Notes for  24 June 2026

Reading the Gospel according to John, a normal person should almost constantly be in existential shock. Who is this Man? A violent madman? A maniac? Who is He to proclaim such a thing as the norm of life?

Or let us admit for a minute that all His words are true and that He is God and Savior. What kind of God is this, calling people to cannibalism, offering Himself to be eaten, saying that the condition of salvation is His blood, which must be drunk? If He is a man, He is sick. If He is God, how are we to understand His words? What does He want from us?

Always one thing, and the comparison with cannibalism can help us. A person begins to eat his own kind when hunger has already driven him mad, when the thirst for life in him is such that nothing can stop him. Jesus tells us that this is exactly how we must thirst for union with God, filling ourselves completely with Him alone and forgetting everything else. From the outside this will, of course, look like madness, like something strange and improper. But God, who came to die for us, says that life is possible only if this insatiable hunger is satisfied.

Why do wisdom and understanding become an obstacle to salvation? Why was this God's good pleasure? We are used to seeing wisdom and understanding as a source of virtue. And this habit is not groundless, for every culture, and culture is precisely what forms our habits, is built on the multiplication of what is reasonable. This includes biblical culture: in it, understanding becomes an indispensable condition for knowing God, and therefore for salvation: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (Prov. 9:10). And this is very understandable to us.

But then Christ comes, and it turns out that something here is not right. Let us try to understand what exactly. Let us turn again to the book of Proverbs, this truly chief canonical book devoted to reason: "Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding, for her profit is better than the profit of silver, and her gain than fine gold" (Prov. 3:13,14). And again: "Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you; she will bring you honor when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace; she will deliver to you a crown of glory" (Prov. 4:5-9). In these quotations, the greatness of the human being clothed with reason is expressed in the most obvious way.

Greatness... Yes, but Christ calls us to humility, for He Himself is meek and humble in heart. And for what purpose? The weightiest answer would come from the same book of Proverbs. Precisely while singing of human reason, it suddenly says, as if by chance: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding" (Prov. 3:5). With Christ, this glimmer will become a radiant stream of light, the stream of love ready to humble itself before its Beloved, because it wants nothing else.

On the day of the Nativity of John the Baptist, the Church offers us readings that tell of the relationship between God and His chosen people. And although John is first mentioned only in the New Testament, he has the most direct connection with all the preceding history of Israel. Sometimes he is spoken of as the last prophet of the Old Testament, and this is truly so. Being the son of one of the priests of the Jerusalem Temple, he became heir to all the piety of the Old Testament, and not only by origin. He experienced an encounter with the Lord even before his birth into the world, and the Lord called him "from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob back to Him and that Israel might be gathered to Him" (Isa. 49:5).

John continued to carry out his service to God, calling people to repentance, even after the beginning of Christ's preaching. But by his actions he "fulfilled," that is, brought to fullness, what the whole people of Israel had been called to do during the Old Testament period: to live before God and bear witness to the world about the coming Savior. He shows the fullest possible holiness for God's people: the closest possible approach to God by human strength. But as the Lord Himself said, "among those born of women there has not arisen one greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he" (Matt. 11:11), because our efforts alone are not enough. And the Lord wants us to make efforts, to try as much as possible to draw near to Him, and He will fill up the rest by coming to us.

Among the accusatory prophecies we suddenly hear news of the coming King, filled with the Spirit, in whose Kingdom there will no longer be enmity either among animals or among people. But God has just been rebuking His people! Someone may say that He is inconsistent or unjust: if He has rebuked, then He must also punish. But Scripture reminds us that God's love is stronger than human sin; in His mercy God comes not to the righteous, but to sinners.

Those who remember the former temple find it hard to accept the new one: they would like to see its restoration as a full return to their former life. But the Lord does not let us return to the old place or stand still in the new one. He leads us forward, especially since not everything in the world that has passed away was truly good. People, however, need an outward effect, and therefore they too easily fall into superficial judgments, into aestheticizing and imitating antiquity. But the most important thing, as we know, cannot be seen with the eyes: the visible is only one way of touching the invisible, not a substitute for it. More important than the restoration of architectural forms is that in the new temple the Lord is still present, preserving the covenant concluded between Him and the people.

His presence will be manifested in this temple in a way that would have been hard for Haggai's contemporaries, and perhaps even for the prophet himself, to imagine. Not only in the Holy of Holies, not only during prayers and sacrifices, but also as an unrecognized Man conversing with worshipers and driving out merchants, He will reveal Himself here.

And again we hear His words, with which He constantly addresses people: "Do not be afraid!" Many times throughout all Scripture we see these words, a sure sign of His presence beside people. In this world, where it is easier to defile a holy thing than to sanctify anything, since tearing down is not building, no one promised us an absence of difficulties. But with God much is possible, even the impossible: from clearing away everyday cares to uprooting the rule of pagan empires.

God's will becomes finally clear to the sorcerer Balaam: he leaves his divinations and goes into the wilderness to bless Israel. In his prophecy there is both the unearthly beauty of Israel, its many victories over its enemies, and the star rising over Jacob.

Two thousand years later other magi will see this star no longer by divination but openly, and they will cross the desert and rejoice when they see the true Beauty of Israel, and on behalf of all nations they will bring Him gifts. And after another two millennia, you and I will read this prophecy and worship this Beauty. History repeats itself, but its Center is always the same.