The more little we are the more we are at the Heart of Jesus...
(c) Mary TV 2013
J.M.J.
December 18, 2013
Dear Family of Mary!
Today I am giving you another Christmas present!! The second homily of Fr. Maximilian which was given on December 10, 2013 at the English Mass at St. James, Medjugorje!!
I find Father's words to be very healing and like oxygen for the soul!
Fr. Maximilian Dalvai
December 10, 2013
Homily at St. James English Mass
A
parable, and especially this parable is not meant to be taken in a
passive way, to be taken into our memory as a nice teaching, but it
involves us. It starts with a question, "What is your opinion?" And it
makes us go on a journey. It depends on us, the outcome, because it is
not clearly defined. So we have to go on a journey and ask ourselves
what really is our opinion.
Think
to whom Jesus spoke in His time. He spoke to shepherds, simple people
of Galilee of this time. So what would they have said? "A hundred sheep!
You leave the ninety-nine in dangerous mountains, in deserted
mountains, and you go for one?" They would have said, "That is insane.
That is foolish! You leave the ninety-nine in danger and go for the
one." They probably would have said that.
What
is your opinion? Leave ninety-nine for one? No way! I feel sorry for
the one sheep, but the ninety-nine...that's it. Normal reason! We have
to go on a journey. They would have said, "Jesus! Who is that insane
pastor who would do such a thing?" He would have answered, "This pastor
is God the Father. And the sheep is you." God loves each one. That is
the mystery of the love of God. God loves each soul like all together.
The love of God is not divided. You know, He loves you a little bit, He
likes you a little bit more or a little bit less, no...Each one has the
full love of God. That is difficult to understand. Because the love of
God is so great!
But
you see, even here on earth we have a sign, a symbol of this love.
Let's just go to the sun. If you go out into the sun...today is a sunny
day, thanks be to God...so we go out and we look at the sun, and each
one has the full sun. It is not that if you look at the sun, I get less.
We have all the full sun! Because the sun is so great! But we have to
understand that the sun is very little before the love of God. So with
what a burden, with what a weight of love is He looking upon you! On
each one of us!! With what eyes does God look upon each one of us! With
tender eyes...the first reading speaks about the tenderness of God. And
our Pope Francis continues it and invites us! We do not have a cold and
distant God, a rational God, a logical God...no! God's love to our
reason is foolish. None of us would do that...we have to be honest and
not say, "Oh that is nice, God, yes..." Think of it, you would not do
that! We don't have such great love. But we can receive that great love!
That is the more important part.
With
eyes full of goodness, He follows each one of our steps. We should
recognize that in our faith. Sometimes we might get the feeling, here in
Medjugorje we feel it. We come and Wow! Mary is there. I feel free, and
I feel everything, but what about back home, when the work is there,
and heavy days come...believe it in faith, and give Jesus the joy, the
consolation of your belief. In our first reading we hear
consolation..."Comfort, give comfort to your people." But we should also
give comfort to Jesus. How can we do that? Believe in His love. More we
cannot do, but we can believe. We can abandon ourselves.
Mary
said here in one message, "The greatest thing you can do is to abandon
yourselves to Jesus." But this is not so easy for us. Especially because
we are educated, and our mentality is formed by philosophies since
centuries which teach us auto-sufficiency. The philosophy says that you
are thrown into existence. And so many people feel this. Maybe some have
the fortune to have certain securities like good families, and that is
very important. Or to have good money, so I have money, and I am strong.
Or I have good culture or good education, or good talents, whatever,
but we need deeper roots. That is not enough. We can stand with these
roots maybe ninety years, but then....
We
need Christ as our root. He is our true root. We have to find Him in
us. There lies our strength and then we can be little. We don't have to
be a strong man, a strong woman, capable of everything, governing,
managing the world, and going on and making a lot of disasters.
I
have a friend, before I left Rome, who said to me, "Let's try to make
the least amount of damage!" Because as humans we always make disasters.
Let's try to make the least possible. So let's ask God to work more and
more through us and with us. Let Him do it! It is His doing. We are
His handiwork. And how happy He is if He can work in us and through us.
But then we have to become little.
You
see, the more little we are - you see the lambs are carried, the sheep
are not. The sheep are guided, the shepherd feeds them and guides his
flock, leading the ewes with care. Leading them, but the little ones,
the lambs, he carries on his bosom, on his heart. The more little we are
the more we are at the Heart of Jesus.
And
so we don't have to serve a distant, stern God who looks to us with
clear eyes, and so we tremble a little bit and we sing His praises more
out of fear than out of love. Let's believe in the tenderness of God,
again and again, believe in the forgiveness of God. It is a joy for Him
to forgive. It is the greatest joy that God has, to forgive us, and as
Pope Francis says, He never gets tired of forgiving. So we can always
give God joy if we run into His arms trusting in His mercy and love.
May
we ask Him in the Christmas time, that as He Himself becomes little, we
can carry Him in our arms. Surely as Mary gives Him to us, we can take
Him in our hands, into our hearts in Holy Communion. Don't be afraid of
our littleness. Don't think we have to do it all by ourselves. May we
learn to trust more and more in His care, His tenderness and His love.
Let us serve Him, not because we are afraid. We sing His praises and
that is beautiful! And it is the duty of creation to give glory to God,
sure, but we should do it out of love. But if we praise Him out of fear,
or because I we like it, I think it is less beautiful for the Heart of
God than if we simply lean our heads on the Heart of God and rest in
simple silence and in tender abandonment on His breast. I think that
there He receives more glory, more comfort and joy, and He can give us
more comfort and joy, than with all the things we can do for Him.
Let's
first receive, and then with His grace, we can give back and enter the
flow of the Trinity that God so much wants. And yes, we ask that we do
not put all of ourselves in, which destroys continuously the work of
God. That we can always let Him act, and He will do marvelous things.
And especially He will let us experience His tender, forgiving, merciful
love, so we can share it with others.
Thank you, Fr. Maximilian, for taking us under your care with these homilies. They will help us prepare for Christmas!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
(c)Mary TV 2013
Once again:
Christmas Novena of St. James Parish, Medjugorje!
St. James Parish will climb Apparition Hill, praying the Rosary, for nine days before Christmas.
The novena began on December 15, and will end on December 23.
Mary TV will stream the novena - live - starting Monday, December 16,
2:00 pm Medjugorje time (8:00 am EST).
Join the parish in this wonderful novena in preparation for the coming of Baby Jesus at Christmas!
"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world!"
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