The August 25, 2009 message from our Mother Mary at Medjugorje:
Dear children! Today I call you anew to conversion. Little children, you are not holy enough and you do not radiate holiness to others, therefore pray, pray, pray and work on your personal conversion, so that you may be a sign of God’s love to others. I am with you and am leading you towards eternity, for which every heart must yearn. Thank you for having responded to my call.
Mary isn’t pulling any punches in this message. She basically tells all of us that we need to step up our game and become holier. She even has tough words for those who do try to live a good and holy life of prayer and avoiding sin. Mary says that it is not good enough to be holy in private, but we must “radiate holiness to others.” All too often I think we have a tendency to erect a wall between our spiritual lives and our “normal” lives. Mary challenges us to make our spiritual life our normal life for all to see.
Her message has many connections to the mysteries of the rosary. She tells us that we must orient ourselves towards eternity which means we must orient ourselves towards God. This is the message of the Transfiguration that we become oriented towards God whenever we listen to His son and follow Jesus’ teachings. Mary calls us to go out and spread Jesus’ message by living holy life. We do this with the help of the Holy Spirit as seen in the Pentecost. We are also called to lead a holy life through the Institution of the Eucharist where we act as holy vessels of Jesus Christ by being His hands, legs, and voice in this world.
This message reminds me of a story I heard from Father Corapi. He talked about one day when St. Francis asked one of his fellow friars to go and preach throughout the village. They walked around all day in their robes and conversed casually with the townspeople. They never got up and gave a formal sermon. At the end of the day the friar asked St. Francis when they were going to preach God’s word. St. Francis replied that they had been doing that all day. They were “radiating” holiness by making others aware of God’s presence in the world by the simple act of making themselves, and hence, the Catholic Church, available to others in the community. It is as true today as it was back in the time of St. Francis that small acts of holiness can go a long way in bringing people closer to God.
This rosary meditation is on the Fourth Luminous Mystery — The Transfiguration. In this mystery, Jesus took his apostles, Peter, John, and James up to a mountain to pray. There His clothes turned dazzling white and Moses and Elijah appeared with Him. Then a voice came from the clouds saying, “This is my chosen Son; listen to Him.”
In this mystery, Jesus reveals himself as being God made man. This instance separates Jesus from the prophets of the Old Testament. Yes, He performed miracles and preached God’s word, but so did the prophets. The Old Testament is full of stories of people using the grace of God to perform miracles such as Moses parting the Red Sea. But in the Transfiguration, Jesus shows that He is no mere prophet following God’s will, but He IS God’s will, God’s word, and God’s truth in human form. I think this is why Moses and Elijah appeared next to Jesus; as if God was contrasting Himself with the prophets that came before Him.
God, Creator of all that exists and ever will exist, the ultimate truth, our final judge, the alpha and the omega, humbled Himself and came down to earth in a human form so that we may know Him personally. God desires all of us to live in His grace and love and so He became man through Jesus Christ so that we may better understand His ways. Our human minds cannot possibly understand God’s infinite complexity and He knows that. So like an adult trying to explain a complex idea to a child, God revealed Himself in a very simple and direct way — by taking a form which people could see, hear, and touch.
God gave the apostles a very direct command to listen to Jesus. And yet, after all they had seen and heard, they abandoned Jesus at His crucifixion. Unfortunately, we continue to imitate the apostles’ behavior whenever we disobey God’s will and sin. Imagine our arrogance to have received the word of God directly from Jesus and then deliberately disregard it because it conflicts with how we want to live or it seem too difficult. We say we are followers of Christ, but when it comes time to humble ourselves to God’s will and accept Jesus’ teachings we often tell Him, “thanks, but no thanks.” In the Transfiguration, God gave us very simple and direct order on how we are to obtain grace and that is to listen to His son, Jesus Christ. And yet, each one of us can probably think of an instance where we refuse God’s grace through our words, thoughts, or actions.
So let us take a moment to remember the awesome gift God gave us through His son, Jesus Christ. We should remember the gift of the Catholic Church starting with the first pope, St. Peter, who was there at the Transfiguration and later personally appointed by Jesus to lead His people. God told us to listen to Jesus which means we should learn what the Church teaches so that we may know Him, follow Him, and love Him. God gave us a tremendous gift by making Himself more accessible through Jesus. We should pray for all of those who are wasting this precious gift by not following God’s will. We must pray for a world that seems to have gone out of its way NOT to listen to God’s message.
God made Himself available to all of us through Jesus Christ. The question is, do we make ourselves available to God by listening to Him?
