(c)Mary TV 2014
J.M.J
February 20, 2015
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear
children! I am here, I am among you. I am looking at you, am smiling at
you and I love you in the way that only a mother can. Through the Holy
Spirit who comes through my purity, I see your hearts and I offer them
to my Son...." February 2, 2015
Here is the transcript of the Homily for Ash Wednesday
at English Mass in Medjugorje. It is given by a priest from New York.
Father explains so well how Our Lady's school of Medjugorje is "Lenten"!
This is a good homily to reflect on at the beginning of Lent:
What a privilege we have been given, my dear brothers and sisters. Usually on Ash Wednesday
I am at a big church somewhere, most recently right in the middle of
Manhattan, giving out ashes and sometimes Holy Communion, to those who
are more devout, to thousands of people. The parish where I help out in
midtown Manhattan will probably have about ten thousand people coming in
and out today. It becomes an assembly line. But we are small in number.
And we are here. I have left St. Agnes, and you have left whatever
situations you have back home, to come here because Our Lady has called
us here. And through God's providence we are here on Ash Wednesday.
You
and I, small in number, have been given this great privilege, and with
it comes a responsibility. We are here not just for ourselves. We are
here for all of our loved ones at home for whom we are praying, and we
are here for the whole Church. The Church needs to listen.
A
little while ago in our house, we prayed the morning prayers for the
Divine Office. And one of the antiphons that is repeated at the very
beginning of the Divine Office for Ash Wednesday
and for a good part of Lent is simply, "If today you hear His voice,
harden not your hearts." And that is why we are here. We are here to
listen to God's voice. And God speaks, God proclaims today.
The
Prophet Joel: "Blow the trumpet in Zion! Proclaim a fast, call an
assembly; Gather the people; notify the congregation; assemble the
elders, gather the children. Let everyone come. And let the ministers of
the Lord weep and say, 'Spare, O Lord, your people.'"
Blow
the trumpet in Zion. Blow the trumpet in the Church. Wake up my people.
That is why Our Lady has come to Medjugorje. She has come here because
we have become deaf. We are not listening. We live in a world where
practically speaking, so many people don't believe in God at all. But
even the Church, the church where most of us come from in the United
States and perhaps elsewhere, the church in so many places has become
rather deaf. We have become rather deaf. We are not listening. Why?
Because we are living in mediocrity in our church in the United States.
And because of that, practically speaking, so many Catholics are almost
atheists.
So
what was the first thing Our Lady said when she came to Medjugorje? "I
have come to tell you that God exists." God exists...hey remember
people....God exists. And He is calling. And Our Lady is calling the
Church anew to live out her vocation as the Bride of Christ. And that is
why you and I are here and why you and I are here on Ash Wednesday.
Again
the Prophet Joel: "Even now says the Lord, 'Return to Me with your
whole heart.'" That is the message of Our Lady in a nut shell. The
prophetic message that the people of God have heard from the ancient
days of Israel. "Return to Me with your whole heart." That is certainly
what Medjugorje is about, and what Lent is all about. "Return to Me with
your whole heart."
Our
Lady is asking us not to just say a few prayers, not even to just make a
pilgrimage, not even to make a few good resolutions about prayer and
fasting when we get back. She says, I want you, I want your whole heart.
When
we look at the other apparitions of Our Lady, whether it is Lourdes or
Fatima or whatever they are, Our Lady is always asking us to pray, go to
confession, say the Rosary, go to Holy Communion. And she says it more
and more insistently. So now in Medjugorje she is saying it over and
over and over again. This is the voice of the Mother. And we are not
getting it. And so she repeats it over and over again. Since 1981, she
is still saying it, "Return to Me with your whole heart." That is what
God is asking of each of us. Return to Me with your whole heart. Give
your life to Me.
Back
in the States, I am privileged to teach in our seminary. And so many of
our seminarians have received their vocation somehow through a
connection with Medjugorje, either coming here or being influenced by
people who have been here, through reading a book or whatever. They have
heard the call, and they realize it is not about being a functionary,
not just saying a few prayers, but about living the life, giving one's
whole self.
Most
people here are not called to leave what they are doing and become
priests or religious, but we are all called, no matter what we are doing
in our lives. Whether it is running a restaurant, running an office,
teaching school or youth ministry, whatever we are doing, we are called
to live our lives for Christ and do whatever we do for the Lord.
That
is what makes the difference. Then the most humble of tasks, the most
ordinary of tasks become salvific. And God works through us in whatever
it is that we are doing. But we must listen to that call, "Return to Me
with your whole heart."
Why? What is Ash Wednesday
about? What is Lent about? Lent is not an end in itself. Lent is a
preparation. We are looking forward to the culmination of Lent and the
culmination of the whole Church year, and that is the celebration of
Easter. Easter is what we are all about. St. Augustine says, we are an
Easter people...and I can't say the rest because I would have to say a
word that the Church says we can't say, liturgically speaking...it
begins with an "A"...that word we don't say during Lent...that is our
song!!! We are an Easter people. We are all about the gift of new life
that God gives to us with the death and resurrection of His Son. And
Lent is an invitation to enter more deeply into that life, into our
celebration of Easter, which is the center of everything.
That is why we have Lent. That is why we have Medjugorje!
"God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son" (John 3:16).
And God is calling us saying "Return to Me with your whole heart,"
because I give you My heart. Because I give you Myself. Here at this
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Lord gives us Himself. The sacrifice of
the death and resurrection of Christ, and Our Lord feeds us with His
Body and Blood, He gives us Himself. He invites us to enter into a deep
relationship with Him. That relationship began for us at Baptism.
That
is why you will during the season of Lent so many references to our
Baptism. And at the Easter Vigil and throughout the Easter Season we
rejoice in our Baptism, because Baptism means that we have died to our
old selves, and God lives within us. We share in God's very own life.
The Blessed Trinity has come to dwell within us. That is why God created
us. That is what we are here for. That is why we have been created.
That is why Medjugorje exists. That is why the Church exists. The Church
has got to enter into that deep relationship with Him that already
exists by virtue of our Baptism.
And
so Our Lady is asking us in Medjugorje, the Church is asking us during
the season of Lent, as St. Paul says, to stir up the Spirit that has
been given to us. To allow God to enter us deeply and to fill us with
His glorious presence. That is why we are here in Medjugorje. That is
why we fast and do all the other things that Our Lady is asking us. It
is a time of conversion. Lent is a time of conversion. Our time here in
Medjugorje is a time of conversion. The Lord is offering us tremendous,
tremendous graces.
Medjugorje
is such a tremendous gift to the Church. But Medjugorje itself leads to
the greatest of all gifts that the Lord has given to us, the gift into
which we are entering right now in this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The
Lord is saying to us, "Come to Me. Come to Me now. Let Me forgive your
sins now. Let Me fill you with My life, with My grace, with My love
now." Let's not wait another moment.
Let's
make a resolution now, as St. Paul asks us to do in the second reading
today. He quotes the Lord, saying, "In the acceptable time I heard you.
On the day of salvation I helped you." The Lord is coming to us to give
us the gift of His grace, of His salvation, but it is now. St. Paul goes
on to say to us...he says it about our pilgrimage to Medjugorje, about
Lent, about God's relationship to us right now...He is saying, "Behold,
now is a very acceptable time, behold now is the day of salvation."
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2015
"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world."
Saint John Paul II
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