We need to launch out into the deep. To be with Jesus scourged, crowned with thorns and mocked. It is about the attitude of heart. The Apostle Paul says: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus… He humbled Himself to the point of death.” Indeed, Jesus gave us an example. He says clearly: “Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me.” Self-denial is not only physical. It means above all to deny our “self”, the root of our ego, the old self which wants to take everything fully into its own hands. This self-denial also concerns our thinking, our feelings and our mental and physical discipline. Moreover, it is a question of curiosity of the eyes, a question of preferring a variety of irrelevant information to doing God’s will in a particular situation. For instance, sometimes God speaks to us and wants us to deny ourselves a little. Suddenly we have an irresistible urge to do anything else but abandon our thoughts or plans and contact God’s thoughts and God’s presence.

The devil often uses sadness to break the relationships in the family or community! Sometimes, without meaning to, we focus our mind on a problem or begin to daydream and we do not realize that our face speaks louder than words (that is why people, when talking together, watch the face in order to sense what the other person means by his or her words). However, our face speaks even when our mouth is silent. Our thought, behind which is a certain spirit, becomes visible on our face – in our eye. That is why we should abide in and be filled with Christ and His Word at least out of love for our neighbours. Example: A negative emotional thought occurs in your mind in relation to your neighbour, which leads to self-pity or aversion. What to do? Immediately the exact opposite. Take the Word of God at once as a sword against the spirit which is behind this thought. Namely: 1. Humble yourself, and repent of judging your brother (though in thoughts only). The Word of God says: “The judgment is God’s!” (Deu 1:17) “Who are you to judge your neighbour?” (Jam 4:12) 2. Make every effort to appreciate a certain positive trait of your neighbour or something good he or she has done. 3. Ask your neighbour for forgiveness in your heart, and humble yourself before him or her.

If our mind is not concentrated in the prayer spiritual struggle, and we are absorbed in our thoughts and absent-minded, demons laugh. If we struggle with distraction and try to abide in the particular truths of the Word of God at least to some extent, the prayer is of some – albeit very minimal – benefit. God does accept our good will. Prayer is of the greatest benefit when we have the full armour of God and we know which Bible verse to use as the sword of the Spirit – the Word of God spoken in the Spirit and at the right time – the word of prophecy – rather than the letter of Scripture or a phrase.

Note that some people, especially scientists, who search for certain regularities in the realm of matter, carrying out researches in engineering or medicine, often spend years in a careful search or examination in order to discover a certain law. When they discover something, they derive some enjoyment from it. Similarly, we should discover and come to know certain mysteries hidden in God. The mystery of good and evil, the mystery of the history of humanity and spiritual warfare with demons, the mystery of God’s love, God’s greatness and other mysteries which we will know in the light of God in heaven. Now we see in a mirror (1Cor 13:12), dimly, but then we shall see God and the truth face to face. Discovery and knowledge of things somehow makes man happy, fills the human heart. In heaven we will come to an ever deeper knowledge of the truths.

After the descent of the Holy Spirit, the apostles went and proclaimed two things: that Christ died for our sins and that He rose from the dead… God accompanied their evangelization with mighty signs and wonders. So it should be today. We should witness to these two fundamental truths. This is our agenda. We are to be “martyrés” – witnesses of Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit will bring miracles to pass.

“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (Jn 14:2-3)

On the fortieth day after His resurrection, Jesus ascends to heaven where He reserves a place for us. We need to realize that heaven is our home, our fatherland. For example, we can reflect on the following reality: We can see Christ on the Mount of Olives where He appears to the Apostles and to the Blessed Virgin. Jesus says to them: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Mt 28:18-19) After that, He was taken up and angels appeared and said to them: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11)

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Mt 6:33)

Seeking is a painful process. If you have lost e.g. your identity papers or money, you seek it anxiously because you need it. And when you have found it, you rejoice. Let us seek first the kingdom of God. We ought to seek it anxiously until we find it…

Let us also seek His righteousness. It consists in the fact that Jesus took on Himself the just punishment for my and your sin and shows His mercy on us. God’s mercy is in Him. Jesus died for me and gives me freely, through faith, the kingdom of God, eternal happiness. I should know it and seek it.

How much we have been deceived by different views of Scripture. We have forgotten to live the Scripture. The Scripture gives us directions for life. So we need to begin to learn slowly and seriously the nuts and bolts: e.g. Jesus says, “If your brother has something against you, go and be reconciled to your brother.” In other words – e.g. your brother vents his anger and rebukes you unjustly and now there is a tense situation. He becomes aware of his guilt afterwards, and is overcome with sorrow. He does not know what to do, how to apologize, and tension increases. An old proverb says ‘Silence is gold’, but in this case silence is hell – the atmosphere grows more and more tense and affects the people around too. Gloomy faces on both sides, and self-pity is working at full speed. The devil and the old self bring thousands of arguments against the brother and present his behaviour as a supreme crime. What to do? Who should make the first step, or rather, who is obliged to? According to the Gospel, he who has been wronged is obliged to make the first step. You have been wronged, and moreover, your brother has something against you!

