The presence of the kingdom of darkness. What to do?
Earlier I touched on the image of the church, the image of the temple. We all create an image and at the same time an invisible spiritual edifice of the church. There are elements in the church and in the temple that are more visible and less visible. The foundation is decisive, but it is not visible.
The foundation is essential, as is everything else in the temple.
When Jesus chose the apostles, he chose people who were unnoticed by others, overlooked, invisible - people who are not noticed every day. Some fishermen pulled Matthew the tax collector out of a hole, and so on and so forth.
[media=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xaNZmrO-ltE]
And as we read in the Book of Revelation in chapter 21, the apostles are the foundation for the new Jerusalem. Why? They were unnoticed, so they had to remain like that until the end, or rather forever - they are forever unnoticed, they are invisible, they are invisible, they are very spiritual.
This is a very good message for those people who think, "No one notices me." That's good. This is perhaps a calling to be as invisible as God. God is also unnoticed, and God is also unseen.
And when we read the Bible, we see that He was particularly fond of choosing people who were not usually noticed by people as his closest friends. Hence there was a wide place in God's eye for them.
There are also load-bearing elements in the temple. Souls that bear others are the supporting elements, because they have to endure a lot, and the burden of responsibility for others rests on them. There are also pillars, just like the pillars here in this temple, which have the gift of supporting, supporting, intercession and prayer.
Columns are sublime, generous people, moral and spiritual authorities for many. In every temple there are few pillars, few columns. There are more bricks in the wall than columns, there are few people who are really authorities, but a lot depends on them.
There are walls, souls fixed in goodness, not wavering, giving shelter to the terrified. There are decorative elements in the church, ornaments of the community, beautiful souls, carved by the chisels of suffering.
There are people-altars, full of sacrifice, ready to sacrifice for others. Perhaps they even like to rest their heads on this altar or kiss it. There are windows with stained glass, people who give light to others.
Our task is not only to find ourselves in God's eyes, but also to find our place in the church community.
Benedict XVI says: in Christianity, salvation is not individualistic. No one is saved here on his own, no one can be saved without being interested in others, without having anything in common with others, bypassing others.
Another thing is that this church temple is often built of rejected stones. It is very important. When we find ourselves in the temple, in the church community, we regain a double sense of value. Not only because God believes in me, but we begin to experience that others also believe in me and that I believe in others.
This is also a very important element of self-esteem.
Matthew saw that he was someone who gave light, I think, he wrote the gospel about God's faith in man. You find yourself when you allow others to find you. This is the meaning of the church.
When you give someone light, it means that you are a window in that building. When you support others, it means you are a pillar.
When you are a shelter, it means you are like a wall. When you sacrifice, you are an altar. When you let someone into the heart of Jesus, you are a gate, and so on and so forth. But in the temple, as we can see here before us with our eyes, it is very important to have an image.
We don't have a picture of what it looks like, see for yourself. It is then difficult to rest your eyes on something. In the temple it is important when there is an image, an icon, when there is a likeness to God.
How important are the people in the church, in whom we look and see a credible image of God. There are people whose face is a mirror of the face of Jesus. The most beautiful compliment that can be paid to a person is when they are told: "Looking into your face, I see that God is looking at me."
Even more important than this is the presence itself. Everything I say now determines the rest. Dwelling The Jews called it the Shekhinah or the Mishkam.
When Jesus calls the first apostles in the Gospel of John, they ask where you live. He says, "Come and see." He didn't show them a specific house number. He showed them that if they followed them, then they will feel the dwelling of God, the shechinah.
The dwelling of God is to be close to Him, and not to live in a specific number.
Even more important is the presence of God, also in our inner temple. We must make an effort not only to have the right image of God, but also His authentic presence, because our heart must also be a tabernacle.
If this temple had all the elements I mentioned, or maybe even more, but there was no tabernacle, then the temple would make no sense. She would lie like a body without a heart, she would lie like a corpse.
The prophets warned against such phenomena, calling it the abomination of desolation. It is possible that something like this could happen, that anything could happen, but the most important thing would be missing.
Saint Bernard says that when the disciples were going to Emmaus, Jesus, while translating the scriptures and explaining to them the meaning of death and resurrection, at one point made them understand that he wanted to go further, that he wanted to leave them.
Bernard writes that he did this so that the disciples would stop him even more and do good. For, as the Scripture says, the day was drawing to a close and it was evening, so dark times were coming.
