The Jewish Passover was and is a family holiday. It was not celebrated
in the temple but around the house. Already in the description of the departure, the house stands out as a place of salvation, of shelter in that night through which the Lord’s angel. From the other side, the Night of Egypt is a picture of the forces of death, destruction, and confusion that still rise from the depths of the world and of man and threaten that they will destroy the good creation, and they will turn the whole world into a desert, into something uninhabitable. In such a situation, the house protects the family; in other words, the world still needs to be defended from chaos, and creation needs to be protected and repaired.

In the calendar of the nomads from whom Israel inherited the Passover festivals, Passover was the first day of the year when Israel still had to be protected from destruction. Home and family are the bulwarks of life, the place where there is security and peace, the peace of dwelling together that makes life possible and preserves creation. Even in Jesus’ time, after the sacrifice of the lambs in the temple Passover was celebrated in homes and families. It was prescribed that one could not go out of Jerusalem on Passover night. The city was considered a place of salvation from the night of chaos, and its walls were like a dike defending creation. Israel had to make a pilgrimage to this city every year at Passover to return to its roots, to be re-created, and to re-embrace its salvation, liberation, and foundation.

There is a profound wisdom. People are always in danger of being scattered during the year, both externally and internally, and they will lose the inner foundations that order them. It needs to return to its ancient foundations. Easter was meant to be this annual return Israel is accessible from the dangers and confusion present in every person. It was an opportunity to take root in its foundation and had hitherto guided it to its unbroken defense and the restoration of its origins. And because Israel knew that over it shone the star of the election, it also knew that from its success or failure, something would result for the whole world, that in its existence or its downfall, the fate of the entire earth and creation was at stake.

Jesus also celebrated Easter according to these prescriptions: in the house, with his family, with the apostles, who became his new family. Thus, he was, on the one hand, obedient to the commandment that was then in force and according to which pilgrims going to Jerusalem could form associations of pilgrims, called havurot, which for that night formed a Passover house and family. And so Easter also became a holiday for Christians. We are Jesus’ havurah, his family, which he founded with the companions of his wanderings, and friends who walk the path of the Gospel across the landscape of history. As his companions in his pilgrimage, we are his house. So the Church is a new family and a new city that is to us what Jerusalem was: a living house that drives away the forces of evil and is a place of peace that preserves creation and ourselves. The Church is a new city like Jesus’ family, a living Jerusalem. Her faith is a wall and bulwark against the threats of the forces of confusion that want to destroy the world. Its walls are fortified by the sign of the blood of Jesus Christ, that is, by a love that gives itself to the uttermost and is without end. This love is the opposite force of chaos; it is the creative force that is constantly re-creating the world, nations, and families, and so offers us shalom, a place of peace in which we can live with one another, for one another.

There are many reasons for us to think again about these relationships in our day and to allow them to speak to us. Because we see the power of chaos, we see how, just amid a developed society that thinks it knows and can do everything, chaos’s primordial forces are rising against what it calls its progress. We see how a people of rights amid their wealth, technical ability, and scientific dominion over the world can be destroyed from within, and all of creation can be threatened by the forces of confusion that nestle at the bottom of the human heart and threaten the world.

 The Holy Scriptures, published by contain a simple note on this word of Jesus: “eternal life.”

Jesus brought eternal life to people. However, the term “eternal life” is understood in two ways. People usually talk about eternal life, meaning life in eternity, after death, when this early earthly life ends. That is the first meaning of this term – eschatological. However, a Christian begins to possess eternal life (the life that Jesus Christ brought) already in this life; already, during his earthly life, he begins to participate in it. In baptism, he received it in the form of God’s grace as the seed of a new, supernatural life, which is constantly developing until definitively, at the second coming of Christ, it will grow into the whole fruit of Christ’s divine life. Therefore, the eternal life present in the Christian in this earthly life is the second meaning of that expression. Both meanings are correct and belong to the fullness of the glad tidings.

