predication.net

The unity of the wandering church and the church in heaven.
He expressed most beautifully the unity of the wandering Church and the Church of heaven.
Andrea Pozzo in one of his murals in the church S. Ignazio in Rome. On the ceiling of the central nave, the monumental baroque architecture gives way to an infinite sky. On a cloud, St Ignatius ascends to the Holy Trinity. He is joined by several other saints of the Society of Jesus; at the sides, they are accompanied by ascending and descending angels, forming a union of the allegorically depicted four continents that seek to this heavenly communion and move towards them.
As the Church of Heaven descends, the Church ascends, journeying towards its heavenly homeland; no, the two are drawing closer together, “merging into one church,” into a church “to which all, though in different degrees and different ways belong” (LG 49), whether they wander on earth or “already removed from this world, they are being purified,” not being glorified in belonging to God (LG 49).
In the church of S. Ignazio, there is also the tomb of St. Robert Bellarmine, who dedicated one of the volumes of his work “De controversies christianae fidei” to the three stages of the Church: the Church militant, the Church in a state of purification, and the Church triumphant. It has often been blamed the ecclesiology of the Counter-Reformation for overemphasizing the social, institutional aspect of the Church Militant while setting aside its eschatological character. The Council sought to correct this situation, replacing the term “Church Militant” with the word “Church Wandering,” thus showing that the Church is on a journey towards her fullness and perfection “in heavenly glory” (LG 48). From this perspective is redacted Chapter VII of the document “Lumen Gentile,” albeit “with delay and haste”.3
John XXIII and Paul VI. personally contributed to the inclusion of a treatise on the veneration of the saints in the Constitution of the Church. The Council held that the adoration of the saints should be placed in a broader theological context, namely the eschatological character of the Church. Msgr. G. Philips comments on the result of this work as follows:

“This idea leads us, unintentionally, to a happy enrichment of the constitution of the Church. The extension not only enables us to conceive of the Church in its entirety, including its fulfillment in perfection, but it also shows us the meaning of our journey forward, precisely the sense of hope. Only now can we fully understand chapter 2 about the wandering people of God? The second and seventh chapters of Lumen Gentium correspond to each other and thus establish a balance.  We can consider where we are coming from, what has already taken place, where we are going, and what the future holds. “
Although this view somewhat corrects the not-so-eschatological notion of the “Church Militant” in post-Tridentine Council theology, “it remains true that the decision for ‘the people of God’ as the fundamental and default concept associated with today’s two-church arrangement, the earthly Church, of which we are members, and the heavenly Church, whose members are the elect who have already succeeded in reaching ‘homeland,’ has led to a certain narrowing of the patristic horizon.” Admittedly, care must be taken not to make these contrasts too, not to exaggerate and exacerbate them, but it is worth pointing them out.

From below, rock climbing looks very easy. It is enough to find another place to hold on to and then pull yourself up higher. But anyone who has ever climbed like this knows how difficult it is – especially at higher altitudes. One slight misstep can spell disaster. You have to be careful and pay attention to every handhold and footrest.

From this picture, we can understand the situation that the disciples who were not on Mount Tabor with Jesus found themselves in. While Jesus was away with Peter, James, and John, a man brought his demon-possessed son to the other disciples and asked them to heal him. The disciples thought it was easy: after all, they would threaten the evil spirit, just as they had seen Jesus do many times. The whole situation, however, resulted in chaos. The disciples eventually got into an argument with the scribes in front of a crowd. Meanwhile, the boy in question was on the verge of another seizure, and his father was beside himself with despair. The disciples made one or two wrong decisions, and the entire incident ended in a fiasco.

Don’t you sometimes feel like these disciples? You try to talk to a neighbor about faith, and he angrily brushes you off. You offer to pray for a sick family member, but he refuses and hurls a few insults at you. You may feel that you have put your foot in the wrong place at times like this and started sliding down a cliff.

“This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” (Mk 9:29), Jesus told his disciples. But that is not easy. Sometimes footholds underfoot are hard to find. You have to be careful. You have to be prudent. You have to be humble. The best thing you can do is try to stay close to the Lord and go wherever He leads you – wherever that may be. There is no guarantee that you will always know everything perfectly. All that is certain is that even if you slide down the hill, Jesus will be there to pick you up, encourage you, and help you climb back up again.

Perfect, and change for the better; we long for something of better quality, more value, something that will be more profitable too excellent to change for the better; we long for better quality, more weight, and better for us. And we try to put it into practice. That’s why we see a change in our surroundings, work, and approach to life. However, we often forget that real progress, happiness, and satisfaction result from external changes and internal transformation.

