Topic, about various passages from the Bible

[lukadrower]

A spirit of abominable desolation 1/2

We clean our souls, but we may not invite Jesus inside every evening. And the evening is an important moment.
Our house can be cleaned after confession and decorated with prayers. Unfortunately, it may be empty. It is simply an abomination of desolation. It looks like a church without a tabernacle.
So what if I can even invite church hierarchs and so on, they pass by in their red clothes, but there is no tabernacle. The abomination of desolation is a prophetic concept, first signifying a temple without the presence of God.

This Jerusalem temple without the Shekhin, but also a believer who does not care about the state of sanctifying grace. He believes, but he is not in a close relationship with Jesus, he has nothing to do with Jesus at all, not to mention what He imagines about God, because it may even offend Him.

This is what the Lord is calling us to today, let's listen to one more word: Matthew 12:44. Then this unclean spirit, seeing that it cannot find peace in the wilderness and in waterless places, says to itself: "I will return to my house, from whence I came." And when he came to him, he found him unoccupied, swept, and garnished.

This word is important: unoccupied, empty. The Latin text could be translated: "found unoccupied, cleansed and decorated with brooms." Three features are highlighted that characterize a person capable of accepting, without noticing, this demon and his seven cronies, because the inside of a person is unoccupied.

Someone was missing there. Whom? God. What are these seven other ghosts? You don't have to be very clever to guess that these are the 7 deadly sins. The parable gives us the cause of all our sins, whether there are 20 of them, these deadly sins, or 7, or 5, the number is arbitrary.

One thing is important: all sins depend on whether the heart is occupied by God or not.
If I don't look him in the eye during the day, it's a matter of minutes or hours before the guys with this one unclean spirit will come back. It's a matter of time. Then the evil spirit goes and takes with him 7 other spirits more malicious than himself.

They go in and live there, and the man's subsequent condition becomes worse than his former condition. So it will be with this perverse generation. The evil spirit enters without any problem, why? Because the house was unoccupied.

This "unoccupied" is 15 minutes, half an hour in the evening, when darkness is approaching. Your soul can become the prey of evil spirits at any time. If you haven't invited Jesus into your heart yet.

In the biographies of the most holy people we can see what Satan's work means. They often felt very overwhelmed, and only because they had a huge attachment to Jesus, these evenings were truly Jesus-like, and because this attachment was strong, they did not become possessed and did not fall into sins.

And even if they fell, God raised them up and they converted. In violent winds you need to be tied tightly to some mast to be stronger than the wind. We know a myth about Odysseus, who tied himself to the mast of the ship when the voices of sirens deceived him, he no longer trusted himself and became tied to his own strength.

To be attached to Jesus is to be attached with feelings, otherwise there is a risk of invasion by these seven and eighth evil spirits. Some saints tested what the action and power of evil spirits meant. This is not pleasant at all.

Father Docampo, who lived in the 16th century, was beaten with his own hands and involuntarily destroyed images of Our Lady. Saint Teresa the Great writes in one of her texts one day: "Satan was causing me terrible pain and causing such confusion in my soul and body that it seemed impossible for me to bear it any longer.

Saint Teresa: Through movements that I could not resist, I was torturing myself pain, hitting my head, shoulders, whole body on objects around me."
Some saints were tempted by Satan to commit suicide. They almost started putting it into practice. He can, for a very small reason, cause a grudge against God, accuse God, and annihilate himself.

The evil spirit made them curse their lives, for example, Saint Magdalene, in one of her great trials, suddenly left the chapel, ran quickly to the refectory, took a knife to kill herself. She didn't know what she was doing next time, so she ordered herself to be tied up so as not to succumb to similar tendencies.

This is what wrestling with evil spirits of action means. However, these actions did not incriminate these saints because they were involuntary, they were done in the suspension of consciousness, so that others looking at this event would realize who they were dealing with.
It's not about some little devils from souvenir shops in Krakow. These are not souvenirs, these are powers, either one power or the other power, will rule over you and all thanks to one night with Jesus.

Quite often our souls and the souls of saints were attacked by various ideas, blasphemous and hideous. Sometimes people cannot distinguish it from sin, they cannot tell whether there is something wrong with them, and this is an attack of the evil spirit.

If there was no connection with Jesus, people could go crazy because of it: nightmares, dreams, some visions, terrible images. Saint Alphonsus had shameless visions that even tempted him to doubt his faith.

Saint Alphonsus Liguori, even at the end of his life, had such attacks that he screamed at the entire monastery, not letting others sleep. It was similar with Saint. John Vianney and Padre Pio. We all know what attacks they endured. They were strong wrestlers and they made sure to be with Jesus every day. What could be with us.

The advantage of evil spirits is that we do not believe in them or we underestimate their power. This makes our alertness very sleepy. When I read about Saint Francis, who turned 43, she had a lot of ecstasies and visions at that time,
and these phenomena were interrupted by attacks of demons who even beat her cruelly, disappeared immediately as soon as the household members, attracted by the noise, came to the room, and they say: "I think Franciszka is thinking of something."

Saint Catherine was thrown into the fire several times and emerged unharmed, but this could have terrified her. Saint Agnes was beaten at least twice a week. Saint Magdalene was thrown down the stairs. While she was sitting with her sisters, an invisible hand removed the chair and it fell to the floor. Strange things were happening.
Teresa of Avilla was 62 years old, and an evil spirit threw her down the stairs and she broke her arm. These are not just some games somewhere in our imagination, these are sometimes attacks directly on our body, even on our lives.

 

[lukadrower]

A spirit of abominable desolation 2/2
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Everything I have just said here is also to remind us that it is not only about being with God, but also about being safe. Because life is dangerous, nothing will fulfill man except God.

When God is in us, we do not pursue anything, and sin has no access to us. And even if he tried to get to us, he can't get inside.

Today we have confession, we must take this into account, not only to confess our failures, to feel decorated and cleansed, but also to do something to keep this soul occupied. And that it would be occupied by God, and when the evil spirit and his friends would knock, a voice would come through the door: "Occupied." So that he can't get in there.



This is the important first sin, the only one that leads to all the others: lack of friendship, lack of concern for Jesus to have a place in our hearts, in our tabernacle, every day, every evening. Lack of concern for having the right image of God who wants to have a friend in us, because God has good intentions towards us, the best intentions, he believes in us.



He does not criticize us, does not despise us, does not accuse us. If the presence of Jesus is not in us, we fall into the 7 deadly sins because we feel empty within us. Loneliness that is unbearable. I said earlier: loneliness of spirit that cannot stand the absence of God, and then we run after everything, because in order to fill ourselves with something, to fill the hole that our soul has become.



Then the fall begins on seven fronts: we fall into pride, into contempt for others and ourselves, into haughtiness, into pride which is a mask for shame, into humiliation, ridicule, poor perception of others, poor perception of ourselves, conceit. , which is the belief that you are right.

This is a place for slander, slander, judgments, criticism and vulgarity. We do all this because we feel an emptiness within us. Vanity is a vacuum that seeks decoration to hide it.



We fall in anger and get angry at others, we do not forgive, we become malicious and annoying because we feel emptiness and vacuum, lack of love capable of forgiving, and only Jesus has such love. We fall into impurity, looking for the fulfillment of our souls with the saturation of our bodies, but this is not the level, this is not the kind of fulfillment.