A Christian should perceive the connection between the eschatological and already at this time conceived and experienced eternal life. The roots of eternity begin in time. Whoever lives in sanctifying grace has already “passed from death to life” in this earthly life (Jn 5:24). Although he does not yet experience the fullness of the future glorified life, he has already entered it. He can lose it through mortal sin. Therefore, he must guard, develop, and protect it. But in his earthly life, he should live from the fullness of eternal life, which was brought and given to him by Jesus Christ.

In modern times, “eternal life” has been subjected to irrational criticism, and modern man often lives as if there were no God. Eternal life has been declared an idol to be scattered, and those who praise it have been declared criminals. The legendary modern Zarathustra says: “I adjure you, my brothers, stay true to the earth and do not believe those who tell you of otherworldly hopes!  Crime against God used to be the greatest crime, but God died, and these criminals died with him. To commit a crime against the earth and value the interior of the unfathomable more than the meaning of the earth is now the most terrible thing!” (F. Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, First Volume, 3).

It would certainly be a perversion and a sick escape from the world to think only of heaven, or if all Christians were obliged to go to the desert or into solitude and devote themselves only to prayer. It would be against God and eternal life in heaven not to think about the earth’s needs. Here and there an individual, a freak, may appear who commits such a mistake. However, the inseparable teaching and practice of the Church have always been to connect prayer with work (“ora et labora”), to connect concern for eternal life with concern for earthly life. Every true believer is well aware of Jesus’ words (which will be the criterion for an orthodox life at the Last Judgment): “Whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers, you did for me” (cf. Mt 25, 31-46). Finally, the proof of this unity of practice and teaching are the hospitals and schools that the Church and its best children have always founded and built to serve the people of this world, regardless of religion, race, nationality, etc.

Looking to eternal life is not a crime against the earth. On the contrary, only from his perspective can a person properly look at this earth, its values, the ratio, and its relationship to it. It is precisely the man in captivity of temporality, who is not interested in the “unfathomable” depths of his human nature and his definitive eternal goal, that is the greatest pest of this earth. Whoever neglects the eternal eschatological life and the eternal life present in man’s earthly life robs him of the most essential part of his nature. He performs a spiritual abortion on him because he destroys the embryo of the fruit of eternal life in him!

When Jesus wanted to bring people closer to the fact of eternal life, which has become part of their human existence, he did so using various comparisons and parables. I like the one about the mustard seed, which when planted is the smallest of all, but when it grows it becomes a huge tree, in whose branches the birds of the sky can make a nest (Mt 13, 31-32). This parable encourages my frailty, because it tells me that I have the power of life, the power of eternal life, which no obstacle can stop and which can take hold even in the most inappropriate place. The parable of the seed tells me that as a believer in Jesus Christ, I have a life within me that is stronger than the death of temptation and sin; that I have life in me, over which not even the “second death” has power (cf. Rev. 20:6).

It is called Great or Holy because, during it, the greatest events took place, through which Jesus Christ carried out the work of the salvation of humanity. In the first reading from the prophet Isaiah, the First Song of the Servant of the Lord is heard. In four such songs, the prophet, from a distance of six centuries, describes in almost detail the action, suffering, death, and victory of the Lord’s Servant. It is like a photograph of Jesus Christ, which receives its complete form and full color, especially this week, day by day and hour.

This first song discusses the mission of this Servant of God. He works under the guidance of God’s Spirit. In a few lines, Jesus’s entire public activity is outlined, characterized by his silence, love for sinners, and freeing people from suffering, especially by performing miraculous healings. The climax of his deeds was the resurrection of Lazarus, whom he brought out of the dark dungeon of death and the grave.

