Medjugorje Message: August 25, 2021
Dear children! With joy I am calling all of you, little children, who have responded to my call: be joy and peace. Witness with your lives Heaven, which I am bringing to you. It is time, little children, that you be a reflection of my love for all those who do not love and whose hearts hatred has conquered. Do not forget: I am with you and intercede for all of you before my Son Jesus, that He may give you His peace. Thank you for having responded to my call.
River of Light
September 2021
In the midst of very dark times on our planet, the Queen of Peace comes this month “with joy.” She begins her message: “With joy I am calling all of you, little children, who have responded to my call: be joy and peace.” For 40 years, Our Lady has ended every Medjugorje message with the gracious words, “Thank you for having responded to my call.” Often we may feel unworthy of her gratitude, wondering whether, in fact, we have “responded” to her call at all—and frequently know that we have failed completely. Yet our gracious Mother continues to offer her thanks at the end of each message, whether we have barely “tuned in” to listen, or have actually worked to understand and integrate it into our life in some real way, from month to month.
In a most unusual turnabout, this month, Our Lady BEGINS her message by referring to this particular group to whom she now directs her message: “all of you, little children, WHO HAVE RESPONDED TO MY CALL.” It is this group she now addresses “with joy,” asking us to “BE joy and peace.” But “joy and peace” feel especially strange at this time, when our world is in such a colossal mess—with Covid-19 pandemic deaths surging again, people bitterly divided along political lines over the need for vaccination and masking in response to the virus, a disastrous earthquake and hurricane devastating the already-beleaguered country of Haiti and state of Louisiana, the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan under the resurgent powers of Taliban and ISIS, the plight of impoverished refugees from violence all over the world, and the manifest suffering of the Earth itself undergoing the deadly effects of climate change and global warming. How can we “who have responded to Our Lady’s call” now “BE joy and peace” in the midst of such extreme misery and suffering?
Last month Our Lady called us to “BE prayer for all those who do not pray.” This month she furthers this existential mission of “BEING” (rather than simply “doing”)—calling us now to “BE” joy and peace (in a visibly joyless, peaceless world). But how?
We will soon see why Our Lady is singling out those “who have responded to my call” for this “Master Class” message and its extremely challenging instruction—much in the way that our Lord Jesus gave certain teachings only to his Apostles, the “inner circle” of his disciples who had “responded to his call,” and not to the vast “crowds,” whom he knew were unable to comprehend, accept, or assimilate his teaching at their present level of consciousness.
Last month Our Lady said, “Witness with your lives the joy that you are mine.” The term “witness with your life” is perhaps another way of calling us to “BE” prayer, joy, peace, etc. To “BE” a particular quality (not just “practice” it) means to enflesh it, incarnate it, embody it, and radiate it—not in any one particular activity but in the “witness” of our whole life: the consistent attitude, demeanor, tenor and cadence of our 24/7 daily lifestyle, our continual manner of living. Well, this month Our Lady says, “Witness with your lives HEAVEN, which I am bringing to you.”
Whoa! It is already a huge challenge for us to witness/Be “prayer,” to witness/Be “joy,” to witness/Be “peace.” But now Our Lady is calling us to “witness with your lives HEAVEN” ?! Am I really supposed to witness, through my daily life, something seemingly BEYOND my own lived experience and understanding—that only angels and saints could do?
YES, Our Lady says, for it is “Heaven” that she has been “bringing to us” in Medjugorje for the past 40 years, and it is “Heaven” that she has been “bringing” to the whole world since the moment of her “Yes” to Archangel Gabriel and the Incarnation of Jesus in her womb. As Jesus taught in the Gospels, the Kingdom of Heaven is not only our future destination after death, but already “in” us and “among” us—the very “water in which we swim” through our whole earthly life, if only we have “eyes to see.”
Our Lady goes on to elaborate what is required by her bewildering challenge to “witness with your lives Heaven” : “It is time, little children, that you be a reflection of my love for all those who do not love and whose hearts hatred has conquered.” We all know that when a mother says to her child, “IT IS TIME THAT YOU . . . ” —she means business! She really means that it is “high time” or “past the time” that you do something that has always been needed but is now urgently required, demanded, and expected—with no further delay! The mother is thus calling “Time!” on a duty the child must fulfill immediately. And what is Our Lady’s urgent mandate for her special audience this month—“all of you who have responded to my call” ? What is the non-negotiable “assignment” being given to her “master class”?
“It is time…that YOU BE A REFLECTION OF MY LOVE for all those who do not love and whose hearts hatred has conquered.” If we are indeed children of Mary who have heard and “responded” to her call in Medjugorje these past 40 years, then it is “high time” (and overdue!) that we “be a reflection of her love” —that we BE the bright full moon to her glorious shining sun, reflecting her LIGHT into this world that is currently plunged into a troubled Dark Night.
