Paul (certainly not accidentally) speaks a lot and very often about faithfulness. And it is not only about faithfulness to God, to Christ and the Kingdom, although first of all, indeed it is about it. But in addition to these, it is about the faithfulness to the choice once made, which is sometimes, as it may seem paradoxical, more important than faithfulness to God, Christ or the Kingdom. Indeed what means faithfulness to God? Or faithfulness to Christ? If Christianity was a new religion, or a new theology, or a new moral doctrine, everything would be simple and clear: in that case it would be enough for us to declare our commitment to the appropriate doctrine and its Founder, well, maybe even participate regularly in some ritual activities and carry on certain distinctive marks. But indeed, it is not about a new doctrine and either about a new religion, but about a new life, about a life in the Kingdom, that the Savior brought to the world.

And constancy is necessary in life, and above all constancy in relationships, defining our life priorities, which in their turn, are defined by the value system, that we follow. Of these elements, is formed faithfulness - to friends, the family, to the coreligionists, to the vocation of life and to the chosen path. And mainly such faithfulness distinguishes itself in no way from the faithfulness to God and Christ, without which is impossible the life in the Kingdom. Faithfulness is one, and it means constancy of the relationships, and also the constancy of the system of the values and life priorities. Without such faithfulness, any life is impossible not only in the Kingdom, but also in our non transformed world. However in the world non transformed without this internal spiritual core, which at the level of life relationships of life, manifests itself through faithfulness, one can in a way still live, although it is of course only with a big reserve that we can call life this existence, that man has to lead.

And here is, in the Kingdom, without it, it is impossible to hold on even one moment. Because, the spiritual space of the Kingdom is formed in particular by relations - the relationship of its inhabitants between themselves, their relationship with Christ, the relationship of Christ Himself with the Father. Without them, there is no Kingdom. And thus, it is also not without faithfulness, without which relationships in the kingdom are impossible.

Why does John, who himself bore witness to Jesus and saw the Spirit descending upon Him, suddenly send his disciples to Him with such a question? Perhaps he wants to strengthen his disciples' faith? Or perhaps in prison he himself was passing through the final trials of faith?

In any case, this question is extraordinarily important for us: “Art Thou He that should come?” We are called not merely to “believe” but to take a very decisive step—to take up the cross and follow Him. To do so, we must be certain that this is indeed He.

Jesus answers in the words of a messianic prophecy: let John's disciples judge by the works He performs. It seems that nothing else is left for us either: to look at what He does in our lives and in the lives of people we know, and to draw the right conclusions.

Today's reading touches on a very important theme connected with the ministry and witness not only of John the Baptist, but also of Jesus Himself. For Jesus it is completely beyond doubt that what many of those who came to John did not see was true: he was the greatest of all the prophets who had ever preached to the people of God (v. 28). Meanwhile, the very people who do not accept John are those who considered themselves the messianic remnant of which the prophets had spoken: the Pharisees and the teachers of the Torah ("scribes") (v. 30). In today's passage we see how Jesus explains this rejection. He compares those who reject John to children offended by their peers who refuse to play according to the rules they have set (v. 32). That is why they are satisfied neither with John's strict asceticism nor with Jesus' accessibility and openness (vv. 33-34).

Jesus expresses the essence of the problem in one phrase: wisdom is justified by her children (v. 35). For a better understanding of this phrase, it is important to keep in mind that among the Jews the concept of wisdom had long been associated not so much with theory and abstract knowledge as with practice. At first it referred to the practical skills of one craft or another, later to the practice of human relationships so necessary for rulers, judges, and statesmen, and after the Babylonian exile wisdom also came to be connected with the practice of following the Torah, which likewise required a certain skill, one that in a sense could be called the skill of righteous living.

Jesus has in mind another skill and another practice: the practice of the theological disputes so beloved by learned rabbis and simply educated believers. In the Gospel era such disputes were a favorite occupation and pastime of many inhabitants of Jerusalem. And it happened that for many of them, as one can see, these disputes turned into an end in themselves. The question was no longer how, by reading Scripture, to understand God's will through it, but what other interpretations of what had been read could be invented.

Of course, such intellectual exercises are harmless enough in themselves, and at times they can even be useful. But if one becomes too absorbed in them, they sometimes lead away from reality. All such exercises are always conditional to some degree. And if a person trains himself to see the world exclusively through the prism of theological concepts, even ones based on Scripture, it is very easy not to see behind them God and the One whom He sends into the world. All the more so because accepting Christ will require giving up many concepts. Naturally, one would like the real Messiah to correspond to them, so that nothing would have to be given up. But there is no correspondence, and then a choice has to be made. For someone, his own wisdom may turn out to be more important than the Kingdom. And even God can do nothing about that: such is the price of human freedom.