We can console ourselves with masturbation, pornography, fornication, adultery. Searching for love, idolizing it because we feel the emptiness of loneliness, we have not secured the love of Jesus, we have cut ourselves off from the love of God. We have denied God his love for us and we obsessively seek fulfillment in the flesh.
A spirit of abominable desolation 2/2


We fall into laziness, feeling reluctant to serve God, we lose the desire to serve the community, because God appears to us as empty, because we have a bad image of God, we do not want to feel fullness in Him, we do not believe that He can fulfill our longings.



Then we get bored with Him, we are discouraged by Him, but not with God, but with a false image of God. Mateusz thought so too. We fall in greed, both material and emotional, greed, rapacity, possessiveness, intellectual greed, this is also a large scope for terrible mistakes, professional greed, even spiritual greed, because we feel emptiness and misery within ourselves, and we want to feel fullness , but nothing achieves this effect. As Mateusz found out.



We fall into gluttony and drunkenness, this is already a very serious signal that we have a void somewhere, trying to fill it with feasts, exquisite dishes, sweets, alcohol, chemical stimulants, and this sin also includes other addictions, the latest Internet addictions, or any sensual greed .



Because we confuse the heart with the stomach, and again it is about an empty interior. We fall in jealousy, destroying those who have the joy of love, mistakenly thinking that destroying someone else's love will restore our sense of wholeness. It will not return us to a sense of fullness, we will feel even more empty and devastated, because we expect the love of man rather than God, mistakenly thinking that man can give us more love than Jesus.



Because we have a wrong image of God. All these sins, brothers and sisters, point to one sin, this eighth spirit, the spirit of hideous emptiness. It is none of these seven sins, it is simply nothing, it is a soul that does not have the presence of Jesus within it.



Tonight I invite you to confess your sins, but let us also remember why we are doing all this, where it all begins. Why do we feel such anxiety and emptiness, and who do we need, who have we left aside in all this?



I think that in this temple today there will be several customs chambers, and we will sit like Matthew, and we will not pay off customs duties, but forgive debts, forgive sins, forgive debts, forgive customs duties, forgive everything that you feel in yourself as a sense of debt to

God, but all this to
make room for Him, to always have God before our eyes.

 

[lukadrower]

The presence of the kingdom of darkness. What to do? 1/2

Earlier I touched on the image of the church, the image of the temple. We all create an image and at the same time an invisible spiritual edifice of the church. There are elements in the church and in the temple that are more visible and less visible. The foundation is decisive, but it is not visible.
The foundation is essential, as is everything else in the temple.
When Jesus chose the apostles, he chose people who were unnoticed by others, overlooked, invisible - people who are not noticed every day. Some fishermen pulled Matthew the tax collector out of a hole, and so on and so forth.


And as we read in the Book of Revelation in chapter 21, the apostles are the foundation for the new Jerusalem. Why? They were unnoticed, so they had to remain like that until the end, or rather forever - they are forever unnoticed, they are invisible, they are invisible, they are very spiritual.
This is a very good message for those people who think, "No one notices me." That's good. This is perhaps a calling to be as invisible as God. God is also unnoticed, and God is also unseen.
And when we read the Bible, we see that He was particularly fond of choosing people who were not usually noticed by people as his closest friends. Hence there was a wide place in God's eye for them.


There are also load-bearing elements in the temple. Souls that bear others are the supporting elements, because they have to endure a lot, and the burden of responsibility for others rests on them. There are also pillars, just like the pillars here in this temple, which have the gift of supporting, supporting, intercession and prayer.
Columns are sublime, generous people, moral and spiritual authorities for many. In every temple there are few pillars, few columns. There are more bricks in the wall than columns, there are few people who are really authorities, but a lot depends on them.


There are walls, souls fixed in goodness, not wavering, giving shelter to the terrified. There are decorative elements in the church, ornaments of the community, beautiful souls, carved by the chisels of suffering.
There are people-altars, full of sacrifice, ready to sacrifice for others. Perhaps they even like to rest their heads on this altar or kiss it. There are windows with stained glass, people who give light to others.
Our task is not only to find ourselves in God's eyes, but also to find our place in the church community.


Benedict XVI says: in Christianity, salvation is not individualistic. No one is saved here on his own, no one can be saved without being interested in others, without having anything in common with others, bypassing others.
Another thing is that this church temple is often built of rejected stones. It is very important. When we find ourselves in the temple, in the church community, we regain a double sense of value. Not only because God believes in me, but we begin to experience that others also believe in me and that I believe in others.
This is also a very important element of self-esteem.
Matthew saw that he was someone who gave light, I think, he wrote the gospel about God's faith in man. You find yourself when you allow others to find you. This is the meaning of the church.
When you give someone light, it means that you are a window in that building. When you support others, it means you are a pillar.


When you are a shelter, it means you are like a wall. When you sacrifice, you are an altar. When you let someone into the heart of Jesus, you are a gate, and so on and so forth. But in the temple, as we can see here before us with our eyes, it is very important to have an image.
We don't have a picture of what it looks like, see for yourself. It is then difficult to rest your eyes on something. In the temple it is important when there is an image, an icon, when there is a likeness to God.
How important are the people in the church, in whom we look and see a credible image of God. There are people whose face is a mirror of the face of Jesus. The most beautiful compliment that can be paid to a person is when they are told: "Looking into your face, I see that God is looking at me."
Even more important than this is the presence itself. Everything I say now determines the rest. Dwelling The Jews called it the Shekhinah or the Mishkam.


When Jesus calls the first apostles in the Gospel of John, they ask where you live. He says, "Come and see." He didn't show them a specific house number. He showed them that if they followed them, then they will feel the dwelling of God, the shechinah.
The dwelling of God is to be close to Him, and not to live in a specific number.
Even more important is the presence of God, also in our inner temple. We must make an effort not only to have the right image of God, but also His authentic presence, because our heart must also be a tabernacle.
If this temple had all the elements I mentioned, or maybe even more, but there was no tabernacle, then the temple would make no sense. She would lie like a body without a heart, she would lie like a corpse.


The prophets warned against such phenomena, calling it the abomination of desolation. It is possible that something like this could happen, that anything could happen, but the most important thing would be missing.
Saint Bernard says that when the disciples were going to Emmaus, Jesus, while translating the scriptures and explaining to them the meaning of death and resurrection, at one point made them understand that he wanted to go further, that he wanted to leave them.
Bernard writes that he did this so that the disciples would stop him even more and do good. For, as the Scripture says, the day was drawing to a close and it was evening, so dark times were coming.
In this simple sentence, prosaic, maybe even banal, you can see so much. They didn't want to spend time in an empty apartment without God, in an apartment without Jesus. And they said, "Come with us," and in that inn, the Eucharist took place there.


So do we when we are tempted in the dark. When we lose the light, we should not let Jesus go. I think that it is also especially in the evening. When that time of night comes, we should especially stay close to him, stop him with begging, not let him go, so that God doesn't ask us: "Spend at least 5 minutes of your time with me" and we don't want to.
We should have the zeal of the apostles who said, "We will not let you go." Let's pay attention to this. They tried very hard for Jesus when it began to get dark, when night was approaching, when the kingdom of darkness was becoming present.
The activity of God, especially the activity of angels and saints, is accompanied by the counteraction of the enemy, the activity of Satan, as Saint John of the Cross claims and wrote about it. The Earth is a battlefield, and it is important who lives in our soul, whether the true God or a counterfeit image of God.
You have to try very hard, especially when the night is approaching, both the real and the symbolic one.