The Gospel follows This event, which records what happened on this exact day, “six days before Easter.” Jesus is in Lazarus’ house. He is surrounded by Lazarus and his sisters’ respect, joy, and gratitude. One of them, Mary, shows magnanimous respect for Jesus: she poured about three hundred and twenty grams (that was the weight of a pound at the time) of precious oil on his feet and anointed them. However, other attitudes toward Jesus are also emerging. The first is immediately from the close circle of his apostles: Judas, who was in charge of the small community’s economy, looks at this action seemingly purely professionally and matter-of-factly. He immediately estimated the price of the spilled oil at three hundred denarii (approximately the annual income of a worker), which could be used more effectively. Judas’ real motive differed from that of the evangelist John, who revealed that he was interested in his enrichment. For this purpose, he was willing to misuse gifts for people with low incomes; this purpose blinded his eyes so that he was unable to see and understand the generous gratitude and love that does not look at material values ​​- and soon after, he was willing to betray his Master for the same purpose.

Another ominous cloud on the horizon at the beginning of the week was the decision of the high priests, who were ready for another murder (they had already pronounced the Nortel over Jesus before) – they wanted to radically eliminate the “crown witness” of Jesus’ divinity, Lazarus. In this week’s events, Jesus becomes the Light that old Simeon spoke of at his sacrifice; at the same time, it also becomes a sign of contradiction and resistance. People around him have to take an attitude towards him. When thinking about these events, none of us can remain in the position of a non-participating spectator, but we must identify with some character. If it is a negative character, we must ask Jesus Christ to help us with inner healing and the right attitude towards him.

Practical instruction: I am willing to show selfless and generous love for Jesus Christ (by the time I devote to meeting him in prayer or at a church service, by serving his work, by making a material donation to beautify the temple or to help the poor); or do I evaluate everything only in terms of economic profit? By what act do I show the right attitude?

Prayer: Almighty God, because we are weak and often fall, we ask you to strengthen us by the passion of your beloved Son, who is God and lives and reigns with you in unity with the Holy Spirit for all ages. 

Dictated answers to teenagers will not work. They need a relationship and stimuli that will work in them.

This week, we launched a new website with an improved design, faster, clearer navigation, and many other innovations that will make it easier for you to read Postoj. Thanks to our supporters, it’s a big thing that we’ve only been able to do. The 2023 documentary Pope: The Answers offers a picture that would have been unimaginable a few decades ago.

In the film available on Disney+, Holy Father Francis is surrounded by young people, which the director mixes very cleverly. An atheist DJ, a non-binary person, a former religious sister who now lives with a girlfriend and no longer considers herself a believer, a Catholic feminist, a woman who sells her erotic photos, or a young man abused by a priest as a child. 

Only one girl is Catholic, who defends the church’s teachings in the debate, perhaps more vehemently than the Pope himself.

There is no protocol, no napkin. The young people meet the head of the Catholic Church in a space outside the Vatican, greet him as if they were an old acquaintance, and are dressed in shorts, caps, and crop tops. They talk openly with the head of the Catholic Church about topics that interest or worry them.

More than what the Pope answered or did not answer the questions, it is surprising that he was willing to follow such a format at all and endured it. He emerges from the debate in an uneasy composition, like a pope who does not raise an eyebrow because he is not surprised by reality. He knows her. And besides, it doesn’t convince.

Even if he speaks his mind, he accepts young people with what they bring before him, and he can bear it. Many cry in front of him when they talk about their difficulties. He encourages them, and sometimes, he looks like he is about to cry.

No doubt

Teenagers have always been critical of authorities and the system. Unlike its predecessors, today’s generation has experienced a more democratic upbringing. Plus, it grows up in the Internet age, so it is confronted from a young age with opinions contrary to those instilled in it from an early age. It is all the more difficult for him to accept the views of authorities just because they are official teachings or rules. In addition, young people today do not hide their views; many are willing to present them publicly.

Kaja Kováčová, the mother of a first-year student at the church gymnasium, was angry when her son got a bad grade in religion because he asked. According to the religious sister who teaches him, there is no doubt about religion. “It is very surprising if, in religion class, instead of dialogue or thought-provoking questions, the student receives the answer that there is nothing to question in religion class,” he tells Postoj about his experience.

According to Kováčová, the teenage age is perfect for accompanying children and thus helping them pass through a particular developmental stage of faith.

