Medjugorje Message: April 25, 2017
Dear children! Love, pray and witness my presence to all those who are far away. By your witness and example you can draw closer the hearts that are far from God and His grace. I am with you and intercede for each of you so that, with love and resoluteness, you may witness and encourage all those who are far from my Immaculate Heart. Thank you for having responded to my call.
River of Light
May 2017
As we approach the “Mary” month of May, Our Lady’s message beckons us to be her living presence for “those who are far away.” Three times she uses the word “far,” citing “the hearts that are far from God and His grace” and “those who are far from my Immaculate Heart.” It’s worth noting that Our Lady never says that God, grace, Jesus, or Mary are “far away” from US–only that WE and OUR HEARTS are far from them. Indeed sacred scripture tells us: “Yet he is not far from any one of us, for ‘in him we live and move and have our being.‘” (Acts 17:27) Still, because of the sovereignty and human dignity of our free will which God gave us and refuses to violate or disrespect, we ourselves can actually choose to live our lives “far away” from Christ-consciousness or from the humility of heart that imitates Mary’s Immaculate Heart. How do we “choose” this distance from God and grace?
In our current post-postmodern culture, there are two types of deliberately-choosing “distancers” from God: first, there is a growing “New Atheism” movement in which many people openly and unabashedly proclaim their disbelief in the Creator God of traditional Judeo-Christian religion. Often this atheism is rooted in the scientific worldview and new cosmology that emerged from the work of Einstein, Hawking, gravity studies and the “Big Bang Theory” (which was developed by a Catholic priest, Fr. George Lemaitre!). This new origin story, unlike the biblical Genesis, provided a “natural” explanation for the start of the universe, without any need to reference a “supernatural” Creator God. Consequently, many people have simply discarded, wholesale, both scripture and religion as fanciful children’s fairy tales rooted in scientific ignorance. With this “bathwater,” they also threw out the “baby” of any sense of MEANING to human life on earth, leading to rampant nihilism, narcissism and suicidal despair in our culture.
The second group of “deliberately-choosing” atheists are the many disillusioned former believers who have left church and religion behind because of the spiritual or psychological harm caused them by the cruelty of Christians whose hypocrisy and betrayal of the basic tenets of their own religion have made Christianity itself both unbelievable and unappealing to them. Sadly, this pool of “recovering Christians” is tragically large and growing.
In addition to the “new atheists” who have made deliberate decisions and choices against God’s presence and grace in their lives, perhaps much more common are the millions of human beings who are “far from God and His grace” through basic UNAWARENESS: the fundamental spiritual “sleep” of unconsciousness. Some of these people were raised in agnostic households and never exposed to religious teaching, but many more grew up in a faith tradition and might even consider themselves nominal Christians today–yet the reality of their everyday life is “far away,” as Our Lady says, from God, His grace, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Many of US may fall into this category ourselves!
In Medjugorje, Our Lady gives a monthly message especially for “nonbelievers” whom she defines as “those who have not yet experienced the love of God.” These are NOT necessarily avowed atheists! In fact the majority of “nonbelievers” may belong to a religion, some even “devoutly” so! This is the paradox of spirituality. We can call ourselves Catholic Christians, attend church weekly, recite the Creed and other prayers with all the right words and with conceptually orthodox theology, yet still be “nonbelievers” for all practical purposes, in terms of our LIVED EXPERIENCE–as long as our minds are not free, awake, aware, and open for divine inspiration and our hearts are not open, receptive, willing and pure like Mary’s Immaculate Heart.
Sadly, the reality of our human condition is that, spiritually, most people tend to go through life in a “sleepwalking” state in which our “emotional programs for happiness” based on overblown, unmet childhood needs–for safety and security, affection and esteem, power and control, and bodily pleasure–completely dominate and dictate our everyday behavior, including our thoughts, feelings, words and actions. Trying by our own self-will to meet these basic needs, we live in a state of “amnesia” or forgetfulness of God and God’s grace, and of Mary’s Immaculate Heart that is our model for receiving divine help.
Worst of all, we live in unawareness or “sleep” in regard to the Divine Indwelling Presence at our inmost center, and thus we are “far away,” as Our Lady says, from EXPERIENCING the love of God. In this spiritually unconscious state, we are easy prey for the satanic ego to lead us into every manner of selfishness and sin. Knowing that this is the universal human condition, Jesus spoke these words of profound mercy, compassion and radical understanding from the Cross: “Father, forgive them, for they KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO.” (Luke 23:34) The greater part of our sin takes place from this tragic state of SLEEP and unawareness–i.e. acting reflexively from our unconscious, ego-centered false self programs pushing us toward filling the insatiable inner needs of our doomed emotional programs that will never bring us happiness–with very little of our sinful behavior stemming from deliberately calculated, premeditated evil or malice. Jesus understood this well, having lived a human life on this earth among intrinsically good but unconscious people who did objectively bad things.
