The way of love
(c)Mary TV 2013
J.M.J
February 24, 2014
Dear Family of Mary!
The Gospel for Sunday, February 23, was Matthew 5: 38-48. It is one of the more challenging Gospel passages for me. It reads:
Jesus
said to his disciples: "You have heard that it was said, An eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to
one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the
other one as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your
tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into
service for one mile, go for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you,
and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.
"You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Jesus
challenges us to not just talk about love and forgiveness but to
radically change the way we act and think about our enemies. He doesn't
give us an easy way out.
Yesterday,
in prayer, I pulled a message from my box of messages. Our Lady makes
the same challenge to us in this message as Jesus did in this Scripture.
"Dear
children! Today I call you to accept and live my messages with
seriousness. These days are the days when you need to decide for God,
for peace and for the good. May every hatred and jealousy disappear from
your life and your thoughts, and may there only dwell love for God and
for your neighbor. Thus, and only thus shall you be able to discern the
signs of the time. I am with you and I guide you into a new time, a time
which God gives you as grace so that you may get to know him more.
Thank you for having responded to my call." (January 25, 1993)
This is not an easy message to respond to.
"May every hatred and jealousy disappear from your life and your
thoughts, and may there only dwell love for God and for your neighbor."
It is even more challenging when we remember that at that moment,
Medjugorje was situated right in the middle of a terrible war in the
Balkans. This was a war among neighbors! Imagine hearing these words
from Our Lady in that excruciating moment.
Yet
it is a fact that for the people of Medjugorje, the way of love has led
them into a new time, and they have become an even greater source of
grace for the world since that war.
The
way of peace is love. And love can only exist when forgiveness and
acceptance of even our enemies exists in our hearts and minds and
actions. This is the great mystery of Christ. To love those who appear
to be our enemies, who hurt us, even kills us. This is the way of
Christ. The way of love.
It
is an impossible way unless we let go control of our lives and truly
give ourselves to God completely. Only then can we even begin on this
way of peace.
In
this time when country after country seems to be going up in the flames
of civil strife, we need more than ever to give ourselves completely to
God, so that we learn the way of peace, and live it through forgiveness
and sacrifice.
Impossible
without God. Possible, if we live Our Lady's messages, seek God with
all our hearts, and stay firmly planted in the Church and the
Sacraments. Then we may be able to live the way of love.
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2014
PS. Tonight we have a special "Fruit of Medjugorje". We have been given permission to show "Child 31"
, a video about Mary's Meals, the beautiful humanitarian aid effort
from Scotland that now feeds over 860,000 children a day. You will see
the way of love in this film! 8:00 pm EST, tonight!
"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world!"
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