“Sometimes we adults may be restrained by fear in order to pass on the faith to children as well as possible, but we unknowingly put pressure on them because we would like them to understand things right away. However, that is not possible, there is a lack of personal experience and steps along one’s path… That is why there are often shortcuts in communication: things are this way and that way, end of debate, full stop,” thinks the teenager’s mother.

According to her, the transmission of faith is impossible if we close our eyes to the reality in which young people live. “On the contrary, accepting children with their problems means bringing faith to where they are right now. After all, even God himself desires to be a part of every area of ​​our lives,” he concludes.

Salesian Marián Husár considers it essential that young people experience that someone listens to them and understands their opinions. When a teenager speaks his mind honestly or even with “youthful impudence” and encounters rejection or condemnation, he shuts down and warns the priest.

Young people must be guided and taught to critically distinguish where the information that influences them comes from. “They must be taught to explore the palette of all attitudes and opinions that surround us. To discover and distinguish, I can honestly search,” he adds.

Teenagers need to justify why the church teaches the way it does, according to the experience of Ľubica Nogová, who lectures in schools on topics from relationship and sex education. “I feel that for a child to accept the teaching of the church just because it is the teaching of the church, he must have grace from God,” she tells Postoj, adding that she prefers to argue with facts and experience.“My perception is that they are not open to seeking the truth. They are mostly satisfied that they have ‘their truth’, their value system, which works for them and brings them comfort.”

Like Husár, she points out that young people must be listened to. “Accept them even with ‘hair’ and give them good questions that can disturb them properly, but point to the truth,” describes her approach to Nogová from the catechetical office of the Bratislava Archdiocese. 

“The basis of our program is that we want to show the students what beauty, what pearls they have inside. And the whole approach follows from that. They have good in them and are naturally drawn to it, but not all of their resources are accessible in an attractive form ,” he adds.

Teacher Štefan Murárik from the Piarist Grammar School in Nitra has set three values ​​when teaching religion. “I will tell the students: The first dimension is your world, the second dimension is my world, and the third dimension is the teachings of the Catholic Church. 

I will respect your opinions or attitudes; I expect that you will respect mine and that we will respect the church’s teachings. So we don’t have to agree with him; the important thing is that we understand him and know his implications,” Murárik describes his model, which he believes provides a good space for discussion.

He mentioned a recent teaching example when students argued that masturbation is healthy because it prevents cancer. “They read it somewhere, accepted it, and acted accordingly. When you open up relevant categories for them to think about masturbation, like self-esteem, sexuality, and relationships, they can suddenly discover what they think about the subject. Their conscience usually works correctly,” says the high school teacher.

Based on his experience, he claims that young people generally do not know how to debate very well, and their arguments are based on one or two opinions that they heard somewhere and liked. 

“My perception is that they are not open to seeking the truth. They are mostly satisfied that they have ‘their truth’, their value system, which works and brings them comfort. So they don’t often enter into confrontation, because they have an internalized idea of ​​the world – you have your truth, I have mine, so it’s good if we tolerate each other,” he said.

However, he adds that he does not want anyone to change his opinion. “In my opinion, changing values ​​or attitudes is an internal process and cannot be forced. It happens in a dialogue with one’s inner self. When someone recognizes some ‘truth’, it should happen freely in the intimacy of inner discernment. All debates are only impulses, stimuli,” explains Murárik.

What shapes attitudes

According to the people we spoke to about the topic, social networks, movies, music, and the environment of the family from which they come have the greatest influence on young people’s attitudes. “Somewhere under the opinions taken from peer groups, from social networks or culture, there are still attitudes and opinions that they take from their family—they return to them later in life,” says Murárik. 

According to Noga, young people are influenced by the patterns of behavior they have experienced at home in the formation of opinions in the field of relationships and sexuality.

In her book Mama Bear Apologetics, American author Hillary Morgan Ferrer offers parents arguments against the views that prevail in society and conflict with Christianity, the so-called cultural lies. Our children today are exposed to them much more than was the case for generations before them and at a significantly younger age.

