Me and drink…’, ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’, ‘take, consume…’. Almost no one needs it!
We, who are Christians in name but pagans in spirit, have lost the understanding of the Gospel. We have lost the joy of the Kingdom of God, the joy of our resurrection, the joy of eternal life in the Love of the Father – therefore, the world receives from us (‘Christians’) what it has in abundance and without us – moral commandments, laws, rules… The world wants Life, and although we have it, we do not see, do not hear, therefore we ourselves do not Live and repel from the well of Living Water those who are thirsty for truth and Life. We ourselves do not drink and do not allow others to – ‘through us the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles.’ ‘If this is all that the Christian God can do with a person, what we see in those who call themselves Christians, then we do not need such a God,’ say the pagans, seeing the fruits of our joylessness, pride, haughtiness, self-praise and other passions ‘of which there is no number.’
Therefore, we need to learn to hear and understand the Gospel; if we are not yet able to hear – then become able to hear and see, to heal hearing and sight (specifically about this: how to hear, how to understand and how to accept the Gospel – our modest efforts). A sign that we hear the Gospel, that we have entered into a New Covenant with God – is ineffable joy, joy in which all earthly sorrow and grief dissipate, dissolve; when we fulfill the commandment: ‘Rejoice always!’, ‘thank for everything!’ To make it clearer, I will tell a parable: You received a telegram with a message that you have won the lottery (several million hryvnias), while you have been starving for a day, living on handouts, alms (on bread and water) and you and your relatives face a hungry, cold death. After reading this telegram, what will your reaction be? – joy in all dimensions and in your whole being, and even your body will rejoice: ‘finally, the time of starvation and destitution has ended’, ‘you have much good, soul, – eat, drink, rejoice…’ (this means rejoicing at the message – when you understood its meaning for yourself). You still don’t have real money – but you are already drowning in happiness and joy. And then, after reading (receiving) the message, we make great efforts in JOY to obtain our wealth, to learn to use it… (For greater clarity, one can recall from Chapter I the parable about receiving an inheritance). Now let’s look at our reaction to the Telegram from Heaven. What is it about? It’s about us, orphans who were dying of hunger, cold, and were doomed to eternal death-nonexistence, being saved and adopted by the Wealthy-Sovereign, made heirs of everything He has and what we can, by our creatureliness, contain! From now on (already 2000 years) we have the power (the power of the Holy Spirit) to say to the Father: ‘Daddy, Dad!’ Now compare our ‘joy’ (which is not there, but only irritation from the fact that the priests with their commandments: do not fornicate, do not steal, do not overeat,  do not get drunk… do not let us with a clear conscience ‘enjoy’ life) from the Gospel with the joy of the unfortunate owner of a lottery win.
Therefore, why is there no joy from the heard Good News of the Church? The first reason: we do not understand, at the level of theory, verbal information – what the Church is talking about. For example, if you give a two-year-old child a 500 hryvnia bill, it (despite the fact that it wants ice cream, and mom says she has no money to buy it) may tear up, throw away the bill – that is, it has the same value for it as other papers with pictures. Or about the fact that I won the lottery, they will inform me in a foreign language, which I do not know – this message will have no value or significance for me (unless I turn, being prudent, to people who know this foreign language, who will explain in a language understandable to me what it is about). Therefore, in the next three chapters, we will try to hear and understand (at least a bit) the Church’s Joy.
The second reason – is our psychosomatic inability to desire – we need nothing: neither Paradise attracts us, nor hell frightens us. This is our deadness, lukewarmness, insensitivity, relaxation at all levels of being, in a word – ‘living’ dead. The dead want nothing, need nothing, nothing pleases them, they do not feel pain. Therefore, the blessed poor (those who want what is not there, want something else…), hungry, thirsty, persecuted… – this is a sign that a person is still alive and will Live, because Life has shone from the grave. Therefore, after the theoretical chapters, we will say something about the return of the dead to life, about resuscitation from the death of insensitivity to the life of thirst and desire for the Fullness of Being – Happiness.
A sign of a Christian – exulting, triumphing joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness… If you do not have this, then ask the Church to proclaim you, prepare you for repentance (renew the promises of baptism) and help you enter into the joy of your Lord.