way of the scripture so that perhaps we deserve what was given to Christ. Now in these last weeks we have spoken about the penance, repentance. in the Old Testament, public and ritual penance of the people of the Old Testament, the, you may call it, criticism of the prophets, of the ritual and public penance, turning the attention to the depth of the individual conversion And with that, then coming to the point where man sees that he himself and the ultimate part of himself is not able to bring a fruit worthy of repentance.

[01:20]

But that this is the change of heart is really possible only through a creative act on the part of God. And then we have turned to the New Testament, and there we have found in the preaching of St. John the Baptist, hence then, the way in which he points to our Lord as the Lamb of God, we see the transition from the old to the new. And this prelude of the New Testament preaching of repentance that we see in St. John the Baptist takes in one element unknown to the prophets, and that is the baptism of repentance. He himself, he says, he baptizes only in water.

[02:24]

Why does What is the last reason for St. George to seal, as it were, his own announcement and urging the people to penance with this ceremony of baptism in the water of the Jordan? Certainly in past analysis, his doing is the backdrop on which then something completely new and unheard of can take place, and that is the fact that Christ the Savior, that the Messiah himself, the one who ushers in the new messianic age, the new covenant, the new order, that he comes and still goes further, we can say, than John the Baptist, and

[03:27]

bends his neck and receives the baptism of water from John the Baptist. The one who comes after me, he is the greater one, and I don't deserve to lose the natures of his shoes. And still he wants to be baptized by me. For what reason? that all justice may be fulfilled. And what is the meaning of repentance if it is not the fulfillment of all justice? And so we see here, the living repentance implies our Lord's will. He's being baptized in the waters of the Jordan, in the baptism of repentance. is nothing but the symbolic anticipation of his own death, in which he dies when we were still his enemies, that we may be washed in his blood.

[04:38]

And so out of this baptism on the cross then rises in the end our Lord's own baptism, in which he baptizes in fire Spirit in a new and divine order and power. And that is the fulfillment of the New Testament repentance. And that is the repentance which we enact in a special way in the course of the Lenten season. So it is the Lord himself who is better not only preaching to others, but undergoing it himself in order to fulfill all justice. And so the transcendence of penance, of repentance, which we became aware of when we were speaking about the prophets, is in him fulfilled.

[05:46]

The creative act of God, of which Ezekiel and He would take away from us the heart of stone and would give us a new heart and heart of flesh. This creative act of God is visible to us and it is visible on the cross. There He dies for us and He rises for us. And in this way He changes our heart, takes away the stone and gives us a heart of flesh. What a tremendous and beautiful fulfillment of the prophecy through the sorrow of God made man. So that is what we have spoken about up to this moment. Now, tonight we want to throw still the dance and the preaching of our Lord in this synodic gospel.

[06:52]

the preaching of repentance. When we look at it and when we wait, the first thing that we realize is the tremendous new urgency which is expressed in the preaching of our Lord. Wonderful, the majestic words in the first chapter of St. Mark, in the 15th verse. which are the beginning, and again, as any beginning in the old classical sense of the antiquity, comprehending, containing the whole. And there he says it, in these words, in Platon est tempus, de Chiros, God's time is fulfilled. That is the new The prophets were pointing, the prophets were looking into the future.

[08:01]

But our Lord comes and says, now the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is there and then out of this And then, to indicate the fullness and the glory of this change, we really did evangelize, believing in the glad tidings. That is a new tone. That is something different from what we had heard from the lips of people. Here he is, the tremendous realization of the decisiveness of this new historical moment and the people, unique.

[09:05]

God's time is there. Then, there he is, the kingdom of God has come. The change of heart is now the way in which we enter into it. But this change of heart is not only and consists not only and essentially in works of penance. As our Lord Himself says, looking back at which part or what sign, and said, in sheer seen, the miracles that are done here, they would have done penance in Shina and in Galizio, in Ashes and in Sackcloth. That is not the essence of the New Testament penance.

[10:08]

But, credite evangelii, believe in the glad tidings, and there we see already how the of that change of heart and of that repentance that our Lord preaches really is the Resurrection, rei de divante, the leave in the glad tidings, the glad tidings of the Lamb of God that carries the sins of the world and that is now enthroned at the right hand of In this beginning, and I say it's already, the whole preaching of our Lord is contained in it. One is clear, that is the urgency. This is God's time. If you don't change your heart, you shall perish.

