The Holy Myrrh-bearer and Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene; Return of the Relics of the Priest-Martyr Phocas.
Romans 13:1-10; Matthew 12:30-37.
Read Matthew 12:30-37
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Nowadays, many people, instead of following their unique vocation to holiness, prefer to be “left alone” and to enjoy the stability of doing nothing radical. Worrying too much about “what other people say,” we are inclined to choose the “normality” and “neutrality” of the world instead of following Christ, since we are afraid to take a trouble of firmly standing on Christian values. Yet, in the very first sentence of a given passage Jesus states that there could never be neutrality in our lives. In our perpetual unseen warfare against the evil, there are only two sides we can choose. We are either with Christ or against Him. We are either gathering with Jesus or scattering with Satan. There is no halfway house, since our abstention from a choice or our refusal to support one side inevitably leads to the assistance of the other side. Our active presence strengthens the Church, while our absence is weakening it.
Today, many people are saying that they do not need to go to church in general and to Confession in particular, since they are not doing anything wrong. However, after our death we will not only be judged on the basis of our bad actions, but first and foremost on the basis of good things that we failed to do. Not being sensitive to the voice of God, we may eventually come to the point that our eyes and ears may become ultimately shut to God’s ways, so we can no longer recognize God’s truth, beauty, and goodness. By giving preference exclusively to our own desires and self-perceptions, we may totally overlook God’s plan about our lives and we may eventually come to the stage when our own evil doings nay seem to be good and acceptable to us. If it happens, the repentance will no longer be an option. When a person no longer recognizes evil as evil, he or she can no longer be sorry for it and to be forgiven, for repentance is the only way to absolution. The gravity of the sin against the Holy Spirit so strongly underlined by Jesus may come into our life if we loose all sense of sin and keep ourselves blind and death to the voice of God. Therefore, we may never say that we do not need religion, Church or Confession, since they help us to stay awake and to remain sensitive to the voice of God.