 

[lukadrower]

The presence of the kingdom of darkness. What to do? 2/2

Matthew recorded such a parable, one of Jesus' parables, which talks about an evil spirit that is expelled from a human soul. We know this parable, but because someone did not make an effort to bring God's presence inside, the house stood empty.
That is, it was as if the soul was empty and experienced terrible visits, even an invasion of intruders. When we do not make an effort to let Jesus dwell in our soul, other spirits enter. The spirit must have its own spirit. He hates a vacuum.
The stomach can bear hunger, the heart can bear loneliness, but the soul cannot bear the absence of the spirit. But which one?
In the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew we read: "When the unclean spirit leaves a man." This word "unclean" means not only unclean in a sexual or dirty, unhygienic sense. It is not a holy spirit at all, it is not a pure spirit.

And when it leaves man, it wanders through waterless places, writes Matthew. Seeking rest, but finding none. Because its essence is anxiety. In this parable, a man is compared to a house, because the idea is to express more clearly the idea of the interior.
Mateusz wanted to illustrate this: "My interior is like a home." It is the interior that is most important in this matter, the most important thing. Whoever really lives inside of us, life cannot tolerate emptiness.
You can endure many things in life, but you cannot endure emptiness. This apartment was like a frame made of gold, but empty - without a portrait, without a painting and without a presence.

I read in Saint Catherine, or rather, when Saint Francis Xavier quotes Saint Catherine of Siena, who once had a very strong attack of unclean temptations. The temptations were quite shameless, perhaps even perverse, so the saint was terrified and at the same time wavered, thinking that sin had already conquered her.
There is a moment when temptations attack us and it seems that we have already sinned, even though we did not agree to it. And the will determines whether there was a sin or not.
And the saint staggered, terrified. It is true that her will did not consent to these offenses even for a minute, strengthened by God's grace, but when these attacks continued, she began to call out to Jesus. And she had a vision that he stood before her, and she asked him, "Lord, where were you when my heart was so full of darkness and filth?"

And then Jesus replied, "I have just been in your heart." She was surprised: "What is it like in my heart? Are you now setting up your home in hearts that are so dirty, dark and disgusting?"
Then Jesus explained everything to her. "Tell me," he said to Catherine, "did these disgusting thoughts make you happy or sad, delight or pain?" She replied, "Deepest sadness and pain."
Then Jesus explained to her: "And who poured so much sadness and pain into your heart if not I, who was hidden at the very bottom of your heart? Believe me, Catherine, if I had not been there, the thoughts that so pressed against your will , would defeat you.
You would give them access to you and play with them with pleasure. But because I was in your heart, you did everything you could to resist temptation. And because you were unable to do everything you wanted to do, your disgust grew even more. So that the fight served to strengthen your virtue and increase your merit.

She succeeded because Jesus actually lived in her, and the temptations did not arouse in her delight, pleasure, fascination or attraction, but only disgust, pain and sadness. And then she could recognize that she had been in unity with Jesus all along.
But we can delude ourselves that Jesus lives in us, because I am a priest, priest, monk, Catholic, Christian. I go to church, I cleanse my soul, I go to confession. But do I invite Jesus into my interior?
What is the point of going to confession, confessing all these 7 deadly sins, and then not receiving Holy Communion at all? So what is the point of cleansing yourself ethically or morally, improving yourself, trying to be better, and confessing your sins, and not accepting Jesus at least once a day, not saying anything to Him?
This does not mean that you have to attend the Eucharist or Mass every day, because there is also a kind of spiritual communion, through adoration of the Cross, the face of Jesus, the Word of God. It's abo
ut a friendly meeting.

 

[hawkman]

Some fishermen pulled Matthew the tax collector out of a hole, and so on and so forth.

lukadrower , where do we find in the Bible , Matthew the tax collector being pulled out of a hole ?

And as we read in the Book of Revelation in chapter 21, the apostles are the foundation for the new Jerusalem. Why? They were unnoticed, so they had to remain like that until the end, or rather forever - they are forever unnoticed, they are invisible, they are invisible, they are very spiritual.

lukadrower , do you believe the apostles were unnoticed ?

 

[lukadrower]

lukadrower , where do we find in the Bible , Matthew the tax collector being pulled out of a hole ?



lukadrower , do you believe the apostles were unnoticed ?

today it seems that more people notice the "apostles".. but because of the attacks on them.. on some servers they write that Christians are facing liquidation on a conceptual level everywhere ... see the recent Olympic introduction..

 

[lukadrower]

The Secret of the Cathedral Builders

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Jn 2:13-25. The Jewish holiday of Passover was approaching, and Jesus went to Jerusalem.
In the temple courtyard he found sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves, and money changers. Then he made a whip of ropes and drove everyone out of the temple grounds, including the sheep and the oxen.

He scattered the money of those who exchanged it and overturned their tables. And he commanded the pigeon sellers: "Take all these things out of here, and do not make my Father's house a market place."
The disciples remembered the text of the Scripture: Zeal for your house consumes me. The Jews asked Him, "What sign will you give us that you have the authority to do this?"
Jesus replied, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews replied, "It took forty-six years to build this temple, and you want to build it in three days?"

But he was talking about the temple of his body. So when He rose from the dead, the disciples remembered that He had said just that, and they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus.
While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, many people believed in His name because they saw the signs He performed. But Jesus did not reveal Himself to them, because He knew everyone.
He also did not need anyone to bear witness to Him about man, because He Himself knew what was hidden in him.

Usually, the sign of the cleansing of the temple is interpreted as a symbol of banishing from our conscience idolatry, which involves great greed. This is true, but if you looked at your life you would see that it is made of fear, anxiety, ambition, greed, lust and pride.
It is impossible to breathe healthily in such a building, its walls are toxic with fungi and therefore everything needs to be demolished. You defend your life plan, but you are not happy in it. Something must be destroyed in order to be rebuilt.

Are you allowing Christ to destroy and drive away your trade with the world? Do you allow Him to destroy your narcissistic beliefs that everything is due to you, that everyone should serve you, and everything should be according to your architectural plans, outlined by egocentric desires?
We complain that our lives are falling apart, that things are not going as we planned, that our egocentric architecture is not being realized. But if something falls apart, it is only because it has an idolatrous foundation.

If your life is in shambles, that's good, because you can finally put the construction in the hands of the carpenter's Son. Disintegration is the result of a false foundation of beliefs.
What do you really think about love? Haven't you imagined that love means constantly forcing others to idolize you and assure you that you are the most wonderful person in the world?
Isn't it true that you care more about other people's opinions than about the Bible? Haven't you convinced yourself that you have to be guided by your heart, i.e. by blind affections that have led you into a trap of hatred, dependence and jealousy?

And your false modesty, wasn't it actually the fear of making decisions and looking at others? What about your idea of perfection? What does it really have to do with evangelical perfection, and perhaps much more with the perfect and neurotic will to subjugate children and spouse, dog and aquarium fish?
Isn't your nobility really a concern for appearances? Or isn't the guise of savings hiding exploitation of others and simple fraud? And your prayers, aren't they orders? Don't you confuse being good with being good only for yourself?

