Today we read the beginning of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans, that is, to all of us, because the Roman community consisted of Gentiles who had accepted Christianity, converted Jews, new converts, and those who had already followed Christ for many years. And the beginning of the letter immediately gives us a brief summary of what is the foundation of our faith. What matters most for us is that Jesus was born of the Spirit, died as a man, and rose again. This was promised by God through the prophets and was preserved by Scripture.

We are all called to carry the news of this, and for this grace and apostleship are given. This is needed so that everyone can hear the formula "born of the Spirit - died - rose again." It is clear that when the duty of carrying the truth is laid on you, it is very easy to make it private, accessible and understandable only to you. So, in order not to lose the way on this path, Paul simply writes to us: "...to bring all nations to the obedience of faith, among whom you also are, called by Jesus Christ." This defines the place of Christians in the world: among all nations, not off to the side, not in the center, but everywhere, like mortar between stones; they must shape the walls, they must build the house of God. By being "among."

The apostle Paul greets the Christians of first-century Rome in this way, but these words can be addressed to us as well. Then we, just imagine it, are those whom God loves and calls to holiness, that is, to a life based on love for God and for people. We are those to whom everything truly good is sent from the heavenly Father and His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ for nothing, freely, and to whom peace is also given. Peace not merely as the absence of war, but as a special state, originally present in God, of harmony in all relationships and connections, the state God intended for the seventh day of Creation. All this can apply to us, because it is said: "According to your faith, let it be done for you."

Addressing the church in Rome, Paul calls Christians by the word that is key to understanding Christianity. He calls them saints. And the point is not that they were all righteous people. The idea of holiness as righteousness became characteristic of medieval Christianity, but in early Christian times holiness meant something else. It meant roughly the same thing it had meant in earlier, pre-Christian times. Then holiness meant, first of all, sanctification. It was a special state of nature or of a person that had come into contact with God's presence, that presence of God which was revealed in places chosen by God. For example, at Yahwist altars, which never appeared by accident, but always there and then, where and when God manifested Himself and in one way or another made His presence known.

This presence, invisible to the eye yet completely real, could change the nature of whatever it touched. This naturally included the human being. But the human being had one special feature: he necessarily had to take conscious part in the process of his own sanctification. A person can change when he encounters God, but only if he himself wants this, turns to God with the corresponding request, and then gives himself fully into God's power so that God may fulfill that request. Then a person can become different. His life can become different. In biblical language, his soul. And his heart as well.

The heart comes first, because it is there, in the heart, that the question is decided: will a person give himself to God or not? In the language of the Bible, the heart is the source of a person's will, his spiritual self, the very place where choice is made and decisions are taken. And the state of the heart then determines a person's life, its course, what the Bible calls the soul: the stream of life in which a person abides and which flows through the person. It is what a modern philosopher would call existence.

The fullness of this stream with God's presence is what the New Testament books call the holiness of a person and of his life. Of course, the call to holiness had sounded earlier as well. But before Christ's coming, if it was attainable at all, it was attainable only in part. Now it is different, when, according to the Savior's word, the Kingdom has drawn near. Now it is open to everyone who seeks, and everyone who seeks can share in its life. Christianity, in essence, is nothing other than the life of the Kingdom and life in the Kingdom. Everything else is secondary.

That is why Paul and the other apostles call Christians saints: they are sanctified by the life they live and carry within themselves. Of course, this does not yet guarantee not only Christ's sinlessness, but even traditional Yahwist righteousness, which presupposed a person's ability to follow God despite his own sinfulness. Such sanctification is not a human achievement at all: it does not depend on the person; it is given to him as a gift. But what he does with this gift depends only on the person. For Christianity is a path that must be walked. And Paul knows this path far from hearsay.