Jesus is the Judge. The Father has given all judgment to the Son. When He sits on the throne on the Day of Judgment, the sheep will stand on His right and the goats on His left. And the latter will go away to eternal damnation. He will separate the good from the evil. Wheat is mixed with tares on earth. God allows it and one can hardly separate it. We cannot remove evil from this world, because evil is in our hearts as well. The kingdoms or countries throughout history have always had their laws, courts and punishments which they applied to people who committed crimes; nevertheless, they will never be able to uproot evil completely, they can just reduce it so as to prevent total devastation. All people have a conscience, the voice of God, and understand what is good and what is bad.

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. The Son of God became man to deliver us from our sins: “You shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Mt 1:21) “There is born to you this day in the city of David the Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” (Lk 2:11) Fallen man cannot save himself. After the first sin of our first parents we cannot open the heaven by ourselves. No teaching of self-redemption, as promoted by Hindus or Buddhists, no human methods can save anyone or deliver one from sins. Between us and God there is a great chasm. Fallen man is on one side and holy God on the other. No human efforts, good works, self-redemptive religions or meditations can bridge this chasm. The only bridge is the cross of Christ. By crossing over this bridge, a sinful man can unite to holy God. These are the simple truths of Christianity.

If Christ has not died for our sins, we all are going to hell. If there is no forgiveness of sins, Christianity is good for nothing. Christ did die for our sins! This is the main thing! The very first sermon of the Apostles was about this. This is the essence of the proclamation of the Gospel. The two sentences that were preached by all the Apostles: 1) He died for our sins, 2) He was raised from the dead and we are witnesses of this. Today this all is being denied masterfully! One can hardly believe that such is the state of the organization which still calls itself the Church.

We must learn to fight in the spiritual battle. It is no good opening our hearts to impudent and unscrupulous people. It holds true: “Don’t throw your pearls to pigs!” We need the spirit of prophecy so that we may discern correctly. Spiritual battle is no showing off; it is a tough job. But what shall we fear? Illness, suffering or death – we need not fear it. God is with us always, and if we can suffer for the sake of Christ, we shall have glory in heaven. The goal is to save our souls and the souls of others – and that is the sense of mission. We must learn to fight with serpents, wolves and Pharisees just as Jesus did it. They said about Him that He was out of His mind, that He had a demon… When king Ahab attacked the prophet Elijah with the words: “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”, Elijah answered him immediately: “I have not troubled Israel, but you have!” Similarly, when someone attacks you with a lie, just smile and say: “Well said! It’s exactly what applies to you. Well said!” Do not be overtaken! When someone attacks you arrogantly, just pray in silence: “Lord, what is Your purpose in this situation?” Pray and God will show you His purposes.

There are people who have a charisma to preach. However, if a preacher himself lacks the sound spiritual foundation of union with Christ, his preaching may encourage people at the beginning but eventually turns out to be mere superficiality without the Spirit. It fails to change the hearts of people. But if you put the divine truths into practice and embody them in your life, your word is with power. When you then bear witness, the Spirit descends on people without you being aware of it. Be righteous people who live by faith. Be like Abraham, be men who give the first place to God. Because of Abraham, God gave His blessing to the whole generation. In these times, too, we need a community – the Church is a community. Where two or three are gathered together, there is power.

Prague, 6 July 2015, 600^th anniversary

The Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate after examining the documents relating to the writings of John Huss, his testimony of life and orthodoxy of the Catholic faith as well as orthodox doctrine, and also after examining the evidence about his imprisonment and death, on the occasion of the six hundredth anniversary of his martyrdom, by authority of the apostolic and prophetic office, in the name of the Triune God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, numbers John Huss, Czech priest and martyr for Christ and the truth, among the choir of saints.

14 June 2015

To priests of the Czech Republic

Dear brothers in the priesthood,

on 6 July 2015, the whole Czech nation will commemorate the 600^th anniversary of the martyrdom of Master John Huss.

The Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate (BCP) hereby declares before the whole Catholic Church and Czech nation: The Czech priest John Huss was no heretic but he died a martyr for truth and the law of God. It is evident from his own writings, especially from his letters written several days before his death. Huss’ writings contain no heresies. If someone means to ascribe heretical intentions to his writings, let him know that John Huss himself warns against it. In his letter to Pope John XXIII dated 1 September 1411, he writes: “If they have given or are giving information that I taught the people that in the Sacrament of the Altar the material substance of the bread remains, it is a falsehood. It is a falsehood that I have said that when the Host is elevated it is then the Body of Christ, but when it is laid down it is not. It is a falsehood that a priest in mortal sin cannot consecrate.”

What accord has Christ with Belial? We can never say that Christianity and paganism are equal ways to salvation! Salvation is only in Jesus. If pagan ways led to salvation, Christ would not have come to our earth and died for our sins. But, as the Scripture says, He came and endured pain, suffering and humiliation to save us and to deliver us from darkness and from the slavery of the devil. Today the exact opposite is being proclaimed. This being the case, mission becomes pointless. It is not even possible to carry out any mission, nor are we allowed to say who we are because pagans, as the saying goes, would take offence. 20 years ago, an editor of a Catholic magazine in USA was prohibited from publishing an article about the conversion of a Buddhist because the editor-in-chief told him that such article dishonoured other religions. So if someone converts to Christianity, it reportedly offends pagans. And it was no atheistic magazine! What destructive manipulation of human minds!

