Medjugorje: This is why “EVERY WORD OF THE MADONNA IS PRECIOUS”
SOURCE FR. LIVIO’S BLOG EVERY WORD OF THE MADONNA IS PRECIOUS
In the history of Marian apparitions, the Mother of God has never given so many messages. It is not just a question of quantity, but also of quality and pastoral purpose. In fact, these are not random or occasional messages, but a true organic teaching that has the purpose of illuminating and guiding the Church and all humanity in a dramatic phase of the common journey. Our Lady knows what she is doing. She is aware of the criticisms of those who consider her the Woman of silence and would like her to never speak. At the same time, she sees the danger that many will listen to the messages out of curiosity without trying to put them into practice. Even the most willing forget after a while and force Our Lady to repeat the same exhortations with infinite patience.
Doesn’t every good parish priest do the same when dealing with his parishioners? The fact that Our Lady is educating an entire generation in the faith, with words that reach the most distant hearts, must be considered as a gift of inestimable grace. How can one be so blinded as not to see how much Our Lady is doing to reawaken faith and save souls? How many listen to sermons today? How many attend catechism classes? How many read the documents of the Magisterium? How many meditate on the Holy Scriptures? The balance is discouraging and it almost seems that the Church is unable to make itself heard by men. The consequence is the crisis of faith, the tired sleep of souls, the spread of religious ignorance.
Our Lady wanted to personally commit herself to the project of a new evangelization, starting it first, and giving the Church extraordinary help. She does so in her specific role, which is that of a mother who educates her children, not with high-sounding speeches, but with domestic words, because every man is a child, who needs milk more than succulent foods, pleasant to the palate but difficult to digest.
The messages of the Queen of Peace form a booklet of modest dimensions. If we consider the time in which she addresses her people, it certainly cannot be said that Our Lady speaks too much. There are many other rivers of useless words that inundate the Church. Our Lady has repeated several times that the fact that she can give us messages is a gift that she has received from the Almighty. The habit of messages is a dangerous attitude.
We must not take them for granted. They are precious pearls that we cannot put away in the drawer of useless things or, even worse, in the garbage bin. The messages of the Holy Virgin are not “Word of God” and certainly cannot be equated with the Holy Scripture. However, they are words that come from heaven and Our Lady wanted to underline this: “Live my messages and put into life every word that I give you. May they be precious to you because they come from heaven” (25-06-2002).
It is a fact that they are words that make a breach in hearts. In their simplicity they are full of wisdom and holiness. If we can grasp the interior dimension of a person from the words he or she pronounces, then we must say that the messages of Our Lady manifest what She is in her immeasurable greatness. Each of her words comes from the heart and expresses her fullness of wisdom and grace. Each message is complete in itself, like a flower of incomparable beauty. It would be enough to put into practice just one of them to shape one’s life in the image of the Mother.
Monfort affirms that Mary is the imprint of God. This imprint shines in every message, which imprints the seal of God on the heart that welcomes it. The messages of the Queen of Peace are an unrepeatable and unique event in the life of the Church. In the history of spirituality there is nothing that can stand comparison for the brightness of doctrine, for the fullness of life and for the inspiration of sanctity. We must avoid the danger that such a great gift is not fully valued.
The Mother of God is the seat of Wisdom and the Mother of the Church. She is the “Blessed among women” and the one who is “Blessed because she believed in the word of the Lord”. Who more than Mary could educate in the faith? Who could prevent her from intervening in the life of the Church, as she has done countless times since the beginning? “Tell those priests who do not believe in my apparitions that I have always transmitted messages from God to the world. I am sorry that they do not believe, but no one can be forced to believe (31 – 12 – 1981).
