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Jesus is pleased with those who can renounce everything for him.

We are preparing for the end of the church year. We are living the days of the Passion. A look at nature speaks of a new season of the year, winter. Inadvertently, questions come to our minds: Have we done all we can in our relationship with God? Have we given God all that we were obligated to provide? Nature has become orphaned. She has given us everything that has been produced. Like an echo, the word “all” carries to us today (Mk 12:44).

The last sentence of today’s Gospel emphasizes the meaning of the word “all” when the Lord Jesus spoke words of praise about the woman, the poor widow, saying, “In her poverty, she gave all that she had, her whole livelihood” (Mk 12:44).

There is something of dignity in the woman’s gesture, something that disheartens the contemporary man—the man of the consumer who would only like to take and give nothing of himself. The words “everything” and sacrificing “everything” today shock and, to say the least, astonish me. The man who chooses to do so today is considered a madman or a freak. Jesus evaluates it differently. Today’s Gospel presents three categories of people.

First, these are the learned in the Scriptures, the scribes, the consumer people. They only want to take. We know that they demanded respect, honors, titles, first places, and more from others. The second group of people are those who really give a lot, but only enough to have enough left over for themselves. On the contrary, the third is the group of people bewitched by the word “everything”. They share what they have, the last piece of bread, who give everything for God, Jesus, and the other person, like the woman, the widow in the Gospel. She does not share; she gives all that she has. The Gospel wants to show us two different attitudes, when one provides only something and when one gives everything. And the woman, the widow? Her “two small coins, which is a quadrant” (Mk 12:42) helped no one. But the woman did “only” what she thought best, gave everything, and in so doing, put her life in direct dependence on God. The way of Jesus speaks of dependence on the Father. This is the way Jesus refers to as the way of true discipleship. The Gospel does not speak of social sentiment, but of surrendering one’s life to God. God wants the heart of man. Whoever submits his whole self to God makes room for love between God and man. This is not irresponsible, but it is not easy either.

What is sacrifice? A sacrifice or gift is called any offering to God in ordinary life. It is when, out of love for God, one consciously and voluntarily renounces pleasant and lawful things for the sake of one’s soul or the good of one’s brethren. What is the object of sacrifice? What does sacrifice cost us? The highest price of sacrifice is our own life. So also we understand death for Christ. Remember, for example, the martyr Maximilian Kolbe of Auschwitz, who went into the hunger bunker for fellow prisoner Francis out of love for God.

A sacrifice dear to God can also be the renunciation of food, not only in Lent and on Fridays, the renunciation of an evening movie on TV when I use the time for my family or to read something for my soul. Giving up the benefits that belong to me is also a gift. Renunciation is meant to help us overcome our weaknesses, faults, or sins.

This time of November has led many of you to thoughts or discussions about whether there is life after death. Perhaps you have read the book Life After Life by the American doctor Moody, who deals with the Lazarus symptom. The stories he describes happened to those who survived clinical death and were awakened to life. This may not convince anyone of the existence of life after death. Still, many are troubled by a lot of confusion when reading it, such as understanding depersonalization, the great light, the tunnel, the wonderful feeling of joy, and so on. In this soulful time, Jesus himself wants to bring light to our doubts with today’s Gospel, which describes the meeting of the Lord Jesus with the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection.

The Sadducees asked the Lord Jesus about the resurrection of those who have died physically, and we also often meet the Sadducees. A group of Sadducees sought conflict to oppose Jesus. The Sadducee class came from the strict priestly class and became more of a political group than a religious one. We may take them as a second Jewish sect, smaller than the class of Pharisees, with whom they do not agree, because they teach more strictly, and have confined the revelation of God to the Five Books of Moses. They deny the resurrection and the immortality of the soul; they do not believe in life after death and in angels. Therefore, they tell Jesus a fictional event that is directed against him. They refer to the Law of Moses, which orders: “… if someone’s brother who had a wife but was childless dies, his brother should marry her and beget his brother’s offspring” (Lk 20:28).