[11:09]

Luke 13, if you don't change your heart, you shall perish. When he saw the city Jerusalem, he wept over it, saying, If you only on this your day would see what serves your peace. But it is hidden before your eyes, and the days will come, and not one stone may be left upon the other, because you did not realize you that the time of your visitation was at hand. You did not realize, you did not recognize this as the time of your visitation. That is the urgency of the preaching of our Lord. This is God's time. This is the tremendous offer that is being made.

[12:14]

Woe to those who do not The other note which is so clear in the preaching of our Lord about the change of heart, that is the demand of totality or absoluteness. As he says, either make the tree good, and then its fruit is good. Or make the tree bad, and its fruit is bad. You brood of vipers. How can you speak good things when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man from his good treasure brings forth good things. And the evil man from his evil treasure brings forth evil things.

[13:19]

But I tell you, that of every idle word men speak, they shall give an account on the day of judgment. For by thy words you will be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned. The meaning of this saying is, penance is a total It demands the change of the dream, not only of the external appearance, not only of the words, but of the inner man of the heart. Repentance is the beginning of a new organic divine love, which therefore, from within, determined by God, also in all the fruits, in all its expressions.

[14:22]

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you clean the outside of the dish. Clean first the inside of the cup, that the outside too may be clean. Here meet all of you and understand There is nothing outside a man that entering into him can defile him. But the things that come out of a man, these are what defile a man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. So in this new realm of the Holy Spirit, there our ears are opened to this message. that this change of heart takes place in the inner depth of the person. It is therefore a turning away, interior total turning away.

[15:28]

And one must act now, not only from everything which in itself is sinful or opposed to God, but also from everything which, in the concrete case, makes the full turning to God impossible. These are the words, then, of our Lord. If your right eye is an occasion of sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it is better for you that one of your members should perish than that your whole body should be thrown into him. And further, do not think that I have come to send peace upon the earth. I have come to bring a sword, not peace. For I have come to set a man at variance with his father.

[16:32]

and a daughter with her mother. He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it. and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. There is a new dimension. So often we are afraid when we hear these words. So often they seem to have hard words. Listen to it. If any man comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

[17:37]

And he who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Where is, if we may call it a mystery or a riddle, where is the solution? Where is the key to these hard words? It seems to me they are right in the conversion of our workings. to the understanding of New Testament conversion and redemptions is the word we say every time when we stand at the foot of the altar and we are at the moment in which we begin to offer the sacrifice of Holy Mass. Then great conversio doctri. Deus tu conversus vidicaris nos. O God, you turn around and you give us

[18:44]

And here it is, in these words of the Lord. Jesus therefore said to Peter, put up thy sword into the scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? Our Lord's repentance is that he drinks the cup that the Father has given him. and that cup is the cup of his death. And for this reason he then said, No disciple is above his teacher, nor is the servant above the master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and for the servant to be like his master. And what does this likeness involve? Just listen to John 15, where the Lord says, remember the word that I have spoken to you.

[19:50]

No servant is greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also. Let us in this moment remember also the story of the rich young man. Good Master, what shall I do to gain eternal life? So he asked the Lord. And the answer comes, thou knowest the commandments. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not defraud. Honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said, Master, all these things I have kept ever since I was a child. And then comes the decisive moment, the moment of the change of heart.

[20:59]

It's strange to say that, but it is absolutely true. Here is a young man who observes the commandments and now reaches, in meeting the Lord, reaches the point where he, beyond the commandments, may break in to the liberty of the New Testament conversion. And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him and said to him, we should weigh that, we should see it, feel our way into it as it happened. And Jesus looking upon him, gazing upon him, loved him and said to him, one thing is lacking, Go, still, whatever thou hast, and give it to the poor, and come, follow me.

[22:12]

These words are an invitation. They are the invitation of God's deepest love. They are not a burden. They are not a commandment. They are not in any way chains which are being put upon the young men. He gazes upon him. He sings, as it were, into his soul. He loves him. And then he says, go still, everything, and follow me. That is the essence of the New Testament, repentance of the change of heart. It is the absolute love of God for us which invites us to a response adequate to this love. And that is naturally then what the whole Testament calls rest.

