Monday, February 24, 2014

Mary TV Daily Reflection 2/24/2014

      
The way of love 
 (c)Mary TV 2013
 
     
J.M.J
February 24, 2014

Dear Family of Mary!

The Gospel for Sunday, February 23, was Matthew 5: 38-48. It is one of the more challenging Gospel passages for me. It reads:
 
Jesus said to his disciples: "You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.

"You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Jesus challenges us to not just talk about love and forgiveness but to radically change the way we act and think about our enemies. He doesn't give us an easy way out.

Yesterday, in prayer, I pulled a message from my box of messages. Our Lady makes the same challenge to us in this message as Jesus did in this Scripture.

"Dear children! Today I call you to accept and live my messages with seriousness. These days are the days when you need to decide for God, for peace and for the good. May every hatred and jealousy disappear from your life and your thoughts, and may there only dwell love for God and for your neighbor. Thus, and only thus shall you be able to discern the signs of the time. I am with you and I guide you into a new time, a time which God gives you as grace so that you may get to know him more. Thank you for having responded to my call." (January 25, 1993)

This is not an easy message to respond to. "May every hatred and jealousy disappear from your life and your thoughts, and may there only dwell love for God and for your neighbor." It is even more challenging when we remember that at that moment, Medjugorje was situated right in the middle of a terrible war in the Balkans. This was a war among neighbors! Imagine hearing these words from Our Lady in that excruciating moment.

Yet it is a fact that for the people of Medjugorje, the way of love has led them into a new time, and they have become an even greater source of grace for the world since that war.

The way of peace is love. And love can only exist when forgiveness and acceptance of even our enemies exists in our hearts and minds and actions. This is the great mystery of Christ. To love those who appear to be our enemies, who hurt us, even kills us. This is the way of Christ. The way of love.

It is an impossible way unless we let go control of our lives and truly give ourselves to God completely. Only then can we even begin on this way of peace.

In this time when country after country seems to be going up in the flames of civil strife, we need more than ever to give ourselves completely to God, so that we learn the way of peace, and live it through forgiveness and sacrifice.

Impossible without God. Possible, if we live Our Lady's messages, seek God with all our hearts, and stay firmly planted in the Church and the Sacraments. Then we may be able to live the way of love.

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2014
 
PS. Tonight we have a special "Fruit of Medjugorje". We have been given permission to show "Child 31" , a video about Mary's Meals, the beautiful humanitarian aid effort from Scotland that now feeds over 860,000 children a day. You will see the way of love in this film! 8:00 pm EST, tonight!



 


 "Medjugorje is the spiritual center of the world!"   
Blessed John Paul II  -
Be connected! 
 

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