They also tell of a woman who, after the death of her husband, was married to his seven brothers. That’s why they ask the Lord Jesus: “Well, which of them will be his wife at the resurrection?” After all, seven of them had her as a wife” (Lk 20:33). The Sadducees say that therefore there can be no life after death because then comic scenes would follow. The previous question formulated in this way is ridiculous. In reality, however, it is not, because there are many similar questions even today. When people talk about life after death today, many people do not believe in life after death, ridicule and misinterpret it. For one group, this life is compatible with the life we ​​live here on earth. Apparently, that’s why they try to live fully here on earth, and that’s all they expect from life. The second group speaks of the double life as a mystery that beckons man. However, it is vague and therefore resembles dreaming of an earthly paradise where one will not lack material things, goods, and joy. So they see the second life after death as earthly life in a higher quality.

some say that we only live once, and therefore life should be enjoyed to the last drop. On the other hand, others give themselves up to dreaming of a place of amazing progress in earthly understanding. True, there are many different attitudes among us. We must not forget to mention those who live their lives in connection with God. Their understanding of eternal life is vague, something like a fog before us that prevents full knowledge. We can also ask: Is there really a resurrection? If so, how is it done? We are supposed to believe it, but how do we convince ourselves of it? The questions of the Sadducees were asked in this spirit, and you certainly know many of them. They talked about marriage and its continuation after death. The Lord Jesus will tell them that their thinking about these things is purely earthly. Therefore it does not concern the things after death, which require a different thinking. Therefore, he emphasizes to them: “Sons of this age marry and are given away. But those who are recognized as worthy of that age and resurrection no longer marry or are given in marriage” (Luke 20:36). This does not mean that they cease to be human, but that natural laws no longer apply to them after death. A completely different, new reality has arisen, separate from the one on earth, and therefore people in the new life after death are not angels, but they are also no longer people in the earthly understanding of the word.

Jesus explains two essential characteristics of life after death: 1. They will no longer be able to die. We are to understand this to mean that they are freed from all biological processes. Here, you can’t talk about illnesses, worries, difficulties, etc. 2. They will be called sons of God. This new life completely replaces life on earth and we can understand it as something entirely different. It is a new birth. In the first part of the answer, Jesus points out an important approach to these things. It is an answer not only for the Sadducees but also for us. So when he talks about life after death, he cannot stick to the evidence that applies to life here on earth, because something completely different applies to life after death. When a person convulsively clings to the earthly understanding of the matter after death in this matter, he will not avoid wrong and erroneous views and delusions will occur.

To is the first part of the answer of the Lord Jesus. It may seem harmful to some, so Jesus explains it even more, in order to prove to the Sadducees that those who have died will indeed rise from the dead. He will point to a document known to the Sadducees, which are the words concerning Moses, who is the greatest prophet for them. The Lord Jesus says: “… when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” And he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, because for him all live” (Luke 20:37-38). This is a serious thing to think about. These are profound words. They believe that Moses is alive, so they actually speak against each other. Jesus no longer says. He proves nothing more to the Sadducees. He only pointed to the text of the Scriptures known to the Sadducees and proved that it speaks of the resurrection. By this, he clearly says of their lack of faith and respect due to the living and true God when they deny what is in the Scriptures. Thus, when we believe in the living God, we must trust him and entrust everything to him.

We are aware that the Lord Jesus does not say anything further, but what he says is very serious. To deny the resurrection after our death would bring the true and living God to the level of pagan gods made of inanimate matter, wood or metal. And yet none of us trusts such gods. For the belief in the afterlife, the behavior of the seven brothers from the Second Book of Maccabees greatly encourages us. These brothers were brought before the pagan king to force them to renounce the faith by torture. However, their belief in a new life after death gave them courage in the most challenging moments. Shortly before his death, the second of the brothers exclaimed: “You evil-doer, you remove us from temporal life, but the Lord of the Universe, for whose laws we die, will resurrect us to eternal life” (2 Mach 7.9). The third brother, who is to be mutilated, stretches out his hands and says: “I received them from heaven, but because of God’s laws I do not consider them as nothing, because I hope to receive them again from him” (2 Mach 7,11).

A promise given by God supports Our belief in the resurrection. Although the Maccabees did not know what awaited them after death, they were convinced of the resurrection, and this gave them the courage to endure torture and death. Perhaps one wants to ask how they came to such a firm conviction. We must remember that this question was asked during the time of persecution. They had to calculate that there could be martyrdom. Therefore, the preparation for this step did not begin the moment they were brought before the king, but they had been preparing for this moment long before when they accepted the teachings of the true God and, thus, the risk associated with their faith. Whoever carefully followed the text could discover one serious thing. It is not possible to believe in the resurrection, in eternal life, if a purely intellectual way of thinking leads to it, without special commitment and acceptance of a particular risk. This affects all of us. After all, we live in times and in a world that tries to distort and reject certain spiritual values. This world’s disapproval of the faith practiced by today’s world is why it is more difficult for this world to understand the behavior of the seven brothers.

