Friday, August 5 (July 23), 2022

1Cor. 11:8-22; Mt. 17:10-18

The Lord said about St. John the Baptist: “Elias is come already, and they knew him not” [Mt. 17:12].  Why so?  Because they had no concern for God’s ways, no interest in them: they had different mindset, different tastes, different world view.  Beyond the divine realm they were smart enough, but within its confines remained totally clueless because of their alienation from it. 

Our mindset is the source of a peculiar discerning ability by which we recognize and comprehend familiar features no matter how deep they might be hidden.  An artist, a scientist and an economist would examine the same object with equal attention and make three totally different judgments about it: the first by its aesthetic qualities, the second by its physical nature, the third by its profitability.  Just the same happened to the Jews:  they judged about St. John the Baptist, and later about the Savior, just as their mindset dictated.  And because their mindset was basically godless, they rejected both of them.

Same thing is going on as we speak, as people are losing their vision of the divine realm, losing their comprehension of the Lord.  Covert persecution of Christianity has already begun; now and again it becomes open, like in Paris in 1871, at the time of the Commune, when Archbishop of Paris was killed.  What happened there at a limited scale should be expected in much larger proportions before long… Lord, have mercy on us!