6 April 2019

By Stefania Caterina and Fr Tomislav Vlašić

Father Tomislav: Dearest Brothers and Sisters, I wish you all a good Sunday.

The last time we have developed the topic of conversion, the path of vital joy. We hope that all of you have participated in this joy and that an increasing desire for joy has awakened in you, increasing your strength and resilience in life.

Today we will deepen the topic, “The new path is already open”. This is, in fact, the topic of today’s liturgy. In the first reading the prophet Isaiah[1] reminds the Israelites of their liberation from Egyptian slavery, the crossing of the Red Sea and the journey to the Promised Land. Later, when they found themselves in Babylonian slavery the prophet announced that God would reopen the path, a new path. God said that He made everything new, and the path opened up for the people of Israel. A small remnant returned to their land. This stands for all times of slavery that we have caused through our rebellion, our sins, while God has always endeavoured to reopen the path for us.

The Gospel[2] lets us understand that the path of our spirit is definitively open. St. John reports the episode of the woman found in the act of adultery. They wanted to lapidate her and tried to provoke Jesus so that they could lapidate Him. But Jesus remained silent and started to write on the ground, as we have heard. When they kept questioning Him, he answered: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then everyone went away. “Has no one condemned you?“ Jesus asked. “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.”

It is very important that the reopening of the path happens through the heart and the spirit of man, through the Holy Spirit given to us by Jesus Christ. Thanks to His Passion and Death our inner path will open up, but we must participate in His life. How shall we participate? Jesus did not abandon Mary Magdalene; He went ahead to open the path, and because she followed Him she arrived first at the sepulchre and saw the Risen Christ.

At this point, we read the second reading of St. Paul the apostle,[3] who experienced the opening of the path in himself; thus he changed and reached the resurrection of the spirit; as we have heard, he wanted to know the power of His resurrection and the participation in His suffering. Here I want to point to our task: our response must be thoroughly faithful for the resurrection to take place within us. Then, the Holy Spirit can work in us as in St. Paul and let us participate in the suffering of Christ; this means that we are true witnesses and victors over evil and sin.

We are, as we have said several times, in the last phase of the preparation for the glorious coming of Christ, and therefore our words are referring to this so that we may fully awaken. Here we will deepen the message of Our Lady of 13 July, 2017, which presents several points of catechism preparing us in this week preceding Palm Sunday.

In the first part Our Lady underlines that Evil, with a capital letter, exists and is of cosmic dimension; we, too, participate in this evil through our sins. There is evil around us, that is, the spirit of humanity and the world. Satan tempts us continuously; He never lets us free. God offers help and instruments to liberate us if we want to welcome them. Finally, Our Lady speaks about our responsibility in the evangelisation of the Earth. Let us go through these steps and use this text in this week for our spirit to reach the point of resurrection as happened to St. Paul.

 “My Dear Children,

Today I want to tell you that GOD DEFEATS EVIL IN YOU AND AROUND YOU.

Children, Evil is not an abstract principle, but a spirit created by God that has rebelled against God. Its name is Lucifer, and it is the devil from whom all wickedness comes and receives its force. There are thousands of other demons who act on his orders; they spread hatred and confusion in the souls; they awaken envy and contention and induce people to sin against God and their neighbours. All demons and their actions together are the Evil, with a capital letter, which acts incessantly in the universe and in each man it encounters on its way.

If man is open for Evil and accepts its negative impulses, he commits sin and becomes corrupt. This is sin: behaviour that comes from man’s free and conscious acceptance of what is contrary to God. The sinner knows that he commits sin, and he acts with dishonest intention.“

So, evil exists and also God who want to save us; in these days, we shall ask ourselves what our choices have been and what we want to choose again. Choosing evil brings us death that we will experience within ourselves and around ourselves. It is the free choice of evil by our spirit. Man cannot live without spirit. If he distances himself from the Spirit of God, he will approach the spirit of evil. This is sin. Sin arises from a free decision.

We are used to examine our conscience according to certain precepts, and this is right but not enough. There is a deeper kind of sin which is the attitude of our spirit towards it. If our spirit is immersed in the spirit of evil, this is grave sin, unforgivable, as the Gospel says, because the spirit has chosen evil. This is true for grave sins but also for less serious sins.

Our Lady asks us to distinguish between sin and human fragility. This is very important in this phase.

 “You must not confuse sin with your human fragility. You often make mistakes because you are weak and superficial. If you recognise your mistakes, repent and ask God for help, you can repair for your mistakes. God understands your fragility and easily straightens you if you want.”

This is very important because when we feel guilty of our weakness, we become enemies of ourselves. This is the subtle action of Satan that we do not recognise. It is therefore very important that we distinguish between sin and weakness for the clarity of our spirit. God does not condemn us for our fragility; however, we must be careful because if we do not care about it our faith remains immature and superficial. It is necessary to immerse our weakness in God, ask Him for help and offer it to Him. Then, all our weaknesses become glorious wounds of Jesus. All our spirit and our being are filled with the life of God in the right measure for us. Thus, the simple person eliminates sin from within and evil cannot penetrate it; it wins over evil as occurred to St. Paul. Therefore, it is very important to understand this clearly, otherwise we cannot present our sins to God, we cannot change and we cannot be healed.

Now, we will to turn our attention to the sins of humanity, the collective sins and those of the spirit of the world.

 “When many people commit sin and ignore God deliberately, as unfortunately happens on Earth, sin multiplies and forms a cloud that envelops the whole of humanity. It is like a net that imprisons the souls and crushes them.  This is the spirit of the world that causes suffering to the children of God as it is powerful on Earth now. It is from this spirit that wrong ideas, ambiguous behaviour and perverse trends derive, influencing the life of many people. The devil feeds the spirit of the world, awakening evil intentions in man and inducing him to sin.

