which their city was built, and from there they sought to throw him down” (Lk. 4:28-29).

What has changed in 20 centuries about Jesus? A lot and nothing! Reverence for Christ has remained. There are still and will be many faithful Christians who will not be like the inhabitants of Nazareth. But it makes one wonder if our attitude toward Christ is not like that of the inhabitants of Nazareth.
We have grown accustomed to Christ, and we have grown accustomed to religion. We have lost the real .

We have lost the fundamental notion that faith is not a matter of habit, of tradition. Many have not understood that one cannot live on the past in faith. Faith is a living thing; therefore, words do not apply: It comes from a good Christian family. Parents have passed away, and children attend church only on major holidays. … Such a practice is a misunderstanding of Christ; and Christ Himself. And when Christ says to them, “I want what belongs to me,” they are willing to cast Christ out, to condemn them to death. Nor does the statement, “When I was young, I went to church, I was baptized… Whoever speaks like this is like the inhabitants of Nazareth, who are already driving Christ out of the city to kill Him.

Let’s use a simile. You call a man a friend who needs you only for his own ends, and when you need something, he doesn’t know you… No, that’s not a friend; that’s selfish! When someone requires Christ and the Church only for himself and is unwilling to fulfill his duties, he also cannot be called a friend of Christ because he has condemned himself.

Yes, Jesus loved his countrymen. Jesus loves everyone, but he does not drag anyone by force after him.

Every machine requires an inspection, a checkup, and a dress rehearsal. Every warehouse, store, and office requires an inventory and inspection. Something similar is needed in our spiritual life. Let us use this time to reflect on our relationship with our souls, God, and the Church. Man differs from animate and inanimate nature in his reason and free will. And he needs to show this to those around him with his heart and life. We need to make a change. Consider that for us it must be an encounter with Christ, as it is in this case.

The French writer Roger Martin du Guard wrote the novel Jean Barcis. Jean fell away from his faith in his youth because he couldn’t reconcile it with his studies in the natural sciences. He renounced his faith and became the editor of The Sower magazine. He married Cecile, a believer, and they had a daughter, Mary. After a time they separated for religious reasons. The court awarded the girl to her mother. They agreed that when the daughter turned 18, she would spend a whole year with her father.

Mary came to live with her father and lived in his villa for a year. The father told her at the beginning: “Daughter, this is all yours. I have just one request: read all my articles in which I have proved scientifically that God does not exist.” Mary promised and read her father’s articles for an entire year. After a year, her father asked her: “So what do you say to my articles?”
“Dad, I read everything carefully and thought a lot about them. I found you very capable and gifted in style, and I’ve read nothing better in this area, professionally. Allow me, Father, in conclusion, to make one request. Let me, Father, enter the monastery.

Barcis jumped up. But Mary continued, ‘I knew you had lost your faith in your youth. I wanted to know and study your works and be confirmed in my vocation, and your scholarly articles against God convinced me that my place was with God.”
Father interrupted her abruptly. He presented her with dogma against faith, reasons for unbelief, the comparative origins of religion, and searched spasmodically for something else to show her.
Mary, however, calmly replies: “Father, I have read everything carefully and thoughtfully. And my faith has been strengthened still more. When even your reasons could not take away my faith, I believe all the more firmly.” “How is that possible?” Barcis asks.
And the daughter tells how she met God and felt his nearness and beauty.
“Father,” the daughter continues, “you have trusted only in reason, and what can be proved by reason stands like a stone pillar.”
The father felt his life’s work, and convictions, crumble into dust in an instant.
The novel ends with Jean Barcis returning to God and Mary reconciling her father and mother, and they escort her to the convent together.