«Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?»

Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith??»

They also saw him feed the immense crowds that followed him, indeed feed to satiety without apparent means.
They witnessed and saw him easily to avoid the pitfalls of those who wanted him dead, to confuse the wise Scribes and Pharisees who tended theological and political snares to discredit him.
In spite of all this, the disciples think that he doesn't care about them, they still do not believe.
And until the end they will not believe, or rather they will believe, yes, but always with doubt in their mind.
Judas the traitor, probably a zealot, disappointed that he is not the King he believed, that he isn't the political leader who came to 'free' the people of Israel, sells him to the priests of the Temple for thirty denarii.
Even after the resurrection, there are those who do not believe, and must touch the wounds firsthand.
Then I feel however to say that we should not be so amazed by the incredulity of the disciples, or that we should believe that we are so different from them.
Have we ever wondered if we really believe in Jesus Christ, or if at some point we have doubted or still doubt of Him?
Do we too - who aren't of those who dont know him and do not even think of him - believe that Jesus is always with us, or that he sleeps as he did at the stern of the boat during that famous storm?

HOW TO DO NEVER DOUBT THAT JESUS DOESN'T CARE ABOUT US
          The Holy Face.
In my case I try to implement a plan of spiritual life, a series of things to do. Among other things, today I find it much easier because I am an elderly retired man.
I describe it here with an outline and in summary, otherwise it would take a whole volume:

• I always think, in every moment, that God is watching me. He looks at me and what I do for better or for worse. Always and everywhere.
• When I wake up from sleep, I first of all address a thought to him and greet him, as I would do with my father or mother looking out at the bedroom door. I do the same before I go to sleep.
• during the day, when I do manual works, or study, or write, or dedicate myself to housework, I try to keep his presence alive:
  
  
  • in the kitchen I occasionally look at the reconstruction of the face of Jesus, the one obtained from the Shroud of Turin with the NASA computer, and the
       Mater Admirabilis portrait reproduction of Mater Admirabilis, formerly of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. I keep them hanging high on the wall so that I can always admire them.
  • in every room, on the table, on the desk, on a shelf or in the corridors I have put some discreet and not tacky images, which I automatically see when I pass and greet with some affectionate phrase.
    
    
• I try to carve out a few minutes of silence and meditation alone (at least a quarter of an hour a day) to talk to Jesus about my problems and perceive what he thinks I should do.
  Maybe with a few more minutes I can also read and meditate on a passage from the Gospel (like this one)
• I go to tht Mass, I often communicate and I dedicate myself to the other vocal prayers that my grandmother taught me to recite as a child, and which I did not care for during the seething years of my youth.
  

All this allows a layman like me to have the strength and the decision to stay in the family, dedicating myself to the well-being of others and forgetting myself. And also to behave as a Christian in dealing with others
Within my family I have to work to create a bright and cheerful environment, and strive to be a sober person in every respect, without in any way forcing others to be so.
It is by example thatare enticed the others .

Since I am far from perfection, quite the opposite, I recognize that sometimes I am wrong in what I do, and that to serve as an example I am not worth much. But I work hard to improve and maybe I succeed in something.
Each of us has his own weaknesses. My own is completely out of control, because my chronic messy nature, that is to keep my things in order.
I absolutely have to completely change and keep my things in order because I am very, very lacking in this.

The call to settle into the easy behaviors proper to practical atheism is always present, and in such conditions it is not difficult to come to doubt that Jesus is asleep.
However, the doubt that always lurks in the depths of the soul can be just as easily removed if one maintains a minimum of spiritual life.

When the doubt arises, it is necessary to drive it out again with a decisive act of the will.

End of commentary

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL ETHICS

When we ask ourselves why God allows so many bad or even horrendous things to happen, we ipso facto COULD doubt that God is missing or does not exist.
But why does he tolerate blasphemy and other offenses against His persons? Why atheism or relativism, with their corollary of crimes, widespread immorality and the incredible atrocities that are committed today against life and humanity?

Have I ever wondered if I doubted God when I thought why he allow our societies to be governed for so many years by people among whom there were also those who confused political ethics with personal ethics?
And how does it happened that such people have been able to work together with those who are not interested in Christian ethics, and who therefore have led us to a general state of generalized moral degradation from which it will not be easy to get up?

The political explanations are all there, and the answer is simple:
GOD RESPECTS HUMAN FREEDOM EVEN WHEN IT DOESE GENERATE EVIL, BUT ALWAYS PUTS THINGS SO THAT AT LAST EVERYTHING IS ADJUSTED AS HE WANTS.

It might sound like a mechanistic, meterialist discourse, but unfortunately what happens is the final result of the complex of thoughts and actions of the single individuals who form a society.
If this great whole is badly oriented both in way of thinking and in practical behavior, it is unavoidable that things go wrong. Human history abounds with negative examples, but there are also some positive ones.
The most common mistake of most people is to think that political ethics coincide with individual ethics, while it is absolutely not true.

In fact, every political action must take into account everything, and therefore the ethical choice in carrying out a specific action must be ethically correct first of all towards the complex even when it is possible that it does not benefit the individual.

In other words, it is often necessary to choose among the right things to do the one that costs the least in terms of human lives and foreseeable consequences, that is, the one that - always respecting ethics - causes the least losses for life, the well-being and health of all.
And very often it is not easy to estimate what is best to do in the right ethical order.
That religiosity - even secular and philanthropic - that makes the human being capable of positive introspection for himself and for the society is a part of what allows him to overcome natural instincts, understand where the true good lies, and make the ethical choices that at the same time will probably generate the greatest beneficial result.

In the order of importance, the family comes first, then the single individual. They are the brick that forms the building of human society to which they contribute to confer solidity and integrity.
The basic brick is the individual. His own desires to know, to work and to learn, the desire to improve his own life and that of his family, to understand his limits, to be together without offending others.
Whoever neglects or doesn't care his own job, whatever it may be, perhaps may not harm himself, but undoubtedly he damages the whole human community.
A honest work is what allows you to thrive and also have the means to support those who are weak and can't.

A building resists and everything works if most of the bricks are solid, intact and resistant, do not melt in the rain, and have the least possible defects. Many may be fallacious too, but if they are few in comparison to the rest, nothing happens.
The Statal structure should br like the mortar that holds the bricks together, or like the skeleton that unites them. It would be immense folly if it should impose wrong rules which can damage or weaken or not maintain its bricks. That would be the end of the building.