Today, opposition to faith is less visible and violent, but much more dangerous. We encounter the denial of spiritual values ​​that can be decently explained. And yet we witness many apostasies, which are preceded by the renunciation of a zealous environment but also by the reduction of the Church’s influence on society. This indifference to faith causes serious difficulties. Suppose we do not seriously listen and courageously fulfill the obligations of faith, which also entails renouncing the things of this world, and its mindset. In that case, we must be aware that it may happen that we soon stop believing in the resurrection. To persevere in the faith means to unite one’s life wisdom with the teachings of the Church. Saint Paul the Apostle knew this when, in an excerpt of his Second Letter to the Thessalonians, he encouraged them to persevere in prayer: “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may spread and be glorified as it is with you, and that we may be freed from perverted and evil people; for not all believe” (2 Thessalonians 3:1-2).

We realize that we are all exposed to harmful influences like the Thessalonians. May God save us from this! St. Paul asks God to strengthen the believers and endow them with perseverance in faith. The time of souls we are experiencing is a serious time for thinking about the value of life its purpose, and therefore, let this moment of thinking about the existence of life after death strengthen us. May our faith grow and become stronger every day of our lives so that we can overcome all difficulties because there may come even greater ones than those we are experiencing today. Still, the thought that it will all end one day and the reward will come, let it be a joyful prospect for us in the future. 

“It is written: My house will be a house of prayer. And you made him a den of thieves.” And he taught daily in the temple » Lk 19, 45-46.

 And which place to stand? To the place of the expelled or the expelled? Doesn’t the place of the outcast belong to us, at least sometimes? There is a threefold temple: the material temple, the human temple, and the Church. The building is a temple not only in its style, but especially in its purpose, what it is dedicated to, and what happens in it. This makes it different from a factory, a department store, or an entertainment company. The temple is a place of God’s presence, prayer, and sacrifice. Every temple must be protected from pollution and desecration. It is necessary to take care of it regularly. Otherwise, it will start. In bad weather, we clean our shoes on a mat in the temple vestibule.

Lord, when I enter your temple, help me to get rid of all materialistic, worldly, and business concerns already in the hall so that I can come before you with a free and pure heart. And when those material worries get to the altar with me, let it be like our daily bread got to the Lord’s Prayer. But we are also a temple. Somewhere, the vestibule ends; somewhere, the sanctuary begins, the place of God’s presence, prayer, and sacrifice. Your word is like a barnacle that relentlessly shows what does not belong in the temple, what has moved there over time due to our inattention.

Chasing is a tough act. It is easier not to let in than to expel. The more careful the inspection at the entrance, the less is left to remove. The Church is also a temple. It also needs cleaning. Which temple should be cleaned first? The big one or our little one? It is sure that whoever cleans his small temple also indirectly tends to the big one, the Church. There is usually no other way for us, little ones. I have the most fantastic right to the  scourge on myself.

To encourage believers to open their hearts and thus let Jesus act. According to St. Irenaeus: “The glory of God is a living person because the true life of a person is the vision of God.” In the Gospels, we can capture something of this “vision of God” because it is there that we can observe Christ as an example of a living person. “When Jesus approached Jerusalem, and when he saw the city, he wept” (Luke 1941). Jesus is the holiest man who ever lived, and yet we can see him filled with sorrow and grief. What brought Jesus to tears? The city that he loved so much but which did not know the most essential thing in its history: the coming of the Messiah and his gifts to all the inhabitants. Do we not give reason to cry to Jesus over our sins and neglect of good?

Have we ever let the Lord wait for us? If we do not love Jesus, we cannot follow him. Let’s remember Jesus’s anger when he drove the sellers out of the temple (cf. Jn 2:13-17). Why are we afraid of our emotions, or why do we try to hide them? When God created us in His image, He declared that all things are good. However, the wound of original sin brought the growth of selfishness, disordered passions, and hostile aggression. Because of human sin, we have all been hurt in our search for love and experienced how destructive emotions can be. We have built a whole complex of defense mechanisms and internal fortifications to protect ourselves from further injuries. Our unhealed wounds and unfulfilled needs remain locked in our hearts. And finally, our inner walls can close us to bitterness, emotional coldness, loneliness, and only “half”. However, God wants us to live fully to witness a healthy, balanced Christian life. He wants to free us to rejoice or grieve, express anger at injustice, and show love for all that is true, fitting, and beautiful.

The next time you find yourself in an emotional situation, don’t deny your feelings or judge yourself for not being holy enough. Instead, bring your reaction before the Lord. Ask him to cleanse your feelings and let him fully revive you.

The view of today’s fields is sad. We harvested and stored the harvest a long time ago. As long as he lives on earth, man is aware of his responsibility for everything that God has entrusted to him. Jesus reminds us of this in the parable about the talents, the mines that have been entrusted to us, with which we should use appropriately because the words will be fulfilled on us too: “For to everyone who has, more will be added, and he will have more.” And whoever does not have, even what he has, will be taken from him” (Mt 25:29).