[23:14]

The world responds, he finds rest. But in the case of the young man, his face fell at this sight. His face fell. And he went away sad, for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, when Confucius still can feel that this, for our world, is a moment of great immense love. Urging, drawing his disciples to him, he says, children, how difficult it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel

[24:17]

to pass through the eye of a needle. The disciples were terribly upset and said among themselves, didn't dare to address him, but among themselves they said, now, who there can be saved? And then again, looking upon them, Jesus said, Then it is impossible. But not with God. For all things are possible with God. But here, my dear brethren, we have reached again the point of the Mysterium. We touched it there. We have come to the end, as it were, of the world. To the end of human possibilities.

[25:19]

to that zero point of which we have spoken so often. Here, in all these words, it is clearly indicated. But there is also the bridge. There is also the way out. With men, it is impossible, but not with God. What does that mean, with God? I would say, in Christ, with Christ, He is the Emmanuel, isn't he? God with us. Therefore, what does it mean even walking with him? Dying with him? Imitating him? The imitation of Christ? What kind of imitation? In and through the sacrament of his death and his resurrection, baptism. There we are again at the beginning of our meditation.

[26:24]

That was the beginning of the preaching of repentance. It ended in the sacrament of peace. Baptism on water, Saint John the Baptist, under God, suffered by our Lord Jesus Christ. and the baptism of fire and its spirit that the risen Savior will then, through his glorious power of resurrection, apply to us. So that we then, after the death and the resurrection of Christ, through baptism, die with him and rise with him. And that is the other side of this preaching of repentance. and that we should not by any means overlook. That is then what was revealed, however, not so much, maybe, in the Synoptic Gospels, but after the Resurrection of Christ, in the preachings of those who followed him, who were baptized with fire and the Spirit, as St.

[27:35]

Paul, the great apostle, who then in the second epistle to the Corinthians in the seventh chapter says, I am filled with comfort. I am overflown with joy in all my troubles. And to the Corinthians he says, in that same spirit, in that same union, you are in our hearts to die together and to live And that is only the application and the realization of the prophecy of our Lord Himself, who said, in the world you will have affliction, but take courage. I have overcome the world. And that means if you die with me, you will also rise. and more, your death with me will have in itself all power in the glory of the resurrection.

[28:44]

Therefore, St. Peter says, Beloved, do not be startled at your trials, but rejoice insofar as you are partakers of the sufferings of Christ, that you may also rejoice with exultation in the revelation of his glory. And then St. Paul speaks it clearly, defines it as it were in the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, for we were buried with him by means of baptism into death, in order that just as Christ has risen from the dead to the glory newness of life. And therefore, it continues in the second epistle to the Corinthians, for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also through Christ, through Christ, I emphasize that, do our consolation.

[29:54]

For our present light affliction, which is for the moment, prepares in us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all measure. While we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. Therefore St. Paul clearly points there the way that we as Christians in our earthly sufferings with Christ have to penetrate through the visible appearance in order to see behind it the eternal weight of glory. That is what we must train our eyes And that is the whole purpose of the church in the Lenten season.

[30:59]

If during Lent, for example, Sunday after Sunday, there stands the whole power of the Resurrection. Every Sunday gospel, the gospel of the Resurrection. One can say in some way, every gospel of the whole Lenten season is a gospel. All that glorious celebration of fasting and of affliction, of reducing our fillings. What is in it? What is behind it? What is the real spirit? It's the spirit of the resurrection. And that is the spirit of the living. And therefore, when we come to the moment on Good Friday, where we see the Lord crucified before us, still we give glory to the cross, because through this cross, joy has come into the whole world. And that is the fullness of the Christian preaching and practice of the change of heart, of repentance, of the dead of the season.

