Friday. [Eph. 6:18-24; Luke 4:22-30]

   The people of Nazareth marvelled at the word of the Lord, but nevertheless they did not believe: envy prevented them as the Lord Himself revealed. Every passion opposes truth and goodness, but envy most of all, because falsehood and spite make up its essence. This passion is the most unjust and poisonous both for the one who bears it and for the one against whom it is directed. It occurs on a small scale with everyone when someone equal or inferior gets the upper hand. Egoism gets irritated, and envy begins to gnaw away at the heart. This is still not so tormenting if the road is still open to you; but when it is blocked off, especially by the one you already envy, then its aggression is unstoppable, and peace is impossible. Envy demands the overthrow of one’s enemy from his place on the peak, and will not rest content until it somehow attains this, or until it ruins the envier. Good natured, well-wishing people, whose kindly sentiments prevail over egotistical ones, do not suffer from envy. This is also the way to extinguish envy for any person tormented by it. You must hasten to inspire good will, especially towards the one whom you envy, and manifest it in deed; then envy will immediately abate. If you repeat this several times, with God’s help it will entirely subside. But if you leave it the way it is, if you do not overcome yourself and force yourself to do good to the one you envy, it will torment you, dry you up, and send you to your grave.

Saturday. [I Cor. 15:39-45; Luke 4:31-36]

   If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins (John 8:24). There is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). We must receive remission of sins, but there is no way to receive it other than by faith in the Son of God, crucified in the flesh for our sake, on the condition that we do not desire to indulge in sinful habits and deeds; for when we sin, we have only Him as an intercessor before the Father. He who gives his word to abstain from sins must accept the helping grace of the Most-Holy Spirit; but this grace descended to the earth after the Lord ascended to sit at the right hand of God the Father, and is only given to those who believe in this marvellous economy of our salvation, and who approach the Divine mysteries with this faith—mysteries which were established in the holy Church of the Lord through the Apostles. Thus, he who does not believe in the Lord as He is cannot be pure of sins. Because he has not been cleansed of sins he shall die in them, and shall be judged of them according to their weightiness. When you want to do someone good that is of eternal value, guide him in true faith in the Lord, not allowing philosophizing or wavering. Those who directly or indirectly disrupt faith in the Lord must be considered everlasting evil-doers, for they wreak an evil that nothing can correct, and its power stretches to all eternity. Their ignorance does not justify them, for how can they not know that truth which is known to the whole world? Their opposing beliefs do not justify them, for if you should only start strictly testing them you would immediately shake their strength; a person cannot rely on anything other than faith in the Lord. Those who do not properly examine the foundations, faith, and teachings to which they adhere go astray in the faith. An exact investigation of the conditions for salvation will lead to the conviction that they can only be met through God incarnate, who died on the cross, and who sent the Holy Spirit down to the earth. In this lies the essence of the Christian faith. He who sincerely believes this way will not die in his sins, for he bears within himself the power which brings forgiveness. The unbeliever is already condemned, for he bears this condemnation within himself.