In this simple sentence, prosaic, maybe even banal, you can see so much. They didn't want to spend time in an empty apartment without God, in an apartment without Jesus. And they said, "Come with us," and in that inn, the Eucharist took place there.
So do we when we are tempted in the dark. When we lose the light, we should not let Jesus go. I think that it is also especially in the evening. When that time of night comes, we should especially stay close to him, stop him with begging, not let him go, so that God doesn't ask us: "Spend at least 5 minutes of your time with me" and we don't want to.
We should have the zeal of the apostles who said, "We will not let you go." Let's pay attention to this. They tried very hard for Jesus when it began to get dark, when night was approaching, when the kingdom of darkness was becoming present.
The activity of God, especially the activity of angels and saints, is accompanied by the counteraction of the enemy, the activity of Satan, as Saint John of the Cross claims and wrote about it. The Earth is a battlefield, and it is important who lives in our soul, whether the true God or a counterfeit image of God.
You have to try very hard, especially when the night is approaching, both the real and the symbolic one.
Matthew recorded such a parable, one of Jesus' parables, which talks about an evil spirit that is expelled from a human soul. We know this parable, but because someone did not make an effort to bring God's presence inside, the house stood empty.
That is, it was as if the soul was empty and experienced terrible visits, even an invasion of intruders. When we do not make an effort to let Jesus dwell in our soul, other spirits enter. The spirit must have its own spirit. He hates a vacuum.
The stomach can bear hunger, the heart can bear loneliness, but the soul cannot bear the absence of the spirit. But which one?
In the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew we read: "When the unclean spirit leaves a man." This word "unclean" means not only unclean in a sexual or dirty, unhygienic sense. It is not a holy spirit at all, it is not a pure spirit.
And when it leaves man, it wanders through waterless places, writes Matthew. Seeking rest, but finding none. Because its essence is anxiety. In this parable, a man is compared to a house, because the idea is to express more clearly the idea of the interior.
Mateusz wanted to illustrate this: "My interior is like a home." It is the interior that is most important in this matter, the most important thing. Whoever really lives inside of us, life cannot tolerate emptiness.
You can endure many things in life, but you cannot endure emptiness. This apartment was like a frame made of gold, but empty - without a portrait, without a painting and without a presence.
I read in Saint Catherine, or rather, when Saint Francis Xavier quotes Saint Catherine of Siena, who once had a very strong attack of unclean temptations. The temptations were quite shameless, perhaps even perverse, so the saint was terrified and at the same time wavered, thinking that sin had already conquered her.
There is a moment when temptations attack us and it seems that we have already sinned, even though we did not agree to it. And the will determines whether there was a sin or not.
And the saint staggered, terrified. It is true that her will did not consent to these offenses even for a minute, strengthened by God's grace, but when these attacks continued, she began to call out to Jesus. And she had a vision that he stood before her, and she asked him, "Lord, where were you when my heart was so full of darkness and filth?"
And then Jesus replied, "I have just been in your heart." She was surprised: "What is it like in my heart? Are you now setting up your home in hearts that are so dirty, dark and disgusting?"
Then Jesus explained everything to her. "Tell me," he said to Catherine, "did these disgusting thoughts make you happy or sad, delight or pain?" She replied, "Deepest sadness and pain."
Then Jesus explained to her: "And who poured so much sadness and pain into your heart if not I, who was hidden at the very bottom of your heart? Believe me, Catherine, if I had not been there, the thoughts that so pressed against your will , would defeat you.
You would give them access to you and play with them with pleasure. But because I was in your heart, you did everything you could to resist temptation. And because you were unable to do everything you wanted to do, your disgust grew even more. So that the fight served to strengthen your virtue and increase your merit.
She succeeded because Jesus actually lived in her, and the temptations did not arouse in her delight, pleasure, fascination or attraction, but only disgust, pain and sadness. And then she could recognize that she had been in unity with Jesus all along.
But we can delude ourselves that Jesus lives in us, because I am a priest, priest, monk, Catholic, Christian. I go to church, I cleanse my soul, I go to confession. But do I invite Jesus into my interior?
What is the point of going to confession, confessing all these 7 deadly sins, and then not receiving Holy Communion at all? So what is the point of cleansing yourself ethically or morally, improving yourself, trying to be better, and confessing your sins, and not accepting Jesus at least once a day, not saying anything to Him?