You think you are exceptionally good and honest, but this may only exist in your imagination. Who you think you are must collapse, because it is not the truth, it is just a screen behind which fear, self-hatred and powerlessness are hidden.
There are many questions that cause our life edifice to crack, lashed by the lashes of truth. There are even more answers that give us a chance to rebuild. But they are all in Christ.
If you die with Him, you will also live in the new dwelling of the Spirit. The new edifice of existence is to be built on the words of God, on the Ten Commandments. Th
ey will never become outdated.

 

[lukadrower]

The hidden truth

Mark 9:2-10. After six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them away from the people to a high mountain. There he was transfigured in their presence.
His clothes became brilliantly white as no fuller on earth can whiten. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. We will build three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He didn't know what to say, they were so scared.


And a cloud appeared and overshadowed them, and a voice came from the cloud, “He is my beloved Son. Listen to him!” Immediately afterwards, when they looked around, they saw no one. Only Jesus was with them.
As they were coming down from the mountain, he commanded them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept it a secret, but wondered among themselves what it meant to rise from the dead.


Beneath the surface layer of every suffering, beneath every loneliness and self-contempt, there are desires for eternal happiness.
God spared Abraham's son, but not his own, but delivered him up for us all. And since He died for us, and what's more, He rose from the dead out of love for us, He really won us, and no accusation, remorse or perfidious condemnation of Satan can raise even the slightest doubt as to God's irreversible saving will.


The question remains: if God says about Christ: "This is my beloved Son", why did He allow Him to be handed over to such a cruel death? Didn't Abraham love Isaac?
Hugely, and yet he agreed to his death, he was even ready to kill him himself! He was ready to kill him because he loved God even more. God loves his Son, but he agreed to his death because he also loves us.


And how, since he did not spare his Son. Out of love, you save someone, even at the cost of suffering, even at the cost of death. Only the love that counts is stronger than the strongest thing, that is, death.
I will only believe in a heart that allows itself to be hit by me and yet does not close itself, but opens up to me even more. That's why Jesus died on the cross. He gave me proof of his love. Only life that counts is not afraid of death, because it is stronger than death.


We rarely realize how dangerous a world we live in. The truth about the world only reaches us when we face death. The painful truth about the impossibility of achieving lasting happiness in this world rarely reaches us with complete transparency, even though we are constantly wandering in illusory dreams.
Death will take everything from us, so it is important to know whether death is really the end or the beginning.


Beneath the surface layer of every suffering, beneath every loneliness and self-contempt, migraine and impotence, obesity and diabetes, neurotic tension and anxiety, mourning after death and compulsive sexuality, uncontrollable emotions and depression, and even suicidal temptations, there are desires for eternal happiness.


The more they strive, the more painful it is that they will not be fulfilled here. God did not want us to be torn apart by these desires and the impossibility of fulfilling them.
He does everything to make me cling to Him now, so that NOW becomes FOREVER.
After the Transfiguration, the apostles no longer saw anyone with them, only Jesus himself. This was the point: to see no one else but Jesus! Christian mysticism calls this state UNIO MISTICA, Jewish mysticism uses the word DEWQUT, i.e. adherence to God, an unbreakable bond with God.


It is both a delightful ecstasy and a constant awareness of His closeness in every miserable moment of existence. Then the world turns off, like the city lights at night after an electricity failure, and the only light remains only His figure, shining white as the moon.

 

[lukadrower]

Shocking story of a boy

Mark 1:40-45. Then a leper came to Him, fell on his knees and asked, "If you want, you can cleanse me."He had compassion, stretched out his hand, touched him and said, "I am willing, be cleansed." And immediately the leprosy disappeared. He was cleansed. Jesus commanded him firmly and immediately sent him away, saying, "Remember, do not say anything about this to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer an offering for your cleansing as a testimony to them, as Moses commanded."But he came out and started telling people about this incident. Therefore Jesus could no longer enter the city openly, but stayed in private places. But people were flocking to Him from all sides.In India, where 80 percent population professes Hinduism, every fifth Hindu is born into the caste system as unclean. Tens of millions of people are victims of general condemnation simply because they were born untouchables

.Untouchables are a social group that has historically been marginalized and discriminated against in society. They engaged in work considered unclean. Touching people from this caste was also considered unclean; touching could result in bad luck.Our world is full of untouchables - the lousy and despised. Against the background of these images, Jesus appears to us as a God who is not disgusted by a man to whom everyone is disgusted. In Jesus, lepers, scapegoats and black sheep of society return to human dignity.Paul made no distinction between Jew and Greek. The healing allowed the leper to enter the city, to return to his environment, but it prevented Jesus from entering the same city.By allowing someone to come back, he had to leave himself. The meaning of today's texts forces us to answer: Is there someone in the environment where you stay, live, work, rest and pray that you treat like a leper, a black sheep or a fifth-caste Hindu?Are you participating in the destruction of human dignity by blaming someone for all your dissatisfaction with your life, even calling someone ridiculous names?

Have you caused cynical remarks, ironic smiles, biting jokes or vulgar epithets to appear when someone sees someone? Is it not because of you that someone has a sick attitude towards himself, is constantly torn, lives in disorder and chaos, hides his face in the shadow of shame, isolates himself, closes himself off, withdraws?It starts with the fact that some child at school is weaker or has no parents who would dress him in the most fashionable clothes, wears glasses that are too big, has protruding ears, stutters like Moses, or has a crooked nose and becomes a leper pushover in the classroom. or the butt of hurtful jokes.Maybe he has red hair like David, is bad at playing football, or peed himself during class. Childhood ostracism can be cruel.At one school, boys tied up their friend in the toilet and spit on his face throughout the break. For many years the boy was ashamed of himself and grew up suppressing his enormous self-hatred.He was already a grown man, a father of three children, who passionately watched boxing matches.One day he came home drunk, grabbed his eldest son, took him to the toilet, tied him up and, screaming in a frenzy of insults, spat in his face and beat him.The battered child needed medical help. It was written about in some newspaper that was read by an old classmate, the one who had come up with this cruel idea many years earlier in the school bathroom.Jesus, moved with pity, stretched out his hand and touched the leper. Jesus reaches out to you and points you to your forgotten childhood experience, gently touching your painful memories so that you feel free from self-hatred or, worse yet, from projecting it onto those closest to you.To get out of contempt is to show mercy to someone on whom we want to throw all our
anger.

 

[lukadrower]

Free from complaints

Mark 1:29-39. Straight from the synagogue, he went with James and John to the house of Simon and Andrew. And Simon's mother-in-law was sick with a fever. They immediately told Him about her. He came over, took his mother-in-law's hand and lifted her up. Then the fever subsided and she served them.

When evening came, when the sun had already set, they brought to Him all the sick and possessed. The whole city gathered at the door. He healed many who were plagued with various diseases and cast out many demons; but he did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew him.

In the morning, before dawn, he got up and went out to a lonely place and prayed there. And Simon and those who were with him went out to look for him. When they found Him, they said to Him, "Everyone is looking for You."
And he answered them, "Let us go elsewhere, to the neighboring towns, that I may teach there also; for this is why I came out." And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Righteous Job expected repayment for the nights of anguish and months of torment, but his expectations were not soon fulfilled. Many nights were eternity long and filled with pain for him.
Somewhere in the shadow of our nobility, like a dog behind a slaughterhouse wall, lies the expectation of gratification for a life darker than nights. Who among us does not complain like Job about suffering?