In the Gospel, Christ confirms the validity of such a mindset. He took the three apostles with Him to the mountain, and there He was transfigured before their eyes. It was not just an outward transformation. It did not consist of a change of clothes or dress. He wanted to show his apostles his true inner self. This transformation made such a strong impression on them that they forgot everything, and Peter cried out from the bottom of his heart: “Rabbi, we are well here. Let us make three tabernacles: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” (Mk 9:5).

The apostles were captivated by the transfigured Christ, but he equally convinced them of the necessity and purpose of his entire transfiguration. On such a journey, one finds success. It is only through the transfiguration that he becomes “something” and was only “something until then.”

But how is this to be done to truly and genuinely effect a transformation? First, one must trust Christ implicitly as Abraham trusted him. When we trust Him, primarily when God tests us when He throws difficulties at us, we have to prove that we trust Him, that whatever God does, He does it for our good so that even then, our trust in God will be more evident. Let us never despair when affliction touches us, but let us wait confidently. Let us wait, for tomorrow will already bring transformation.

Holy Scripture is full of examples and encouragement for significant change. It was not a matter of chance that Christ was transfigured before the apostles. It was a planned transformation. A transformation thought out and prepared for. From this encounter, the apostles were to gain strength for the days when Christ would have to suffer. Jesus wanted to strengthen them, to teach them that after every night comes the morning, a new light, and that light is an expression of the truth that darkness will never overcome man. On Mount Tabor, Christ filled the apostles with light so that when clouds and troubles came, they would not wander but would shine. The man who trusts God can hope that a true transformation can occur in him.

Another source of our transformation is genuinely listening to the words of God the Father, who speaks to us. In this Gospel, that voice is evident and compelling. At the event of the transfiguration of Christ, the heavenly Father says: “This is my beloved Son, listen to him.” (Mk 9:7).

If we listen to the voice of Jesus Christ and carry out his words in our lives, this is already the beginning of a transformation. Above all, he wants to present us with the proposition that if our life does not conform to the teachings of Christ, it will never be full of riches. It will be a miserable subsistence. But we will only be fully developed when the teachings of Christ become the focus of our daily life endeavors. Every word of Christ must lead us to reflection, leading us to transformation. To live according to the teachings of Christ means constant change – from day to day, consistently conforming ourselves to our Teacher. Then we will be able to say what the apostles said, “Rabbi, we are well here.” (Mk 9:5).

Lord, we are well with you, with your teaching, with your commandments. Fulfilling your words, Lord is nothing less than being continually transformed to complete conformity to you. Transformation brings us to full union with Jesus. There is no doubt that the apostles were not yet united with him when they went up to the Mount of Transfiguration. They were naturally earthly-minded and in their way. They did not yet fully see in Jesus the One who controlled their temporal earthly desires. They did not understand the values that Christ was preparing for them. A transformation had to take place to open their eyes, to make them come to the conviction that there was another, transcendent reality in contrast to the earthly certainty. At that moment, for a split second, they saw what would one day be all eternity for man. Therefore, it is no mistake what they said, the apostles, that they were comfortable here and would like to stay there.

Is there anyone on earth who could say that he misses nothing? I do not think a man on earth would find complete happiness here. Even if one had everything on earth, there would come a time when one would lack something and start longing for something better. Only God can satisfy a man completely! If we truly seek God in life, we can say that this is man’s greatest happiness.
May we be comforted that what the apostles saw for a moment on Mount Tabor is what awaits us for all eternity. But first, we must prove ourselves here on earth to deserve this state of blessedness by the daily change in our lives as we let Christ shine upon our path as a light, an example, a pattern.

There is a strange change at every Mass when the bread becomes the Body and the wine the Blood of Christ. Let us strive to live this transformation today. Let us remember that it happens for our encouragement, strengthening, and change in life.