This does not mean that you have to attend the Eucharist or Mass every day, because there is also a kind of spiritual communion, through adoration of the Cross, the face of Jesus, the Word of God. It's about a friendly meeting.
The foundation is essential, as is everything else in the temple.
When Jesus chose the apostles, he chose people who were unnoticed by others, overlooked, invisible - people who are not noticed every day. Some fishermen pulled Matthew the tax collector out of a hole, and so on and so forth.
[media=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xaNZmrO-ltE]
And as we read in the Book of Revelation in chapter 21, the apostles are the foundation for the new Jerusalem. Why? They were unnoticed, so they had to remain like that until the end, or rather forever - they are forever unnoticed, they are invisible, they are invisible, they are very spiritual.
This is a very good message for those people who think, "No one notices me." That's good. This is perhaps a calling to be as invisible as God. God is also unnoticed, and God is also unseen.
And when we read the Bible, we see that He was particularly fond of choosing people who were not usually noticed by people as his closest friends. Hence there was a wide place in God's eye for them.
There are also load-bearing elements in the temple. Souls that bear others are the supporting elements, because they have to endure a lot, and the burden of responsibility for others rests on them. There are also pillars, just like the pillars here in this temple, which have the gift of supporting, supporting, intercession and prayer.
Columns are sublime, generous people, moral and spiritual authorities for many. In every temple there are few pillars, few columns. There are more bricks in the wall than columns, there are few people who are really authorities, but a lot depends on them.
There are walls, souls fixed in goodness, not wavering, giving shelter to the terrified. There are decorative elements in the church, ornaments of the community, beautiful souls, carved by the chisels of suffering.
There are people-altars, full of sacrifice, ready to sacrifice for others. Perhaps they even like to rest their heads on this altar or kiss it. There are windows with stained glass, people who give light to others.
Our task is not only to find ourselves in God's eyes, but also to find our place in the church community.
Benedict XVI says: in Christianity, salvation is not individualistic. No one is saved here on his own, no one can be saved without being interested in others, without having anything in common with others, bypassing others.
Another thing is that this church temple is often built of rejected stones. It is very important. When we find ourselves in the temple, in the church community, we regain a double sense of value. Not only because God believes in me, but we begin to experience that others also believe in me and that I believe in others.
This is also a very important element of self-esteem.
Matthew saw that he was someone who gave light, I think, he wrote the gospel about God's faith in man. You find yourself when you allow others to find you. This is the meaning of the church.
When you give someone light, it means that you are a window in that building. When you support others, it means you are a pillar.
When you are a shelter, it means you are like a wall. When you sacrifice, you are an altar. When you let someone into the heart of Jesus, you are a gate, and so on and so forth. But in the temple, as we can see here before us with our eyes, it is very important to have an image.
We don't have a picture of what it looks like, see for yourself. It is then difficult to rest your eyes on something. In the temple it is important when there is an image, an icon, when there is a likeness to God.
How important are the people in the church, in whom we look and see a credible image of God. There are people whose face is a mirror of the face of Jesus. The most beautiful compliment that can be paid to a person is when they are told: "Looking into your face, I see that God is looking at me."
Even more important than this is the presence itself. Everything I say now determines the rest. Dwelling The Jews called it the Shekhinah or the Mishkam.
When Jesus calls the first apostles in the Gospel of John, they ask where you live. He says, "Come and see." He didn't show them a specific house number. He showed them that if they followed them, then they will feel the dwelling of God, the shechinah.
The dwelling of God is to be close to Him, and not to live in a specific number.
Even more important is the presence of God, also in our inner temple. We must make an effort not only to have the right image of God, but also His authentic presence, because our heart must also be a tabernacle.
If this temple had all the elements I mentioned, or maybe even more, but there was no tabernacle, then the temple would make no sense. She would lie like a body without a heart, she would lie like a corpse.
The prophets warned against such phenomena, calling it the abomination of desolation. It is possible that something like this could happen, that anything could happen, but the most important thing would be missing.
Saint Bernard says that when the disciples were going to Emmaus, Jesus, while translating the scriptures and explaining to them the meaning of death and resurrection, at one point made them understand that he wanted to go further, that he wanted to leave them.
Bernard writes that he did this so that the disciples would stop him even more and do good. For, as the Scripture says, the day was drawing to a close and it was evening, so dark times were coming.
In this simple sentence, prosaic, maybe even banal, you can see so much. They didn't want to spend time in an empty apartment without God, in an apartment without Jesus. And they said, "Come with us," and in that inn, the Eucharist took place there.
