February 10, 2020 Reflection – Live my messages!

Live my messages!

(c) Mary TV/Anthony Zubac

February 10, 2020
St. Scholastica, Virgin

Dear Family of Mary!

January 25, 1993 “Dear children! Today I call you to accept and live my messages with seriousness. These days are the days when you need to decide for God, for peace and for the good. May every hatred and jealousy disappear from your life and your thoughts and may there only dwell love for God and for your neighbor. Thus, and only thus shall you be able to discern the signs of the time. I am with you and I guide you into a new time, a time which God gives you as grace so that you may get to know him more. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Our Lady has asked us many times to live her messages. She gives them to us to help us through these very important and difficult times. But She even gets a little disappointed in us, because we are so easily distracted from her messages. Like all children, we lose our concentration, and resolve. And so, she continues to call us to live her messages.

 

On Friday, February 7, Fr. Leon gave a homily about living the messages that was very helpful. Our shipmate, Stephanie, transcribed it for us!! Fr. Leon has a way of saying things that makes it all quite clear!

Here is the Homily by Fr. Leon during English Mass — Friday, February 7, 2020:

Homily

The family of Herod is very complicated. King Herod the Great, so called “the Great,” – the one who tried to kill Jesus when He was an infant – had a number of sons. One of them is Herod Antipas; the one you hear of in the gospel today.   Now, Herod; let me see, first of all, his niece, Herodias, had been married to one of his brothers called Herod Philip, by whom she had a daughter called Salome. Later she divorced her uncle, and married another uncle, Philip; also called Philip. This is very confusing. And, then she divorces Philip and marries Herod Antipas. And then John the Baptist comes on the scene and says to him, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”

 

Now, telling the truth to people is a difficult thing, and yet we are duty bound to this. It is one of the Acts of Mercy, to instruct the ignorant; to tell them, for the sake of their souls. But we have to do this with charity. John the Baptist; notice, he doesn’t come to Herod and say, “Oh, let me accompany you in your journey of adultery, and, you know, slowly, hopefully before you die, it will all work out and you’ll repent.” No, he says to him, “It is not lawful.” Because, John the Baptist loves Herod. He cares for his soul. He cares too much to lie to him.

 

On the other hand, we have Herod. Herod is a very confusing character. Because he seems to believe certain things about the faith. He believes in the resurrection. When he hears about Jesus, he says, “This is John whom I beheaded, and he has risen from the dead.” So, he actually believes in resurrection, which is a curious thing. But at the same time, it says: He kept him in prison, and he was very much perplexed by John, and yet he liked to listen to him.

 

Whenever I hear these words, especially, I think about Medjugorje. How many of us have been coming for years and years to Medjugorje? How many people have come here and heard the messages? But, how few of us put them into practice?

 

Now, I’m not here, I don’t delight in pointing fingers and saying, “Oh, you have failed to live the message of Medjugorje.”   I remember even before speaking about The Five Stones, I thought, before I even speak about them, I must live them. No one is going to listen to a fat priest talk about fasting. Okay, and that’s paraphrasing. St. John Chrysostom actually says that; he says, if you’re fat and greedy, who’s ever going to listen to you when you talk about fasting?

 

We must live the messages. Our Lady doesn’t come here and just give messages just to titillate us, to delight us. And we think, “Oh isn’t it marvelous she’s here.” And then we go off and forget about her messages. If we don’t live them, we are like Herod. Herod loved listening to John but didn’t want to act on anything he said. And it didn’t do him any good; it didn’t do him any favors! Herod ended up in a worse place. Because, to his adultery, he adds murder. And then lust – he lusts after his own great niece, Salome. Then, he adds, to that, he adds cowardice; because he is afraid of looking bad in front of his friends.

 

None of this does us any good, if we don’t live Our Lady’s messages. Every day in the news you can see how – I’m not going to comment on any one thing – but lots and lots of things are taking place in the world that show us, things are moving in a certain direction. And if we are not constant in the faith, if we don’t actually live our faith, what good does it do us?

 

What good does it do us if we say that we are here in Medjugorje and then we fight with each other, provoke quarrels, maybe deliberately misunderstand each other – or not deliberately misunderstand each other – but still, revel in fighting and quarreling and anger. What good does this do any of us? We are then like Herod. Not living God’s will, but our own, our own will, our own stubbornness. And this certainly does not make for peace. This is not being a child of the Queen of Peace.

(You can listen to the homily here: https://marytv.tv/english-mass-in-medjugorje/  – remember it is 020720)

Let’s pray for one another that we can all grow in living Our Lady’s messages!

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2020

 

 PS.  Mike Nolan is leading a pilgrimage to Medjugorje from April 13 to 22, 2020!  Denis and I will be joining the group!  There is still room for more pilgrims. Join us!!   Here is Mike’s contact information and website:

Mike Nolan:

574-335-9952