People in different nations have often distorted ideas about God and have worshiped Him incorrectly. Is this evidence against the existence of God? Someone said: the Papuans considered the stars to be large luminous flies. Is that evidence against the existence of stars? Or is it just a sign of the strange image of the Papuans? Did religion arise from misinterpretations of dreams, reverence for the dead, or superstitions that the dead lived because the food was put in their graves? G.K.Chesterton comments on this. The sheep that graze draws from the meadow and its flowers no suggestions for poems or song. Nor has the dead sheep been any stimulus to the living sheep to work out any doctrine of reverence for the dead. Such a thing was born only in the mind of man. The animal psychologist says that even a dog has dreams, but we would not suppose that a dog would develop any religious system based on goals. Religion is not something that would have developed gradually through some evolution. Some have explained the emergence of religion from superstition and have sought to ridicule it. Superstition has indeed made its way into many religions. But they have also made their way into medicine, astronomy, and other branches of life. And yet, because of the fads of yesteryear, we do not deny astronomy today. Because of the mistakes of the priests, we do not deny religion. The dilemma is not: atheism or superstition. Religion is a firm path between superstition and atheism. Actual religious knowledge is selfless. Superstition is profiteering. It wants to gain something. To gain power and strength. Atheism wants a lot of that too. It has been argued that religion is a fabrication because God cannot be seen, a Counterargument. We can’t know the idea, but we know it exists. We don’t see our joy, but we know it’s there because we experience it. We can’t define precisely what the element is, yet you know it’s in you. This is also how God stands there, invisible and yet undeniable. God is here first. He was before the others came. And He will be here last. That God is hidden is a disappointment only to our senses. Our reason is almost compelled to detect and discover God in his visible works in the world and ourselves. The structure of any technical work testifies to the basis of the designer who conceived and brought it into being. No one will argue that a rocket, just because it is material, is merely the work of matter and chance. It is only a testimony that a man is behind it, a being who has a reason. All around us in nature, we see the ordered structures of plants and animals right up to humans. Who should still today claim that all these ordered structures and processes-from the pollination of a flower to the human eye and mind-are the work of chance material elements? All around us are evidence of God. 

Love your enemies.

When we look at the world, we see a lot of evil, crime, violence, and we certainly wish we could change that. Power, punishment, or even the fear of death will help little here. Only love could succeed, for love is stronger than death. When God created the world, “he saw all that he had made, and it was perfect.” (Gen 1:31) So, where does this evil of the world come from? The intelligent creatures, angels, and then humans, who abused God’s gift of freedom and their sin, their rebellion against God, destroyed the world’s harmony. There was strife, adversity. In the physical world, natural disasters, in animals violence of the strong against the weak, but only to preserve life, how much is enough to feed themselves.

Only man abuses his reason even to invent evil, and the devil tempts men to enmity coupled with murder. The first case was already among the grandparents’ children when Cain killed his brother Abel. (Gen. 4. 8). Through the evolution of humanity, people have invented technical aids to make life easier. Still, human wickedness, again only out of temptation from the devil, also misuses these as weapons to kill people. This wickedness grows in proportion as man moves away from God. And in our time, evil is at its height because men deceived by the devil deny God and arrogate to themselves God’s power over human life and death. They demonstrated this in the last war in the gulags and gas ovens, and they continue to kill the innocent through abortion and euthanasia.

In all this, the fundamental law of God that we are not to do evil is proclaimed in the human heart, and killing a human being is evil in itself by definition. This gradually mitigated human wickedness and criminality, at least to the extent that they killed only seemingly harmful enemies but spared their loved ones and harmless distant ones. God’s revelation and education in the chosen nation mitigated the wanton killing. Yet, in the Old Testament, we read the destruction of whole tribes after being overwhelmed, which is hard to understand today.

Occasionally there were noble exceptions, as when the now-mentioned David spared his persecutor Saul because of religious feeling, “I will not stretch out my hand upon him, for he is the Lord’s anointed.” (1 Sam 34:7). The Israelites had a law, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Lev 19:18), but they considered only a member of Israel as a neighbor. With the Gentiles, it was even worse because enslaved people were worth less than cattle.

And it was into these circumstances that Jesus came with his doctrine of love. It was a new revolution, and like all revolutions, it changed the way we live, tearing down the old and building up the unique in its path. Some revolutions advance their agendas with violence with hatred, and they destroy and murder their opponents. Christ’s revolution is a revolution of love; it renews all things, it brings flourishing, joy, happiness. Indeed, it cannot be done without sacrifice, for life often has to be changed from the ground up. Already from the Old Testament, the law of love of neighbor is extended by Christ to all: “That you may love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn 15:12) But he asks for the pinnacle of love previously unthinkable: “Love your enemies.” (Lk 6:27).

Some are shocked by this, others oppose it, and some smile at its impossibility. Even if it is impossible for man, all things are possible for God. Let us consider how to proceed. In the first place, we must forgive the enemy; only in this way will we gain understanding and peace. Even the second degree is acceptable: what you want men to do to you, do also to them. And when it seems complicated to love even the enemy, one must consider the depth of that demand. God does not ask us to love the sin, but the sinner, who is our brother and a child of God, for we are all children of God and so brothers and sisters. A brother and sister can be loved even when they are evil. Finally, let us consider the whole personality of a person and the circumstances that shape them, as Jesus showed on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk 6:29)

And this program of Christ was embraced by his disciples, and Christianity transformed the whole world. What is good in the world today, even the declaration of human rights has its basis in the new teachings of Christ. It works in two directions. “Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mk 8:34) And for interpersonal relationships, “Do not resist evil.” (Mt 5:39). “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Tim 12:21). Christians in Christ’s Church from the beginning to our time have been overcoming and improving the world with the power of Christ. In the early Church, by the power of love, they abolished slavery. By the power of suffering from their blood, the martyrs overcame the persecution of the Roman emperors and achieved both freedom and the transformation of hatred into fraternal coexistence.