Our Lady’s message this month urges us to meet and confront all those who are “far away” from a God-centered life, for whatever reason–be it an intentional choice or an unconscious spiritual “sleepwalking” through life. How are we to approach such persons? Our Lady instructs us: “Love, pray and witness my presence to all those who are far away. By your witness and example you can draw closer the hearts that are far from God and His grace…with love and resoluteness you may witness and encourage all those who are far from my Immaculate Heart.” In this wise counsel, twice Our Lady uses the word “witness” and twice she uses the word “love.”
To “witness” means to GIVE PROOF. The Trinitarian God of our Christian faith may best be described as “LOVING RELATIONSHIP.” Thus to witness Mary’s presence to the people around us means that we show open receptivity to the Holy Trinity–i.e. “loving relationship“–wherever we are, in any circumstance or situation of life. Our open-hearted receptivity to loving relationship (God/the Trinity) at all times and with all people and creatures will “draw closer the hearts that are far from God and His grace.”
All human beings–whether professed atheists or devoutly religious–hunger and thirst for meaning: for the truth, beauty, goodness and love that flow from God. Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “Kindness has converted more people than zeal, science or eloquence.” Our Lady agrees, for she calls us to use prayer, love and resoluteness to give example, witness and encouragement to nonbelievers, so that through US, they will at last “experience the love of God” and thus no longer be “unbelievers.” Not by browbeating preachiness, rational argumentation, or pious affectations of demeanor, but by simple lovingkindness, open-hearted welcoming inclusiveness, and humble compassion, God’s loving PRESENCE will become apparent and undeniable (through us) to even the most hardened and “far away” nonbelievers”!
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May 13, 1917 – May 13, 2017 : 100th Anniversary of Fatima, Portugal
Apparitions of Mary
“Medjugorje is the fulfillment of Fatima.”
–– Our Lady of Medjugorje, August 25, 1991
“Medjugorje is the continuation of Fatima, it’s the completion of Fatima.” — St. John Paul II, 1984
There is an evident coherence between the apparitions of Fatima and Medjugorje:
1) the Miracle of the Sun;
2) References to the Immaculate Heart of Mary;
3) Spiritual program of daily prayer–especially Rosary and Mass;
4) Fasting and penance for the sake of sinners;
5) Similar visions of the afterlife given to seers
“Mary is the safest, easiest, shortest and most perfect way to Jesus and to sanctity.” — St. Louis de Montfort
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The Gospel is truly proclaimed only if the Christians proclaiming it strive with all their might to have a good heart. When love meets a nonbeliever, it becomes evangelization. We do not come, in our generosity, offering to share something which belongs to us–“God.” We do not come as righteous among sinners, as people who hold diplomas among the uneducated; we come to speak about our common Father, whom some people know and others don’t; as people who have been forgiven, not as innocents…and this entails a whole manner of BEING. — Madeleine Delbrel
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You and I exist inside of love, and occasionally we realize it and live out of our deepest purpose and identity….Agape love is not something you do. It’s something that you learn to live inside of even while you already participate in it…. Love is the underlying generous energy that gives itself away through those living inside of love. Both Jesus and Paul knew that rules and requirements were just to get you seriously engaged with the need for grace and mercy; they were never an end in themselves. This love–whose source is God’s self–is an open-heartedness. When you’re in that open-hearted space, your energy flows out. When you’re not in that space, your energy sucks inward. Any time you feel like you deserve something, it’s an indication you may be hoarding love rather than letting it come and go freely.
True spirituality is about keeping your heart space open. It is daily, constant work. The temptation is to close down; to judge and dismiss and hate and fear. You have to work to live in love, to have a generosity of spirit, a readiness to smile, a willingness to serve. Regularly check in with yourself, asking, “Is my heart open? Is love flowing through and from me? Or am I constricted?” A consistent, chosen spiritual practice like contemplative prayer gradually allows an awakening to the abundance of love….Living in God’s abundance–in this excessive, infinite Love–you find you always have plenty to share. Love is a choice. You have to choose to be loving. You have to deliberately, consciously, intentionally choose to stay connected through your practice. — Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM
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BENEDICTION
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that, through your love, you can make a difference in this world so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. Amen.
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Mark Your Calendar
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To reject the contemplative dimension of any religion is to reject the religion itself, however loyal one may be to its externals and rituals. This is because the contemplative dimension is the heart and soul of every religion. It initiates the movement into higher states of consciousness. The great wisdom teachings of the Vedas, Upanishads, Buddhist Sutras, Old and New Testaments, and the Koran bear witness to this truth. Right now there are about two billion Christians on the planet. If a significant portion of them were to embrace the contemplative dimension of the gospel, the emerging global society would experience a powerful surge toward enduring peace. If this contemplative dimension of the Christian religion is not presented, the Gospel is not being adequately preached.
– Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO
