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.

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!