Notes for  27 June 2026

The dialogue between Christ and the rich young man stirs strong emotions in most of us, because we are instantly frightened that such a call may be addressed to us as well, and that fulfilling it will be as hard for us as it was for this young man. No logic works at that moment. It is pointless to explain that this call is not addressed to everyone, for then there would simply be no one to buy the possessions being sold. It is pointless to recall that the Lord Himself says that the one who walks this path gains incomparably more than he loses. The fear of parting with what we have acquired seizes us to our fingertips: we stubbornly see property as the source of our being and dignity...

This is exactly what the people of Israel experienced after leaving Egypt. Slavery provided a "subsistence minimum," and therefore it became more desirable than such difficult freedom. We too remember sausage for 2.20, those of us who still caught that time, not because it was good, for it was exceptionally vile, but because it served as a phantom of reliability, when one could quietly vegetate in a tiny burrow and not labor to trust God.

This is precisely why this call of Christ is so important for us. Even if He does not at this moment demand personally of you that you sell your property, these words are addressed to you as well. A slave differs from a free person in that he cannot part with his enslaver: if you are unable to part with the phantom of security, with the possession of property, then you are merely its slave, and nothing more. It turns out that the demand to give away property is only one manifestation of the great call to freedom in Christ that runs through the whole Gospel.

Our God, the God of harmony and order, dearly loves what we call the "golden mean" or the "royal path." He, who holds the universe in balance, knows how difficult it is to find balance. And for us, people who do not possess His wisdom and vision, it is practically impossible not to slide into one of the extremes that open before us. This kind of tightrope walking is beyond our strength, especially since we are trying to walk this rope not as saints, leaving everything behind in trust in God, but with all the bundles of our own ideas about what is right and what is not, with all our cultural and other baggage. Perhaps these things are useful in some respects, but on the way to God they only cloud our sight. And then we become very much like the person in today's Gospel reading who approached Jesus second (see Matt. 8:21-22): it is very hard for us to part with what separates us from God.

This call, which appears cruel to many, to leave one's unburied father and follow Jesus, conveys very precisely what the Lord truly wants from us. He proposes that we not cling to this world, but, having weighed everything, renounce temptations and set out on the path toward happiness. Yet this must be done in a measured way, because against one extreme, not daring to follow Christ, there is always another: to run headlong without knowing where, making a mess in the process and deeply wounding those around us. Christ gently checks such an unbridled follower (see Matt. 8:19-20) and calls him to a measured decision.

It turns out that following God requires at the same time both radicalism, the resolve to follow Christ leaving everything behind, and a serious act of will, the utmost collectedness. What remains is to learn to find balance...

How strange we would look if we came to a doctor with a broken arm, asking for help but not allowing him to touch it. The same can be said of our prayer asking for help, but without faith...

In response to the centurion's request, Jesus did not say something like "let what you ask be done for you" or "your servant has recovered; go." He says: "Go; and as you have believed, let it be done for you" (Matt. 5:13). In this way He tells us the main thing: it is not enough simply to ask; faith is necessary. It is faith that fills the request with "power," makes it real and full. For if one asks someone for help without believing that it can be given, one will scarcely receive it. Besides, if we do not believe that the Lord can help us, we in effect close the road to Him, that is, we simply do not give Him the opportunity to provide that very help.

That is why Christ said: "Have faith in God. For truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Mark 11:23-24).

Jeremiah is a prophet of catastrophe: not only because the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah and the fall of Jerusalem took place before his eyes, but also because of how vividly and clearly he sees the approaching threat. It is as if he already hears the enemy trumpets and the shouts of soldiers.

All the more astonishing is that behind the inevitability of war and Judah's national collapse he sees the possibility of salvation: repentance, turning to God and His commandments. He perceives history as a living process of the relationship between God's people and God, a process in which spiritual renewal can stop war, and the reverse as well. He connects the moral condition of people and the most complex historical processes into one whole, proceeding not from sociological or political premises, but from knowledge of God as the Creator of history, and of the human being, on whose relationship with the Creator this history so strongly depends.

The story of the wedding in Cana begins by mentioning that the Mother of Jesus was there, and that Jesus Himself and His disciples were also among the guests. From this, and also from the fact that Mary gives instructions during the wedding, one can conclude that this was a celebration of close relatives, where She acted as one of the main organizers with the right to give household instructions. Therefore She told the servants to do whatever Her Son would tell them.

The words Jesus spoke to His Mother sound at first glance like a refusal of the request, but their meaning can also be understood differently: do not worry, everything will be all right. Of course, the meaning of His words is not limited to this; they are much deeper, and much can be read in them about His mission in the world. But it is precisely after these words that Mary passes the authority to Her Son.

Christ is only beginning His preaching. He has not yet been recognized by His relatives, and on this basis some conclude that His Mother did not always understand Him either. But this is not so: She who kept the words about Him in Her heart saw everything much more deeply. It seems that Her words spoken during the wedding, "Do whatever He tells you," refer not only to household concerns.

The land promised by God to Israel is the pledge that its possessors belong to God's people. Therefore the ancestral portion must not pass into foreign hands. Yet this very land, toward which Moses has been striving all these forty years, turns out to be inaccessible to him: he will not enter it and must appoint a successor for himself. This sad fact reminds us once again of the incompatibility of the Kingdom of God and disobedience to God, who requires from us the fruit of our life and in return grants Himself.