Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing,
but let us exhort one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

This verse is preceded by the words: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds.” The groups meeting together at the time when the Apostle was writing this letter were probably as small as ours. However, these words applied and still apply above all to small prayer groups, which have carried the burden of the Church and called on God for light, strength and salvation.

We perceive that the biblical demand for koinonia, the formation of brotherly fellowship, is very relevant today. A group of Christian men meet together for prayer and pray to God for themselves and for the souls entrusted to them. At the same time, they seek to encourage one another to remain faithful to Christ and to the commandments He has given us in the midst of this world, despite the various pressures. Christ’s commands are not burdensome, though in certain circumstances they may require great sacrifice. But then the reward in heaven is all the greater if we persevere.

How much we have been deceived by different views of Scripture. We have forgotten to live the Scripture. The Scripture gives us directions for life. So we need to begin to learn slowly and seriously the nuts and bolts: e.g. Jesus says, “If your brother has something against you, go and be reconciled to your brother.” In other words – e.g. your brother vents his anger and rebukes you unjustly and now there is a tense situation. He becomes aware of his guilt afterwards, and is overcome with sorrow. He does not know what to do, how to apologize, and tension increases. An old proverb says ‘Silence is gold’, but in this case silence is hell – the atmosphere grows more and more tense and affects the people around too. Gloomy faces on both sides, and self-pity is working at full speed. The devil and the old self bring thousands of arguments against the brother and present his behaviour as a supreme crime. What to do? Who should make the first step, or rather, who is obliged to? According to the Gospel, he who has been wronged is obliged to make the first step. You have been wronged, and moreover, your brother has something against you!

Jesus says to the apostles: “… but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.” (Jn 14:19) Will the apostles see Christ? Yes, they will see Him risen on the third day after His death, and then He will appear to them during forty days. And they will also see Him in the light of glory at the moment of their physical death, when they will see Him as He is. They will see Him! The first of the apostles to see Him in this way was one of the brothers for whom their mother had interceded that they should sit one on the right hand and the other on the left of Christ. Jesus then asked them: “Can you drink the cup I am about to drink?” James and his brother John said to Him: “We can.” Jesus said to them: “You will indeed drink My cup.” And they indeed did. The first to drink the cup of suffering was John, who was the only one of the apostles who experienced union with Christ’s death by being willing to die, and that was why he remained standing faithfully at the foot of the cross. His brother James was the first of the apostles to lay down his life for Christ as a martyr. He was beheaded with a sword.

When you do somebody wrong – either unknowingly or, worse still, knowingly – there is tension between you. When you then realize it, you suddenly see your fault and you see that the person you have wronged has been hurt and suffers.

I remember one example from Italy: A group of thieves – young boys – broke into a jeweller’s shop and killed the jeweller during the robbery. They were caught and sentenced to many years in prison. There was a woman with little children present at the trial. She was the jeweller’s widow. At the sight of her and her children, one of the boys suddenly understood what evil he had done, what pain he had caused them. His conscience was stirred and he begged their forgiveness. And the woman said she forgave him…

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,

and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

This Scripture verse truly is preceded by an example of a whole multitude of witnesses throughout chapter 11. And this chapter ends as follows: “And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.”

Then follows the verse which we are going to recite for two weeks. It begins with the words: “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” And then it continues: “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The next verse is a continuation of the previous one: “…looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” And we read further: “…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.

Our cross is truly the greatest gift from God; it is meant to strip us completely of the old self, of the slightest clinging to anything, and to clothe us in thoughts of essential things – death, heaven, hell, and the abandoned, humiliated and crucified Jesus.

Whenever God wants to give new life – resurrection, the way to new life is through the death of the old self. There is no other way than to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus, and then die spiritually to yourself, to sin, and to the world! May God, through various little things, lead us into death with Mary and through Mary.