But the “kicker” and greatest demand of this call from Our Lady is that she asks us to mirror her love “for all those who do not love and whose hearts hatred has conquered.” We are to show her love not only to our like-minded buddies who will love us back, but to those who are no longer even potential “friends of the Light,” for they have been “conquered” —totally ensnared, captured, defeated, and overtaken by toxic ideologies of hatred and traps of disinformation that fill their minds with darkness of lies and visions of malice. We are to treat lovingly and mercifully people for whom we have lost all hope of “converting” to the Light of truth in love.
While we may be thinking of such international enemies as the deranged ISIS-K killers who are propagandized into “hatred” from early childhood, the sad fact is that much closer to home we are surrounded daily by “those who do not love and whose hearts hatred has conquered” through a similar maleficent “brainwashing” —even in our own families, social circles, workplaces, churches and civic communities. All who have chosen the culture wars and worldly, ego-driven political ideologies (whether on the “right” or the “left”) as the “hill they will die on” —rather than Divine Love of the other as one’s very self—have “hearts hatred has conquered.”
By Our Lady’s use of the word “conquered,” she tells us that the time has passed for our attempts to “rescue” the “conquered” from their dark paths through our efforts of persuasion and argument; it is now time only for us to “LOVE” them by reflecting to them the light of Our Lady’s love, as the moon reflects the sun’s light.
Our Lord Jesus well-knew this sad situation we now face, and he gave us specific instructions on it, saying, “A person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” (Mt 10:36) Still, he taught, “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.” (Mt 5:44-48)
This month Our Lady’s call for us to love “all those who do not love and whose hearts hatred has conquered” is a direct application of her Son’s most radical teaching, cited above: the LOVE OF ENEMIES that “turns the other cheek,” treats kindly and respectfully, and prays for the people who persecute and do not love in return. This is loving without conditions—regardless of how one is treated.
Our Lord taught that our human pursuit of this New Commandment of Love amounts to “being perfect,” for the only true standard or measure of Godlike perfection (completion, wholeness) is UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. At this time we are thus asked to surrender all ego-based needs to “win,” be right, or prevail over others in their deadly ideologies, and instead “die to self” in answer to the Lord’s call. Jesus and Mary summon us to “be perfect” : not “right,” not “vindicated,” not “victorious” —but “perfect” through our unconditional love. Sacred Scripture assures us that in ways we cannot possibly see or understand, “Love never fails.” (1 Cor 13:8)
Similarly, Our Lady’s call for us to “be joy and peace” in the midst of a joyless, peaceless world darkened by hatred, lies and ignorance is a totally counterintuitive, countercultural call to radiate a radical, paradoxical JOY and PEACE that are beyond conditions or circumstances. Just as we are called as followers of Christ to be unconditionally loving, we are called as children of Mary to be unconditionally joyful and peaceful in every situation because of our conscious, trustful awareness of the Indwelling Presence of God in our BEING and in the “IS-NESS” of all Reality. This inner assurance keeps us joyful and peaceful in the midst of everything, as we “witness with our lives Heaven,” our true homeland that we enjoy here and now (within the limits of our human condition), and look forward to—in a new and wonderful way—after death.
Our Lady concludes her message by saying, “Do not forget: I am with you and intercede for all of you before my Son Jesus, that He may give you His peace.” This consoling assurance reminds us that we are not expected to “manufacture” our own peace to “witness” to the world in the midst of undeniable tragedy everywhere. We have our Lord’s promise that through the Spirit—the Indwelling Divine Presence of Christ at our inmost center—“PEACE I leave with you, my PEACE I give you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid….In the world you will have trouble, but take heart, for I have overcome the world.” (Jn 14 & 16). With joy, we can “BE” the Peace of Christ in the midst of a troubled world.
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Empty yourself. Sit quietly, content with the grace of God.
—St. Romuald
The purpose of silence is to break through the crust of the false self.
—Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO
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“If the you of five years ago doesn’t consider the you of today to be a heretic, you are not growing spiritually.”
—Thomas Merton, OCSO
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John 3:16 has probably become the most famous Bible verse in America. Go to a football game or Nascar race, and you are bound to see people holding up signs that read “John 3:16.” It’s on t-shirts, hats, tattoos, and bumper stickers.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
–John 3:16
Why does Jesus refer to himself in the third person, not just once but multiple times in this passage? They say people who do that are often narcissists. But Jesus isn’t being narcissistic, because he isn’t referring to himself. “Son of God” and “Only Begotten Son” are terms for “the Christ,” and the Christ existed billions of years before Jesus of Nazareth was born.
