Fr. Martin’s
reflection on - Our Lady’s Message
25th
April 2019
“ Dear children, This is a time
of grace, a time of mercy for each of you. Little children do not permit that
the wind of hatred and peacelessness rule in you and
around you. You, little children, are called to be love and prayer. The devil
wants peacelessness and disorder, but you, little
children, be the joy of the risen Jesus who died and resurrected for each of
you. He conquered death to give you life, eternal
life. Therefore, little children, witness and be proud that you have
resurrected in Him.
Thank you for having responded
to my call.
”
Brothers and Sisters of Medjugorje North East and beyond,
In this month’s message Our Lady Queen and Mother of Peace reminds us
the sole reason for the existence of the Church, and what it means to be a
Christian. Our Lady is the Mother of the
Church and she focuses us on the essential message of Christianity in this
reflection. It is the Easter proclamation of the Church, that Jesus Christ
Crucified, is risen from the dead, and has forgiven our sins through His blood,
and will come again in glory. (1:
Corinthians. 15:1-4)
In AD56 St. Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth to remind them of
this truth:
"Christ died for our sins, He rose on the third day and He will
come again."
We would do well to reflect on this piece of Scripture regularly and to
commit it to memory, because it is the basic message of the Church. It is this central truth of the Church, it’s
the primary message, that Our Lady reminds us of in the Easter season. It is the same message proclaimed by the
Apostles in the days following the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. “You Little children, be the Joy of
the risen Jesus who died and resurrected for each of you. He conquered death to
give you life, eternal life. Therefore, little
children, witness and be proud that you have resurrected in him.”
So many people feel that God is distant from them, so Our Lady asks us
to be like the Apostles and be the Joy of the Risen Jesus. It is a personal assurance that each believer
has received in the Cross and Resurrection of Our Lord. “For each of you” says
the Mother of God. When we have
encountered this marvellous gift of salvation in Christ then we can be the joy
of the Risen Jesus. Our friendship with
the risen Jesus radiates the beautiful truth that He is with us and for
us. “Emmanuel, God for us and
with us.” This is the security of our lives, to know that Jesus
Christ died for us and rose for us. True
Christian joy has its source in the risen Lord Jesus, the central truth of the
Church’s proclamation. This is why maybe so many pilgrims flock and gather around
the statue of the Risen Christ in Medjugorje and find there, tenderness and
healing for their souls.
Our Lady knows that many people in the world are living without real
joy, and so she points us to the real treasure of the faith of the Church. This
is real Joy, to know Christ Crucified and the power of his Resurrection. Our Lady is asking us to be the Apostles
today and become “the Joy of the risen Jesus who died and resurrected
for all.”
When we are in contact with the Risen Jesus, especially in the Holy
Mass, then we have a deep inner grace that keeps the heart open to God, for
ourselves and for others. This is why on so many times Our Lady has asked us to "Celebrate
Holy Mass with Faith, with the heart’ For a true sense of Joy comes from
the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
When we go to Jesus with an open heart and place ourselves in His Risen
and Glorified Presence then Joy and Strength comes to us.
We Christians are called to show Joy and Hope where there is sadness and
disorder, to be Peace and Reconciliation where there is peacelessness. To be the consolation of those who are
discouraged.
May we often remember to pray before the cross of Christ, to shelter in His wounds, to take the
crucifix in our hands, and to pray: “Lord Jesus, thank you for dying
for me, through the power of your holy cross, do not allow disorder and peacelessness to reign in me, but conquer my
heart with your peace and grace. For by your wounds we are healed."
We must claim the victory that Christ won for us in his Cross and
Resurrection, by praying the Holy Mass from the heart too.
Brothers and sisters, after the Resurrection of Jesus, we read in the
Acts of the Apostles, " With one heart all these joined in constant
prayer with Mary the Mother of Jesus.” ( Acts
1: 14)
Our Lady goes to the upper room in Jerusalem, the place of the Eucharist
and with the Apostles prays from the heart. Mary, is
doing this once more in Medjugorje, she is the Mother of the Church, and is
guiding the Church in these times.
Let us pray,
Lord Jesus,
Create in me a deep love for the central message of your Gospel.
A love for your Cross and Resurrection.
May it burn in my heart, fill my mind, and light up my path, so that I
may be your Apostle of Love today."
"But we believe, that if we have died with Christ, then we shall
live with Him too. We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and will
never die again. Death has no more power
over him. For by dying he is dead to sin
once and for all, and now the life he lives is a life with God. In the same way you must think of yourselves
as being dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
(Romans:
6: 8-11)
“Therefore little children,
witness and be proud
that you have
resurrected in him.”
God Bless
Fr. Martin