Christ appeared to the apostles on the evening of His resurrection. God willed that the Apostle Thomas should not be with them. The apostles said to him: “We have seen Jesus! We doubted at first, thinking in fear that we were seeing a ghost. But Jesus said to us, ‘Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself! Touch Me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’ Then He asked if we had anything to eat, and ate it in our presence, so that we might believe that it was really Him risen from the dead. The bones of the fish that Jesus ate are a testimony to that. Jesus is really alive. All of us, the ten apostles and the two disciples who went to Emmaus, have seen Him with our own eyes.” But Thomas would not accept the testimony of the apostles and did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. For a whole week he was in unbelief and just kept repeating to them: “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” A week later, on Sunday evening, Jesus appeared to the apostles again. His first words were: “Peace be with you!” Then He turned to Thomas and repeated his request in exactly the same words: “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.” How did Thomas respond? He cried out: “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus says: “Abide in Me, and I in you.” (Jn 15:4) He is in us. He is with us. “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20) But we are not with Him. That’s the problem! He is in me but, in fact, I am not in Him, and so I do not rely on Him.

“Abide…” How? By actual faith, by realizing the particular truth of the Word of God, receiving it personally and uniting to it. This truth then works in me and unites me to Jesus. Be aware: “Jesus, You are now in me, and I in You.”

The Word of God says: “We were buried with Christ in baptism and also raised with Him.” (Col 2:12) This is not a literary expression or poetry. This is reality! How we were raised with Christ and how we received a new life is a mystery. There is nothing to think about. Scripture says so and therefore it is reality. God’s Word says: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” and “We are a living temple of the Holy Spirit”. If we are in a state of sanctifying grace, all that Jesus obtained for us at Calvary and all that belongs to Him He gives to us, so it is also ours. If we give ourselves to Him and are united to Him, then if we have Christ, we have all things in Him. St Paul says: “In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Before Jesus raised Lazarus, who had been dead four days, Martha said to Jesus: “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus said to her: “Your brother will rise again.” She said to Him: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her: “I am the resurrection and the life.”

Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So He has the same power and can raise the dead even today, especially the spiritually dead. He can do the same things He did when He was here on earth. When we read the lives of the saints and martyrs, we see that through many the Lord worked great miracles before they died, that is, while they were being tortured. For example, miracles with wild beasts, when the hungry lions in the arena did not tear the martyrs apart, but instead licked them and sat at their feet like sheep. Other times, when they were thrown into prison after cruel torture, their bodies were completely recovered the next day.

+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate

Jesus wants mature people. He can do more with one mature person in a year than He can do with hundreds of immature people in 200 years. The mark of maturity is actually the degree of dying to self with Christ. The essence of this death to self is in humility, in completely renouncing at every moment one’s own will, one’s own good, one’s own ideas or desires, and accepting everything out of love for Jesus. People who are completely forgotten, buried, those who have died with Christ, mature souls, who have offered themselves as a sacrifice to Jesus – it is their sacrifice that decides the future of nations.

The greatest blessing is when God gives us the grace to be evil spoken of, unjustly suspected, reproached and humiliated for His name’s sake. The Lord Jesus trod this path before us, because He loved us. He was completely innocent. Yet He forgave and prayed for everyone.

The most important thing is to persevere with Jesus abandoned, not to nourish the slightest bitterness towards anyone, to constantly encourage one another and remember: Of what spirit we should be?! Yes, of the Spirit of Christ, who is meek and lowly. We need to humble ourselves before God again and again by entering into the truth about ourselves: How much self-will, how many critical thoughts and words, how much unbelief when we acted without God, according to our own reason, feelings or wishes. How much have we suffered not in order to promote the things of God but our own interests instead! Life goes by. No day will return. What we have sown in faith is sown.

Truly we know neither the day nor the hour, and nothing is more certain than death. Therefore, we have to redeem the time. How? By a living faith, by daily practising humility, that is, constantly renouncing our own wishes, good plans or intentions. Let us not stick to our own opinion, but bring everything to light, and humble ourselves every time we act spontaneously on our own. However, when others do something wrong, we should not condemn them but, again, humble ourselves in spirit: “Lord, I am twice as bad. I’ve made the same or even greater mistake so many times. And mine was a banal one that this person would never make.” Let us accept the concrete hardships as a cross to carry.