When God birthed the world into existence during the Big Bang, saying “Let there be Light!” the Christ was born and the Divine DNA became infused in all of creation. God so loved the world that he gave us of his very self, of his very nature.
Jesus the Christ lived 2,000 years ago in the realization that he and God were not two, but were one. Jesus was One with the Divine Light, and he fully manifested the Presence and Power of the Christ. His mission in the world was to teach others how to experience this Oneness themselves.
He taught us to follow the Way—the way of forgiveness, service, and unconditional love—for when we follow this Way of life, we die more and more to the ego, the small self, and awaken more and more to the True Self, the Divine Self, the Christ Self.
This is why Jesus told the crowds, “You, too, are sons and daughters of God,” and “You are the Light of the world,” and “All of the things I have done, you can do, and greater things than these.” Salvation is awakening to this truth about ourselves, which sets us free.
John 3:16 tells us that God so loved us that God gave us of his very nature, his Christ-life, and that divine Presence of Christ dwells within each of us. Whoever believes in him—knows and accepts this truth for himself—will have freedom, salvation and eternal life.
The Dominican mystical theologian, Meister Eckhart said, “God never begot just one son, but the eternal is forever begetting the Only Begotten.” The “Only Begotten” within Jesus dwells with us, within us, and as us, too.
Our symbol of the cross represents the place where the human meets the divine and is transformed by it.
—Rev. Salvatore Sapienza
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The first peace, which is the most important,
is that which comes within the souls of people
when they realize their relationship, their oneness
with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize
that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit,
and this center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.
—Black Elk
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The true and essential work of all religion is to help us recognize the divine image in everyone and every thing. It is to mirror things correctly, deeply, and fully until all things know who they are. Without a sense of the inherent sacredness of the world—of every tiny bit of life and death—we struggle to see God in our own reality, let alone to respect reality, protect it, or love it. The consequences of this ignorance are all around us, seen in the way we have exploited and damaged our fellow human beings, the dear animals, the web of growing things, the land, the waters, and the air.
What difference would it make to the quality of our lives if we spent a little more time in nature?
—Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM
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“I am trying to write a Christology that is wide enough to incorporate the full Christ because Christ is not just an anthropological event, but he is also a cosmic phenomenon.“
—Fr. Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.
Teilhard has solid scriptural backing. Nature, not just humanity, is being redeemed by Christ. The world is not just a stage upon which human history plays out; it has intrinsic meaning and value beyond what it means for us as humans. Physical nature is, in effect, brother and sister with us on the journey towards the divinely intended end of history. Christ came to save our bodies as well as our souls. Christ also came to redeem the earth, not just those of us who are living on it. He came as well to save the physical ground upon which we walk since he was the very pattern upon which and through which the world was created. Physical creation too will enter in the final synthesis of history—that is, heaven.
—Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
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Look at the animals roaming the forest: God’s spirit dwells within them. Look at the birds flying across the sky: God’s spirit dwells within them. Look at the tiny insects crawling in the grass: God’s spirit dwells within them. Look too at the great trees of the forest; look at the wildflowers and the grass in the fields; look at your crops. God’s spirit is present within all plants as well. The presence of God’s spirit in all living things is what makes them beautiful; and if we look with God’s eyes, nothing on the earth is ugly.
—Pelagius
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The Great Work of our time is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner.
In reality there is a single integral community of the Earth that includes all its component members whether human or non-human. In this community every being has its own role to fulfill, its own dignity, its inner spontaneity. Every being has its own voice. Every being enters into communion with other beings. This capacity for relatedness, for presence to other beings, for spontaneity in action, is a capacity possessed by every mode of being throughout the entire universe.
—Fr. Thomas Berry
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The particularity of Jesus does not obliterate the universality or “everythingness” of Christ. Moreover, the cosmic scope of the Christ is not light-years away, but in every cell of our star-born bodies. The Universal Christ offers the reality that I carry the same divine spark in me that is in every living thing. This spark is seen in the resurrecting power that transformed the man Jesus into the Universal Christ. That same force can resurrect and transform me and every living person and thing in creation. The Universal Christ helps us to see that we can follow the embodied Jesus, accept the suffering fact that “in this life, you will have trouble,” also knowing that all creation is moving and evolving toward more diversity, creativity, and wholeness.
—Barbara Holmes
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Wisdom from Pope Francis
“Being vaccinated with vaccines authorized by the competent authorities is an act of love. And contributing to ensure the majority of people are vaccinated is an act of love. Vaccination is a simple but profound way of promoting the common good and caring for each other, especially the most vulnerable.”
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Mark Your Calendar [ai1ec view=”agenda”]
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
