7 December 2024

By Mauro, Loredana and Luisa

(Taken from the book, Our Lady Is Alive in Međugorje – Conversations with Father Tomislav Vlašić; Publisher Luci dell’Esodo)

Offering of life as a holocaust

You spoke of Jesus’ offering through Mary, saying that it is fundamental.Could you explain what the offering of life as a holocaust means?

It is such a simple yet at the same time complex issue. It is simple because it is imprinted within man’s very essence. It is complex because man is selfish and, when faced with difficulties, he tends to close himself off into his own interests: rather than sacrificing his own interests, he ruins himself. Let me try to be a little clearer. For us it’s normal to meet people who are willing to sacrifice everything because they love each other, so as to protect love. It’s normal to see parents ready to sacrifice themselves for their children and to forget themselves so that their children might find fulfilment. When we meet people like this, we tend to admire them because we know that they have sacrificed their life for values, for ideals. We feel happy when we see people ready for sacrifice. God reawakens eternal values in those who are faithful, he promotes the values that lead us to eternal life. Therefore Jesus invites us to sacrifice all obstacles, everything that prevents us from entering into true life: “He who thinks only about saving his own life will lose it:he who is ready to sacrifice his own life for me will rediscover it”¹. Jesus’ life is a perfect example for us².

The offering allows us to grow spiritually and it also becomes our mission. When we live our lives offering ourselves completely to Jesus through Mary, divine life develops freely in us and it manifests itself to others, it transmits itself to others. St. Peter taught us something in this regard: For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:“Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls”.³

In one of his books, the famous Croatian writer Živko Kustić, wrote this thought: “For Christians nothing is as clear as the Lord’s cross. But when Christians find themselves before it, they are often like a sleeping man, when the alarm rings:they try to turn off the ringing, and often throw the alarm clock down….”. We can conclude saying that we need to welcome God’s love, which comes from the cross and we must wake up, otherwise we will become enemies of the cross.

You underlined the fact that Jesus’ offering must come about through Mary Immaculate.Why?

It’s so simple! Our Lady is Immaculate, perfectly united with her Son. She is the only creature who was perfectly united with God. She is a model for the Church and Mother of the Church. In her maternity, she incarnates divine maternity and gives everyone the possibility of welcoming God’s tenderness through her. For us she is the Mediatrix and she is the greatest gift that God gave to us after Jesus Christ. Mary teaches us to unite ourselves with the Saviour, even when we are tried to the point of death. In this pure link with Jesus, our sufferings become bearers of salvation for us and for humanity. Pope John Paul II dedicated special attention to this theme in the document entitled “Salvifici doloris”.

When humanity is in danger, God sends his Mother. She draws us into her heart and she teaches us to offer God our sufferings, to submit ourselves to his will and to intercede with her for the salvation of the world. The time in which we are living is dense with events, we all see this, and I believe that great trials await humanity. God wants to attract men of good will to himself in every manner; and to help us to answer his invitation, he gave us the gift of the Queen of Peace. Let us wake up and answer God!

People become frightened when we speak of the offering to Jesus. They think that offering themselves means attracting difficulties and crosses.Why do people have this fear?

Certain reasons depend on the experience of individuals, but others derive from the ignorance of the correct meaning of saving suffering. Let’s try to understand this better.

I’ve said that the main reasons reside in man, who is generally afraid of facing up to challenges and therefore also the challenges of the faith. Let’s take the example of a young person who doesn’t want to study because he knows that study is demanding. Or a young man who feels the calling to become a priest, but who feels blocked because he fears that he will have to give up a series of things. In both cases, people run away from responsibility, they escape life’s challenges, they close themselves within their own weakness, and they bury ideals out of fear. They lose faith and strength in themselves and they allow negative feelings to take root within them, which are an obstacle to union with Jesus. For those who are experiencing such behaviour, the cross becomes a dark point, because the soul is no longer able to grasp the meaning of the suffering offered, of the sacrifice that generates life.

What then is the correct meaning of saving suffering?

I have noticed that many of the faithful have a general opinion regarding the offering and suffering. People generally identify saving suffering with a gift of suffering, such as the stigmata in the case of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, or Saint Francis of Assisi. Both of them received a special gift and they were called to fully unite all their sufferings with Jesus in order to make them into saving sufferings.

If on the one hand the experience of the stigmata is to be considered a special gift that they received from God, on the other hand, both of them experienced a calling which is the same calling that we must all experience, if we truly want to call ourselves believers. If we do not enter into saving suffering, we cannot overturn the obstacles that we have erected between us and God, we cannot heal, we cannot be saved, we cannot experience beatitude.

Saint Paul says: “From now on, let no one trouble me:for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus”⁴. This does not mean with certainty that Saint Paul had stigmata like Saint Francis of Assisi; however, it does mean that he offered his sufferings along with Jesus, he carried Jesus’ suffering within his soul, his glorious wounds, which are the fruit of saving suffering. Each apostle carried them within himself and every true Christian must do the same. This is the first seal of Jesus’ victory over evil, that he makes every believer an authentic witness.

Another important thing is knowing where sufferings originate from: whether they originate from God or from Satan. When God entrusts a form of suffering and man freely and lovingly accepts it, sweetness and gentleness are poured into his soul. Then sufferings do not cause bitterness. Saint Francis of Assisi testifies that when he lovingly embraced the leper, all bitterness within him was transformed into sweetness. In the same way, when he received Jesus’ stigmata, his soul was immersed in all the gentleness of new life in God. This is because through saving suffering, God transforms us into a new creature. For this reason Saint Paul acclaims: “But God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything.But a new creation”⁵.

When suffering originates from evil within a person however, or when a person selfishly rebels against suffering, the latter only produces bitterness and negative fruits. It closes the soul within a sort of pathological state and destroys it. For this reason, Satan tries to transmit bitterness, sadness, despair to people who are ill and suffering, because he wants to annul them, he wants to prevent them from offering God those sufferings. He attempts to cause illusions or fears in such a way that those souls close up within themselves, in self-love, so that they do not care about experiencing saving suffering and becoming new creatures.

And so, we are all called to give ourselves completely to Jesus through Mary. Only in this manner, all of our suffering will becoming saving and will transfigure us. This is the greatest force that can transform the world and conquer the powers of evil throughout the universe.

Where does this pathway of faith lead us?

It takes us from signs to the reality of divine life, from tools to the destination which is the full realisation of man in God. Man encounters God who reveals himself to him in his soul. In God he encounters himself, that is, he discovers his originality in God. He acquires an immediate knowledge of God, in the security of faith, like the apostles after the resurrection: “None of the disciples dared ask him:Who are you?Knowing that it was the Lord”⁶.With this security that comes to us from faith, we walk towards eternity. We manifest and communicate divine life to others and we enter into communion with the whole Church.

1 Cf. Mt 16,25

2 Cf. Fil 2,6-11

3 Ref 1Pt 2,21-25

4 Gal 6, 17

5 Gal 6, 14-15

6 John 21-12