“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

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.”

Again, Jesus says these words on the evening before His death. It is good to read at least 5 verses before and 5 verses after it so as to perceive the connection. But it is best to read again the whole chapter 16 and 17. Verse 23 is the response to the preceding words of the apostles who confessed their faith in the divine mission of Christ. Jesus points out the weakness of their faith. Light affliction will come and they will be scattered. That night the apostles were scattered and Peter who was a hero at the beginning and followed Jesus gave way to fear for his life in the end and denied Christ amid pressure and hatred towards Christ. But he repented thereafter. Jesus knew the weakness of the apostles and He knows our weakness too. In a crisis, our old nature – i.e. our soul infected by original sin – gives way to fear and does not believe in Christ and His Word.

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.

The night before His death, Jesus emphasizes several times that we should ask in His name. He also speaks about true love for God which consists in keeping His commandments.

Today the EU and U.S. foreign policy forcedly introduce satanic gender antilaws, antilaws on child stealing and planned suicide, so-called euthanasia, which is a hell on earth and after death. This all is being intensively promoted by mass media, especially TV, which are under the influence of globalization ideologies (in Ukraine too). The best solution today is to make short work of television.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”

Jesus says these words on the evening before His death. It is good to read again and again the words of Christ spoken on the evening before His death (chapters 13-17). There is a great depth in these five chapters. We can read them over and over again. Each sentence communicates a deep mystery. No exegete, no scholar, no theologian, nor even a saint can bring you into the depths of these truths. This can only be done by the Author of the Gospel and of the whole Bible – the Holy Spirit. He proclaimed the Word of God through the sacred writers, and here He proclaims the words of the Saviour Himself who became man for our sake, took our sins on Himself and carried the just punishment for them, for each of us personally, and opened for each of us the gate to eternal life! These words are filled with God’s love and wisdom.

God gave us freedom and this freedom is in Jesus. If we received Him and allow Him to be the Lord of our soul every day, we taste true freedom. God is almighty and so is everyone who prays because he has Jesus in his heart. If you unite your will to the will of God, the enemy has no power over you and the whole mountains of demons must retreat. And if you say to the mountain with faith – be lifted up and thrown into the sea – it will obey you. God has given us power. He who is in us is stronger than he who is in the world. Jesus is in you but you must be conscious of it. Unite to Him through the cross – your cross.

At the hour of death we shall stand before the judgment seat of God. There is nothing covered that will not be revealed. Not only the camera of our conscience but also God and His angels see us. Therefore we should live by faith, wisely, not as slaves of sin but as slaves of God after the example of the Blessed Virgin. She said: “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord!” And this is true freedom.

“Sin is that they do not believe in Me. Righteousness is that I go to the Father, and you will see Me no more. Judgment is that the ruler of this world has already been condemned.”

There are people who say: I have no sin; I have not killed anyone, nor robbed anyone. I am an honest citizen, I don’t need God. But it is a lie. Moreover, such person has all the greater sin because he rejects Christ. Not to believe in Christ, the Son of God and the Saviour, is a sin! The saving faith means to believe in Christ, the Son of God, who died for our sins, as well as to believe that He is with us.

“Righteousness is that I go to the Father.” It was unrighteous that being innocent, He was condemned. It is righteous that He is already in the glory of heaven.

“The ruler of this world has already been condemned.” He has already been condemned but he has the right to work if we allow him to through our sin. If we are in actual unity with Christ, this condemnation is real!

Through baptism we were immersed in the death of Jesus. His death is a victory over sin and the devil. We should actualize this mystery of baptism by faith so that in our everyday life we might taste more and more this victory over the system of evil and lies which dominate the world. Our life pilgrimage is short, 70-80 years. This time will just slip by. Life will come to an end, and so let us live by faith every day. Every day is a struggle against our laziness or doubts or we are lured by mammon so as to prefer material values to spiritual ones. Naturally, we need material things too, but we must give the first place to God and salvation of our soul. For it is written: Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…

Sometimes you need to tell the truth to your brother in plain words, without putting too fine a point on it, although it may hurt him – if it is the will of God. But you must do so with the purpose of saving his soul and with the attitude of forgiveness. Sometimes the will of God is to be silent and just say: “Lord, Your will be done! If You want me to be silent, I will; if You want me to attack, I will!” It is crucially important that you should be obedient to God in a particular situation. You must do it for the salvation of souls, for the good of your neighbour. And above all these things is love – and sometimes love is chastising rather than caressing. Just like the love of children involves upbringing.

Sometimes you need to do some work, e.g. you do repairs in your house… You shop around for this or that thing, and it’s impossible to get it… You sigh: “Lord, I would rather pray…” Time flies and you walk to and fro at a crowded and noisy marketplace, your head is splitting… What you can do is give your pain to the Lord. Although you have no time to pray, give your problem to God, be in God’s presence, put your trust in Him and unite with Him in your powerlessness: “Maybe I will just walk to and fro and worry about it, but I give You this helplessness. Finally, You will solve it just like You always solved all other things!” And this is, in fact, trust in God in every situation.

“They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming

that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.

And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.”

These words are extremely topical in Ukraine today, and especially for all genuine Christians. Jesus did not address these words to the apostles only but to every one of us.

The time is coming… A little later, after saying these words, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed there. His face was wet with sweat which was running down like great drops of blood. He said to the apostles: “Are you still sleeping? The hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.” His betrayer walked up to Him, kissed Him and said: “Greetings, Rabbi!” Jesus said to them who had come out against Him: “This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” (Lk 22:53)

“When the Comforter comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father,

the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.”

The Holy Spirit will testify, but Jesus also reminds: “And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” (v. 27) This is said about us too. We also should bear witness about Christ at the present time together with the Holy Spirit who is in us and whom Jesus has sent to us from the Father. He is our Counsellor, Comforter and Advocate. He bears witness about Christ through us too! This is an important task: to bear witness about Christ! Testimony is associated with a spiritual fight against the spirit of lies! Let us remember: The Spirit of truth is with us. He gives us the strength to fight against the spirit of lies and death! The truth will not prevail by itself. We have to bear witness to the truth, to fight for the truth, and even to suffer and die for its sake. Jesus Christ is the Truth. He said: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” (Jn 14:6) Let us pray that the Spirit of God would bear witness first in our prayer, life and apostolate.