And the Church of Christ, by truth, love, and suffering, overcomes her enemies, as evidenced by the fall of godless communism and the fruit of the love of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and the respect of even the infidel potentates for the Roman Pope… And if only all of us Catholic Christians lived the faith of Christ to the full, our faith would overcome the world and change everything for the better. Let us take advantage of the coming Lenten season and turn to the Lord our God.

We regularly publish a small column under various titles in our daily newspaper, such as “A Grain of Wisdom. With one thought or one sentence, the responsible editor wants to remind the reader of a serious matter that one should read and think about. True, no one forces him to do so. The reader must decide for himself.

In this Gospel, too, we encounter a nugget of wisdom, and Jesus, as the Supreme Editor, wants to give it to us today to ponder and thus to enrich our lives. Of course, he does not force us to do so either. He also leaves us believing people, endowed with reason and free will, to decide for ourselves.

We could say that Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel are a collection of his sayings using which he wants to show us the greatness of the Christian. A true confessor of the teachings of Jesus Christ follows in the footsteps of Jesus. Therefore, the words: “Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me” (Mk. 8:34), becomes a matter of course, and he does not question the fact that he fulfills the commands of Jesus and yet has a more challenging time than those who do not meet them.

The disciple of Jesus is also aware of these words: Can a disciple be more than his teacher? Therefore, on the way to the cross, he is willing to forsake everything that is not Jesus, to give up everything, as if he were to betray his Lord. It is a beautiful thing to follow the Lord Jesus with the cross on one’s shoulders, to give up an earthly career for the Gospel, to confess Jesus even at the cost of shame, loss of place, often even of life. These are the strict demands of the Lord Jesus. And the most challenging part is that Jesus’ words apply literally. So let’s remember his words: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mk 8:35).

Therefore, in the history of the Church, we see that true Christians have staked everything on one card: on Jesus. We know that they gave up themselves, and Jesus became central in their lives, actions, words, and thoughts. After such a surrender, the persecutor Paul wrote: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
But the history of the Church also tells of others who compromised with sin and selfishness, taking from Christianity only what they liked, what suited them. It was, perhaps, beautiful and pleasant even, at first sight, they were admired, for they often sat in church, they prayed, and yet their lives did not conform to the words of Jesus, for even in the performance of their duties, they thought more of themselves than of the will of the Lord Jesus.

When we choose to be truly Christlike, we must take Jesus’ words literally. Jesus’ words are addressed to people of goodwill. We realize that they touch us as well. For us, Jesus not only uttered them but requires us to put them into practice, and once we do, we must expect reward or punishment for putting them into practice.

Yes, we are weak. We are often afraid of putting Jesus’ words into practice. But when Jesus demands it, we must recognize that nothing is so complicated that we cannot make it happen. Jesus knows no compromise; he doesn’t buy people off on some dubious advertising because everyone can be convinced that Jesus’ evidence of his mission is genuine. This makes us all the more aware of the words: “For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his soul?” For what will a man exchange his soul for?” (Mk 8:36). These are such eloquent and timely words that they leave us in no doubt about their authenticity and value at the same time.
Therefore, we understand this Gospel as a call to persevere on the way to Jesus, not to slacken, or, if it has not yet been as he wants it, not to delay and to set out on the way that alone leads to eternal life.

Let us each reflect alone on this little piece of wisdom from the Gospel: “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words before this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mk 8:38)

There is a great supporter of freedom St. Gregory of Nyssa, among the Church Fathers. Man is the image of God precisely because he is free. As God created the world freely, man also makes his own life, future, and happiness. In the age in which he lived, it was necessary to defend human freedom (St. Gregory was fundamentally opposed to slavery) and God’s sovereignty. Fatalism was universally recognized. Fate, i.e., the immutable laws of the world, reigned supreme. Not even the gods can do anything against them. So, the Fathers had to show that God is the Father, and his providence freely governs the course of
the world. God’s freedom is perfect. He can do all that is good, and nothing hinders him. Human freedom reflects God’s freedom; it must have similar characteristics. But this is a somewhat different concept of freedom than people superficially imagine. For we sometimes hear the objection that man’s freedom includes the possibility of doing evil. If man’s will is truly free, he can choose this or that. How is it, then, that he sin if he decides evil? But it is difficult to answer this objection if we content ourselves with the impoverished notion of freedom: to do this or that. Then, however, we would have lost freedom even for the saints in heaven since they can no longer sin.

