Main news for 16 October 2007

Reading the Epistle to the Romans, it becomes important for us to realize that, by believing in God, we stand in one line with the great prophets and righteous ones, inheriting from them not by flesh and blood, but by spirit. We can accept this, but then we must also realize what today's Gospel reminds us of. If we believe, we cannot renounce what is the necessary companion of our faith. It seems, what is so difficult about answering a direct question by saying that you believe in Jesus? But it is difficult, because it is frightening thereby to acknowledge this family bond from Abraham. It is often unpleasant to admit openly that, believing in Christ, you acknowledge yourself as a member of the Church, and more than that, you go to services. What could be a greater manifestation of savagery than to take upon yourself all the outward signs of a believer: faith is faith, after all, we all believe in something, but why exaggerate everything so much? Yet this simple savagery is often the necessary confession of Christ, which is always given to us with great difficulty; without it our faith becomes something speculative and very far from what Paul calls righteousness.