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J.M.J August 14, 2012 St. Maximilian Kolbe Dear Family of Mary! St. Maximilian Kolbe is one of the best examples of someone who was free, free to choose God and free to love. His intercession today will help us to understand this message from Our Lady! "Dear children! I am inviting you for years by these messages which I am giving you. Little children, by means of the messages I wish to make a very beautiful mosaic in your hearts, so I may be able to present each one of you to God like the original image. Therefore, little children, I desire that your decisions be free before God, because He has given you freedom. Therefore pray, so that, free from any influence of Satan, you may decide only for God. I am praying for you before God and I am seeking your surrender to God. Thank you for responding to my call." (November 25, 1989) To make a mosaic, one has to use some kind of adhesive or glue. The many tiles or glass pieces need to be secured to the base in such a way that they will not move. The glue holds the mosaic together. Without it there would be chaos, as the pieces would never hold their place. In our hearts, there must be adhesive as well. As Our Lady introduces a new tile (a message) she hopes that it will remain in our heart, taking its place in the overall mosaic she is building. The glue, the adhesive, is our free will. That is why she continues this message talking about freedom: "Therefore, little children, I desire that your decisions be free before God, because He has given you freedom." Each message that Our Lady gives to us is, only and always, an invitation. She cannot force us to do anything, think anything, believe anything. She can only invite us to listen to and respond to her call. She understands and respects our freedom. She knows that without our free response to her call, the mosaic she longs to construct in us will not take shape. If we don't choose to live Our Lady's messages they will never take root in our hearts, and they will not have their intended effect of helping us to become holy, of helping us to restore our original image, our Christlike-ness. Saying "yes" to Our Lady is exercising our free will. It is choosing to listen to her call. Our freedom is the primordial gift that we received in Eden and have never lost. It is the one thing that remains intact of our original dignity. And that freedom, used for God, is what will make our mosaic hold together and grow. But there is a problem. Our freedom does not exist in a vacuum. We live in a fallen world, we are fallen, and we have a fallen enemy, Satan. He understands the power of our freedom, and he hates it. And he bends all his might towards nullifying our freedom through temptation and, worse, through his influence in our lives due to our own cooperation with him. Our Lady tells us: "Therefore pray, so that, free from any influence of Satan, you may decide only for God."
How does Satan influence us? How did he ruin our original image? The Bible tells us the story. In Genesis, we read about Adam and Eve, about their original innocence, about their happy state of union with God. We read about the moment when God told Adam to eat of every tree in the garden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat of it you shall die." (Gen.1: 16) This was God's way of introducing Adam and Eve to their own freedom. He gave them a small test, a way for them to understand that they were free, and they could choose to trust Him and live in His love, or they could choose not to trust Him, not to respond to Him with love. God knew they had to understand the mighty gift He had given them, their freedom which made them in His image. And so God took a chance. What followed was the influence of Satan. We see him enter the garden and approach Eve, when she was alone, vulnerable, impressionable. He spoke to her, very personally, invading her personal space, and insinuating distrust and lies about God. He pretended to be her ally, on her side, only wanting what would be best for her. And he twisted God's words to make God sound harsh and unkind. "Did God say, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?...You will not die. God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'" Suspicion, distrust, fear for your own good, selfish thoughts, lies, lies, lies...these were his tools. He wanted to drive a wedge between Adam and Eve and God. And he succeeded. In fact he used her good desire to be like God to turn her away from God. So clever is he. And ever since then his influence has been in his ability to persuade us to distrust God and try to find our own way. His strategy is to tempt us to want things that he dangles before our mind's eye, things that he convinces us will make us happy, even God-like. This influence, subtle, too personal, inside the boundaries of our person, lures us into unknown waters, and then, when we sin, when we choose against God's plan, he sinks our boat. Satan wants us to become like him, angry, envious, gluttonous, avaricious, lustful, proud, and slothful. He wants us to grow ever more ugly and broken, far away from the original image God gave us. He wants to make us slaves of our own passions, un-free. On the practical level, we can continue to be influenced by Satan by making agreements with him. And this renders us un-free, unable to use our freedom to choose the good, unable to hold the mosaic together. Agreements with the enemy go something like this: My father hurt me when I was a child - I will never forgive him. My friend betrayed me - I will never trust anyone again. My pastor was uncaring when I needed his help - I will never go to a priest for help again. And on and on. Those kinds of inner agreements, promises to "ourselves" are really agreements with the enemy, pacts with his evil heart, so that we shut ourselves off from others and from God. We say "no" to love, to forgiveness, to hope. And it is then that we are not free, not free to love. Our Lady wants to build the image of God in us, through her messages. But the image will not hold, if we are not free, free to love and put God first. Therefore we have to get rid of all our agreements with the enemy, all of our attachment to lies and unforgiveness. That is the first step to becoming "made in the image of God" once more! Thank you, dear Mother, for coming to free us from the lies and evil agreements in our hearts so that we can embrace your messages and become beautiful, like you! In Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Cathy Nolan ©Mary TV 2012
PS. Tomorrow is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary!! Ask for all you need, she can help us!! |
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