St. Gregory of Nyssa uses a simple but fitting simile. The betrothed who has his girl truly loves his bride feels free only when nothing hinders him from marrying her. Similarly, he was unmarried and the first man. He had free access to God; he spoke with him. Sin shut the gates of paradise to him. So, we have lost the freedom to be with God. Nevertheless, we have something of it left, something we have taken away from paradise. We can still choose this or that. If we decide for the good, we allow ourselves to come to God again slowly; we grow towards freedom. If we do evil, we use free choice to destroy further and limit freedom, closing the entrance to God. The ability to decide for this or that is thus a great gift. It serves to build space in Christ. Its misuse, on the contrary, causes apostasy from God, sin, and therefore bondage.

Spiritual progress is slow growth in the freedom of God’s children (cf. Rom 8:21). It is a slow development. According to St. Gregory, humanity has fallen into threefold great bondage: psychological, social, and religious spheres. We are enslaved psychologically because we rarely know a pure truth and are subject to illusions, distorted impressions, and passions. The company of others should help us for good and whole personal development. Becoming the opposite happens. It binds us with its tyranny, its violence, but by its habits and public opinion so that the individual is shackled. Similarly, pagan religious ideas have bound the souls of their believers so that they are often not unable to accept the gospel.

The grace of Christ, however, is slowly doing its work. Faith frees us from the illusions of false ideas. Denial, by asceticism, we escape from the captivity of evil passions. Trust in God’s providence will keep us from fearing the weight of circumstance and other people’s pressures. Love and good works will overcome sin and the devil the oppressor. Even time cooperates. It frees us from the weighty past cares, so we move toward greater closeness to God step by step. This God himself does all this. He only asks of us a constant and daily lived Becoming, that is, a free consent to the good. Such consent brought Christ into the world (cf. Lk 1:38), and by such licenses also completed his work.
It is said that today is the age of freedom, that youth must be educated more for freedom than for submission. Just as they sound, these slogans are profoundly true. The danger is that they are not understood deeply and correctly enough, that they misuse and misrepresent one of the most beautiful concepts in Scripture, of the freedom of God’s children. It is only in Christ that we are made sons of enslaved people; therefore, we shall only be truly free when he sets us free (cf. Gal 5:1). Act as free men, but not as those who make freedom as servants of God.

In the Gospel, we heard the question Jesus addressed to his apostles, “And who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” (Mk 8:29).

Let us transport ourselves in spirit to the villages around Caesarea Philippi and become participants in the conversation of the Lord Jesus with the disciples. He asks them a question that has not grown old over the centuries, “Who do men say that I am?” (Mk 8:27).
The chosen people were waiting for the Messiah. The prophets were reinforcing to the nation that that time was near. John the Baptist, who enjoyed respect in the country, died under the executioner’s sword in Herod’s prison. The situation in all areas is difficult. The nation, however, was on the wrong track under the influence of the class of Pharisees and Sadducees. The country is no longer waiting for the Messiah to reconcile them to the Father for the world’s sins. The nation is waiting for a revolutionary to free them from the hated Romans. John’s words: “Prepare the way of the Lord” – cease to exist.

Jesus, by his sermons, his miracles, and his life, catches the attention of many. Jesus also receives recognition from the woman who approaches him: “Blessed is the life that bore you, and the breasts that you have enjoyed.” (Lk 11:27). Jesus, too, does things differently from the custom. When a woman is brought to him to condemn her, looking around at those who surrounded him, he said: “He among you who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” (Jn. 8:7). He stooped down and wrote something. Jesus’ action surprised even the woman when he said to her: “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more!” (Jn. 8:10-11).
All of this led the crowd to speculate, which Peter summarizes in answer to Christ’s question: “Some for John the Baptist, some for Elijah, and some for one of the prophets.” (Mk 8:28). Jesus knows that this is the genuine opinion of the people, and looking at the apostles; He asks, “And whom do you count me?” (Mk 8:29). Peter was too quick to answer. He has told the truth, and yet, to indeed vindicate that truth, he still has to live through several significant moments. Jesus rejects a misconception about himself.
Therefore, he commands the apostles to be silent, and he begins to draw a different picture of the Messiah: “The Son of Man must suffer many things; the elders, chief priests, and scribes will reject him, they will kill him, but after three days he will rise from the dead” (Mk 8:31). Peter, however, understood this only after Christ’s resurrection. Now Jesus has yet to rebuke Peter. Nay, once more, he will say to him: “Get out of my way, Satan, for you have no sense of the things of God, only of the things of men!” (Mk. 8:33). Peter’s confession, which we heard in the Gospel, will only receive its actual depth through Jesus’ victory over death.