Jesus says to the apostles: “… but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.” (Jn 14:19) Will the apostles see Christ? Yes, they will see Him risen on the third day after His death, and then He will appear to them during forty days. And they will also see Him in the light of glory at the moment of their physical death, when they will see Him as He is. They will see Him! The first of the apostles to see Him in this way was one of the brothers for whom their mother had interceded that they should sit one on the right hand and the other on the left of Christ. Jesus then asked them: “Can you drink the cup I am about to drink?” James and his brother John said to Him: “We can.” Jesus said to them: “You will indeed drink My cup.” And they indeed did. The first to drink the cup of suffering was John, who was the only one of the apostles who experienced union with Christ’s death by being willing to die, and that was why he remained standing faithfully at the foot of the cross. His brother James was the first of the apostles to lay down his life for Christ as a martyr. He was beheaded with a sword.

When you do somebody wrong – either unknowingly or, worse still, knowingly – there is tension between you. When you then realize it, you suddenly see your fault and you see that the person you have wronged has been hurt and suffers.

I remember one example from Italy: A group of thieves – young boys – broke into a jeweller’s shop and killed the jeweller during the robbery. They were caught and sentenced to many years in prison. There was a woman with little children present at the trial. She was the jeweller’s widow. At the sight of her and her children, one of the boys suddenly understood what evil he had done, what pain he had caused them. His conscience was stirred and he begged their forgiveness. And the woman said she forgave him…

Our cross is truly the greatest gift from God; it is meant to strip us completely of the old self, of the slightest clinging to anything, and to clothe us in thoughts of essential things – death, heaven, hell, and the abandoned, humiliated and crucified Jesus.

Whenever God wants to give new life – resurrection, the way to new life is through the death of the old self. There is no other way than to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus, and then die spiritually to yourself, to sin, and to the world! May God, through various little things, lead us into death with Mary and through Mary.

Christ appeared to the apostles on the evening of His resurrection. God willed that the Apostle Thomas should not be with them. The apostles said to him: “We have seen Jesus! We doubted at first, thinking in fear that we were seeing a ghost. But Jesus said to us, ‘Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself! Touch Me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’ Then He asked if we had anything to eat, and ate it in our presence, so that we might believe that it was really Him risen from the dead. The bones of the fish that Jesus ate are a testimony to that. Jesus is really alive. All of us, the ten apostles and the two disciples who went to Emmaus, have seen Him with our own eyes.” But Thomas would not accept the testimony of the apostles and did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. For a whole week he was in unbelief and just kept repeating to them: “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” A week later, on Sunday evening, Jesus appeared to the apostles again. His first words were: “Peace be with you!” Then He turned to Thomas and repeated his request in exactly the same words: “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.” How did Thomas respond? He cried out: “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus says: “Abide in Me, and I in you.” (Jn 15:4) He is in us. He is with us. “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20) But we are not with Him. That’s the problem! He is in me but, in fact, I am not in Him, and so I do not rely on Him.

“Abide…” How? By actual faith, by realizing the particular truth of the Word of God, receiving it personally and uniting to it. This truth then works in me and unites me to Jesus. Be aware: “Jesus, You are now in me, and I in You.”

The Word of God says: “We were buried with Christ in baptism and also raised with Him.” (Col 2:12) This is not a literary expression or poetry. This is reality! How we were raised with Christ and how we received a new life is a mystery. There is nothing to think about. Scripture says so and therefore it is reality. God’s Word says: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” and “We are a living temple of the Holy Spirit”. If we are in a state of sanctifying grace, all that Jesus obtained for us at Calvary and all that belongs to Him He gives to us, so it is also ours. If we give ourselves to Him and are united to Him, then if we have Christ, we have all things in Him. St Paul says: “In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Jesus wants mature people. He can do more with one mature person in a year than He can do with hundreds of immature people in 200 years. The mark of maturity is actually the degree of dying to self with Christ. The essence of this death to self is in humility, in completely renouncing at every moment one’s own will, one’s own good, one’s own ideas or desires, and accepting everything out of love for Jesus. People who are completely forgotten, buried, those who have died with Christ, mature souls, who have offered themselves as a sacrifice to Jesus – it is their sacrifice that decides the future of nations.

The greatest blessing is when God gives us the grace to be evil spoken of, unjustly suspected, reproached and humiliated for His name’s sake. The Lord Jesus trod this path before us, because He loved us. He was completely innocent. Yet He forgave and prayed for everyone.

The most important thing is to persevere with Jesus abandoned, not to nourish the slightest bitterness towards anyone, to constantly encourage one another and remember: Of what spirit we should be?! Yes, of the Spirit of Christ, who is meek and lowly. We need to humble ourselves before God again and again by entering into the truth about ourselves: How much self-will, how many critical thoughts and words, how much unbelief when we acted without God, according to our own reason, feelings or wishes. How much have we suffered not in order to promote the things of God but our own interests instead! Life goes by. No day will return. What we have sown in faith is sown.