[32:12]

that we take part in the sufferings of Christ, that with Him we also may be made wise, so that it may become the truth in us what St. Paul tells his own followers in the first epistle to the Corinthians, your labor will not be in vain in the curious, in the prisons, way, let's go just on that path which we deserve, obviously, through Christ our Lord. In these last weeks we have spoken about the penance, repentance,

[33:18]

in the Old Testament, public and ritual penance of the people of the Old Testament, the, you may call it, criticism of the prophets, of the ritual and public penance, turning the attention to the depth of the individual conversion And with that, then coming to the point where man sees that he himself and the outer part of himself is not able to bring a fruit worthy of repentance. But that this is the change of heart is really possible only through a creative act on the part of God. And then we have turned to the New Testament, and there we have found, in the preaching of St.

[34:26]

John the Baptist, hence then, the way in which he points to our God as the Lamb of God. See the transition from the old to the new. And this prelude of the New Testament preaching of repentance that we see in St. John the Baptist takes in one element unknown to the prophets, and that is the baptism of repentance. He himself, he says, he baptizes only in water. Why does What is the last reason for St. George to seal, as it were, his own announcement and urging the people to penance with this ceremony of baptism in the water of the Jordan?

[35:30]

Certainly, in last analysis, his doing is the backdrop on which then something completely new and unheard of can take place, and that is the fact that Christ the Savior, that the Messiah himself, the one who ushers in the new messianic age, the new covenant, the new order, that he comes and still goes further, we can say, than John the Baptist, bends his neck and receives the baptism of water from John the Baptist. The one who comes after me, he is the greater one, and I don't deserve to lose the natures of his shoes.

[36:32]

And still, he wants to be baptized by me. For what reason? that all justice may be fulfilled. And what is the meaning of repentance if it is not the fulfillment of all justice? And so we see here the living repentance in Christ our Lord himself. He is being baptized in the waters of the Jordan in the baptism of repentance. is nothing but the symbolic anticipation of His own death, in which He dies when we were still His enemies, that we may be washed in His blood. And so out of this baptism on the cross then rises in the end our Lord's own baptism

[37:34]

in which he baptizes in fire and in the Holy Spirit, in a new and divine order and power. And that is the fulfillment of the New Testament repentance. And that is the repentance which we, which we enact in a special way in the course of dependency. So it is the Lord himself who is baptized, not only preaching to others, but undergoing it himself in order to fulfill all justice. And so the transcendence of repentance, which we became aware of when we were speaking about the prophets, is in him fulfilled. The creative act of God. of which Ezekiel spoke, and He would take away from us the heart of stone, and would give us a new heart and heart of flesh.

[38:46]

This creative act of God is visible to us, and it is visible on the cross. There He dies for us, and He rises for us, and in this way He changes our lives. takes away the stony heart and gives us a heart of flesh. What a tremendous, beautiful fulfillment of the prophecy through the sorrow of God made man. So that is what we have spoken about up to this point. Now, tonight we want to throw still the glass and the preaching of our Lord in the Psalm of the Gospels, the preaching of repentance. When we look at it and when we wait, the first thing that we realize is the tremendous new urgency which is expressed

[39:56]

in the preaching of our Lord. Wonderfully majestic words in the first chapter of St. Mark, in the 15th verse, which are the beginning, as again as any beginning in the old classical sense of the antiquity, comprehending, containing the whole. And there he says, In these words, in Pletum est tempus. The Kai was, God's time is fulfilled. That is the new thing. The prophets were pointing. The prophets were looking into the future. But our Lord comes and says, now the time is fulfilled. Second, the Kingdom of God is there and now.

[41:05]

And then out of this Trinity, change your mind. And then to indicate the fullness and the glory of this change, we need to evangelize. believe in the glad tidings. That is a new tone. That is something different from what we have heard from the lips of demons. Here is the tremendous realization of the excitedness of this new historical moment and the people, unique. God's time is there. There is a Kingdom of God as God, a Pobingkwari, reigned. The change of heart is now the way in which we enter into it.

[42:10]

But this change of heart is not only and consists not only and essentially in works of penance, As our Lord Himself says, looking back at preaching about Horozain, Aaron said, In shina, in shilishu. If in the old times they had seen the miracles that are done here, they would have done penance in shina, in shilishu, in ashes and in sackcloth. is not the ethnics of the New Testament penance. But, credite Evangelio, believe in the clear times. And there we see already how the soul of that change of heart and of that repentance that our Lord preaches really is the resurrection.