This Gospel is also relevant for all today. We all know, we priests, you religious sisters, you brothers, and sisters, that our journey for Christ must mature like that of Peter. We know that by placing the hands of the bishop on our heads at ordination or by taking our religious vows, we have not yet shed our faults and imperfections.
Peter had to work hard to improve himself. And this is a timely matter for all of us who are serious about Christ and our vocation. Yes, we have left certain things behind, our lives had changed, as St. Peter says: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I left behind childlike ways….” (1 Cor. 13).
And that is why this meeting of ours and today, in the celebration of the unbloody sacrifice, we all want to spiritualize ourselves to take the right step forward. We are especially to remember that Jesus asks us to answer the question: “Who do you say that I am?” (Mk 8:29). And he doesn’t just want the answer of our mouths, but he wants more – he wants the solution of our lives in practice.

When Peter walked up to one of the Vatican hills, he was already an older man. He knew that soon he would meet his Master. But indeed, he did not walk sad, disappointed, which we know from a Church tradition that when they wanted to crucify him as his Master, he pleaded, “Not so, but with his head down. I do not deserve to die like my Master.”

Let us not be sad either, brothers and sisters, that our days are shortening, and many of you would deserve a real rest after your difficult and, let us add heroic journey. Even the many difficulties and crises have not broken you. Our place is here, at this time, in these circumstances. This is where the Master wants us to be, so let us work to the last drop like St. John of Nepomuk. This priest was not only educated but also worthy of the word “priest.” He did not succumb to the whims of King Wenceslaus IV and did not betray the confessional secret even under torture. He dies in the waves of the Vltava River.

We have a gorgeous role model in the person of Pope John Paul II. His motto: “Totus tuus!” – “All yours!” is an example for us.
Let us fulfill the words of Lacordaire: “The priest is the man to whom the Lord Jesus has entrusted all men.”
As well as the words of Francois Mauriac: “I ask nothing else of a priest but that he should give me God.”
Giovani Papini reminds us, “The salvation of the world is in the hands of priests! Christianity is the medicine that can heal humanity, and the priest is the only doctor who can dispense it.”
And Otilia Mosshammer explains, “The priest’s vocation is quite different from that of a doctor, a teacher or an engineer. The business of the priest is to teach the folly of the cross.”

Let us all be aware of all this today and say, conscious of our weaknesses but also filled with love for Christ:

Our proverb says: “A job shaky pays little.” When a man sets out to do something quickly, he will not avoid mistakes. Alternatively, when a student wants to learn something quickly, he also forgets quickly. A pupil does not learn to read and write in a day or a week. This is self-evident. Only children dream of impossible things. They would like to be excellent singers, actors, athletes, and they don’t persist in their studies or training. Those who have attempted something like this know that it is hard work on themselves, and success comes later. That’s why many don’t last; they quit.

And we have to reckon with something similar in the spiritual life. Even holiness, perfection, character did not just come to man out of thin air. Here also everyone has to work on himself. Years pass and only then do we see success.

In the Gospel, we hear of the healing of the blind man. In this miracle, the Lord Jesus wants to show us something similar.

What are we to notice in the actions of the Lord Jesus? We see that He does not heal the blind man suddenly, as He often did in other cases. The Lord Jesus, as God, could have restored the blind man’s sight in an instant, but He does it gradually. Jesus’ conduct speaks of a kind of popular healing. Taking the sick man by the hand, he leads him aside. He touches his diseased eyes with his salty finger and finally lays his hands on him. One might even ask questions as he does this: Why does the Lord Jesus restore the blind man’s sight in this way? Is it perhaps to make the blind man appreciate the gift of view all the more? Others think that the Savior meant to be patient with the mentally blind. But we may also note from the Gospel text that the Evangelist Mark does not want to dwell at this point on the efficacy of Jesus’ procedure but a kind of gradual, step-by-step process of healing. Watching Jesus in this case, it seems to us as if Jesus had to gradually exert more energy out of himself to heal the sick person. And this is the intent of the evangelist. The Lord Jesus slowly reveals his existence.

In this healing, Jesus wanted to bring all those involved in this event to strive not only to penetrate the depth of the teachings of the Lord Jesus, but also to strive to understand the Lord Jesus himself in the whole of his mission, to see the depth of his actions, behavior, deeds, and words.

We realize that it is not enough to know a first-conversion or confirmation young Christian to be good Christians. Still, as we grow older, our theoretical and practical understanding of the person of Jesus Christ, the history of the Church, and the present conditions of the Church should produce in us in equal measure. It will not bear any great leaps if we want joy and benefit from our faith. That would be a certain moodiness and superficiality.

