If we lived in the truth, put our sins under the power of the Blood of Jesus, walked in the light, judged ourselves, then it is true: “If you judge yourselves, you will not be judged.” (1Cor 11:31) This is very important. If we judged ourselves, we will encounter Jesus as the One who is waiting to receive us with open arms. “Good and faithful servant: enter into the joy of your Lord.” (Mt 25:23) This encounter will be inexpressible joy. The Word of God says: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1Cor 2:9)

The sins which we have given to Christ have already been judged. We confessed them and repented. It does not mean that we should go to confession every day but every day we should enter into the light and repent, that means, admit our sin: “Yes, Lord, I have sinned. I forgive my brother who has hurt me, and I beg You to forgive me too. I exalted myself above him, I criticized him, I failed to do what I was obliged to do, I was lazy. You had Your plan for me this day, and I followed my own interests. You wanted me to preach the Gospel to the people I met but I followed my own plans and lost the chance. Yes, Lord, I have sinned, I was self-willed, I confess. I cannot rectify it but now I judge myself. I want to obey You again.” And God forgives, rectifies all our mistakes but we must repent time and again.

Every true scientist should be a believer if he is a real expert in his field. He need only look at the wisdom and the thousands of laws that are in the physical world or in the world of biology or zoology… We humans have computers, we launch spaceships into space, but we can not produce a single wheat grain that would grow and contain a life hidden within. Michael Faraday was the man who invented the dynamo. He died in 1867. He was a devout believer. When asked what his idea was about what would happen after death, he said he had no idea but he was sure about it. He quoted the Scripture from the letter to Timothy: “I know whom I have believed” (2Ti 1:12). And he added: “I’m sure. I’m sure that after I die, I’ll pass into Jesus’ arms. I trust the Word of God.”

Let us always remember the words of Jesus who says that we know neither the day nor the hour when the Lord will call us. True wisdom is to be mindful of death, judgment, eternity and the meaning of our life and suffering, which can be physical or spiritual. In the first place, Jesus wants us to deny our self, our pride, lies or our point of view and to accept the view of God. And if we can suffer for the sake of Christ, if we are humiliated, ridiculed or even if people spit in our face, we should be exceedingly glad. We read in the eighth Beatitude: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” (Mt 5:11-12) But we often feel down or are immersed in our thoughts or interior monologue. When a problem arises, the first thing is: Where is Jesus? “Lord, I am helpless now, but what should I do? I suffer now, but not alone. With You!” Unite to Jesus and offer it to Him as a sacrifice. This is the most important thing.

When man dies, the body remains lying where it is. Then it is taken to the morgue. But at the moment when man dies, the personal judgment of his soul takes place immediately. It awaits each one of us. We will encounter Christ face to face. At one moment our whole life will be screened, all our deeds, words, thoughts, both good and bad, as the Word of God says: “There is nothing hidden which will not be revealed.” And at that very moment our fate will be decided. We will either be condemned forever in hell or go to purgatory or to heaven. So there are only three possibilities.

What is human life? Nothing but toil, trouble, suffering and finally death. However, death is not the end. It is followed by eternity. We can see that our life is short and it is in the hands of God. It is a test of love whether we have chosen God, divine values and good or united to evil and the Evil One. So each of you decide your eternity during your life. Jesus has given us His Word, that we may live a responsible life and not lose eternal life. It is therefore foolishness to settle down on this earth. In the hour of death we must leave everything – our relationships to people, things… He lives wisely who is mindful of death. On the other hand, he is not wise who knows about death but does not bear it in mind. We know neither the day nor the hour when the Lord will call us. Day after day rolls by. Every night is a symbol of death – you do not know if you wake up the next morning. How many people die unexpectedly! How many people there are in cemeteries whom we knew and loved.

Although the four musketeers were fighters of the world, fighting in unity against evil and against church hierarchy, there was a lot of sense in their motto, if correctly understood: One for all, all for one. Jesus is the One because He has already died for us, and He wants to build this unity in us all.

Our programme is the words of Jesus: “Launch out into the deep!” “Forsake everything!” “Follow Me!” We should put the word “forsake” into practice every day. Forsake your pleasure or your plan and accept My (Jesus’) plan and will. This is always painful at the time but later on it becomes a source of knowledge, joy and new grace.

