Fr. Michael Sevigny – May 14, 2011
Good Morning! As a young boy, I remember so often hearing the words that were song in the parish by my home. “It is the month of Mary. It is a most beautiful month.” Because it incorporates and embraces the gift of spring. In springtime, everything expresses its beauty, its joy. Creation echoes the wonders of God. Medjugorje is filled with clear signs of spring – new life.
It is also the season of Easter. And remember we opened this Holy Season with a song in the darkness of the night: “Christ be our light.” And remember your response: “Thanks be to God.” That is how we opened this Holy Season. Thanks be to God. Christ is our light. And we continue to hear how that light continues to open our hearts, open our minds. And we find the gift of He, the one who brings us new life in our midst, saying so clearly to us in the Sacred Scripture, “Peace be with you.” Not once, not twice, but three times He says, after His Resurrection, to His disciples, “Peace be with you.” And then He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Springtime is clearly a time when we prepare the fabric of our hearts and of our souls to receive the wonders of God. And this is the wonder of God – to be able to breathe from the very fabric of our soul the power and the presence of His Holy Spirit. At every Eucharist, we have that wonderful opportunity to open our lives and to allow the breath of God once again to strengthen, to fill us with the wonders of grace and wisdom. We need to spend time with those words. We need to open our hearts and our lives, simply to be aware of the gift that Jesus so desired to bring to us. Receive the Holy Spirit. It transforms our life. It makes our lives a springtime – springtime of God’s presence – new life. The Gospels that follow on Sunday was about the disciples who were walking down the road to Emmaus and were listening to Scriptures, “Were not our hearts burning within us? Did He not open our minds to the Scriptures and all that was being said about it?” And what did they say to Him before He departed? Clearly they said to Him, “Stay with us. Stay with us. Stay with us so that we may be able to touch and rejoice in your wonderful gift of peace.” And is this not the efforts of the one who comes so faithfully to us in this holy place? The Queen of Peace. Is this not the effort – She so desire to lead us to Her Son – that every heart, every soul may experience the powerful gift of peace. My friends, we stand now really waiting, waiting in wonder and in expectation of that wonderful gift of Pentecost - only a month away. But in springtime, if you are going to have a garden or there is going to be new growth, you must prepare for it. This is a wonderful time. Prepare; prepare our hearts for the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit, where once again those clear, precise, profound words are going to be expressed once again. Receive the Holy Spirit. And the words that follow, also clearly tell us how: the sins that you forgive are forgiven. This is a wonderful place to prepare the ground, the fabric of our souls for the reception of the Holy Spirit by going to Confession. It is the way in which we till the heart and till the soul, preparing for the wonders of God’s grace. If God’s grace is going to be experienced in the depth of our being, we must prepare. John Vianney, Cure d’Ars, said clearly: “It is the springtime in the soul that loves God.” If we are to be witness like Matthias, to go forth and to proclaim the Good News, my friends, we must be bearers of that joy. We must be bearers of God’s light. We must be bearers of the peace. Clearly Our Lady has said so often here in Medjugorje, “I call you to be my apostles of peace.” We cannot be apostles of peace unless that gift lies upon the very fabric of our hearts. When we experience that gift within, we are able to bring that gift, as witnesses, into the lives of others. Let us pray to the apostle Matthias today, that we receive the grace, the openness, to be able to see the powerful gift that God so desires to breathe upon us – the gift of the Holy Spirit – that we may be true witnesses of peace and of God’s joy. We are here to prepare our hearts for the wonders of what God so desires to do within, to make our lives a springtime. God bless you.
Fr. Michael Sevigny is a French Canadian Capuchin Priest who has been to Medjugorje 31 times. He was the main celebrant the English Mass in St. James Church in Medjugorje on May 14, 2011.
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