(c)Mary TV 2014
J.M.J.
April 1, 2015
Wednesday of Holy Week
Dear Family of Mary!
"Dear children! Also today the Most High permits me to be with you and to lead you on the way of conversion. Many hearts have shut themselves to grace and have become deaf to my call. You, little children, pray and fight against temptation and all the evil plans which the devil offers you through modernism. Be strong in prayer and with the cross in your hands pray that evil may not use you and may not conquer in you. I am with you and pray for you. Thank you for having responded to my call." (March 25, 2015)
The saddest sentence in this message is this:
"Many hearts have shut themselves to grace and have become deaf to my call."
Why
would someone shut themselves to grace and become deaf to Our Lady's
call or worse to Jesus' call? In the Gospel for today we see one such
heart, closed and completely deaf to Jesus. Judas heard Jesus declare, "One of you will betray me..." Judas also heard Jesus say "He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me." He then heard the Lord say, "It would be better for that man if he had never been born."
Warning after warning was spoken. But Judas was deaf to them, his heart
completely closed to the enormity of his actions. He was bold enough to
reply, "Surely it is not I, Rabbi?" (cf. 26:14-25)
We
wonder how Judas could be so callous, so unfeeling. How could he be
such a liar? It is unthinkable. But Judas' heart was closed to Jesus,
and he was deaf to His call. All Judas could hear within his heart was
his own voice, and the voice of sin.
In the Magnificat, Vol. 17, No 1. Holy Week, 2015, Fr. Pius Parsch speaks about closed hearts in reference to this Gospel:
The
Pharisees' sin is the sin of shutting the eyes of the heart to the
light, the sin of arrogance, the sin of unbelief, the sin against the
Holy Spirit. This sin is a complete turning away from God. It is
untruthfulness to oneself, and engenders in man a state which excludes
him from God's friendship, a crime which even Christ cannot pardon. That
is the thoroughly evil man who will not be converted, a classic example
of whom we find in Judas...Judas was the type of man, evil and
degenerate to the core, in whom grace could find no point of contact."
(p. 78-79)
Such
a closed heart is full of arrogance, unbelief, and a rejection of the
Holy Spirit. It is a heart that has lost the ability to recognize truth.
It is a heart in which the "self" is god.
We
must take Judas as a warning ourselves. Are we given to arrogance?
Renounce it like the plague. Are we tempted to doubt and unbelief? Make
frequent acts of faith to counter this temptation. Do we ever ignore or
reject a movement of the Holy Spirit. Pray for forgiveness and cling to
the Holy Spirit who is life.
Our
Lady is speaking to us on God's behalf. She is bringing us grace. May
we respond with open hearts, and with open ears to her call! May we
desire her Son, and stay close by Him throughout this Holy Triduum. Our
lives depend upon Him.
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2015
PPS. Don't forget that tomorrow on April 2, 2015 Mary TV will stream the apparition to Mirjana Soldo, beginning at 8:00 AM Medjugorje time - 2:00 AM EDT. Join Mirjana in welcoming the Queen of Peace on this special day. April 2 is Holy Thursday and the 10th Anniversary of the death of St. John Paul II. What a beautiful day to be with Our Lady in Medjugorje!!
"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world."
Saint John Paul II
Be connected!
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