Page:On The Spiritual Battle.pdf/49

 reading in many of those books, do not grow up in faith. What one intellectual strictly admonishes about priestly poverty (that they should not have riches) the next one eases up on again (that they can have riches). And so they conduct themselves in opposition about many aspects of faith.

Therefore, a priesthood that is founded on books is never put in order, but becomes more confused in understanding. For that reason, they cannot speak about anything true by faith and do not follow the way of the apostles. They pray to God themselves, or relying on others praying for them, to give them His gift so that they can show forth the secret understandings of the written gospel. But they still do not know the truths of the gospel, having relied on many books and thinking that, through them, they would know everything. Because of that they err like blind people groping around next to a cliff.

But out of humility, this holy person admonishes others that they ask God for him to give him that gift, so that by it he could make manifest the mystery of the gospel, which is hidden in the prophetic scriptures, the Old Testament, and the words of the mystics. The gospel is every truth in the scriptures that testifies of Christ and His ways. That is why the apostle asked for that gift from the Lord God. He wanted to make the truth from those scriptures manifest to people in order to confirm the Lord Jesus Christ fully in them. That way, he would not be moved by any temptations, sins, errors, clever lies about the Lord Christ, or some disbelief. He asked for that gift so that he could speak fearlessly, not fearing any dismay or doubts, because a special gift is necessary to be able to establish Christ in bewildered people through the truth of the gospel. But whoever does not understand the gospel himself prospers in it like the person who learned to embroider with silk on rags.

The apostle also asked to proclaim the pure gospel, for which he sat in chains while speaking the message. But dear Saint Paul, this will damage the charade our priests are playing. Sitting on their cushions, they do not suppose that they should bear the apostle’s message in the apostle’s manner, instead proclaiming the gospel for 40 kopa per year. They speak the gospel message in the in the castle in Prague and in other cities, but this poor man (the apostle) was in chains, not in safety behind the moat or the city walls. The priests went to the village of Vavák, where there is desolation today because they led the people into error. They plundered and fought, and the priests–those evil tenants–fled to cities protected by walls and moats, where they conducted wars against one another using the people with whom they are shut up there. But the apostle speaks the message of the gospel in chains, not on beds of down, not over roast turkey, and not in other pleasures. He preached the gospel better in chains than what the priests accomplish in long gowns today. He benefited those people in chains and led them–many people–in the gospel. The gospel will not do any good or reveal the Lord Jesus Christ and His ways to people if there will not be preachers who have a determination like the apostle’s within them. The priests are able to speak a lot about long-suffering and give simple people hard penance, but those big-nosed prelates do not want to touch it with a finger themselves.