This catastrophe (loss of consciousness of catholic hypostatic being and its replacement by individualistic-egotistical survival at the expense of adulterous parasitism on the Body of the Church) in the church began very long ago, many centuries ago and does not stop gaining momentum! We were born and raised in such an atmosphere! But we all want to be Happy, regardless of who is to blame for the fact that now the situation in the church is so deplorable! Therefore, we try first to show the root, the cause of the diseases, and then to understand, on which paths the healing process takes place. (We probably won’t be able to overcome them – in the last days the love of many will grow cold… – our task is to live, to fight, to be truthful to the end, and everything external – these are the mysteries of the wise providence of God-Love!). Therefore, one can meet Christ only by being in the Church, a living member of His Body (that is, being in Him, and then He abides in Us). And one who only uses ‘church’ (lives wanting, ‘want’ or ‘do not want,’ by egotistical, directed towards (to) oneself (in the opposite direction to the blowing of the Holy Spirit, Who always breathes towards Christ!?) by need uses ‘needs,’ ‘product’ Church: communion, holy water, oil, etc.) – lives in adultery, and adulterers do not inherit the Kingdom of God (that is, incapable of containing the Holy Spirit). And do not say that God wherever He wants, there He gives Himself!? But I say again, and will not cease to remind, that He ‘madly,’ unrestrainedly (being all Eros, Desire) wants to give Himself to all here and now (now) for Free, to lead everyone into the Kingdom of God, to make everyone o-Happy – but He cannot! Because not everything depends on Him! What depends on Him – He has accomplished and completed – resurrected everything and everyone! Now the word is with us – in gratitude to accept the Gift of Adoption! But, for us to accept it (and to enter into possession of the inheritance, to be adopted, to be deified), certain conditions must be present, in which we will be able to accept the Holy Spirit. Such conditions, the natural environment (place of meeting with God) is the Church – the Eucharistic community, which has gathered together in one place for the Sacrament of the Eucharist ( all sacraments are performed liturgically – this is a common cause of all members of the community!). Being a member of the Body of Christ, that is, a member of the parish (into which the faithful was baptized-anointed), a person is able to meet God, to receive the Holy Spirit, to experience Christ Resurrected (and to experience his own eschatological resurrection – what has already been accomplished and will be revealed in fullness in its time, – the approach of which depends solely on the person himself, on his spiritual, that is, Church state!). Only those who live Church (parish) life are able to meet Christ (and this meeting will be life-giving, not judgment, hell – as, for example, Saul on the road to Damascus (see Acts 9)), to receive the Holy Spirit (Whom Saul received only in the Church (outside the Church no one can, does not have the power, is unable to receive the Holy Spirit!); and Christ resurrected (Whom one can see, only being in the Holy Spirit!) saw, only being a Christian, a member of the Church) and to grow in God, in Happiness! (This ‘only’ – absolute, which excludes any other alternative or possibility).
You’ll say, “The Spirit blows where it wills” (John 3:8)! Yes, but it chooses to breathe within the Body of Christ, and towards Christ (in Christ and leading to Christ) (John 16:14). It is bestowed only within the Church and where there is movement towards the Church, because only within the church can it be received and assimilated, partaken of (in the event-life of hypostatic communion, one can partake of the Spirit of communion). It breathes where it wills, but for us to encounter it, for it to breathe upon us, we must be members of the Body of Christ, which is constituted by Him and in which He distributes gifts (charisms) for ministry! (For the fact that the Holy Spirit descends and is bestowed only in the Church, see above: about the centurion who received the Spirit only in the Church, about the Samaritans baptized in water by Philip, but by the Holy Spirit only at the prayer of the apostles (those who were sent by the Church and bore in it the apostolic (episcopal hierarchical) ministry) and so on).
Let’s not deceive ourselves! God is Love, He wants not only to breathe on everyone but to give away all of Himself, to give freely! The problem is with us ourselves – we can neither accept Him nor contain Him (our selfish hearts are very cramped). Thus, only in the Church, in the Body of Christ, in parish life, in the sacraments of the Eucharist and repentance do we gradually grow accustomed to God (and assimilate Him), partake of His life, and grow (become, evolve) as catholic personalities capable of sharing God’s Life (to become one with the Trinity).