Someone can say: “I will live a lukewarm life, which will not cost me much effort, and then I will go to purgatory.” But this is foolish. What costs pennies here on earth will cost thousands or millions in eternity. Only a fool would miss a chance to escape purgatory. We have a precious thing here on earth, which is called time. Let us redeem the time, transform it by faith. Let us do the works of faith in time. What is behind us, what is over, will return never more. What we have sown in faith remains forever. The future is not in our hands. We only have this day and this very moment – let us live it by faith.

One of the crucial statements is: “Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you!” We can practise it until death. This is the Law and the Prophets (cf. Mat 7:12). You can write down concretely what you do not want others to do to you, and then stop and think if you do not do exactly the same to others, perhaps in a subtler form. How simple and topical for our everyday life! We only need to begin to see and practise it, and then the lived Gospel will do its blessed work.

The way of holiness is the way of purification. We need to be healed by Jesus, little by little, of all kinds of wounds or bad habits. This mostly concerns our soul. Suffering is usually spiritual rather than physical, but the various sufferings lead to deliverance and healing. We suffer, for example, when we face the truth about ourselves, our neighbours and the world. It is so simple and yet so disguised. In essence, we need to begin to live the Gospel to the full. To begin to live the very first and greatest commandment – to love God above all things and our neighbours as ourselves. The other commands and counsels lead to this peak.

The process of putting off the old self and putting on the new self begins in our mind! Human nature, without respecting the law of the Gospel, reacts in the same way in essence: envy towards others, rivalry, envy when someone has something better, when someone has spiritual gifts, or even when someone carries a cross, and on the other hand self-pity and sulkiness (both before God and people). This all takes the subtlest forms, but it is in essence our “self” which refuses to humble itself, to live in uncertainty, to obey God and to submit to Him. It always wants to have – possess – its own thoughts, plans, feelings.

In essence, all people, with the exception of the Immaculate Virgin, are wounded by original sin which blinds us, keeps us in lies and deceit! Though we want to do good, we do evil (Rom 7:23f). To love means – to humble ourselves again and again, to accept our brother just as he is. His old self exploits us, is jealous of us, enslaves us. But the fact is that we are bound by the same bonds – chains, the only difference being that we easily see it in others but not in ourselves. This is humility: the faults and bad habits of my brother should be like a mirror to me. The old self is essentially the same in everyone, it only has different shades.

The time you spend in the place where you are is predestined by God and will never return. What you sow in faith, you and others will reap once. Sow in faith, even if you do not see any results. Sow every day by accepting the situations you face rather than by being dispirited or overwhelmed by them. Accept them in faith and in union with Jesus – learn to abide with Him!

We should pray in such way as to pull down the strongholds of the forces of darkness and to lift up the mountains of demons in our territory, so that the Holy Spirit may descend, God may show His power, send His blessing, the kingdom of God may come into human souls, and a spiritual breakthrough and change may take place. When and how shall it come?! Let us leave it to the Lord; what we need to do is stand in faith and not doubt in prayer. Then on the Day of Judgment our prayers will become manifest – it will be revealed how we prayed:

What did the Prophet Elijah say when the fire of the Lord fell on Mount Carmel and consumed the burnt sacrifice? “I have done all these things at Your word.” Nothing more and nothing less. But we often want to add something, because we like it that way, or on the other hand we think that something is extreme. However, God wants us to learn obedience through small things; He teaches us to walk in the Spirit, to follow Christ. Jesus says: “Follow Me.” (Lk 5:27), and He also says: “Father, My food is to do Your will.” Whose will do I do? My own – as the mood takes me? Or the will of a spirit of jealousy, anger, revenge, mammon or an unclean spirit? Who do I serve? Myself? We should be the servants of the Most High! Our victory is with Him! And it does not matter at all whether someone kills us in the fight or withdraws us from the battle. We do not care. We only care about one thing: seeking and doing God’s will. And then… as the Apostle Paul says: “There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness … and not for me only…”

Jesus says: “You must be ready, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of man is coming.” This is the greatest wisdom – to be ready for death. For we do not know whether or not something bad will happen – we can develop cancer or have a car accident and launch into eternity. We know neither the day nor the hour. We do not know when we will meet our Lord face to face. But we must be mindful of it. We know that it will come. We must not delay our conversion. We must begin today, as God’s Word says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” To delay repentance until death is foolishness. Certainly, there have been some people who were converted in the hour of death, but this is an exception. To rely on it is a RISK! To lose eternal life is something frightful!

Christians say that they believe they will once stand before the judgment seat of God but they live as if the judgment, heaven and hell was a mere myth.