Our Lady knows her place in the Church and she sticks to it. She does not replace Peter and the apostolic college, but carries out the maternal task that Jesus assigned to her at the foot of the Cross. Mary’s motherhood extends to the whole Church, especially to the Pastors, who are her beloved children. She who educated and formed Jesus, according to his holy humanity, so that he might grow in wisdom and grace in age, will she not have the qualifications and the ability to educate our generation that is renouncing Christ and losing faith? It is said that Our Lady is silent in the Gospels.
We should however consider that Jesus was at her school until the beginning of his mission, when the Mother herself went to the school of the Son. Is it perhaps surprising that She who accompanied the Church on her two-thousand-year journey, intervening whenever she deemed it necessary with countless apparitions, is present at the moment of the great tribulation to save the world from the dragon loosed from his chains? In vain would one search in the messages of the Holy Virgin for a single word that is out of place. Everything she says illuminates, edifies, consoles and spurs to holiness. Our generation will be asked what it has done with the immense grace of having had the Mother of God as a teacher of Christian life and guide on the path that leads to salvation.
Anyone who reads the Holy Scriptures assiduously has no difficulty in understanding how the Word of God is reflected in every message of the Queen of Peace. No creature knows the Bible like Our Lady. It is a living knowledge that shapes her person. Is she not the Mother of the Incarnate Word? Every word of the Holy Scriptures is imprinted on her heart. She alone knows every detail in its unfathomable depths. Her messages are vehicles through which the living water of the Word of God quenches parched hearts. Anyone who knows the Holy Scriptures is moved with his heart by the messages of the Queen of Peace. It is not exegetical science that opens up the unfathomable meanings of the Word of God. Without faith and holiness, one cannot even touch the surface.
Scripture is incomprehensible without the light of wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Who is filled with it as much as Mary? The Queen of Peace as a loving mother nourishes the multitude of her children, actualizing the Gospel in their lives. The words that come from her heart make the Word of Jesus alive. As the young ravens cry out to God for lack of food (cf. Ps 146:9), so countless souls today await the strengthening food of the messages of the Queen of Peace.
However, there are those who do not take Our Lady’s messages into consideration. Sometimes they even despise them, dismissing them as repetitive and banal. Even among those who have responded to the call, an attitude of curiosity and superficiality often prevails. They await the new message without having attempted to put the previous one into practice. Our Lady knows the situation well and does not tire of giving advice so that the seed of the messages may sprout in hearts and bear abundant fruit. First of all, the messages must be welcomed into the heart.
It is not enough to listen to them or read them. If the heart is closed they slip away like water on stone. “You do not understand my words with your heart; therefore you do not understand my love either” (22-05-1986). Without the desire of children to be nourished and satiated by the love of their mother, any food that is prepared risks being despised. Our Lady never tires of inviting us to pray to the Holy Spirit so that in his light the messages may be understood and so that his strength may help us put them into practice.
“You want to live what I tell you, but you cannot, because you do not pray. Dear children, I beg you, open yourselves and begin to pray” (20-03-1986). “Dear children, you do not realize the messages that God gives you through me. He grants you graces, but you do not understand. Pray to the Holy Spirit, that He may enlighten you. If you knew how many graces God grants, you would pray without ceasing” (08-11-1984). Once the messages are understood, they must be embodied in life. Our Lady’s words are words of life. They are intended to unite us with Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Our Lady’s messages are understood to the extent that they are lived. Our Lady’s exhortations to live her messages are repeated incessantly: “Live my messages and root them in your heart” (212.11-1984). This is the indispensable condition for transmitting them to others. It is a waste of effort to spread what one does not live. Witnessing is not propaganda. “Dear children, you are responsible for the messages. Here is the source of grace and you, dear children, are the trays in which these gifts are transmitted. Therefore, dear children, I invite you to carry out this service with responsibility. Each one will respond according to his or her own capacity” (08 – 05 – 1986).
Who could have imagined that those first messages given to the parish would become a light for the entire Church and an inexhaustible source of holiness for countless souls seeking spiritual refreshment?
(Father Livio – Medjugorje: Heaven on Earth – Piemme Editions)