Jesus meant by this Gospel to encourage us to grow slowly and gradually in our faith, in our relationship to Him, in our knowledge of our duties, so that we may know how to be enriched by what the teachings of Jesus Christ have to offer us. Too much fluctuation, leaping about in the spiritual life, always brings many mistakes, errors, and failures. Such a course of action would be wrong.
We recognize that we cannot know God all at once. It is a long and challenging journey as we progress in our faith and see more clearly and distinctly the reality of God. We know that it is only in the second place that we will see God face to face. When our faith journey seems difficult and dark, let us keep this in mind. We know that the seed sown must die, yet the stalk will grow, and only then the expected ear of the harvest.

The Lord guides each of us as we place ourselves in His hands. Often He takes us aside so that no one will see, recognize, or recognize how He is testing us and preparing us for that final vision of God’s face. He typically instructs us himself, makes us feel his hand, reveals to us things events, and with Jesus’ help, we can see more rightly.

Even the blind man in the Gospel was asked by the Lord Jesus: “Do you see anything?” (Mk 8:23). He looked and said: “I see people; it seems to me as if trees were walking.” (Mk. 8:24).

Jesus gradually heals our eyes of faith as well. The first sight is typically unclear. We do not understand; perhaps we are dissatisfied with the actions of Jesus. Jesus takes us further. Usually, once we have tasted the sweetness of the Lord Jesus’ teaching, and when we look back, we say to ourselves: It was worth it to persevere, not to stomp on, even if it was hard or took longer than we wished. But we are happy.

May we also remember the words of the proverb in the realm of faith: ‘Work of little worth, work of little worth.’

