Penance! Part 2

August 31, 2018

We can do something about the war that is going on. You and I can do something about it by ourselves making a commitment to Our Lady’s messages. Making a commitment to Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To say, I am enlisted in Your army, and I am going to prepare for the battle each and every day by getting on my knees and praying. By going before the Blessed Sacrament and praying. By giving up a little bit of food once in a while and feeling hungry. By taking on some act, and I’m not talking about some of those medieval things we have heard about, but taking on something that is hard to do.

The pleasures of this world have overwhelmed us. The pleasures of this world have overwhelmed priests, bishops and even Cardinals, we’ve heard. The pleasures of this world confuse us. Because if you’re look at any one of the deadly sins, any one of them carefully enough, I always say, it is a disease of pleasure turned inward. When it only becomes about me, my satisfactions and my good feeling. And good feelings don’t cut it.

And here’s why. The most beautiful image we have is that of childbirth. Now women, I will openly admit, I have never given birth to a child. I don’t know what it is like. But from what I have been told, it’s not fun. In fact, it’s very painful. And in childbirth many times, the woman has excruciating pain and suffering. And then when that baby is laid upon her bosom, it’s all gone. That’s the image that Our Lady offers to you and to me. That’s the image that we see in the book of Revelation – the Lady giving birth, giving birth to all of us. But we have to go through that with her. We have to experience that with her. And through that suffering, through these things that we take on, the mortifications that we do, we change ourselves for Christ. We change this world for Christ.

We are at war. Hear those words again and again. And don’t think that you are outside of it. If you come to Medjugorje I guarantee the devil is going to come after you. Because he has come after me, and I am sure he has come after my brother priests…well not Fr. Leon…J…But he comes after us and he’s going to come after you too. Be prepared by not having grand statements ready, just prepare yourself by how you pray and how you fast and how you devote yourself to the life of faith. So that when it comes, like John the Baptist, you can say, go ahead and take my head, go ahead and kill me but, guess what, I will not betray my Lord.

Thirty-two years ago when I came here to Medjugorje all I could think about were my own personal pleasures, my own creature comforts. Coming from America in the 1980’s, this place was backwards, this place was very uncomfortable. You couldn’t sit in the church at any given time and be comfortable, it was just too hot. And yet we all did. There were not side doors to let air in here. There was no air-conditioning. We all did. And that is, I believe, a very small part of the story of what set me on a different course, recognizing that it wasn’t always about me. It wasn’t always about what I wanted. It wasn’t about me always getting what I want, when I want it, and being comfortable. Instead the Lord came to me in my comfort and made me uncomfortable. And when He did, He changed the course of my life.

Make no mistake, we are at war. But we can engage in the battle. We can accept the sufferings that come. You know, it is interesting. One of the debates that we have in the Church all of the time is how people dress. Let me tell you as a priest, there are some things I have seen in the Communion line that my eyes should never see. And yet when I say to somebody, be modestly dressed, don’t wear shorts and sleeveless things to church, they say, “Aaaah, it’s so hot Father.” And I say, “Well hell is a lot hotter, trust me.” Prepare now and get yourself ready now, to suffer a little bit. To be uncomfortable a little bit.

And offering it up, that is what Our Lady will tell you. Offering it up is what changes things. It’s what helps stop wars. It is what unites families once again in harmony and love. It is what brings husbands and wives back together again. So long as we remain selfish and mired in selfish pleasures, Our Lady’s message will fall on deaf ears. But if we can just let go for a moment, Christ can change the course of a life.

He changed the course of my life. And I ask you now…. you know what is going on in the Church. You know the smoke of satan has entered the Church. Paul the VI was prophetic when he said that in 1972. We must purge the Church of this error. And return once again to proclaiming the truth, by how we live our lives, you and I have to live our lives in consecration to Our Lady and Our Lord, and make the sacrifices He asks. Make the penances we need. Do the mortifications that will change the course of history.

My dear brothers and sisters, engage the battle. Don’t sit on the sidelines any longer. When I first came here in the 80’s the sense of urgency was great. Everybody was saying, it’s the end times, it’s going to happen, be ready, be ready. And the urgency grew and grew, and that urgency stirred me up and I went off and I changed my life for Christ. And guess what, it has now been 32 years, and people say, oh we have got time. We don’t. Do it now. Do it now. Do it for Our Lady. Do it for Our Lord. But do it. Prepare and enter the battle. And you will not be disappointed. You will not be left alone.

I stumble and fall all the time as a priest. But I stand back up and I get back in the fight. I get back in the fight because Our Lady does not abandon me. Jesus does not abandon me. He will not abandon you. Go out into the battle. Be strong. Be prepared. Be the missionaries of Our Lord. Be the soldiers for Christ. God bless you.