Mary TV: November 30, 2018 Reflection - Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.

Stand erect and raise your heads!!

  (c)Anthony Zubac

 

 

November 30, 2018
Dear Family of Mary!

"...I am with you, little children, and encourage you not to give up from what is good, because the fruits are seen and heard of afar..." (November 29, 2018)

Yesterday, Fr. Maximilian Dalve gave an inspired homily about how we can do as Our Lady says, and not give up from what is good! He uses the readings from yesterday's Mass (Revelations 18:1-2, 21-23: 19:1-3, 9a, and Luke 21:20-28) as a way to understand our time, and to live in it with faith! Here is the transcript of the Homily for English Mass, November 29, 2018:
Fr. Maximilian Dalve:

 

In today's Scripture readings that we have just heard we see the downfall of two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. Everything comes to an end. As we are journeying towards the end of the Liturgical Year, we see the end of all things. Not only Babylon, the great symbol of worldly power that is against God, but also Jerusalem we see coming to an end. Jerusalem is a sign of the Church, and Jesus said and promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But obviously there will be a final trial of which some say we already have had some experience.
But we don't need to worry because we have already seen, today, right now, the Wedding Feast of the Lamb (the Eucharist). So Jesus in His goodness brings us always beyond these experiences and lets us with His grace go through them without our head downcast but raised up as He said today in the Gospel.
Yes all things come to an end in this world, and we are many times tempted to question when is that time. When is the time when the end comes? But we should rather ask, "What is the end towards which we are directed?" Not when, but what is it all about? What is coming?
You see today in Jerusalem, this destruction is presented like birth pains. It's an agony, but it is also a birth pain, because the Son of Man will come. So new life is coming. We see in Babylon this agony goes towards death. I can see here very well those two cultures. The culture of life and the culture of death. Well expressed for example in those who are pro-life. The promote life, that life is born! New life is coming. And those who promote death. Abortion...that the birth becomes a birth of death. Tremendous...

 

And these two parties are more clearly seen. Now what we need to do, we have to pray for all. Jesus said "Especially those in most need of thy mercy." That all might be saved. There should be our prayers, there should be our tears. For those who do wrong without knowing. I could be one of them. God has given special grace to me and to all of us, but for them. We should not do as they do, making of us enemies. Our brothers and sisters who don't know yet, maybe through our prayers and fasting, they might realize, their eyes might be opened, they might be saved.

 

Mary says, Don't indulge, but say "I want to help Jesus and Mary that all the more brothers and sisters may come to know the way of holiness." (to be saved...) (10/25/03). That is the only things that matters. This world, all the treasures we gather today, they all will come to an end. We waste our time with foolish things. They may be useful things, all things have dignity, but in the right order. Have God first, then everything falls into place.

 

Then we have to work for our daily conversion, because you see it is not that we are already there. The great St. Paul said that he had not already arrived. The little trials of every day prepare us for the big trial. The big trail which finally would be our encounter with the Lord in death.

Yes, this Gospel passage has many interpretations. There is the literal interpretation, the historical interpretation, the symbolic interpretation, the Ecclesial interpretation, the Christological interpretation...many different types of interpretation. There is a certain amount of truth in each of them, but in order to interpret it really, we have to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. If we just do it with our mind, we always go wrong. Any interpretation will be wrong.

It is written by the Holy Spirit. The primary author is not the man who wrote it, Luke. No the primary author, we know it, Vatican Council II told us. It is the Holy Spirit. So we have to read it by the Holy Spirit with a humble heart. And if we don't understand, don't worry about it. Don't try to understand everything - Mary says in one of the latest messages. We do a lot of harm in the Church by being those who have to understand everything. We are still little children. And it is beautiful to be little children if we have a big daddy and mom. It's true!!

You are all little children. You are all afraid. If there is no dad or mom, you don't know if the baby sitter will come or not. No we are not orphans. We are children of God. And He takes care of us. Especially in this moment of trial. We should not undergo this moment of trial with fear. Do we have to be afraid? There are ten secrets. And Our Lady said once that these ten secrets are not the end time, but the beginning of a new time. Mary said it in different messages very clearly. But do we have to be afraid? Mary said, who is with God is not afraid.

And so I would like to take a moment to ponder the interpretation of these Scriptures today, which is our intimate journey to God where we undergo also this death and birth experience. The old man has to die, that the new man, Christ, can rise in us. I like to use the old symbol of egoism.  The branch has to come to die, and acknowledge he is only a branch. That is "I", who has to realize he is part of a tree. That is a new consciousness. Where I don't lose my old identity, but I find my roots. That is so beautiful! That is all the church, that is all the prayer life, that is all about it. That Christ comes alive in us.

