Undoubtedly, the Holy Spirit does various outstanding things, but the greatest miracles are those that St. Paul speaks of in today’s Epistle: mortifying the deeds of the flesh, adopting us as children of God, and bearing witness to Christ with our new life. If these three acts of the Holy Spirit are absent, then everything else is completely worthless.

When reading the Gospels, one often wonders why some passages contain quite a lot of seemingly unimportant details, while in other places the evangelists tend to abbreviate too much. There are also several facts in today’s Gospel that may raise the question of whether they are needed. The correct answer is it is quite certain that if they were not needed, St. Mark would not have wasted ink or parchment on them.

Jesus says: “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” We cannot argue with Jesus or soften His words in any way. If our righteousness does not exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, we have no hope of eternal life.

To properly understand Jesus’ words, it is necessary to find answers to two questions; firstly, what is the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and secondly, what kind of righteousness is required from us?

Perhaps this was the very reason why several of Jesus’ disciples were fishermen: it is a profession that requires dedication to the end. Especially when going to the open sea, a fisherman completely surrenders himself to forces immeasurably more powerful than him. This is not for everyone – just as the calling of a soldier or an apostle is not for everyone.

Saint Paul says in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, recounting his trials, among other things: “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.” The reason for “forty stripes save one” was that according to the Law of Moses it was not allowed to punish anyone with more than forty stripes, and to avoid the possibility of accidentally messing up the count, it was customary to give one less stripe just in case.