On Sunday, August 16, Pope Benedict XVI dedicated his Angelus reflections to Our Lady. Speaking to 4,000 people gathered in the courtyard of Castel Gandolfo’s apostolic palace, he explained that, like Mary, Catholics are called to say yes to God. His reflection touches on themes found in various rosary mysteries such as the Annunciation, the Assumption, and the Institution of the Eucharist. We should ask ourselves, do we have the faith to say yes to God as Mary did and the strength to carry out His will?
“What happened to Mary is also valid for every man and woman,” he expounded. “God asks each of us to welcome him, to make available to him our hearts, our bodies, our entire existence, so that he can dwell in the world. He calls us to join ourselves to him in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, to form the Church together…by the very nature of our yes, that mysterious exchange also happens to and in us. We are assumed in the divinity of he who assumed our humanity.”
I like this idea that Mary not only said yes to God’s will, but also welcomed Him and made Him available to her heart. I think often, even when we do God’s will, we do it begrudgingly and without a lot of joy. We tend to think of God’s will as a burden, not a gift. Of course going to Mass, receiving the sacraments, and following God’ laws are good things and something we should always strive to do. But we should also remember than when we do say yes to God we receive a gift of grace which should fill our hearts with joy. Who doesn’t find it even a little bit exciting that God lives within us when we accept His will? With that prospect of God working through us, we should not only say yes to Him, but we should also jump at the opportunity with passion and vigor.
I think Mary had a very good understanding of the benefits and joy that come out of saying yes to God. Did following God’s will make her life easier? Of course not. She was burdened with the scandle of an unwed pregnancy and then the sorrow of seeing her son crucified. But I think she understood that these earthly burdens were minimal when compared to the eternal rewards of living in God’s grace. I think we often forget about the infinite treasures of heaven amongst our daily struggles. Because this heavenly reward is something beyond our understanding, we tend to lose sight of it and settle for meager substitutes. We fall into sin doing things that make us temporarily happy now instead of taking that harder road that will ultimately lead to eternal happiness. So let us listen to Pope Benedict and be like Mary. Let us not only say yes to God, but say yes with the joy of knowing that following His plan for us will lead to a happiness greater than anything we can imagine. And let us pray for everyone who has lost sight of that goal and have said no to God either through their words, thoughts, or actions.
If you notice, the tag line for my website is, “A rosary a day keeps the devil away.” As clever as that sounds, there is a great deal of truth in that statement. The rosary is not a piece of fashion or some sort of magical talisman. It is more like medicine or a vitamin that helps fight off the devil who is as real as any disease but many orders of magnitude deadlier. It is extremely important to use the rosary and pray for Mary’s intercession for She is incredibly powerful against evil and will keep you safe.
Why is the devil deadlier than any physical disease? He is such a grave threat because he can kill something far more precious than your body and that is your eternal soul. Keep in mind that your physical body only exists for an instant when compared to the eternity of the afterlife. Any physical pain and suffering endured in this world is minuscule compared to the joy or torment in the afterlife. But in that instant you are in this world, the devil is actively trying to claim your soul for all eternity. It is an ongoing battle and you must be prepared to fight and resist sin.
But like many diseases, there is a very effective, preventative medicine to prevent ESD (eternal soul death). In case you didn’t guess, it’s the rosary. It may be made of simple rope or a chain, but it is your life line to keep your soul healthy and resistant to the devil. Praying it will build up your immunity to evil and prevent you from falling into mortal sin. When you focus on the rosary, you focus on God and doing His will, not indulging in sinful activity. By praying routinely the temptation to fall into sin will diminish. However, even the best medicine is useless if you never take it. For the rosary to be effective, you need to take it off your rear view mirror of your car or out of your desk drawer and pray it. And you have to match that prayer with a spiritually healthy lifestyle with the intent to do God’s will.
Prayer is an effective antidote to sin because it was given to us from the Mother of God. The Virgin Mary gave us the rosary like a good mother gives medicine to a child. She intends for us to use it so that we may live in a state of grace. The Archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, had this to say about appealing for Mary’s intercessions to fight the devil:
She brings us to Jesus, she protects us and cares for us in this difficult ministry … Mary also participates in exorcisms. She herself is an exorcist and expels the devil through her sanctity.
Mary is our heavenly mother and one tough opponent for the devil. With Her, our Lord Jesus Christ, the saints, and the angels in Heaven, you are well protected from the devil and anything he may throw at you. So let’s take advantage of this great, heavenly medicine and pray regularly because our immortal souls depends on it.
