Main news for 4 June 2025

Can it really be that one person is more important to God than 99? What about each of those 99? And what is wrong with righteousness? Are we not all called to righteousness?

These striking words of Jesus can bring us to a couple of thoughts. First, each person stands before God personally, not as part of a collective. We all have many kinds of human ties - family, work, neighbors, church - and they matter, but the meeting with God happens only one on one, and that meeting transforms our life and brings real change into our relationships with other people. Second, what do we stand before God with? With our righteousness? But "there is none righteous, not one" (see Rom. 3:10). Here it matters whether we recognize our unrighteousness, our sinfulness, and ask God to do something about it, or whether we think that everything with us is "no worse than with others" and see no need for repentance. The first path opens us to meeting God, while the second makes the abyss between us and Him even deeper.