“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing,

but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.

Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?”

By these words the Lord Jesus teaches and warns us that in order to persevere on the narrow way leading to eternal life, we should first beware of false teachings, heresies and those who preach them (heretics and apostates). So this is the most essential thing – to keep the true faith and a true inner relationship with Christ. Therefore, the Apostle Paul says that if an apostle, or even an angel from heaven, should preach a different (i.e. false) gospel, let him be accursed (cf. Gal 1:8-9).

We know the Word of God and we know the Tradition of the Church. We have God-given conscience. This all gives us the power and the art of discerning the teaching of Christ from the false teaching of the current apostate hierarchy and theologians. The Lord Jesus established forever that he who is of the Truth and of God hears His voice and will not follow a stranger. And he who is not of God does not hear His voice (cf. Jn 7:17; Jn 8:47; Jn 18:37).

Jesus speaks about the narrow gate and difficult way which leads to life. The narrow gate is Christ’s commandments of love and the difficult way is Christ’s cross and His death by which one enters into eternal life. The broad way which leads to destruction is the way of egoism, moral licentiousness, deceit and lies, which is often tied up with the demonic practices of divination, magic or spiritualism, de facto the worship of evil and demons. This way leads to eternal destruction. The painful reality is that mass media, public opinion, fashion, destructive influences such as decadent music or art, admiration of the occult, promotion of perversion etc. literally drag the souls onto the broad way to destruction. They persuasively present it as prestige and if anyone refuses to follow it, one is ridiculed. The narrow way of justice is presented as something degrading and old-fashioned. He who does not love the truth is easily deceived. Today young people need the courage to struggle against the decadent current. This is true heroism!

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads

to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate

and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

“Therefore, whatever you want others to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

Original sin programmed schizophrenia in the soul and therefore man uses a double measure. We are uncritical of ourselves and unwilling to admit or see manifestations of our egoism, but we are very sensitive about egoism of others, we criticize or even hate it. We have special demands – we want people to respect our will and to approve of everything we do, to see our problems, and even to guess what they should do for us without us humbling ourselves and asking them to do it for us, and if they do not act according to our ideas, we take offence.

“Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them,

for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;

knock, and it will be opened to you.”

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

What should we ask for in the first place, what should we seek, and which door should we knock at?

We should above all ask for the gift of repentance, that our eyes may be opened, rather than for material or temporal good. We should ask the Lord to grant us that we may understand the Gospel of Christ, that we may love Jesus and desire to be with Him in prayer. Those who are not married should also ask for the desire and the strength to live a life consecrated to God in chastity, obedience and poverty – out of love for Christ and for the salvation of souls.

We should above all seek Jesus, seek His Face in prayer and there find all our happiness and true joy. We should long for this dedication – holiness.

“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine,

lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”

What is meant by the words holy and pearl? The Lord Jesus means above all His Word and the Divine mystery. Our Pearl is Christ and His Gospel. In the Divine Liturgy, we pray before Holy Communion: “I will not reveal the mysteries to Your enemies, nor will I give You a kiss as did Judas.”

Who are the dogs? In the first place religious Pharisees but also all people who do not have good intentions at present but consciously resist the Spirit of Christ. “But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practises a lie.” (Rev 22:15)

Who are swine? People knowingly indulging in sinful lusts (homosexuals, paedophiles, transsexuals, fornicators, adulterers…) who shamelessly resist the Gospel of Christ (the Law of God) and refuse to repent of their slavery to sin.

“Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye,

and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

This verse is preceded by the words: “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?” So we see the speck in our brother’s eye, which indeed is there, but we cannot see the plank in our own eye. It means that we see even a little fault in our brother but we do not notice our faults and sins. Jesus says: “remove the plank from your own eye” and He emphasizes the word “first”. Despite our good will we tend first to remove the speck from our brother’s eye. Therefore we must literally make a step of faith associated with true repentance – that means admit our own fault, and by this repentance we remove the plank from our own eye, i.e. from the system of our false thinking. After we remove our plank, Jesus does not say that we can then be indifferent to our brother and to appeal to false mercy or false love – no. The next step we are to make is to help remove the speck from our brother’s eye. Jesus says that if we remove our plank, we will be able to see spiritually. Without removing the plank, we will not see spiritually.

“Judge not, that you be not judged.

For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged;

and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Here the Lord Jesus points out again the practical part of the life of every man, namely the relationship to our neighbour. The first commandment says that we should love God with all our heart… And the second is like it – we should love our neighbour as ourselves. The opposite of love is egoism. Love forces man into self-denial and self-sacrifice. Egoism makes our “self” the centre of universe. Self-love is connected with spiritual blindness which is called pride. Pride is the deadly poison which penetrated into human nature with the first sin. It was manifested in disbelief in God’s word – the truth – and belief in and surrender to lies and hence the spirit of lies – the devil. The fruit of this sin is death which passes to all men.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry

about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry

about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

We worry automatically. What to do with worries? We have to learn to give them to God in prayer every day. This is the only right solution. Our problems are often so big and difficult that we see no way out. We need to begin every prayer with repentance: “Lord, forgive me that I trust in You so little, that I do not seek Your kingdom first, that I am dominated by my self-will every day and then I am overwhelmed with worries and see no way out. This creates a tense atmosphere in which I react impatiently or even angrily towards my neighbours, I hurt them with my words or gestures and disturb our relationships. Please forgive me. You know that I see no way out of this particular worry, I am powerless, but I give this problem to You. You, Lord, are the solution to my insoluble problem. Now I am not alone in my powerlessness, I am powerless together with You. Thank You for Your peace which fills my soul. Lord, I know that You will show Your glory in this problem too in good time. I am not afraid any more; I thank You that this problem, which seems unsolvable to me, is in Your hands.”