How often we catch ourselves thinking, when something happens that we, to put it mildly, do not like: 'Why is this happening to me?' Why did the Lord arrange everything this way, and if He did not arrange it, why did He allow it to happen? What did I do that now this has happened? And so on... But if we are to seek an answer to such a question, it should be formulated differently - beginning with the question 'For what purpose?' And then the answer is not far away: 'We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose' (Rom 8:28).

In addition, the apostle Paul directly warns Timothy in today's passage: 'All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted' (2 Tim 3:12). So it would seem that everything is sealed... But people believe and strive toward Christ not in order to be persecuted. People seek God and find communion with Him, and this becomes far more important than any surrounding problems. Persecutions, in Paul's words, are only a consequence of the desire for a godly life in Jesus. For as long as the whole world has not received the message about our Lord and the Lord Himself, there will remain people who do not acknowledge Him. And accordingly, they will not acknowledge those who follow Him.

What follows? What is alien is rejected, especially what 'condemns' us. But this 'condemnation' is of a different kind from the one we are used to. 'And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil; for everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his deeds may not be exposed' (John 3:19-20).

What a miracle took place on the day when each of us heard the news of Christ and met Him Himself! For, as the apostle Paul writes, almost every person is inclined to 'choose teachers for themselves who will flatter their hearing' (2 Tim 4:3). But by the wondrous mercy and love of God these barriers are broken - and the heart is set free to listen and to learn what truth is. The conversion of each of us is truly a gift of God, a miracle over which the angels rejoice (see Luke 15:10). And it is the Lord who brings us to Himself, patiently awaiting the moment of our meeting.

But Paul writes the lines of today's reading precisely to warn us. How often, after finally meeting God and living for some time in the life of the Church, a person begins to consider himself 'knowledgeable,' and at times more knowledgeable than someone else! This can certainly be true, but how easy it is to slide from the feeling of being more experienced and wise into the pitiful state in which you already 'know' everything better than others and think there is no need to listen to them...

Yes, that is an extreme, but more often it happens just as the apostle writes: 'they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to fables' (2 Tim 4:4). After all, how much more pleasant it is to listen to those who say what is pleasing to your own dear soul; in reality, you are listening only to yourself, carefully filtering the information that comes in...

This phrase was spoken by Jesus as part of His prophecy about coming disasters and persecutions, and it is precisely in this context that it should be considered. Moreover, the point is not the patience of any people in any difficult situations, but specifically Christians during persecutions. This does not mean that we should look with Olympian calm at injustices or violence happening next to us; Jesus Himself intervened in such cases, and rather promptly.

But when persecutions are being "unfolded" against us, then He calls us not to be impatient. He grounds this in trust that God holds our life in His hands, and therefore we can refrain from rushing our own reaction and allow Him to act.

Someone said that in a critical situation we have two options: reaction and response. Reaction is what arises immediately; it comes from ourselves, "from the flesh." Response is where we have stopped our first reaction, endured it, and allowed God, who never acts without our permission, to enter into action. It is no accident that in the preceding phrases Jesus says that we should not prepare or train our reaction in advance, but should trust that God Himself will give His answer. When by such patience we stop ourselves, God enters our life, and He accomplishes our salvation.