Christmas thoughts with regards to the ninth and the tenth commandments
1. What are the things we should not wish?Christmas and New Year’s Eve are the times of wishes. We should not only ask from Jesus but we should give something to Him! Similarly: at New Year’s Day a lot of us formulate wishes related to their own lives. Perhaps this year we should vow that we will not vow anything? The ninth and the tenth commandments are not about that we should not covet a house, a wife or anything else that belong to someone else but they warn us that the earthly wishes and greed, the "I want to furnish the world as I have planned it" are all already rebellions against the will of God. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)
2. How is a real wish formulated in us? A lesson of my pilgrimage at the Holy Land. Those wishes that are not ours are often formulated in a quite specific way. Here I show you an example from my pilgrimage at the Holy Land. Jesus gave me a wish there. How may this "usually" happen? Very typically: "in pieces". We are too small to accept Jesus’ wishes in one piece. That is why He trains us gradually. He makes us to feel only one tiny bit of His wish. Then He shows another bit. Then the third one. And finally: He shows the whole picture together. It is only then (which may be months or years later!) when we understand what happened to us and why. (If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)
3. What is the only appropriate wish? After all of these what can I wish my Readers for Christmas? To be able to say with all your hearts: "Thy will be done!" Believe me, my dear Reader, if you can say this from the bottom of your heart, from that moment on – grace will come to you. Every day will be a new blessing for you. But not only for you. For all the people who will be around you. Because at the very moment you will say "Thy will be done!" Christ will be born within you.(If you would like to know more about this, please read my essay here.)
New Year’s thoughts about the most important challenge of the coming decades
1. We have only a few years left to avoid destruction. Scientists are scaring the Earth’s inhabitants with ecosystem nightmares for decades now. Other scientists have disagreed with them. In 2018 something has fundamentally changed. Science has found more and more pieces of unambiguous evidence that humanity rushes off the cliff. As one of the examples the latest IPPC report stated that we have only a few years left to limit global warming not to cause huge weather extremities, conflagrations, mass extinction of pollinating animals and the destruction of a large part of plants’ natural habitats by the end of this century. (For further details, please read my New Year's essay here.)
2. The man of our times is a Bad Shepherd of Creation.Our Father made man the master and not the servant of Creation. We have been given everything to become responsible, Good Shepherds of Creation. The man of our times has become a Bad Shepherd of Creation. It is time to realize what we are doing. It is time to suspect what happens next. (For further details, please read my New Year's essay here.)
3. What can be the way out? I have written about a lot of honorable efforts in one of my previous essays which try to reduce our sins committed so far against the Earth. However, there are highly non-honorable efforts like those which want to spread rubbish to the stratosphere hoping that it will reflect sunshine and decrease global warming though the growth diminishing effect of such sunlight-screen interventions has been proved earlier. These are not solutions. The expansion eating up the Earth’s goods can not to be domesticated but has to be stopped. THERE IS ANOTHER WAY! It is the path of inner development, which is unlimited. To start your inner growth you have to accept the touch of Totality. How to make that? "Convert!" Christ’s mission starts with this call. But most of the people did want to convert neither at that time nor these days. I have good news. God prepares a beautiful lesson for us. Time is on the side of the extension of intense faith. It is worth to prepare for all this now: Find the path of inner growth! Strengthen yourselves in your faith! Strengthen your faith-communities! These faith-communities will be the safe harbors of people – pretty soon. Let me ask You to think about that how You (or your children, grand-children) could be better prepared for the forthcoming harder decades. I wish the Reader a New Year bringing contemplating soul-search and change! (For further details, please read my New Year's essay here.)