The natural sciences are often accused of being materialistic. I am thinking, for example, of physics, chemistry, biology, and the disciplines derived from them, not mathematics. These natural sciences are indeed materialistic, and this is because they study matter, matter, and the flow of energies. Natural science studies that which is measurable and repeatable. 
The natural sciences are methodologically materialistic: the natural scientist agrees quietly with other scientists in other laboratories of the world, before beginning his experiments, that what he is now going to investigate will have a material character, that it will therefore be measurable in some way. The scientist will, therefore, in his laboratory, he will not be interested in, for example, fairies or goblins unless these beings are visible and detectable by instruments. 
However, when the researcher returns home after work, you may be familiar with the relationship between matter and energy from Einstein’s most famous formula.
Although, there are difficulties with repeatability: no two places in the world and time are equivalent. But we shall now make some approximation and neglect some things; intuitively, we correctly intuit what repeatability is: simply, if a chemical reaction takes place under defined conditions in Brno, it should take place under the same conditions in a laboratory on the other side of the world or anywhere in the universe. As worldly as positivism is as a philosophy (in that it notices only part of reality), it is invaluable as a methodology. In Asia, the reason is intertwined and woven into myths, legends, dreamworlds, and magic, which can sometimes seem like a slight advantage, but at the same time as a shackling burden. In the fight against leprosy, tuberculosis, or malaria, Western medicine fares incomparably better than any of the treatments East. Similarly, the movements of the stars and the evolution of the universe correspond better to the ideas of Western astronomers than to those of their Asian colleagues.
According to his foundation, to believe or not to believe in the existence of supernatural beings is his business. Still, as long as he is in the laboratory, he must investigate what is measurable and repeatable, so goes the unwritten agreement. The results of the naturalist’s experiments must be repeatable. In biochemistry, for example, the way it works is that when you publish some profound discovery, there are always a few labs that don’t believe your results: because you have detailed the methodology in your paper of the experiment, these labs will easily repeat your experiment – and alas, if they come up with different results. If your results turn out to be wrong, it is evident that you have made a mistake somewhere, and your scientific credibility is lost. Because loss of prestige is the worst thing that can happen to a scientific team, every department is anxious to make sure that what it puts out into the world can be relied upon by others and that it’s appropriately verifiable and repeatable; otherwise,, you’ve just committed intellectual suicide.
Repeatability is also the scourge of telepathy, UFOs, dice throwing, moving pictures, predicting the future, and miraculous healing that so often excites our imagination: “So show me again,” says the naturalist, precisely according to his methodology. And because all these things are desperately unrepeatable, the naturalist takes his hands off them (and rightly so). In a vast universe, we can imagine a dimensional sphere of matter and energy in which we live; this is the space he explores in natural science. Around this sphere are angels and other immaterial, non-spatial, and ageless spirits: these are of no interest to the naturalist, for they are not measurable. An entirely different science deals with their study; let us say it is theology.
When the naturalist returns from his work (if he is therefore not constrained by the methodology of his science), he may be inclined to one of the positions: for example, be a materialist. Photo m will say that the only world that exists in the known world of matter and energy, which he has been researching in the morning in the laboratory; there is no other world; the world of angels and fairies is an illusion. There is neither God nor angelic choirs; in the discussion, the researcher replies stereotypically: show them to me, and I will believe. Not Albert the Great, but the Apostle Thomas, should be the patron saint of natural scientists. I think that, from the perspective of a believer, this attitude is mainly, to a large extent, justified by a specific professional distortion: when years or decades of dealing with measurable phenomena, you have tended to just let the unmeasurable phenomena out of your head, or at least to question their existence; they just don’t fit anymore.
Into your world. If you have spent your whole life looking at the earth and collecting and examining rocks, you will find it hard to believe that there is a sky above you and stars, especially if it’s always cloudy. You’re just not used to tilting your head and looking in a specific direction anymore. So, I can conclude: man is, and the number n (p í) is, but the word “is.” means an entirely different type of existence each time. So, Thomas Aquinas would say that God is non-spatial, non-temporal, and immeasurable. Yes, God is, but in a different way than man is. Yuri Gagarin declared that God does not exist after returning from space because he had not seen him in the room. Gagarin did not study Thomas and Aquinas.
Theology and natural science, or science and faith as we say, have never met; each lives in a world of its own, each explores a different part of the universe where there can be no collision because each one goes, as it were, on a different track. Problems in history have generally arisen when a researcher from one camp within his professional world has begun to take a position concerning the other world. When the natural scientist begins to interfere with theology while using the methodology of the natural sciences, or when a theologian starts to interfere with the natural sciences while using the method of theology, both usually end in a head-on collision there are many deaths. When a geologist examines Michelangelo’s statue of David, a philosopher, and a theologian, the geologist, after some analysis, gets up from the microscope and says: “Marble. ” The philosopher marvels at the power of the idea embodied in stone, and the theologian will see a glimpse of God’s beauty. Please note that all three are correct. It is much the same when examining the universe or living organisms.
This different point of view often leads to misunderstandings between natural science and theology. One of the usual arguments of atheistic biologists is to point to the complete randomness of evolution, that evolution doesn’t go anywhere on purpose. For example, the extinction of the dinosaurs loosened many ecological niches and allowed for the rapid radiation of mammals and the subsequent emergence of man. According to the more or less universally accepted
hypothesis, the dinosaurs’ extinction was caused by a meteorite impact on the Yucatán Peninsula and the subsequent climate change that the dinosaurs did not survive. What could be more random in the universe than a meteorite impact?
If fate had not favored the impact of this meteorite at the end of the Cretaceous, the Symphony of Fates would not have been created in 65 million years. However, for theologians, no such randomness is inconsistent with theology, the guidance of evolution. For God acts through coincidences. The Christian God is not an excellent throw near the philosophers, but the God present in the world and all the evolution events, coincidences, and meteorite impacts. In this context, I recall one of my terrible lectures on the Darwinian explanation of evolution: it was all happening on the campus of a theological college. I conscientiously talked about DNA, the four-letter genetic code, and mutations until one Dominic dean stood up and asked: But what about substance? Substance can’t change into cattiness; therefore, evolution doesn’t exist, species can’t change. In the following schizophrenic discussion, I talked about adaptations, mutations and selection intoxicated the environment, while the Dominicans (there were many) pointed out the impossibility of change of substance. We boxed each other in a different ring. But there are areas where biologists, philosophers, and theologians must come together. One such hot spot, for example, is the question of the origin of life on earth; another is the problem of understanding what love is, will, freedom, and what is our “I “or, if you will, soul. Philosophers rightly accuse biologists of being philosophically oriented in their texts. They have failed to notice that for almost two and a half thousand years, since the time of Aristotle, the brightest minds on the planet have been pondering the questions of the meaning of our existence on Earth. On the contrary, biologists rightly point out that philosophers have not kept up with current knowledge of how nature works and that they draw their biological knowledge from the study of Aristotle or Thomas and Aquinas, whose natural-scientific ideas are – to put it crudely – already outdated, and so living organisms behave markedly differently, then contemporary philosophers often mistakenly believe.
Therefore, the French philosopher Jacques with Maritain thought to form a team where biologists could “play at least a few songs on the keyboard of philosophy” and vice versa. However, the different ways of thinking and seeing the world of biologists and philosophers is an obstacle that should not be underestimated. Marxists say that religious belief is a matter for stupid people. In response, Catholics have printed a series of pamphlets on ‘The Faith of Great Scientists,’ quoting the wise sayings of renowned physicists and pointing out that these people believe in God too. Amazingly, they did not. It is not difficult to find such statements: many leading astronomers have been
genuinely and deeply religious. Conclusion for the reader: there are, therefore, also wise people who are believers. It is probably an encouragement that even universally respected figures and Nobel laureates believe in God for many Catholics. On the other hand, the strength of Christianity lies precisely in the fact that it goes my faith, which is not subject to the opinions of those around me. Even if they were all around me, atheists. I would believe.