As proof of the growing pressure of a society that is not inclined to Christianity, Ferrer cites the statistics of the ever-increasing “exodus” of young people from Christian churches during high school or college. Parents should, therefore, be ready for these questions to come and prepare themselves and their children for their encounters with different points of view. How? 

Ferrer guides parents in teaching children from an early age to apply biblical truths to ordinary life situations, thus preparing the soil of their hearts so that ideas that they will encounter daily among classmates, in culture, or on the Internet are not easily sown in it.

“We don’t want our children to live in fear but to be able to distinguish. We want them to be able to see Christ in art, movies, science, history, and music because he is the Lord of everything. But we don’t want them to assume that everything they encounter in art, movies, science, history, or music tells the truth,” the author explains in the book.

When debating with teenagers and young people about questions of faith, according to Salesian Marian Husár, we must focus on the beauty it offers us, which comes from the relationship.

“The beauty lies in meeting the one who loves us and wants to accompany us through life. And he is not primarily morality or dogma but a relationship,” says the priest. Teenagers will only let us into their world if they feel confident we will be accepted without judgment or criticism.

The Holy Father Francis in the documentary Pope: Answers on this topic inspires with his approach – to accept young people, listen to them, try to understand them, and not be afraid of their questions. Only then does the space for shaping attitudes open up.

When Jesus solemnly entered Jerusalem, no one suspected he would die on Good Friday. Today, we will hear the Passion of Jesus. The Passion shows that Jesus had to experience failure and condemnation. Everything Jesus did, he did with trust in his Father. His Father knows about him, and everything is under his control. The wickedness of the world did not have the last word. Jesus died with the words: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit!” Jesus’ life was neither the life of a shipwrecked man nor a desperate man. God can prepare every person for the beginning of a new life where he sees only failure.
The story of Jesus’ suffering invites us to change our everyday pessimistic view and see everything from God’s perspective. This is a great enrichment. What is a minus for us, we can recognize as a plus through the eyes of God. God has already begun a new life in the situation we are experiencing. In a word, let us look at our lives with the eyes of God!

When British Prime Minister Arthur Neville Chamberlain arrived from negotiations in Munich, he was happy to show the treaty of the agreement, which was Munich’s betrayal, and the agreement became a scrap of paper. When God made a covenant with Abraham, he said to him: I will give you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger; the whole land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. Then God said to Abraham: “But you also shall keep my covenant, and your seed after you throughout all generations.”

God decided to make a one-sided, eternal covenant to be the God of Abraham and his seed. Israel did not keep the covenant; God did. However, this nation went through various tragedies due to its unfaithfulness, such as Assyrian and Babylonian captivity and the destruction of Jerusalem. Subsequently, the country was scattered all over the world by the Romans, survived the Holocaust, and is still here. God protects it even though, as a nation, it did not accept God’s son as the Messiah.

Jesus said to the Jews and us, “Truly, truly, I say to you: Whoever keeps my word will never see death.” It is his promise (covenant) for us as well. For Israel, it is the promise of constant protection and existence; for us, it is the promise of eternal life. Israel did not accept the Messiah. What about us? That’s why we ask. What do we do with the received word of Jesus, and what does it mean to keep it? – To carry God’s word in the heart, mind, and memory. That is, returning to it and constantly refreshing it. In this way, the word of Jesus will be alive in us and bring life that nothing can overcome, not even death.

Today, the Lord addresses the Jews with harsh words. And not just anyone, but “those Jews who believed in him” (John 8:31). This dialogue of Jesus undoubtedly reflects the difficulties the Jewish Christians caused in the Church’s beginnings. Since the Jews were descendants of Abraham by kinship, they considered themselves superior not only to the Gentiles who did not believe but also to all non-Jewish disciples of the same faith. They say: “We are Abraham’s seed” (John 8:33); “Our father is Abraham” (v. 39); “We have only one father, God” (v. 41).