And it is so simple. We make things difficult. In my prayer life I make things so difficult, I try to concentrate. Open to the Spirit, ask for grace, let it flow!! Let prayer flowing in you. Mary said, "Open to prayer." Because that grace wants to flow.

So that intimate experience of death and live comes to us in our prayer life. St. John of the Cross describes it very well. He describes it as night. It can be, he says, a night of the senses. Now I can't enter into an interpretation of it, but he says that it is quite tremendous. But there is no way to describe the night of the spirit. Fortunately, very few souls have been in some way called to this, like Mother Teresa of Calcutta or Faustina Kowalska, these great souls. When they describe the night of the spirit that is just beyond our reach. God calls certain souls to it.   

 

But some nights we all pass through.  We don't have to look in French mystical experiences.  It can be a financial problem.  A sickness.  Family problems.   All these external experiences, they are part of it.  God doesn't work in just one direction. He doesn't write this Scripture for just one interpretation.  They are multiple.  And in this river of grace that is Sacred Scripture we can just sip a few drops... because it's so intense.  Most of it is anyway hidden.  St. John of the Cross says the more you delve into it the more treasures you find - there are endless treasures in Christ. 

 

So these nights, trials and nights we undergo...  if we learn to walk through them: standing erected and raising your head...  that's what Jesus wants from us right now in these times of troubles in the Church! 

 

I say in a family when daddy and mom are fighting  (the Church is a family and daddy and mom are fighting - you know what I mean), what do children do?  Do they make politics?  I stand with mom; I stand with Dad...  No!  they just continue to play.   They don't enter into arguing.  No, he's right.  No, that one is right.   And then we waste time discussing even in church, instead of praying. 

 

What Jesus says today, He says, when these times come, fly to the mountains!  What is that?   The mountain in the Bible?  It's the place where you meet God.    I would say today, one interpretation, fly to Adoration!  Go to Jesus!  Don't mix in the city...mix in all these discussions and gossip, even within the church.  Don't nurture it by putting wood on the fire....   No.   Call upon the Spirit.   Call upon the Spirit to give clarity that quenches that fire of hatred and division and creates unity.  Only the Spirit can make it, not we with our power...we have to understand our great limitation... how can we make a branch the unity of the tree?  So call upon the Spirit, that sap of the tree which unites us all and lets us feel that oneness.

 

Yes, so Mary wants to prepare us here in these troubled times to become pillars, pillars of faith.  Pillars of hope.   As these troubles get worse we don't need to worry at all.   There our faith is proven.   If we still start to worry about little things, how we will worry when big things are coming...  So let our faith grow!  Let us ask for the growth of faith.  As we are nurtured everyday by the Eucharist.  I think we should ask for that faith, hope and love... Let us ask Mary to help us to receive Jesus. Let us ask Mary to intercede for us so that faith grows in us, living faith!

Fortitude!  It comes forth from focusing on Christ.  Because Fortitude is not "we are strong" but the Holy Spirit empowers us, and it comes if we start to look on Jesus.  In all these troubled times look on the star, look on Jesus.  Don't worry about the rest.  Then for all the rest, for this world, you will be a blessing.   Be a pillar of faith and then one day maybe many people come to climb, to cling to you.

 

Yes, Mary is preparing for the Triumph of her Immaculate Heart.   And we are all part of it!  So let us use in these times everything for it.   I mean, whenever little trials come let us learn to live them looking at Jesus. 

 

Sing already, as they sing in today's scripture reading, "Alleluia! Salvation, glory and might belong to our God, for true and just are His judgements."  In the moment of trials, the best thing you can do, yes you can cry for help, but if you have the faith, cry "Alleluia!  Salvation, glory and might belongs to our God, for true and just are His judgements." 

 

Yes, let us transform our trials into songs of praise.  This needs real faith.  This needs faith - only the humble can have this faith.    It's not that we won't fall... there is a little bit of Babylon is in all of us.  But Saint John of the Cross, in that night, could say, "I sing!  I sing because I love!   I believe in the love!"  That this love might be born in us in this Eucharist, and grow until it warms up all of us around - the Church and the world!  Amen   

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2018

PS: Today and tomorrow, our studio in Medjugorje is being moved as work is beginning, and so we will not have live streaming from Medjugorje for a couple of days. The Live Cameras will also be down. Don't worry, all will be back as soon as possible!!

 

"Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world."
Saint John Paul II
Be connected!
www.marytv.tv