We need to know the essence so that we may be witnesses in the place where we are. Everyone should ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to be an evangelist, teacher or prophet at a particular place. An evangelist preaches the Gospel in power. A teacher interprets Scripture. A prophet is the one who sees and points out the essence of things. There is a so-called law of spiritual entropy. An example is the people of Israel. The Israelites came out of Egypt but then returned to their idols. As soon as Moses went up to the mountain, they made for themselves a metal bull calf. This is the picture of our old self: it is eager to bow before sin and demons, even to make sacrifices or observe fasts… For example, some Indian gurus are skin and bone, but not for the sake of Christ and for the salvation of their soul. They are stimulated by their pride and by demons to whom they opened. In contrast to them, we must be full of the Holy Spirit, we must be witnesses to Christ, we must have a sense of the essence. We shape our environment above all by the example of our life.

We must receive the Word of God as the Word of God, the simple truths of the Gospel of God as they are presented to us by Jesus. The apostles were no theologians. They were simple fishermen. But the whole world was saved through their preaching. Human pride and philosophizing is absurd. The Word of God is connected with mystery. Human reason must be conformed to the Word of God, then it can govern the will, and emotions come last. If we reverse the order and cast away the relationship with God founded on faith, everything in our life is turned upside down. This is the result of our pride. Many people have no experience of spiritual battle and of the cunning of human nature but they set norms and invent theories without ever trying them out in practice.

What is it in us!? Conscience, the voice of God, on the one hand and the poison of sin on the other. If people hear lies, they gladly believe in them. On the other hand, they keep questioning the truth. They even question the truths of our salvation – maybe it is true, maybe not… Our attitude must be unwavering: “Jesus said it and it is true! I won’t invent anything! He who believes will be saved; but he who does not believe will go to hell.” And what to say to those who speculate or to Jehovah’s Witnesses if they ask: “And what about hell? What is it like?” Say simply: “You’ll see for yourself when you are there! Don’t ask me; I’ve never been there and I don’t want to go there either!”

One can live in a community which has received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, who wants to guide us into all truth (“When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth”) and yet one can become withdrawn and not let oneself be influenced by the community. Jesus says: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will do it! He will guide you into all truth!” And what are the fundamental and full truths of the Gospel? It is above all the truth that we are sinners enslaved by the old self, flesh, world and devil. People do not want to hear it and think they are free.

The poison of original sin is in every one of us. This is in us and the devil laughs. Unless we fight against sin, pride and lusts for all our life, we can easily lapse into heresy. If we believe ourselves, we destroy ourselves. That is the poison in us and we have to fight with it continuously because it leads us to self-destruction. We must carry it as a cross, not unite with it but resist it. “Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus!”

Jesus says: “Whoever desires to save his life (soul) will lose it, but whoever loses his life (soul) will save it.”

Life is so short! We know neither the day nor the hour. And yet we do not believe in God’s Word, we do not reflect on it but rather we think about foolish things, we get angry… Let us look at the cemetery. How many people lie there who also were angry, suffered heart failure, pursued career, wealth… But this all is passing away. Our goal must be life, eternal life, which we are given by God. Therefore we need to be prepared at all times for the moment when we shall depart this life. We must be in Christ even here on earth and carry all our crosses and burdens with a living faith. Jesus says: “Deny yourself and take up your cross; do not be in depression, take up your cross and follow Me – Jesus.” How very needful it is to follow Him! It is an everyday way of the cross. Lord, what is my cross? How should I deny myself? In little things – you thus get to the level where the power of sin does not work, you get out of your nature and enter into communion with Jesus. The kingdom of God is in us and corrupt nature is in us too.

Whenever a problem arises, our old self automatically begins to complain against God, swear or be distressed. Learn one thing: Deny yourself and give thanks. “Lord, thank You for this cross – for getting a scolding again, for missing my bus…” You only need to give thanks and God will enlighten you: “Look, such bad thing would have happened to you there, it could have such and such consequences…” And you suddenly realize numbers of other things related to it. But if you revolt against God and indulge in self-pity, you actually throw away your cross. If someone rebukes us, the automatic reaction is hatred and self-pity. We must deny it and our eyes will be opened. We must take up our cross – our concrete pain – and follow Jesus. Where to? To Calvary and then to glorious resurrection. Where is Jesus? In glory. There is our homeland. Here we are mere pilgrims.

Our soul manifests itself above all through reason and will. The fact that we hardly perceive divine truths is caused by darkness which is in us. The Apostle Paul said: Christ died for sinners – of whom I am the worst. No false mysticism. He did not consider himself a super saint. Holiness consists in humility, in realizing the truth that every day I am self-willed, every day my soul automatically produces sin, I condemn others in my thoughts, I am a hedonist. And the worst thing is human pride – the devil’s sin – when one refuses to admit the truth about oneself.