26 July 2021

By Father Tomislav Vlašić

 

Dearest Brothers and Sisters; I am very happy to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of my priesthood in this time of the intermediate presence of Jesus, which we are experiencing in a very special way here. I believe that all of you, who are present, are feeling it, and therefore it is right to share, talk about and live everything together.

Many wonder what it means to experience the presence of the Lord in this time. The answer is in the Bible: to stand before the living Lord and let oneself be involved in His life to become living people. This is the central point of our reflection, our meditation, which leads us to the depth of the mystery, to our past, to our future and to our today. We can experience this very well in the readings of the Feast of the Saints Joachim and Anne, which enlighten the past[1]; the Gospel enlightens the eternal present[2]; the psalm enlightens all of God’s fulfilling promises[3]; all that is born from God and wants to stay with God and live for God is reborn. The intermediate presence has been announced as preparation, as prelude to the last stage: His glorious manifestation when all the children of God will become resplendent like Him, be transformed and introduced into the new creation. Thus, I will say it again, participating in the presence of Jesus Christ means standing before the living God to let oneself be involved and transformed to become living people.

You have to understand this historical moment for the Earth; it is taking place for all the children of God; for all those who want to be children of God. What happened to the Apostles in the first coming of Jesus Christ is that they were led to experience the Risen Christ and the resurrected life within them. The Holy Spirit descended upon them, began the resurrected life and announced the glorious future of the children of God.

The point I have focused on is this: “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.”[4] This is our situation at the moment, but these words also show us that some have eyes to look but do not see, because their inner eyes their senses are not open, are a not open, but those who understand are open. So, this reading sends us to our inner sanctuary, to the spirit of each one of us, who has opened up to the Risen Christ and Victor and to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables us to perceive the presence of the Risen Christ. Just as Risen Jesus Christ visited His faithful brothers and sisters as the Shepherd, He began to visit the brothers and sisters of the Middle Universe when the evangelization of the Universe took place. Now, with the power of the Resurrection, He has entered the Low Universe, especially the Earth, to make the Laws of God alive and operating in each one of us that we may experience the resurrection.

I know what you have gone through in the past weeks, in this time in which we have announced that the past has passed and that we have to let it go, that the future is the newness to which we have to open up under the guidance of the Lord, present among us. I have experienced that my whole past was enlightened, not in the sense that it was perfect but that the Lord vivifies everything, even our unconscious. It is the unconscious that is linked to the moment of conception because I am open and believe that God the Father has entrusted me to the Son; the Son has guaranteed the Father that He will save me; the Holy Spirit has confirmed it, and then the Son has entrusted me to the Mother, Co-Redemptrix, Queen and Spouse of the Holy Spirit to place me into Her Heart. I believe and I participate; thus, life receives its full meaning and all that belongs to the past looks different. Looking at the past, we only see the presence of God, and I can say that my life is a miracle of God. By myself I could not have been conceived, nor generated. In the whole path of my life, I see the loving hand of God who guided me, patiently showed me the way and led me to this moment.

At the same time, this causes me to be present before the Lord so that I can perceive Him; thus, He opens up all the future, since He promised to fulfill what He announced, as God cannot lie. If I adhere to it, it will be realized, even if all of Hell opposes it.

I believe that this is the truth that every one of you is living and sharing; this is the truth that must become more and more luminous and bring the past back to life. Jesus says: “Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

Yet, in this Church of the whole Universe, everything is resurrected. As Jesus went down to Hell to free the prisoners, the righteous, He took them with Him. He now collects everything from the Earth, from the Universe; He carries out His plan in a definitive way and He does it also in each one of us, who let ourselves be enlightened by the presence of the Lord; He enlightens the whole past in us and in many righteous people, who have been stopped and confused by the lies and the falsehood of this world; now they are awakening.

The action of Christ in the Holy Spirit goes beyond all the limits of human logic, of human systems, of human power; He hurls everything away as He heaved that big stone placed on his grave, and at the same time, He opens the path. In this sense, our life also awakens Heaven. Why? Because those souls are waiting for the new creation to come; they sing because some sprouts have appeared on Earth; people have set out on their path and are committed to the communion of the Church of the whole Universe; therefore, the whole Universe is in motion, making Paradise and Purgatory rejoice, making the Heart of the Lord and of the Heavenly Mother rejoice; this is the Liturgy of Heaven.

It is all concentrated in this impulse to take part in the Risen Christ within us to feel His presence, not like a vision but like a reality. How do we know that it is meant as a reality? Because it changes us; because it transforms us, and we notice, from day to day, that we are no longer the same; we are happier, we have no difficulty in understanding, in forgiving, in sharing a joyful event that comes down from Heaven. Everything changes in our life, and that is reality. Then we can have an impact on the whole Earth, and the Lord announces that He will affect the whole Earth with the coming events, because He wants to attract all of His children, all of them; He will help even the last one who wishes to return to the Father and to move forward. So this is the priestly joy of all the people. This is prophetic joy, because the light, the Face of Christ that enlightens us goes through us; God reigns through us.