Raising children, creating good relationships with your spouse, caring for living every day in a pure conscience, fighting for every penny, struggling for spiritual development, passing exams, enduring humiliations, meeting the requirements of your state and vocation - all this is tiring, but look at Jesus, Job, Paul.

Paul did not count on any payment for the effort of proclaiming and giving others the mystery of redemption, although for his priceless and devastating work he should have received the highest salary and a vacation in a Mediterranean resort. But he worked like a slave.
He gave not only Jesus and the treasure of the Gospel, but also his whole self, so that those to whom he gave himself would be all the more numerous. He sold himself to redeem even some of them. Benedict XVI said that the lack of an attitude of service in the priesthood is a profanation of the priesthood.

When Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law in the evening, he was probably tired and should take a well-deserved rest. The tired sun had already set, and the whole city was gathered at the doors that did not close until late at night.
Moreover, when after exhausting healings and exorcisms he should have allowed himself a longer sleep, he got up while it was still dark and prayed. He worked for human salvation after sunset, and in the dark morning, before the sun rose, he prayed.

Salvation is God's total self-offering to people. Thanks to him, man was redeemed, completely gained. Jesus, by giving himself completely to us, also bought us completely for heaven. He won us forever because he gave himself to us forever.
He became king forever because he worked for our salvation like a slave. What reward of gratitude did he receive from us?

The texts of today's readings can save you from claims, complaints, grievances and expectations of gratification for what you have experienced. John Paul II was already a very weak, old and sick man, but he still went on long journeys to win people for Jesus.
Someone else in his place would have asked for retirement a long time ago and moved to a warm apartment, far from human tears, and was only excited by TV news.

Some time ago, we witnessed an amazing expedition to the North Pole by Marek Kamiński and Janek Mela. They covered huge spaces to reach the coldest point on earth. Isn't it worth risking a further journey to win one frozen heart for the Gospel?
.

 

[lukadrower]

Stages of possession

Mark 1:21-28. They came to Capernaum. On the Sabbath, Jesus immediately entered the synagogue in Capernaum and taught.
His teaching was astonishing: for he taught them as one who had power, and not as the teachers of the Scriptures. There was a man in the synagogue possessed by an unclean spirit.


He cried out, “What do we have in common with you, Jesus of Nazareth? You have come to destroy us! I know who you are: the Holy One of God.” And Jesus commanded him firmly: “Be silent and come out of him!”


Then the unclean spirit, shaking the man violently and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, so much so that they asked each other, "What is this? Some new science with power!


He even commands unclean spirits and they obey him.” And the news about Him quickly spread throughout all the land of Galilee.


Although we rarely hear about cases of exorcism, there are more and more people shackled by evil and demonic power over the heart. Today's Gospel is a question about your spiritual purity.
Think about whether your spirituality is infected by any of the above interferences and whether the enemy has not already started his hidden attack on you?


Official data say that the population of the European Union is 30 percent mentally deformed. Mental illness or deformation does not have to be possession, but how much enslavement to sin is responsible for our personality deformations? Probably most! Sin is pathogenic.


The cause of demonic interference is almost always human sins. Sometimes it is an act of God. God allows an evil spirit to attack a person in order to train him in humility, patience and mortification, or to convert the environment.
It is significant that Mark, immediately after calling the first disciples, describes the exorcism of Jesus performed on a possessed man, who until then had been hiding in a pious environment, probably praying as earnestly as the rest of the participants of the services.


It is characteristic that the demon abolishes boundaries, mixes holiness with what is most hideous, and does not refrain from sacrilege and blasphemy. This man was religious but rebellious, he prayed but was disobedient to God's will.
There was a terrible contradiction hidden in it. Extreme emotional behavior, screaming or dark silence attracting attention, accusing God of intending to make man unhappy and at the same time confessing divinity in Jesus.


An unclean spirit, probably not only because the man's spirituality was mixed, but perhaps it was related to his sexual impurity. Problems with sexuality often come from a family environment in which intellectual demands, the tyranny of ambition, the cult of money or career, or the breakdown of a marriage make it impossible to give children love and tenderness.


And this is a gateway to enslavement and finally possession. Superficial religiosity, limited to an occasional confession once a year and rare visits to the temple, leads to a spiritual void that is easily haunted by dark spiritual forces.
Habitually receiving Holy Communion in a state of grave sin or habitually concealing a grave sin during confession is the most frequently used path of evil spirits. It starts innocently, even with Pokemon, then there is a passion for aggressive music, pornography or wearing occult symbols, an interest in magic, demonic images, and amulets.
Fascination with spiritual practices related to Hindu and Tibetan beliefs. Calling spirits, tarot cards, horoscopes, clairvoyance, bioenergy therapy, using a pendulum. Finally, all this is no longer enough and the human soul is sucked into Satan, leading to outright Satanism.


On the surface, such a person seems at most an interesting and appealingly original pop culture specimen, frequenting nightclubs or organizing darkened "parties" in the dormitory.
But it is enough to look Jesus in the eye, the presence of Christ in the priest, in the temple, the sound of prayer, for the dark force preying on human existence to manifest itself with a huge scream.

 

[lukadrower]

Will we survive? That will decide

Matthew 7:21. Jesus said to his disciples: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord!' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day: 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and done many miracles in Your name?'


Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity!' Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. The
rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not fall, because it was founded on the rock. But
everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house. And it fell, and its fall was great.
When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching. For He taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. This is the Word of the Lord.


Brothers and sisters, in these two readings we have this truth about life , about the life of every person, the truth about life that God displays, reveals, reveals. He shows us what it is like with our lives, because even we ourselves are not able to see the whole truth and properly assess what is happening. This
is Jesus says: "The parable of two houses built on two foundations." Home is my life and yours, what you have built, what you are building yourself with, who you are building yourself with, what you are building on.


We see from the parable that storms hit all homes, that in this existence, in this existence on this planet, there is no possibility that someone will not experience such a stormy moment that will check whether the foundation on which we are building is correct.


Because it is not the magnificence of the building, but what is invisible - the foundation. It is usually invisible, buried deep in the ground, and determines whether we survive.


But storms come to everyone, and they come to everyone. We saw, as an Old Testament illustration, not at all legendary, historical, how such a historical storm came upon a king, and a king is, after all, someone who is well protected.
King Jehoiakim reigned in Jerusalem, the holy place.


We learned from the Holy Scripture that his mother's name was Nehushta, perhaps it comes from the word "nahash" - snake. This mother is a bit snake-like. And he also had a father whom he imitated.


He clearly had a strong admiration for him, but Jehoiachin's actions, although they were imitations of his father, were evil in God's eyes - that's what the Bible says.
And actually, after this short information, we learn that Nebuchadnezzar, or rather his servants, came and took this holy city and destroyed this holy temple and this strong king who, perhaps, was confident of his power, lost his confidence, trembled and fell. And his fall was great,
because although he was strengthened by his mother and father, and by tradition, culture and religion, in the eyes of God his actions were evil. We learned from the text that not only he and his family, but even the entire court and all the important people of Jerusalem were deported into captivity.


