Main news for 22 December 2015

It may give the impression that by these words Jesus deprives us of every hope. Conscience does not allow us to call ourselves unambiguously good people. And if I am an evil person, then whatever I do will always be "evil," and there is nowhere to escape.

But in reality the matter is quite different. Jesus speaks of judgment, not condemnation, "by fruits," so that we would not think that our bad deeds mean nothing, that they are only something external, as if "in general I am pure and harmless." He warns us against self-justification. He wants us, having seen our own "evil," to turn away from our inner evil and want to change. And if such a desire arises, then God can answer it; precisely our inner change, the change of the heart, is what He offers us in His New Covenant with us.