“For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds

the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,

you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

If we want to be honest about love, we need to lay the foundation of righteousness (or justice). Today, people often speak about love. You can hear this word in every other sentence; however, to many it means anything but true love. Righteousness towards God means to give Him what belongs to Him – the first place in our life, true worship, submission, and observance of His laws and commandments. Then we are obliged to practise righteousness towards our neighbours. Here, unfortunately, many Christians, even persons consecrated to God, lack a proper understanding of righteousness. The current trend is a purely subjective egocentric approach looking to one’s own interests and rights. The rights and interests of others are mostly ignored. This is the cause of quarrels, hatred, etc.

+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate

+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate

The whole world is undergoing a crisis of faith; we are witnesses to mass apostasy from Christianity. Thank God that we can fight for the purity of faith. God has put us into this fight. We are not fighting for Ukraine only; God has put us on a battlefield to fight for the whole Church. Seeing how big this problem is, we say in prayer: “O God, what shall we do? We are not in a position as David against Goliath but rather as if we stood with a sling against an atom bomb. We have no chance. But we trust that You are Almighty, that You will overcome in this fight and that there will be spiritual resurrection.

Feelings can be mental or spiritual. It is hard to discern it. They are somehow intertwined. But, I would say, if you give yourself wholly to God in prayer, if you give Him your concrete pain, concrete fears which oppress you – e.g. you fear what awaits you tomorrow or even today, that something bad may happen… Simply, give it to Him and abandon it. Say to Him: “I trust in You.” or “I love You.” “You know everything. You know that I love You.” Like the Apostle Peter. One day in my life will be the last, anyway. And God knows which day it will be. I must bear it in mind during my life. So when I stop seven times a day and pray with my mouth, there should be at least a few seconds of a living faith and love for God. At least a moment. In interior prayer, you will gradually learn to pray with your heart. It means that you need not reflect on something but you just know that God sees you and now you open your heart before Him and put everything into His hands.

If we deal with problems only by our reason or emotions, we obtain some experience but it is not sufficient. The most important thing in our life is to walk in the truth, i.e. to be humble. The devil is a very, very intelligent spirit. Even the very last spirit of lies is more intelligent than Einstein or anyone else. If we try to fight against the spirit of lies with logic, he deceives us. He exploits everyone’s weakness – women’s emotions and men’s logic. However, if we really want the Holy Spirit to lead us and to work through us, we need to stop: “Lord, I see, feel or understand it in this way but now I stand in Your light.” Jesus says: “I am the light of the world.” So if we stand in the light of God, Jesus opens our eyes as He opened the eyes of Mary Magdalene after His resurrection. She did not know Him; she supposed Him to be the gardener. Only when Jesus called her by name, her eyes were opened and she cried out: “Rabboni!” On the same day, two disciples went to Emmaus and were joined by Jesus who pretended to be a pilgrim.

God speaks to us but the problem is that we are unable to hear Him. The problem is in our receiver. Our heart needs to be attuned to His voice. He wants to work through you, through your faith too. The weaker we are, the more trust we need to place in the Lord, because “when I am weak, then I am strong”. Jesus, I trust in You.

Do not indulge in self-pity but go to Jesus, cling to Him and learn from Him. He will give you true wisdom, He will give you strength, He is alive, He is here, and He loves you more than your parents or your children can love you. He loves you more than you love yourself.

“He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”

Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time,

“Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things;

You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.”

He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”  Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.”

Peter was the first of the apostles to whom Jesus appeared. On Sunday morning, Peter overcame the fear that paralysed the apostles and came to Christ’s open tomb.

At the Lake of Gennesaret, where Jesus appeared to seven apostles, He asked Peter three times about his relationship to Him. The Apostle Peter had publicly denied Christ three times with an oath. Although he immediately repented of his denial and wept bitterly, he lost the office that Jesus had entrusted to him as the head of the apostles, saying, “You are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and on this rock I will build My church.” (Mt 16) By his denial, Peter ceased to be the rock; his faith and love for the Saviour failed. Peter did repent of his sin, but he only did so in private. Even though Jesus forgave him, the public guilt and offence required public satisfaction. How could he remain the head of the apostles if he had publicly renounced Christ with an oath? Jesus therefore demanded public repentance and public confession of a personal relationship of love – namely, divine love (agape) rather than human love – when He asked Peter twice about it.

+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate

In times of life’s trials, many of you see yourselves in the role of Peter and the other apostles after the death of Jesus. It seems to you that God has forsaken us and that evil and death celebrate their ultimate triumph. We forget God’s promises like the apostles, and fear and sorrow steal our faith and trust in these promises. Jesus is the resurrection and the life! He is really with us all the days of our life, and of your life too. May the angel roll back the stone of unbelief from your heart, and through the tears of repentance you will hear the voice of Jesus in the depths of your soul and feel His gentle touch bringing you deep peace which the world cannot give. At the hour of death, which may soon come to some, you will then see His face. Remember, Jesus is with you! Be with Him too. Do not abandon Him! In Him you have all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and in Him you have life, eternal life. The angel also says to you today: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is risen!”

+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate

Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? It is a question addressed to each of us. Why are you weeping? We weep when we lose something or when we feel pain in our soul.

Now is a time when the souls of defenceless children are being deprived of Jesus. Whenever we lose the living Jesus, we should weep. If the soul takes pains to seek God, God can touch this soul.

Whom are you seeking? Jesus! And whom are we seeking? How often we seek pleasure, money, human praise, vanity… But all glory is senseless. We should seek God, seek the truth, seek moral values, seek what gives us eternal life, and our eternal life is in Jesus. Our heart should ache at the living Christ being cast out of the souls. Without Him there is no eternal life, without Him there is eternal punishment and moral devastation.

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one,

to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

After verse 6, we read: “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.” Let us realize the fact: “We all have gone astray.” If God’s Word says all, however sure you may be that it does not concern you, you need to know that no one is an exception. Not only had we gone astray in the past but to some extent even now, despite having received much light from God’s Word and for our effort to keep God’s commandments, we often go astray in small things because of our stubbornness, unwillingness to learn or humble ourselves, etc. There is then a price to pay for our stupidity: quarrels in families, conflicts between husband and wife, children and parents. Why is that? Because we do not have enough light and spiritual harmony, which is connected with God’s grace. What should we do? We should come to know more deeply the truth about ourselves and about evil within us which leads us into self-deception, even in small things.