Like ordinary slaves, in an instant their greatness collapsed. So storms are not necessarily climate-related. A storm is simply a powerful change that affects our existence. Interestingly, only those who were poorest remained in Jerusalem.


The text says that they lost everything, not only the king, queen and court, but the princes also lost, the courtiers, the brave warriors also fell, even the blacksmiths and locksmiths, as the Bible says. Only the poorest remained in Jerusalem.
Maybe their lives were built on the rock, based on God, because who can the poorest count on? For God's sake, not for connections, not for connections, not for prestige, not for promotion, not for money and not for power, but for God.
This is a detail in this text, but it clearly corresponds to this parable of the two houses. When we wonder why this is so and what, in a deeper sense, determines the ruin, the ruin of our life, a life not built on God, we will ask Jesus.
What does He, our Lord, have to explain here? He reveals this to us in depth, he says: Not everyone who says, 'Lord, Lord,' speaks, and not everyone who hears, but only the one who fills, builds his house, his life, in such a way that no storm can destroy it. will destroy. Fulfill the will of the Lord.
Let us think even more deeply, because this text from Matthew, chapter 7, this speech of Jesus, was addressed to Jesus' disciples. Such speech should not be addressed to people who believe in Jesus and Jesus, to people to whom we would actually expect.


And yet he says to his disciples: "It is not enough that you say, 'Lord' to me. In this way we acknowledge you as Lord. We believe in this God, in this Jesus Christ. And not everyone who even says to me, but even listens to my words, just as we read, ponder and listen tonight.
What is decisive is whether we fulfill it, because a storm will come. As Jesus concluded his story, he said that the fall of the house was great.
If the fall was great, the house was also huge. But the foundation was very loose, made of sand. He also addresses these words to people to whom he tells them that they will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven: "I never knew you." How so? I never knew you? After all, they called him "Lord" and even performed miracles with the power of His name.
How did I not know you? Will he deny them? What does it mean to know the Lord or to be known to God? "Depart from me, you who practice iniquity." What iniquity is Jesus talking about? Does it say that these people sinned in some unique way?
Perhaps they were thieves, adulterers, proud? No sin is mentioned, but you are committing iniquity. What is this iniquity? It would appear from the context that unrighteousness consists in calling God "Lord", i.e. worshiping Him, kneeling, crossing oneself and praying. Man has some religious culture towards God.


What's more, he listens. So he has his ears open, he nods, he says, "Yes, it's true, what God says, what the church says, what Christ says, it's all so good." But he doesn't fulfill it.
Does not fill in. Jesus addresses these words to people who have been deceived by their religiosity. Can you be deceived by something like religion? Of course! This is one of the most dangerous spaces for the human spirit: religion. Precisely because it allows man to approach God.
That is why it becomes so dangerous even to his salvation.


Interestingly, Jesus did not have such harsh words for the adulteress who washed his feet with her hair, because she knew her sin and did not hide the fact that she was a sinner. He did not have such harsh words for Matthew, who was a tax collector and perhaps also stole and cheated.
One look was enough and Mateusz changed. He did not have such harsh words for sick people, lepers or even possessed people. He only had harsh words for the scribes, the Pharisees. And here we learn that he said such things even to his disciples, which is puzzling and even terrifying.
He said to the Pharisees and scribes, "A brood of vipers." What do you mean, a brood of vipers? Viper - Nehushta. Just like that mother of Jehoiakim.


And he said to them in Matthew 23, that you keep everything external. You shine like a cup, like a golden cup, on the outside you shine, but on the inside you are full of iniquity, abominations, lust and pride.
Not everyone who speaks, but he who does. What do I fill myself with? I am preaching this sermon here today, you are listening to this sermon. But what I am truly filled with inside is what matters. God, or something completely different?

 

[lukadrower]

Prayer of affirmation can make you the salt of the earth. 1/2

And Jesus says this: unless you change, you will not become like children. You have to see this child in yourself and accept that you also have a child in yourself. That this child needs a hug, a kiss, noticed, praised.

Here there are very serious people of a serious age, and they can testify to you that sometimes they behave immaturely, right? And the Lord gives us such joy in this and such freedom that we do not have to pretend to be anyone.

There is a fear within us of discovering this powerlessness in the face of reality. It is embarrassing to admit that everything is simply beyond us and that we do not know how to behave and that we have spoiled many things. We are afraid to show that we are children.

There is a desire in us to hide and justify our failures, which are like a certificate of God's childhood. Failure is a diploma that you are fit for heaven. If you can accept failure, you are fit for heaven.

If you can accept failure, you say: "Oh yes, it was a failure, I was inept, it didn't work", very well. Jesus, listening to our prayers to finally make us children, will not give us clothes from the period of our first Holy Communion.

Rather, He will make us smaller through situations, and what situation can make you smaller? A situation where you don't feel superior to others. Yes?

He can then give us events that will prove to us that we are not mature or even adults to admit that we are not mature. He can create events for us that will reveal that we are immature. Do you like such situations?

Conceit is everywhere where a person is satisfied with himself. He can be smug, in the bad sense that he can be proud of himself. Peter failed to be faithful, and so did Magdalene. And what was unsuccessful in them was successful.

What is truer in us: weakness or strength? Powerlessness or resourcefulness, coping with life or not coping with it? Greatness or smallness? Perhaps there are people who say to themselves: "God, everything in my life has gone wrong.

What I wanted to achieve, everything collapsed. What I wanted to achieve, everything turned out wrong. You have the most divine life.

Who doesn't have this life? comes out, that came out. It's really like this. You look at Jesus, He is not sitting comfortably with a crown on his head, he is hanging on the cross. And you say: "I praise You, Lord." Do you know what you are saying?

To worship means to want to imitate. Jesus says from the cross: "Your life will be thwarted. Do you want this? You already have a life marked by the cross. And fortunately, that is the case. A blessing in disguise, and this is Jesus' invention in this world. If it weren't for Him, this misfortune would be just misfortune.

And that is why He talks about blessings and curses, that those who are sad will rejoice, that those who weep will laugh, that those who are poor will be rich. See? Because a Christian is someone who has the patience to wait for misfortune to turn into happiness.

Because true joy is overcome sadness. If someone wants to wait for the kingdom of heaven, let him enter into the deepest shadow, into the nightmare of his life, into the shadow of his life, into the cross of his life, into the loneliness of his life, into the defeat of his life and wait until it all shines with light, and then it will turn out that he has entered the very middle of pleasure.

I am absolutely sure of what I am saying, because I could say it with the texts of Holy Scripture, but I am speaking with the Word of God, although it is not a quote, it is the very essence of salvation.

The Lord told us that just a little bit of leaven is enough to leaven the entire dough. A person does not have to preach retreats, does not have to preach through the media, does not have to write books. I don't have to do anything and you don't have to do anything. It is enough that you have a conviction in your heart about the truth, and then you gesticulate differently,

because convictions come out even in the smallest gestures. Have you noticed this?

And this is already passed on to others, when someone is convinced of the truth about salvation, he behaves this way, he looks this way, he talks this way, he feels it, he certainly feels it. There is also another human action, and it transforms reality. This is what Jesus said, that you will be salt, a little, and the world will immediately become tasty.

Tertullian says: "You Christians are the soul of this world. The world is the body and you are the soul." Not everyone has to be converted, you give life to others. Christians - the soul of this world.

