Gallery
Pastoral letter to Hungarian bishops
18 May 2015
Dear Bishops of Hungary!
You live in a historic time when we are witnesses to gradual autogenocide of the nations under the influence of the ideology of consumerism which is associated with immorality and perversion. This ideology prioritizes homosexualism, paedophilia, zoophilia, narcotics, euthanasia even for children and healthy people, stealing of human organs. This age is ruthlessly anti-Christian and anti-Catholic. The individual’s identity is eroded and a kind of biorobots are formed by means of gender ideology. This false ideology removes the God-given difference between man and woman and produces de facto mentally disturbed individuals who become a plaything of a variety of not only unclean but even sadistic demons. These dubious characters are then purposefully promoted to key positions in order to terrorize normal people by establishing antilaws and consequently by sanctions and imprisonments. The priority in the EU currently is not just legalization but directly privileging of homosexualism and sexual perversions associated with the stealing of children from their loving parents, and that not from dysfunctional families but from good families. An artificial pretext for stealing of children is so-called “domestic violence” or “stifling love”, which are terms used by this system to refer to sound Christian and moral upbringing.
The poison of original sin
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.”
The Word of Life – Jn 16:32 (10/5/15 – 24/5/2015)
“Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered,
each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone,
because the Father is with Me.”
Reflection on Jn 16:32
“Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered,
each to his own – eis ta idia (Gr. orig.), and will leave Me alone.
And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”
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.
How very needful it is to follow Him
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.
We cannot have accord with the spirit of the world
+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate
Learn one thing
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.
The most important thing is to save souls
+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate
Christ died for sinners – of whom I am the worst
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.