[43:13]

Credite Evangelio, believe in the clear times. the glad tidings of the Lamb of God that carries the sins of the world, and that is now enthroned at the right hand of the Father. So, in this beginning, as I say it already, the whole preaching of our Lord is contained in it. One is clear that it is the urgency. This is God's time. If you don't change your heart, you shall perish. Luke 13. If you don't change your heart, you shall perish. Therefore, when he saw the city Jerusalem, he wept over it, saying, If you only on this your day would see what serves your peace,

[44:18]

But it is hidden before your eyes, and the days will come, and not one stone will be left upon the other, because you did not realize that the time of your visitation was at hand. You did not realize, you did not recognize this as the time of your visitation. That is the urgency of the preaching of our Lord. This is God's dying. This is the tremendous offer that is being made. Woe to those who do not accept it. The other note which is so clear in the preaching of our Lord about the change of God, that is the demand of totality of absolute As he says, either make the tree good, and then its fruit is good.

[45:28]

Or make the tree bad, and its fruit is bad. You brood of vipers, how can you speak good things when you are evil? for out of the abundance of the thought the mouth speaks. The good man from his good treasure brings forth good things, and the evil man from his evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I tell you that of every idle word men speak, they shall give an account on the day of judgment. For by thy words you will be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned. The meaning of this sending is, penance is, a total thing.

[46:33]

It demands the change of the tree, not only of the external appearance, not only of the words, but of the inner man of the heart. Repentance gives the beginning of a new, organic, divine love, which therefore, from within, is determined by God, also in all the fruits, in all its expressions. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, Because you clean the outside of the dish, clean first the inside of the cup, that the outside too may be clean. Hear me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing outside a man that entering into him can defile.

[47:35]

But the things that come out of a man, these are what defile. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. So in this new realm of the Holy Spirit, there our ears are opened to this message that this change of heart takes place in the inner depth of the person. It is therefore a turning away, interior total turning away And one must act not only from everything which in itself is sinful or opposed to God, but also from everything which in the concrete case makes the full turning to God impossible. These are the words, then, of our Lord.

[48:39]

If you abide by them, is an occasion of sin. Pluck it out and cast it from you. For it is better for you that one of your members should perish than that your whole body should be thrown into him. And further, do not think that I have come to send peace upon the earth. I have come to bring a sword, not peace. For I have come to set a man at variance with his father, and a daughter with her mother. He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

[49:51]

There is a new dimension. So often we are afraid when we hear these words. So often they seem to us hard words. Listen to it. If any man comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And he who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Where is, if we may call it a mystery or a riddle, where is the solution? Where is the key to these hard words? It seems to me they are right in the conversion of our world music, the key word

[50:58]

to the understanding of New Testament conversion and redemptions is the word we say every time when we stand at the foot of the altar and we are at the moment in which we begin to offer the sacrifice of Holy Mass, that great Converso Domini. Deus tu conversus vivi carus nos. O God, you turn around and you give us life. And here it is, in these words of the Lord. Jesus therefore said to Peter, put up thy sword into the scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? Our Lord's repentance is that he drinks the cup that the Father has given him, and that cup is the cup of his death.

[52:01]

And for this reason he then said, No disciple is above his teacher, nor is the servant above the master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and for the servant to be like his master. And what does this likeness involve? Just listen to John 15, where the Lord says, remember the word that I have spoken to you, no servant is greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also. Let us in this moment remember also the story of the rich young man. Good master, what shall I do to gain eternal life? So he asked the Lord. And the answer comes, thou knowest the command.

[53:05]

Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not defraud. Honor thy father and mother." And he answered and said, Master, all these things I have kept ever since I was a child. And then comes the decisive moment, the moment of the change of heart. It's strange to say that, but it is absolutely true. Here is a young man who observes the commandments and now reaches, in meeting the Lord, reaches the point where he, beyond the commandments, may break in to the liberty of the New Testament conversion.

[54:17]

And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him, and said to him, we should weigh that. We should see it, feel our way into it, as it happened. And Jesus located. gazing upon him, loved him, and said to him, One thing is lacking thee. Go, sell whatever thou hast, and give it to the poor, and come, follow thee. These words are the invitation. They are the invitation of God's deepest love. They are not a burden. They are not a commandment. They are not, in any way, chains which are being put upon the young man. He gazes upon them.

