March 12, 2012
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! Through the immeasurable love of God I am coming among you and I am persistently calling you into the arms of my Son. With a motherly heart I am imploring you, my children, but I am also repeatedly warning you, that concern for those who have not come to know my Son be in the first place for you. Do not permit that by looking at you and your life, they are not overcome by a desire to come to know Him. Pray to the Holy Spirit for my Son to be impressed within you. Pray that you can be apostles of the divine light in this time of darkness and hopelessness. This is a time of your trial. With a rosary in hand and love in the heart set out with me. I am leading you towards Easter in my Son. Pray for those whom my Son has chosen that they can always live through Him and in Him - the High Priest. Thank you." (March 2, 2012)
"Pray that you can be apostles of the divine light in this time of darkness and hopelessness."
Apostles of divine light are those who spread peace, hope, joy, love, new life, freedom, and conversion where ever they go. Our Lady tells us to pray for this gift of apostleship, for truly it can only come to us as a gift. We could never manufacture such a thing ourselves.
This weekend, in the Liturgy for the first scrutiny in preparation for the Baptism of the catechumens, the Gospel is John 4, the "Woman at the Well." As I thought about this wonderful encounter with Jesus, I realized that the Samaritan woman actually received the gift of being an apostle of divine light when she encountered Jesus at the well. Why do I say that? Well, she came to the well to draw water, a normal daily task. She was living in the gray realities of life, and this task was drudgery for her. But what she encountered at the well was anything but gray.
In this unusual encounter, Jesus spoke to her as a friend, an equal. This was unheard of since He was a man, and a Jew! But the wonder did not stop there. Jesus offered her living water, something which interested her very much. Then He opened up the conversation to the truth about the woman, asking her about her husband. He hit on the sorest spot in her life. She had been married 5 times and was now just living with number 6. That is a lot of broken relationships, even by today's standards. This woman had experienced just about all the disappointment and rejection a person could take. Jesus must have communicated a great deal just by the sound of His voice, and His gestures. She received a lot more than was said through the healing gaze of Jesus.
Then she switched the topic to prophets and worship, to the big questions of God. Jesus answered with astounding clarity about worshiping the Father in spirit and truth. He declared that He is the Messiah, something He hadn't even told the disciples yet. And she was spell-bound. She ran off to town to tell all the people in her village, exclaiming, "He told me everything I have done." Most people would not be happy to be so exposed, so known even in their sin, but for this woman it was a great gift. Jesus' merciful, forgiving light flooded into her life, and she was freed from her sins. She no longer dwelt in the darkness and hopelessness of sin, but she was free to repent, to turn back to God. And she was really happy about it, so happy she told all her neighbors about it.
This is what it means to be an apostle of divine light. Once we encounter Jesus in prayer, in confession, in the sacraments, He can tell us everything we ever did. He can shine His light into our souls and free us of all that is not of God, all that is not good for us, all that drags us into darkness and hopelessness. And once we are free, the first thing we will want to do is tell others about it. We will want to witness to our freedom, our joy! If we receive the divine light in our souls, we become transmitters of that light, by our lives and our joy.
Like the Samaritan woman, we must pray, we must go to the well to draw water. We will meet Jesus there, and there Jesus will shine His light into our souls, freeing us to be light for others.
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2012
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