Jesus spent many hours with his disciples, he spent many hours talking to them non-stop, especially the Gospel of John shows that he spent a lot of time talking. Why? Because when you talk a lot, the bonds deepen, and he already had such relationships with them that one day he said:

"I no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know, he does not know what his master is saying, but I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from the Father."

So friendship is strictly dependent on listening to him a lot. One night I was desperate and rebellious, because my helplessness, helplessness, lack of self-control during the day made it so obvious that I saw myself as a kid who couldn't assess the situation at all, but he thought he could because after such conferences, retreats, a person may think to himself: I am someone extraordinary.

I saw that I couldn't control myself at all. I was angry because I wanted to hide my clumsiness under a mask of contempt and anger. When a person can't cope with something, he gets angry to hide what he can't cope with.

So I looked at others with contempt, hurt them with refusal and aggression. Where does a lot of our anger towards others come from? Because others are really that bad? Is it because we can't deal with them?

,

 

[lukadrower]

Prayer of affirmation can make you the salt of the earth. 2/2




What was I angry about? That I don't know how to live. I can't be mature, I can't control the situation or my emotions, I'm not always right, I'm often not right at all, I'm wrong. Sometimes I say stupid things, I don't know how to behave, I'm afraid, I'm ashamed. Do you feel this way too?

It's good to say this to yourself: I'm not better than other people, than others. And others, looking at me, expect maturity from me, which is cosmically unavailable to me.

And today? Today the Lord calls us to look for joy in all this, not anger. This weakness, this discovery of the child within, is a grace for me, and for you too. God is saying to you: "Now don't be afraid of it, just rejoice in it, even though you may have thought it was a curse. Today, look at it as a blessing. You can see God's desire for you to be

like a child. This is your passport to heaven, your failed stories. Do not be afraid of the conditions in which you discover fears, because they bring us to our knees and teach us childlike prayer.

See when you pray most truly, when you discover that you are not living truly. When your life breaks, not necessarily suffering, but simply fear, helplessness.

That's why God sometimes allows us to experience this helplessness, helplessness, because He says: "Well, I would like to finally hear something authentic from your mouth, you keep repeating some quotes.

God says: "I will give you an experience that will make you truly pray because I am tired of these quotes. Salvation is available to those who are beset by overwhelming circumstances. Whoever copes with life does not seek God's help.

Whoever does not seek God , does not find salvation. We need to see in life that everything is beyond us in order to call out to God: "Save me." You have to be deep down for the prayer to be deep. How can there be a deep prayer if a person deep down is not ?

So what you are going through, what is even your lowest point, is necessary for the depth of your prayer. When Jonah prayed for the first time in his life, when he was inside the fish. Sometimes it happens that when others have you in... then you pray.

Do an exercise, accept your inner child, like Jesus standing before Pilate. Maybe in your free time during these days of reflection, imagine a small child with your face from a photo, preferably one you didn't like to see as a child.

If you are a woman , let it be a girl, if a man - a boy. He stands before you, the embodiment of everything you dislike and oppose yourself. It may even be a memory from your childhood, from that period that you don't like to remember.

Maybe this child has his head down, has the sadness of Jesus' face, stands like Jesus before Pilate, stands like your worst past before you, after everything the Lord told you at this conference, think what you can do for him.

Will you let him not exist? Will you accept its existence? Will you constantly deny your inner child and say, "You have to do this, you have to pull yourself together, you have to pretend," or will you tell him, "I love you"?

Do you want to deal with him as Pilate did with Jesus, wash your hands and throw him away, or do you want to deal with him as Jesus did with the deaf man whom he took into his fatherly hands? Maybe you will accept him again and tell him: "I accept you, I love you. I love your weakness



I love your incompetence, I love your failures, I love your mistakes, I love your failures, I love your fears, I love your cowardice, I love that you do not you can defend yourself, you can't justify yourself, I love that you were ridiculed, I love that you were humiliated, I love that you were crossed out, that others made you nothing. I love it because Jesus is in it. I love

you even then when it seems to you that you were a nightmare for me. I love that no one believed in me, that I couldn't cope with anything, with feelings, with intellect, with life, with work, with people. I love you. I

agree to you, I want never to reject you or be ashamed of you again. I want to always present you like this to God and to myself."

It would be good if you made such a prayer today. I cordially invite you to give yourself a chance today, because why would you listen to me for so long, or maybe not even to me, and not accept yourself? Amen.

 

[lukadrower]

Let us pray that we will survive

...

Mark 13:24. In those days, after this tribulation, the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers that are in heaven will be shaken.

Then they will see the Son of Man coming on clouds with power and great glory. Then he will send angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

I don't know what kind of darkness he was talking about - whether it was the kind where the sun would not be visible in the atmosphere, or whether it was moral darkness; there will simply be moral ignorance.

and there will be no light of hope, or perhaps darkness of such a kind that people will be in complete despair and there will be nothing that can comfort them, even for a moment. I don't know what darkness he was talking about, but he was talking about darkness, and it is a symbol of something very evil.

When Saint Paul spoke about darkness, he said to put off the works of darkness, because the night is far gone and the day, that is, Christ, is at hand. And when he speaks of the works of darkness, he means primarily the sins themselves.

Also in Revelation, chapter 9, the angel of darkness coming out of the well of the bottomless pit caused darkness to reign in the world itself. People suffered incredible torment for a symbolic time of 5 months and searched for death and could not find it.

This is a very symbolic image of our world, where everyone is fed up with life, but they enjoy life as much as they can and cannot get to the right Heaven, because it still seems to me that they can make artificial ones for themselves.

Let us remember Jesus' parable about the wise and foolish virgins. These foolish virgins, who had no oil but had lamps, remained in outer darkness as a symbol of their rejection from God. And although they knocked on the door and cried out, "Lord, open," the Lord did not open to them, because they had no inner oil.

The speechless man at the banquet, who did not know what to say when the king asked him where the wedding garment was, was also thrown into the outer darkness. So what is darkness? And why do we Christians have to explain the darkness to ourselves?

For Jesus says: "What I tell you in darkness, repeat openly." What is Jesus telling you in the darkness? In what darkness are you telling us something?

In my darkness, when I no longer have light, when I am already experiencing rejection, a closed door of hope, when it seems to me that I am experiencing hell on Earth, when everything around me is some kind of black, sticky, painful, unbearable tar. wash away when it seems like it will never end, and yet in this darkness the Lord speaks to us.

What does he say? He says words that are a flash of hope. He says, "Even the hairs of your heads are numbered; therefore do not be afraid. You are more valuable than many sparrows. Whoever confesses to me in this darkness, I will confess to." These words breathe great hope and love.

These words tell us that God in the darkest night, when we have the darkest thoughts and the darkest types are all around us, and when we have the darkest feelings, God speaks to us with hope and says: "Persevere, because I am with you. I see you, and this hell that is on Earth will pass."

Stick to my word, which is like an oath that I will not leave you, that I will not leave you, and all your enemies and all those who destroy you and kill you, mock and mock you, will pass away like a cloud, disappear from the sun, like the moon in time eclipses.

This will pass, because everything in this world passes, even hell. Let us rather be afraid of falling into a hell that will never pass.