Our task in life on earth is to fulfill the will of God and thus gain a share in God’s kingdom. The Church not only reminds us of this, but also helps us. The very fact that we live is a gift from God. None of us took our lives alone. Parents are just an instrument that God used so that we can live. We live only from the love of God. God has given us various gifts necessary for our life in his wisdom and love. We have to give the gifts to the donor – “a certain person.” Still, before that, we are obliged to treat them in such a way that we not only return them all but that we return them appropriately multiplied by our involvement, our work, and the activity performed consciously and voluntarily. God, in his justice, distributes gifts. God will not ask the impossible from the gifted. However, every gift must be used. Then God, as he gave a reasonable number of gifts, will also provide a just reward.
By giving a gift, God calls a person to responsible work, a conscious approach to the duties and tasks to which the gift obliges him. Multiplying the gift is a matter of human effort. With each gift, God fills man with adequate happiness. If a person responsibly handles gifts, he gains even greater inner happiness. The words of Jesus express this: “Everyone who has will receive more…” (Lk 19:27). At the same time, it is also a reminder that those who do not cooperate, who do not handle gifts appropriately, become a witness to Jesus’ words: “And my enemies … beat for me” (Mt 25:29). This means that whoever received more will rightly be asked for more, and if expectations are not met, a harsher punishment comes. Everyone gets talents. What the recipient must not forget is – adequate work with talents. God gives and rightly demands commitment from man. 

When Edison was asked what he owed for his discoveries and inventions, he answered: “One percent talent and ninety percent hard work.” Louis Pasteur, the inventor of the cure for rabies and the discoverer of pasteurization, said the same thing. We respond with our faithfulness and responsibility to the gifts from God. Because we will give an account to God for everything in our life

 Pious submission tells us that the God-fearing couple, Joachim and Anna, had no children. They often prayed to God to bless them with offspring. They promised that if their prayer were answered, they would sacrifice the child born to them in the service of God. God, who listens to his chosen ones, “who call to him day and night” (Lk 18, 7), also heard their prayers. They had a daughter, whom they named Maria. Faithful to their promise, they bring her to the Jerusalem temple in the third year of her life to serve God with her pure life. Today’s holiday reminds us of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We sing about it in church services: “The Virgin gloriously enters the temple of God.” He announces the coming of Christ to everyone…” (Troparist). The liturgical texts further recall that “the angels were amazed when they saw the Virgin entering the sanctuary of the saints” at this event.  Why does the Eastern Church sanctify this arrival of the Virgin Mary in the Jerusalem temple with such emphasis? Was her arrival such a profound moment? Yes! The Virgin Mary entered the Jerusalem temple at the age of three, and there she lived her entire youth in prayer and the most incredible purity to become worthy to be the mother of the Son of God and our Redeemer. The Holy Fathers say that the Virgin Mary accepted God as her Father and sought to find grace with him. Precisely because of her perfection, God “looked upon the lowliness of his servant” (Lk 1:48) and chose her as the Mother of God and our Representative. With this service, she also set an example for us so that we can find grace with God in our lives. A specific Catholic writer wanted to convince his readers that everyone can achieve holiness independently of their life’s work. He wrote: “There is no difference before God whether you scrape potatoes or build cathedrals. Potatoes and cathedrals will not enter the kingdom of God. You will be judged solely according to your good or bad intentions.” In his memoirs, National Artist Rudolf Deyl writes: “Many actors preferred to leave the theater rather than play the small roles assigned to them. They usually didn’t make it anywhere. Great actors did not disdain a small role. There are no small tasks; there are only small people.” We did not receive and will not receive the extraordinary graces given to Our Lady… We were given small tasks that each one of us could handle. We all have our role in this world and must fulfill it consistently. In one of his songs, the famous Czech singer Waldemar Matuška sings about his father, a weak but modest man who did not excel in anything but was more significant than the king in that one thought: “You must never be lazy, you must not be afraid of work. Just try to do as well as you know what you are doing; enjoy doing it.”
Very nice words. May they be applied not only in song but also in life. And that is what we believers are all about when we worship the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God. So that we sing nice words about her, pray to her, and live according to her example. The Virgin Mary was entrusted with a tremendous task: To be the Mother of the world’s Savior! She confesses it in her eulogy: “He who is mighty has done great things for me” (Lk 1, 49). God did not entrust us with such tasks. We only have small tasks, sometimes many, some difficult, but still doable. God asks us to fulfill and love them as best we can. If we follow in the footsteps of the Virgin Mary in such a service, we, too, will find grace with God.