I would like to encourage you a little and to point out again the essential virtue – humility which ought to penetrate all things and all virtues. Any virtue without true humility is lost. Why? Because humility is truth. It considers nothing as its own and sees everything in the light. And next, the opposite of humility is pride. Pride leads to disobedience. Pride turned angels into demons. Pride was the source of Eve’s first sin. You must dissociate yourself from Eve and receive the new woman, Mary. Mary is your Mother. She conquered the serpent, the devil, by her obedience and faith. She is humble: “God has looked on the lowliness (humility) of His bondmaid.” (Lk 1:48)

We want to do good but we keep sinning. This is caused by our corrupt nature – the old self in us. And therefore we need to repent time and time again. All things considered, we must have the courage to make mistakes, for otherwise we would do nothing in pursuit of false perfection. Humility is the will to learn. We need to learn from our mistakes, yet however hard we may try, we will not stop making mistakes. The law of God was given to us to convict us, to show us what we are like and to teach us that we need to repent – otherwise we would either sleep or be puffed up in self-deceit.

“If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world,

but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

The term “the world” does not mean the wonderful work of creation but the godless system which hates Christ as well as all who are dedicated to the service of Christ. Jesus speaks about this hatred by the world and warns all of us who desire to follow Jesus in earnest that we must be prepared for hatred and persecution by the world. “Because you are not of the world … therefore the world hates you.” People of this world have received the spirit of the world and therefore they persecute true Christians. Moreover, if they kill them, they will believe that they offer God service (Jn 16:2). Those who condemned Christ to death – religious hierarchy, the Pharisees and the scribes – believed so, and it is the same today. Why? Because the world lies under the sway of the ruler of this world. Jesus says: “Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. (Now is the judgment of this world.)” (Jn 12:31)

Sin is rebellion against God. Through sin man loses eternal life. However, Jesus paid for us, for all our sins. If we turn to Jesus with faith, we receive the forgiveness of sins. We obtain it through the sacrament of penance and through repentance. The condition is to express sorrow for sins and to confess them. The criminal on the cross did not even specify his sins, and he was saved. He just said: “I have sinned. Jesus, save me!” Similarly, David did not confess a concrete sin, yet he fell down before God and said: “I have sinned!” The biggest problem is that we do not want to admit our sin. And so we walk in darkness. If we are not self-critical, we are unable to perceive the truth around us. We are like in a fog. Unless you are rooted in the truth, in the time of spiritual battle the devil will pull your leg and defeat you. But if you are rooted in the truth and in Christ, if you know that you must not let yourself be caught in a trap and if you cling to Christ, you will conquer the whole hell. But you must cling to Christ.

Let us not dialogue but rather bear witness! Let us repeat the truth – this is this. I can start a discussion but if I see that the person I talk to rejects the truth, I must tell him clearly: “This is the truth and it concerns you personally. You either believe or not. The reality is that you will die and whether you like it or not, you will stand before the judgment seat of God and then you will go to heaven or hell. I want to tell you one thing: if you want to be saved, you must give your sins to Jesus; you must confess them and kneel before Him, receive Him as your Saviour, receive His Gospel and His way. He who endures to the end will be saved. And no one will be saved without faith! Not without philosophy but without faith!”

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit,

and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”

Think to yourself for a moment that God chose you: “I did not choose You, my God and Saviour, but You chose me before the foundation of the world…” (cf. Eph 1:4)

Jesus wants me to bear fruit – the fruit of works done according to the will of God and in faith. This fruit should remain forever!

Jesus assures us again that the Father will give us whatever we ask in His name. This holy name of God is “Yehoshua” (Lord is my salvation).

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.

Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life /soul/ for his friends.”

Jesus emphasizes this commandment twice on the evening before His death (see Jn 13:34-35). He says: “A new commandment I give to you”, and He adds: “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one to another.” The Greek original of the Gospel uses the term “agape” for “love”. It is the love of God which is “shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us” (Rom 5:5). This is the love by which Jesus has loved us. Jesus puts it more precisely what kind of love He means: “that you love one another, as I have loved you”. How has Jesus loved us? Being God, He became man; He humbled Himself, assumed human weakness, yet without sin. He was innocent and yet sentenced to death, even death on a cross. He suffered the pains of scourging, crowning with thorns, the way of the cross; He suffered dying amid mockery and in abandonment, and finally painful death. He paid the price for your sin.

Death on behalf of men can be well illustrated by an example from the Auschwitz concentration camp. It happened that one prisoner ran away. Therefore all prisoners were told to stand in a row and every tenth of them was sentenced to death. One of the prisoners was a priest Maximilian.