[55:20]

He sings as it were a lute to his soul. He loves them. And then he says, go still, everything, and follow me. That is the essence of New Testament. repentance of the change of heart. It is the absolute love of God for us which invites us to a response adequate to this love. And that is naturally then what the whole Testament calls rest. The one response he finds rest. That is the great goal But in the case of the young man, his face fell at this sake. His face fell. And he went away sad, for he had great possessions.

[56:26]

And Jesus said to his disciples, when Confucius still can feel that this, for our Lord, is a moment of great immense love. Urging, drawing his disciples to him, he says, children, how difficult it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. The disciples were terribly upset and said among themselves, didn't dare to address him, but among themselves they said, now, who there can be saved? And then again, looking upon them, Jesus said,

[57:33]

With man it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. Now here, my dear brethren, we have reached again the point of the Mysterium. We touched it there. We have come to the end, as it were, of the world, to the end of human possibility. to that zero point of which we have spoken so often. Here it is, in all these words it is clearly indicated. But there is also the bridge, there is also the way out. With them it is impossible, but not with God. What does that mean with God? I would say in Christ, with Christ. He is the Emmanuel, isn't he?

[58:35]

God with us. Therefore, what does it mean even more concrete? Dying with him. Imitating him. The imitation of Christ. What kind of imitation? in and through the sacrament of his death and his resurrection, baptism. There we are again at the beginning of our meditation. That was the beginning of the preaching of repentance. It ended in the sacrament of peace. Baptism on water, St. John the Baptist, under God suffered by our Lord Jesus Christ at the baptism of fire and its spirit, that the risen Savior will then, through His glorious power of resurrection, apply to us.

[59:38]

So that we then, after the death and the resurrection of Christ, through baptism die with Him and rise That is the other side of this preaching of repentance. And that we should not by any means overlook. That is then what was revealed, however, not so much maybe in the Synoptic Gospels, but after the resurrection of Christ in the preachings of those who followed him, who were baptized with fire and the Spirit. as St. Paul, the great Apostle was, who then in the second epistle to the Corinthians in the seventh chapter says, I'm filled with comfort. I overflow with joy in all my trials. And to the Corinthians he says, in that same spirit, in that same union, you are in our hearts.

[60:48]

to die together and to live together. And that is only the application and the realization of the prophecy of our Lord himself, who said, in the world you will have affliction, but take courage. I have overcome the world. And that means if you die with me, you will also rise. and more, your death with me will have in itself all power and the glory of the resurrection. Therefore, St. Peter says, Beloved, do not be startled at your trials, but rejoice insofar as you are partakers of the sufferings of Christ, that you may also rejoice with exultation in the revelation of his glory.

[61:51]

And then St. Paul speaks it clearly, defines it as it were in the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, for we were buried with him by means of baptism into death, in order that just as Christ has arisen from the dead, newness of life, and therefore continues in the second epistle to the Corinthians, for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also through Christ, through Christ, I emphasize that, do our consolation. For our present light affliction, which is for the moment, prepares in us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all measure.

[62:53]

While we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. Therefore Saint Paul clearly points there the way that we as Christians in our earthly sufferings with Christ have to penetrate through the visible appearance in order to see behind it the eternal weight of glory. That is what we must train our eyes and that is the whole purpose of the church in the Lenten season. If during Lent, for example, Sunday after Sunday, there stands the whole power of the Resurrection. Every Sunday Gospel, the Gospel of the Resurrection.

[63:58]

One can say in some way, every Gospel of the whole Lenten season is a Gospel. All that glorious celebration of fasting and of affliction, of reducing our fears. What is in it? What is behind it? What is the real spirit? It's the spirit of the Resurrection. And that is the spirit of the Lent season. And therefore, when we come to the moment on Good Friday, where we see the Lord crucified before us, still we give glory to the cross, because through this cross, joy has come into the whole world. And that is the fullness of the Christian preaching and practice of the change of God, of repentance, of the Lenten season. that we take part in the sufferings of Christ, that with him the old soul may rise, so that it may become the truth in us, what St.

[65:10]

Paul tells his own followers in the first epistle to the Corinthians, your labor will not be in vain in the curious, in the reasonless.

[65:25]

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