No, let's not be afraid of people, and let's not be afraid of all those experiences that may be overwhelming us and take away our hope and make us worry. Let us remember what Jesus says elsewhere, Matthew 6:33: "Search first for the kingdom of God, and all other things will be added to you."

Take care of God, God will take care of you. As you take care of God, God will take care of saving you from your hell. Because this hell on earth is passing. That doesn't go away. "But among you even the hairs of your head are numbered, and not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the will of the Father."

It's hard to believe that God predicts every move of a sparrow's wing, or that He knows the exact number of our hairs. It knows the composition of the entire genome of each of us. Why wouldn't he know this if he is omniscient?

He is God after all, not some kind of idol. God, not just some idol. This is not someone brilliant, this is someone beyond brilliant. And He does not forget those who do not forget Him.

So tonight, brothers and sisters, we must say this to ourselves once again: God swears to us that he will pull us out of every pit, out of every darkness, even out of death. God gave his Son so that we would not perish in darkness. Let's hope for the future.

Let us pray that we will survive any hellish stages of our existence. Let us thank the Lord for giving us words in the Bible that allow us to believe in the meaning of perseverance and allow us to arouse this perseverance and expectation for the coming of God's Help in all this, which is overwhelming darkness for us.

This darkness that is unbearable. Whatever is unbearable for me or you, will pass. As long as we hold on to God's hand. Amen.

 

[lukadrower]

Free from complaints.

Mark 1:29-39. Straight from the synagogue, he went with James and John to the house of Simon and Andrew. And Simon's mother-in-law was sick with a fever. They immediately told Him about her. He came over, took his mother-in-law's hand and lifted her up. Then the fever subsided and she served them.

When evening came, when the sun had already set, they brought to Him all the sick and possessed. The whole city gathered at the door. He healed many who were plagued with various diseases and cast out many demons; but he did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew him.

In the morning, before dawn, he got up and went out to a lonely place and prayed there. And Simon and those who were with him went out to look for him. When they found Him, they said to Him, "Everyone is looking for You."

And he answered them, "Let us go elsewhere, to the neighboring towns, that I may teach there also; for this is why I came out." And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Righteous Job expected repayment for the nights of anguish and months of torment, but his expectations were not soon fulfilled. Many nights were eternity long and filled with pain for him.
Somewhere in the shadow of our nobility, like a dog behind a slaughterhouse wall, lies the expectation of gratification for a life darker than nights. Who among us does not complain like Job about suffering?

Raising children, creating good relationships with your spouse, caring for living every day in a pure conscience, fighting for every penny, struggling for spiritual development, passing exams, enduring humiliations, meeting the requirements of your state and vocation - all this is tiring, but look at Jesus, Job, Paul.

Paul did not count on any payment for the effort of proclaiming and giving others the mystery of redemption, although for his priceless and devastating work he should have received the highest salary and a vacation in a Mediterranean resort. But he worked like a slave.

He gave not only Jesus and the treasure of the Gospel, but also his whole self, so that those to whom he gave himself would be all the more numerous. He sold himself to redeem even some of them. Benedict XVI said that the lack of an attitude of service in the priesthood is a profanation of the priesthood.

When Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law in the evening, he was probably tired and should take a well-deserved rest. The tired sun had already set, and the whole city was gathered at the doors that did not close until late at night.
Moreover, when after exhausting healings and exorcisms he should have allowed himself a longer sleep, he got up while it was still dark and prayed. He worked for human salvation after sunset, and in the dark morning, before the sun rose, he prayed.

Salvation is God's total self-offering to people. Thanks to him, man was redeemed, completely gained. Jesus, by giving himself completely to us, also bought us completely for heaven. He won us forever because he gave himself to us forever.
He became king forever because he worked for our salvation like a slave. What reward of gratitude did he receive from us?

The texts of today's readings can save you from claims, complaints, grievances and expectations of gratification for what you have experienced. John Paul II was already a very weak, old and sick man, but he still went on long journeys to win people for Jesus.

Someone else in his place would have asked for retirement a long time ago and moved to a warm apartment, far from human tears, and was only excited by TV news.
Some time ago, we witnessed an amazing expedition to the North Pole by Marek Kamiński and Janek Mela. They covered huge spaces to reach the coldest point on earth. Isn't it worth risking a further journey to win one frozen heart for the Gospel?

 

[lukadrower]

Hear the call of God

Jn 1:35-42. The next day John stood there again, and with him two of his disciples. And when he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard Him speaking and followed Him.

When Jesus turned and saw them following Him, he asked them, "What are you looking for?" They said, "Rabbi - that is, teacher - where do you live?" He answered them, "Come and see."
So they went and saw where he lived. And on that day they remained with Him. This happened around ten o'clock. One of the two who heard John's words and followed Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.

He first sought out his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah,” that is, the Christ. Then he brought him to Jesus. When Jesus looked at him, he said, “You are Simon, the son of John. From now on your name will be Cephas, which means Peter.

Samuel received the word, but it was the word that pushed him towards man. He didn't understand it well, but he shared it with another person. He begins his story as a prophet in darkness, serving as a servant to the indifferent high priest Eli. He is deprived of support and deprived of many entertainments of this world. He slept modestly in the tabernacle, so he spent moments of darkness with God. God was enough for him.

God speaks in the darkness and wakes you up from the night. He speaks in darkness because he loves the secrets and solitude of his chosen ones: "And when the sun had set, and there was deep darkness, then the Lord made a covenant with Abram" (Genesis 15:17-18). The covenant with Abram was made in impenetrable darkness.
The patriarch's loneliness was filled with the presence of God. The greater the loneliness, the greater the chance of discovering the Presence. But God also wakes us up at night because he hates sin and iniquity. “The night is far gone, and the day is near. So let us put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light!” (Rom 13:12).

God is speaking to someone humble, dark and small, like Samuel. So don't worry about the fact that you don't mean anything to anyone and that you are a small person. God wanted to talk to little Samuel, not to the great and famous Eli. You too can hear God calling at night and you will probably wake up in fear, staring into the darkness and listening carefully to the footsteps outside the door.

You can hear the voice of the Lord on the street or in a restaurant, at work or in a moment of breakdown when everyone has abandoned you, or while dancing, and certainly in a temple, even one where all the candles have gone out.
John's disciples followed Jesus, following an ordinary path that never ended for them and became a path of extraordinary experiences. You can even hear the voice of God when the darkness of your sins removes the light of hope and it seems to you that your life is an ordinary, gray path, one of a million.

You can always follow Jesus, but many pretend to follow Him and few really follow Him. By following Jesus, we follow a Person, His love. Not to suck up, feign piety, fulfill obligations, or satisfy personal claims.
Samuel served the Lord with an ungodly priest. A holy man is not bothered by anyone's impiety. The last sentence of the reading says that God did not allow any word that Samuel spoke to fall to the ground.

He didn't mince words - we would say in modern language. Everything Samuel said awakened others to the love of God. No word is wasted among those who experience every Word of God as an awakening.
Jesus asked the disciples, "What are you looking for?" This is an important question that forced students to think about the purpose of their fate. And what are you looking for? They asked him about the apartment, looking for a place to stay for themselves.

Meanwhile, living with Jesus means constantly walking, constantly rising from the darkness, waking up from the nightmare of sin, being ready to leave the comfort of one's own sleep just to obey His command. Only when you follow Jesus do you see wh
at it means to live with God.