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

Father Tomislav Vlašić

“We will never enter into divine silence alone. No method can procure this gift for us. Man tries to escape dying to himself. He willingly enters into pleasant thoughts and experiences in spiritual life. Trials bind him on the other hand and compromise his will. It is also important to understand that in Gethsemane Jesus gave himself up to be tied and led like a lamb to the slaughter house. Our free and unconditional abandonment to God’s will opens up the road to divine silence and to victory over trials”.

“Those who remain faithful to God’s life, never feel limited. Life blossoms in beatitude and triumphs in resurrection.

When the grace of God breaks into a soul or into humanity, it acts by taking souls in two different directions: towards essentiality and towards universality.

Let me explain myself better. Essentiality means that God attracts the person towards him, towards life as it is in him. God reveals himself as he is, and the person recognises himself in God, as though in a mirror, as he is. He feels full of grace and life, he desires only to remain with God in authentic communion. He is careful to ensure that nothing and nobody can distance him from God. He enjoys the life of God and tends with all of himself towards a mystical union with Christ in a definitive manner.

In this way, the person remains a mystery for others. He cannot express what he is living. All concepts and all images are but a faint idea, they are unsuitable tools for expressing the Mystery. Divine silence remains, which surrounds his soul, in which it remains united with God, certain that he will exercise his power in the Holy Spirit, to bring the whole truth to those who are open to his will. With all his signs and his miracles, not even Jesus was able to clarify to people, nor to the apostles, what divine life is, until such time as he was glorified and sent the Holy Spirit[1].

In this form of behaviour it would appear that the person involved remains passive. In reality, if communion with God is authentic, this is not the case. In God being and acting are in perfect harmony, and they relate to each other. The person united with God is urged by the power of the Holy Spirit to act in harmony with God and with all reality, which is in God. This leads it to universality, that is, to loving perfectly like God loves[2], to rejoicing in times of trial[3], to coming to the aid of those in need[4], and to bearing witness to the truth[5] (69). In this way the person is united in the Holy Spirit with the universal Church, with all men of good will. It is obvious then that God acts and reveals himself to others through that person, to the extent to which that person is united with him”.

[1] John 16, 12-15

[2] Mt 5, 43-48

[3] 1Ts 5, 16-21

[4] Mt 25, 31-40

[5] Acts 4, 19-21; Mt 10, 32-39