The situation of the Earth now is very serious because the major part of humanity has lost the path towards the true God. Nevertheless, if you love God and recognise My Son, Jesus, as the only Lord and Saviour, you have nothing to fear. Jesus came to Earth to face and defeat Evil once and for all. If you welcome Him as your Saviour, He will act in you with power and Evil will no longer be able to harm you.

Evil manages to impose himself arrogantly on Earth because too many men ignore and refuse My Son, Jesus, who is the only One who can reveal the true God to you; only He is able to oppose and defeat the devil.  Unfortunately, the Redemption accomplished by Jesus in favour of all humanity is not welcomed by all men. Many continue to commit serious sins, attracted by the seduction of the devil who promises them illusory happiness and false freedom. In this way, the spirit of the world grows enormously and becomes more powerful day by day, and you may see what the consequences are.”

In this global situation it is easy to become pessimistic, but we Christians must lift our head. Jesus defeated the evil we see around us, and He will take us to the new creation. This is His promise. To be able to lift our heads and be hopeful, we must turn our values upside down and put Jesus in the centre and be open for His Spirit. Why is the spirit of the world stronger? Because the Holy Spirit is very weak in the Christians, and on our own, divided as we are on Earth, we cannot face it. This is why God has resorted to the Church of the Earth of the whole universe, to the sublime and the extraordinary instruments which involve all those who are ready to participate in this Church to draw from the Trinitarian Power and oppose evil. The battle awaits us, but it cannot be otherwise. Jesus faced the battle and won it. We will also win if we make our decision.

 “Know, children, that the devil acts tirelessly, and all of you, without exception, are exposed to temptation. What is temptation? It is the incessant action of Evil that tries to enter your life through your thoughts and your senses. God allows temptation to make you stronger in the fight against the devil, but He never lets you alone with temptation; He always shows you a way out. Thus, every time you defeat Evil in you, you sanctify yourselves more and become able to help others to overcome temptations.

Children, consecrate your senses and your thoughts to me! I will guard them and keep them pure, and I will offer them to God. Put yourselves into the safety of My Immaculate Heart, which has never known any Evil, so that it may preserve you from sin. I will offer you continuously to My Son and intercede for you all so that the Holy Spirit fills you with His gifts. Then you will be blameless, true children of God who honour the Father, believe in the Son and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.“

We are not alone in this battle; the Mother of God is with us as well as St. Joseph and the whole Church of the universe: they are all with us. Particularly the whole Church of Christ is consecrated to the Mother of God; Her presence of almost forty years in Medjugorje is not casual; She is in our midst, and we must desire to be in Her Heart. What does that mean? To belong completely to Jesus through Her Heart so that the power that is in Her Heart may be given to us, individually and collectively. Let us consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

 “You cannot defeat Evil by yourselves; no man can do it without the intervention of the One and Triune God. Thus, give God the possibility to act freely in you by putting your life in His hands. In this way, you will always be victorious over Evil because in every trial you will experience the victory of Jesus. His death and resurrection will act in you and convey holiness to you, and its fruit will pour into the environment around you and the entire humanity. The holiness of the children of God is the strongest weapon against Hell. God defeats evil in you and around you through your holiness. There, where a saint lives the earth flourishes and the creatures rejoice in the presence of God who lives in that saint.

Therefore, I invite you to holiness, which is not a human work but the work of God. It blossoms in the heart of the one who believes and abandons himself totally and humbly to the divine action. Holiness does not require great works; it requires faith and trustful abandonment. It is God who does the great works in you. All you have to do is believe and let the Almighty act, in the same way as I did.

Be simple, children, be humble and let God transform you day by day. Then, your real image will emerge; the image that God has imprinted in you, not the one you or the others would like to see in you. In this way you will be the joy of God and of the children of God. Evil will touch you, but it will not be able to defeat you.

I am your Mother and I love you. I want all of you to be with Me in the new creation; there where Evil and sin will not enter. I walk with you on your path and I bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

We have reached the last paragraph of the message of Our Lady which I call “The evangelisation”. We can give a name to our responsibility towards salvation and call it: “We are called to triumph and let the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Most Holy Heart of Christ triumph”. We are called to pour holiness over Earth, all men, all creation, and thus holiness will defeat evil. Evil flees from the Holy Spirit; the righteous of the Earth are protected by the Holy Spirit; the weak are protected and healed.

We may see in this message that we are all important but no one of us alone is enough. We must be united with the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit to be victorious. Holiness is not something heroic but simple: to belong to God to be righteous in the life of God. This is necessary for each one of us because no one can enter the new creation without integrity and immaculateness. Also, we carry the responsibility for everyone, even for the last soul. Without this responsibility we cannot receive the mission in the new creation to support the universe together with the Creator, the Saviour and the Sanctifier.

I invite you to go through this week with a desire to lift yourselves up, to participate in the work of Christ. The work of Christ is not visible on television or in shows. You find it in within you. I assure you that it is very powerful and will lead the humanity who desires to enter the new creation to the fulfilment of God’s promise for His and our glory.

I bless you; may the words of the Blessed Mother and the words of God, which we have read in the Liturgy, be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit; may each one of you, all the nuclei and the whole people be in the Holy Spirit and set off for their mission to defeat evil; in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

[1] Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year C, First Reading Isaiah 43,16-21

[2] Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year C, Gospel of John 8,1-11

[3] Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year C, Second Reading Phil 3,8-14