Even though they are Jesus’ disciples, Jesus seems to mean nothing to them that could add to their noble origin. However, this is where they could have done better. The true sons of God are not those according to physical descent, but the promised heirs are those who believe (cf. Rom 9:6-8). With faith in Jesus, anyone can achieve the Abrahamic promise. Since this is so, among the disciples, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for they are all one in Christ Jesus” (cf. Gal 3, 27-28).

We, too, can be tempted to be led astray by spiritual pride. We don’t need to talk about our relationship with other religions; let us think only about our own Church. How often do some of us consider ourselves to be better Catholics than others just because we are part of this or that movement, follow this or that discipline, or pray different prayers or devotions? Some may promote themselves because they are rich, others because they have studied more.

Some are because they hold important positions and others. After all, they come from wealthy families. Therefore, let us remain in truth and service to others, which brings true freedom and inner transformation so that we can grow in righteousness and holiness. “I would like each of us to feel the joy of being a Christian… God leads his Church; he is her support, especially in difficult times” (Benedict XVI).

Thoughts for today’s Gospel:

Knowing the truth brings freedom in the form of inner transformation. This transformation is, therefore, a spiritual process in which a person grows in righteousness and holiness › St. John Paul II.

The more a person does good, the more accessible he becomes. There is no true freedom without service to goodness and justice › Catechism of the Catholic Church.

St. Joseph was chosen by God as the bridegroom of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as the foster-father of his only-begotten Son, as the head, breadwinner, and guardian of the Holy Family. Today the Church worships and invokes St. Joseph also as his heavenly patron, as his special protector and intercessor with God. St. Joseph was born in Bethlehem.

Although he was one of the descendants of King David, he was very poor. He moved to Nazareth, probably for work. There, the Holy Scriptures mention him already as a mature man. He was a carpenter. That’s why they also called Jesus the carpenter’s son. In Nazareth, he became engaged to a girl named Maria. According to the Jewish custom of the time, an engagement was already considered a marriage, but the betrothed did not live together for a year. The Holy Scriptures say that the Virgin Mary was already betrothed to Joseph when the Archangel Gabriel announced to her that she would become the Mother of God.

However, the secret of the Son of God was to remain hidden from people. Even Joseph did not know about him at first. When Joseph noticed that Mary, who was engaged to him, was in a blessed state, although they had not yet lived together, he wanted to release her secretly, that is, give her a release letter, where the reason for the release should also be stated. Josef did not think about an official, that is, a public release, because he was convinced of Mary’s innocence. In a dream, the Lord’s angel urged Joseph not to be afraid to accept Mary, his wife, because what was conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and he will name him Jesus. Here, God’s secret and God’s plan are revealed to us: Joseph, the Nazareth carpenter, Mary’s groom, will be Jesus’ father before the Israeli law, thereby saving Mary’s honor and taking care of her and Jesus.

This was the main cause and purpose of Joseph’s marriage to Mary. We can imagine how much Mary would have suffered from people if it wasn’t for Joseph! Mary would not have been able to refer to the secret of the angels announcing that she conceived Jesus, overshadowed by the power of the Most High. The world wouldn’t believe her. Even Jesus would find it difficult to perform publicly if he could be accused of an illegal origin! Thus, before the world and before the law, Joseph was Mary’s husband and Jesus’ father. The honor and good name of Mary and Jesus were saved. In addition, Mary and the baby Jesus needed a provider and a protector.

About the size of St. Joseph is expressed by St. Augustine as follows: “In heaven, not all are holy in the same way, they do not shine with the same light: the brightness and magnitude of these stars of paradise also depend on whether they are more or less close to the Sun of righteousness, which is Jesus Christ, and to the Immaculate moon, which is the most holy Virgin Mary.

Among all the stars of heaven, among all the saints of paradise, no one can be closer to Jesus and Mary than St. Joseph, since he is the foster-father of one and the purest bridegroom of the other. And it is precisely on this double dignity, which heaven grants him, that his superiority and exaltation over all holy and blessed spirits is based”.