He who decides to become a true Christian, to become a truly spiritual man, a true child of God, absolutely must consider that, first of all, he must become a true man. Being a true man is not different from being a Christian. Every man who is outside this true man is not a just and whole person. This is the first thing. The second is that he must consider that becoming a true Christian will not be accomplished by what man does with himself, but by what God does with him. One can be a civilized, educated man; he may be accustomed to good manners, to good behavior, to courtesy, which, in any case, civilization offers to people. He may have become familiar with, learned, and acquired many other things, but none of these things make him a true man; they do not make him a spiritual man, a true Christian, a true child of God.

God doesn’t allow us to suffer for the sake of suffering. How could He? How could this be possible, when He is the God of Love? He allows hardships to occur for our own good and for our own benefit. Whoever can see this is a saint already and they already dwell in paradise. Here lies the secret. If we see things from God’s viewpoint, they will look different. A man who is humble, a man who trusts God, doesn’t find it hard to say: “No matter how things stand, God is merciful, full of tender kindness and love toward all people. He doesn’t want to see people in pain, suffering, misery or torment. When such a situation occurs, then something else is the matter.”

With God’s help and with the help of certain things we know we’ll try to make a dive into our soul. Let’s offer an example. We see a lake. The water appears calm or perhaps there’s a little movement, but nobody knows what’s deep within it. However, when someone who is trained in such things – a frogman, for example – plunges in and goes a meter below the surface, two meters, three meters, he goes to the bottom of the lake provided that it isn’t extremely deep, and he sees what’s down there and informs us.

Today in particular, as we approach the end of the year together – in about twenty-four hours we’ll enter the new year – the reading offers us two passages which are much needed.
In the second verse, we read: As it is written in the Prophets, behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You. When the fullness of time had come, the hour of the incarnation of the Son of God, God sent His messenger – in this particular case, John the Forerunner – to prepare the way through which Christ will later pass.