(taken from the book “Our Lady is alive in Medjugorje” – Conversations with Father Tomislav Vlašić, chapter 5; Luci dell‘Esodo)

Father Tomislav Vlašić

“The only way out is always to walk on progressively in faith. This is what I tried to do. […] Let me try to illustrate some of them. The first step was to find rest in the Lord, abandoning the guidance of my life to him along with the work done up to that time. In the offering, this step had various consequences. First of all, the test was useful for me as a form of rest. In times of trial, abandoned by God on the cross, I was able to experience a profound rest. This is rest in the Lord, that no man can give, but only God.

The second step is associated with this: realising that God is everything in life and that he guides everything in the world in a perfect manner. In doing so, peace, joy and above all, thanksgiving to God began to awaken within my soul because God took everything away from me, therefore allowing me to be reborn. A new knowledge and a new creative force were formed within me. The fruit of all of this was the transformation of my person”.

Question: From the way you are speaking it would seem that everything is simple, pleasant. Is this so?

Father Tomislav

“No, everything can’t be simple. Jesus is an example for us. He himself, on the cross, experienced the impossibility of acting and he experienced death to himself: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”[1]. These words are so important that they mark the passage into a new life, if we remain faithful to God, like Jesus did. The corruptible man dies in this passage, with all of his doubts, insecurities, false hopes, with everything that is destined to disappear after his death. Life in God remains, eternal and incorruptible.

This passage is important also because it doesn’t come about some time during life, but at every moment, at every moment! If the eyes of our soul are open and if we are faithful to God, then our whole being is rooted in him, in eternity, so that nothing can surprise us or wound us. At every moment we are put to the test in the fact that we remain rooted within ourselves, in something, in someone. In this human rooting, life cannot remain standing in a stable manner. It is only by being supported by and founded in God that we have stability.

Great trials, even if they are painful, are important, because they make everything within us that is not God collapse. At the same time, they wake us up, they teach us to live in such a way as to be sure that no trial can take anything away from us. If we walk in this manner along the roads of life, then with Saint Francis of Assisi we can experience the truth: “My God and my everything!”.

Question: What is the most precious thing that you discovered during this period of your life?

Father Tomislav

“The most precious thing that I discovered was silence as a form of grace, as a virtue. Not the silence into which we close ourselves and where we suffer. It is very important to discern this within ourselves. The silence in which we close ourselves is a great danger. In it there is a state of death, even if we do not realise it immediately. It fuels escape, imagination, negative feelings, passiveness. The person rotates around himself. The constant presence of such a silence in the soul is a state of death. The ill expressions of the person are born of this silence.

Divine silence is something different. It is a gift from the Heavens, a gift of life. All voices are muted in this silence, except God’s voice, which rings through crystal clear. Given that the other voices are no longer present, everything that fuels the corruptible man and ill life also disappears. In the divine voice, the soul perceives God’s will that builds it, promotes it and guides it towards fullness. And so the Holy Spirit reawakens creativity in it, it prepares it to reign with Christ. The person reawakened in divine silence firstly seeks God, and not the things that God can give him.

He immerses himself in divine life, and not in activism. When he acts beginning from this silence, the person manifests the harmony of God’s being and action, which form exactly one thing in him. He recognises the danger of being divided in himself, therefore he immediately returns to the life of God. It is no longer sufficient for him to read holy books, to reflect on them, he seeks God who is the source of knowledge, so as to be taught by him. For this person, gifts, abilities and successes have no importance.

This silence is a gift from God. He offers it to those who are humble, sensitive, ready to die continuously to themselves and to be open to his voice. Divine knowledge leaves us alone in trials, where we lose everything, so that we might seek God alone, like the women who sought Jesus at the tomb. They found him alive, risen, and they too rose. And so divine silence generates prayer within us, the thirst for the living God and it points us towards him. Such a silence fuels faith in us as well as hope and love, so that we might not stagger. It protects and harmonises the fruits of the Holy Spirit in us and it leads us to the fullness of life in God”.

[1] Cf. Mt 27, 46