I was saying that it is not about our physical senses, about our sight with which we look but do not see; I am talking about an internal process. Unfortunately, the world does not want to understand, even Christians do not understand. I will tell you a little story about some ducklings. I watched this episode recently as I was reflecting on what I am telling you now: the duck parents prepared the nest in a hole, ten meters up the tree. The nest was protected from danger, but there is always some danger around. Snakes were climbing up the tree, following their instinct. Then the ducklings hatched, and one egg was swallowed by a snake; of course, the snake also had to survive, and so it was fed for a week. A few days after the ducklings had hatched, the mother did not return to the nest. She stayed down in the water, swimming and waiting; it was time for the ducklings to jump down ten meters into the water. The first duckling, strong and brave, looked out of the hole, jumped down and immediately started to swim. Then, the others also jumped, but the last one was scared and undecided, but in the end it also jumped and joined the mother. How is it possible that animals understand everything in a few days? A young reindeer, for example begins to walk a thousand km with the herd already two or three days after its birth. Is it really possible that we have turned all knowledge into theories and neglected the Holy Spirit? We are created in the image of God and are called to govern all creatures together with Christ so that the whole Universe lives in harmony with the Laws of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, the animals are ahead of us.

So, what does it mean to perceive the presence of Jesus Christ? Jesus said that He would be present in spirit, invisible to those who refused Him, visible to those who welcomed Him[6], yet not in a superficial way. Jesus words that we have heard these days from the Gospel of Matthew are alive in me.[7] John and Jacob’s mother wanted her sons to obtain the ministry, to be seated next to Jesus in the Kingdom of God, one to His left and one to His right. Jesus answered: “You do not know what you are asking.”

How many such prayers are said, in which people are not aware of what they are asking, and, actually, they want the contrary through prayers that are recitals, contain polemics or criticism. Then comes Jesus’ question: “Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” And they said, “We are able,” and Jesus answered, “All of you will have to drink my cup. Those who want to pass and drink from the living water will have to drink the cup”. Yet, participating in the Eucharist is not like a night of partying; it means drinking Christ’s Blood and eating His Life to have His Life. If we participate like this, with deep faith, united with that baptism, which means drinking the cup, facing all the stages of our life with Christ, even the hard ones, even death, then we participate in the victory of Christ, in the Risen Christ.

Then, you know what Jesus finally said: “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”[8] Look it is very simple but profound: how many conflicts are there within us because we want this or that; because we want to be like others or even better and richer. All this expresses the dynamics of the spirit of evil. The Father created you with His thought; that thought of the Father will be fulfilled in each one of you, and in that thought you will find your own fullness; from that thought the risen life in you can spill over to others. As you know, immediately after the mother had expressed her wish, the other Apostles were offended, because they were equal to those two; thus Jesus said: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave.”[9] All social problems, all inner conflicts and those between people, in marriage, in religious communities, in the Church, will disappear, if we immerse ourselves in Him.

Therefore, through this special presence of the Lord, every word is revived in us and the Lord communicates the meaning of the Scriptures to us, as He communicated it to the two disciples of Emmaus[10] and to all the Apostles and as the Holy Spirit communicated it to us, and He awakens the faculties of our soul: memory, intellect and will. All our soul, all our body and the spirit feel it, and so we change.

There is one fundamental point in our life: when we stand before the living God, we must approach Him with the awareness that He is not what we think He is, because we are limited and bad. He is perfectly good towards us; He is just, generous and kind; He acts in every moment according to our growth, but He brings everything to completion.

We are entering the last stage of the history of humanity. We are told that we are approaching the peak of humanity’s progress: the turning point. We are approaching His promises. Our honesty and righteousness before the living God urges us to recognize that He is good to us; He has always been good. If we felt hurt at a certain time of our life, the wound showed us that we did not see that He is good. Then, when we were hurt, His goodness was shining but we did not see it. Today, if we immerse ourselves in His face as it is, with the intermediate presence of Christ among humanity, His face will shine more and more to those who wish to see Him as He is, which brings about our transformation. Those who reject Him will be set aside, according to their choice; or rather, they will move away and close their eyes so as not to see Him.

At this time in which I celebrate a priestly passage, I want all the people to experience a personal change; then all discussions will end and fragmented and partial knowledge will disappear. Each one of us is precious to God and He wants us to be formed according to His thought; He enlightens us and gives us a conscience and a righteous mind. This will make all false prophets, false mystics, false psychics disappear, because everything will be shaped according to the One who is. If we begin to listen inwardly to this truth, before Christ, our inner world will change; not only our past will shine, but also that of all the just, the innocent, the suffering. Inside the hearts of all people, within all souls who want the Salvation of the true God, joy will burst and rise to Heaven, and thus the Liturgy of the whole Universe will be celebrated. I invite you to have this attitude, otherwise it will be late. Now, time will pass not only quickly but very quickly.

I bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

[1] 1st  Reading Sirach 44, 1.10-15

[2] Mt 13,16-17

[3] Psalm 131(132)

[4] Mt 13,16

[6] See Message of Jesus of 5 January 2021, “In My Name You Will Win”, published on our website, https://towardsthenewcreation.com/

[7] 25 July, Feast of Saint Jacob; Mt 20,20-28

[8] See Mt 20,23

[9] See Mt 20,25,28

[10]  See Luke 24,13-35