Main news for 30 March 2026

It is interesting to ask whether one can repent and be cleansed from sin just like that, just in case. Is this hypocrisy? Hardly: the Pharisees were deeply religious people who would scarcely have allowed themselves open deception. But what, then, provokes John's anger? Pride? The confidence of those who came that they, descendants of Abraham as they were, could not by definition be unworthy of the Kingdom? Yes, no doubt. Pride has never brought spiritual benefit to anyone. And yet the matter, it seems, is not only this.

Why would a cleansing washing, and the "baptisms" performed by John were precisely cleansing washings, be needed by someone who was confident of his own sinlessness? After all, Judaism of that era did not know such a concept as "original sin." For a Jew of the Gospel era, sin was something very concrete, and only the person who had committed such a sin was considered a sinner, not every human being by definition, as we think today. Why, then, should those who had not sinned be cleansed? As can be seen, precisely just in case. What if this strange preacher, so much like the ancient prophets, is right? What if one more cleansing is needed in order to be worthy of the coming Messiah? What if... In short, one extra washing, in any case, will do no harm.

Only spiritual life is not a religious rite; here nothing is done "just like that" or "just in case." Just as there is no "faith just in case." It exists, or it does not. No third thing is given.