So do we when we are tempted in the dark. When we lose the light, we should not let Jesus go. I think that it is also especially in the evening. When that time of night comes, we should especially stay close to him, stop him with begging, not let him go, so that God doesn't ask us: "Spend at least 5 minutes of your time with me" and we don't want to.
We should have the zeal of the apostles who said, "We will not let you go." Let's pay attention to this. They tried very hard for Jesus when it began to get dark, when night was approaching, when the kingdom of darkness was becoming present.
The activity of God, especially the activity of angels and saints, is accompanied by the counteraction of the enemy, the activity of Satan, as Saint John of the Cross claims and wrote about it. The Earth is a battlefield, and it is important who lives in our soul, whether the true God or a counterfeit image of God.
You have to try very hard, especially when the night is approaching, both the real and the symbolic one.
Matthew recorded such a parable, one of Jesus' parables, which talks about an evil spirit that is expelled from a human soul. We know this parable, but because someone did not make an effort to bring God's presence inside, the house stood empty.
That is, it was as if the soul was empty and experienced terrible visits, even an invasion of intruders. When we do not make an effort to let Jesus dwell in our soul, other spirits enter. The spirit must have its own spirit. He hates a vacuum.
The stomach can bear hunger, the heart can bear loneliness, but the soul cannot bear the absence of the spirit. But which one?
In the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew we read: "When the unclean spirit leaves a man." This word "unclean" means not only unclean in a sexual or dirty, unhygienic sense. It is not a holy spirit at all, it is not a pure spirit.
And when it leaves man, it wanders through waterless places, writes Matthew. Seeking rest, but finding none. Because its essence is anxiety. In this parable, a man is compared to a house, because the idea is to express more clearly the idea of the interior.
Mateusz wanted to illustrate this: "My interior is like a home." It is the interior that is most important in this matter, the most important thing. Whoever really lives inside of us, life cannot tolerate emptiness.
You can endure many things in life, but you cannot endure emptiness. This apartment was like a frame made of gold, but empty - without a portrait, without a painting and without a presence.
I read in Saint Catherine, or rather, when Saint Francis Xavier quotes Saint Catherine of Siena, who once had a very strong attack of unclean temptations. The temptations were quite shameless, perhaps even perverse, so the saint was terrified and at the same time wavered, thinking that sin had already conquered her.
There is a moment when temptations attack us and it seems that we have already sinned, even though we did not agree to it. And the will determines whether there was a sin or not.
And the saint staggered, terrified. It is true that her will did not consent to these offenses even for a minute, strengthened by God's grace, but when these attacks continued, she began to call out to Jesus. And she had a vision that he stood before her, and she asked him, "Lord, where were you when my heart was so full of darkness and filth?"
And then Jesus replied, "I have just been in your heart." She was surprised: "What is it like in my heart? Are you now setting up your home in hearts that are so dirty, dark and disgusting?"
Then Jesus explained everything to her. "Tell me," he said to Catherine, "did these disgusting thoughts make you happy or sad, delight or pain?" She replied, "Deepest sadness and pain."
Then Jesus explained to her: "And who poured so much sadness and pain into your heart if not I, who was hidden at the very bottom of your heart? Believe me, Catherine, if I had not been there, the thoughts that so pressed against your will , would defeat you.
You would give them access to you and play with them with pleasure. But because I was in your heart, you did everything you could to resist temptation. And because you were unable to do everything you wanted to do, your disgust grew even more. So that the fight served to strengthen your virtue and increase your merit.
She succeeded because Jesus actually lived in her, and the temptations did not arouse in her delight, pleasure, fascination or attraction, but only disgust, pain and sadness. And then she could recognize that she had been in unity with Jesus all along.
But we can delude ourselves that Jesus lives in us, because I am a priest, priest, monk, Catholic, Christian. I go to church, I cleanse my soul, I go to confession. But do I invite Jesus into my interior?
What is the point of going to confession, confessing all these 7 deadly sins, and then not receiving Holy Communion at all? So what is the point of cleansing yourself ethically or morally, improving yourself, trying to be better, and confessing your sins, and not accepting Jesus at least once a day, not saying anything to Him?
This does not mean that you have to attend the Eucharist or Mass every day, because there is also a kind of spiritual communion, through adoration of the Cross, the face of Jesus, the Word of God. It's about a friendly meeting.