At the Last Supper, Jesus reveals the deep mystery of the inner life in God as well as our unity in Christ and through Him in the Father too. At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist. The Gospel of the Apostle John points out the mystery of the Eucharist even some time before. Jesus said: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” (Jn 6:56) “I am the living bread.” (v.51) “I am the bread of life. If anyone eats of this bread, he will not die; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (v.54)

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,

unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

Abide in Me, and I in you

When the Lord opens our spiritual eyes, it is as if the blind begin to see! The first shock to us is when we realize how long we lived under the influence of the spirit of lies. False prophets, heretical theologians, preach supreme heresies wrapped in pious phrases. Masses of people are thus led to destruction. One would cry and shout: Christians, wake up! Don’t believe in lies! Don’t believe the servants of lies! Believe Jesus! Believe His apostles! Do receive the Word of God, and not human philosophies, pseudo psychologies or heretical theologies! Do receive Jesus by sincere repentance!

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Peace of God

The opposite of peace is restlessness. It torments the soul so that it is in a state of constant fear or nervousness. The cause of mental torment may be that you believe a lie and make a big mistake in your life which you must pay dearly for. Then you feel anger or even hatred towards yourself and your neighbours, and you even throw the blame on God! You may be tormented by intrusive thoughts which incite you to crime. You don’t want them to trouble you and you don’t realize that the source of these pressures is a lie, the spirit of lies.

You can have wealth, career, and yet feel restless in your soul! So there are more sources of restlessness: fear of future, remorse for doing evil, sin…

Jesus says: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Jesus says: “…My peace I give to you; not as the world gives…”

But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name,

He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

“He will bring to your remembrance…” We can know the whole Scripture by heart, we can have a large amount of information like a computer, but that’s not essential. We need the right information at the right time, and this information may be much useful or it can even save life. We need to project it on the screen of our mind. This reviving in the spiritual sphere is the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said His words to the apostles but these words concern us too. His words are eternally true and binding both for the apostles and for us. These words are for life, eternal life. The Gospel of Christ is no human philosophy or human wisdom. The words of Jesus are the Spirit and life. They are simple and call for action. It is not enough to hear them and lead religious discussions. That’s too little. We need to actualize Jesus’ commandments. In conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks the parable of two men who built a house. One man built a house on the sand and the other on the rock. The man who built his house on the sand heard the words but did not do them. The man who built his house on the rock heard the words and did them.

If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him,

and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

Jesus said these words the night before His death. These and other words, which He said before His death, are contained in chapters 13-17 of John’s Gospel. Jesus speaks about love which is necessarily connected with the keeping of His commandments. Jesus repeats: “He who loves Me will be loved by My Father.” (v.21) There are commandments given by God in the Decalogue and commandments and various obligations related to the rites of purification, especially burnt offerings of bulls and lambs and the sprinkling of blood. It is contained in the Second to Fifth Books of Moses. This just prefigured the redemptive death of Christ on the cross. In Christ, this all was accomplished. The record of debt was cancelled (cf. Col 2:14). Jesus the Son of God acts as the Law-giver on His own authority. He repeats several times: “But I say to you…” Jesus does not abolish the Decalogue; on the contrary, He points out its essence. He points to the root of sin, lusts, pride, hatred, revenge. Citation of Christ’s commandments: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” (Mt 5:21-26)

“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.

And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father,

and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

Jesus highlights this truth in verse 23 too. True love for Him is connected not only with the receiving of the Word but there is also one condition: the keeping of His commandments. In fact, it means the following of Christ, which involves the loss of our soul for His sake: “Whoever loses his soul for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it.” (Mk 8:35) If a disciple keeps Christ’s commandments, he will be loved by the Father and by Jesus, and Jesus will manifest Himself to him (see v.21). “We will come to him and make Our home with him.” (v.23) We thus become a living tabernacle like the Blessed Virgin. So the knowledge of Christ cannot be acquired through theological, philosophical or psychological studies but only through love – agape – which becomes manifest not in phrases but in the following of Christ, i.e. in the keeping of Christ’s commandments.

“On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”

We are in Christ, and He in us.

Jesus said: “On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” (Jn 14:20)

I realize the truths:

1)     Jesus is God, and He is in the Father

2)     We are in Christ crucified

3)     The risen Christ is in us

If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.

For the period of the next two weeks, enter into God’s presence, into the column of light, and stand by Christ’s cross beside the Blessed Virgin. There accept the last will of Christ. Repeat the words: “Jesus said to the disciple and now says to me and to the inhabitants of the (Lvov) region: ‘Behold, your mother.” Then pray with your spirit and mind for about a minute, and say in the end: “I receive Your mother on both my and their behalf.” Pray again for the particular regions of Ukraine, standing in the column of light, and make an act of faith – i.e. accept Christ’s testament – on your behalf and on behalf of the inhabitants of the particular region.

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

These words, uttered by Christ on the evening before His death, are a continuation of the preceding words by which Jesus revealed to the Apostles the mystery of interior unity between Him and the Father. The uniting love between you and Christ is conditioned by true repentance, i.e. by keeping Christ’s commandments (see Jn 14:15.21.23). All philosophies, theologies or psychologies which reject true repentance and the following of Christ lead to both temporal and eternal damnation.

To ask in Jesus’ name does not mean just to utter the phrase “in the name of Jesus Christ” spiritlessly. It means to be in interior unity with Christ through true repentance (see Mk 1:15). If you are in unity with Him, then you surely ask according to the will of Christ, which is also the will of the Heavenly Father.