(c)Mary TV 2014
J.M.J
November 5, 2014
Dear Family of Mary,
"Dear children, I am with you with the blessing of my Son, with you who love me and who strive to follow me. I also desire to be with you who do not accept me. To all of you I am opening my heart full of love and I am blessing you with my motherly hands. I am a mother who understands you. I lived your life and lived through your sufferings and joys. You who are living the pain understand my pain and suffering because of those of my children who do not permit the light of my Son to illuminate them; those of my children who are living in darkness. This is why I need you - you who have been illuminated by the light and have comprehended the truth. I am calling you to adore my Son so that your soul may grow and reach true spirituality. My apostles, it is then that you will be able to help me. To help me means to pray for those who have not come to know the love of my Son. In praying for them you are showing to my Son that you love Him and follow Him. My Son promised me that evil will never win, because you, the souls of the just, are here; you who strive to say your prayers with the heart; you who offer your pain and suffering to my Son; you who comprehend that life is only a blink; you who yearn for the Kingdom of Heaven. All of this makes you my apostles and leads you towards the victory of my heart. Therefore, my children, purify your hearts and adore my Son. Thank you." (November 2, 2014)
Today I have the honor of sharing with you a most wonderful reflection on Our Lady's message from November 2, 2014! It is a homily that was given for English Mass on November 4 by Fr. Joseph Jacobson of Canada. Fr. Jacobson connects the Nov. 2 message to the Gospel for that day, Luke 14: 15-24. It is the Gospel about those invited to the dinner of the Lord who refuse the invitation.
Fr. Joseph Jacobson from Northern Alberta, Canada
November 4, 2014 Homily for English Mass, St. James Church, Medjugorje'
When one of the dinner guests said to Jesus, "Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the Kingdom of God", Jesus didn't disagree with him at all. "Yes, blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the Kingdom of God." But rather He zeroed in on the truth of what the dinner guest had just observed. He said in essence, "You do not know how true you are in what you have just said!"
Now the dinner guest had his own idea of who would be eating bread in the Kingdom of God, in the Kingdom of Heaven. And what Jesus zeroes in on is that man's unspoken assumption of who the guests were going to be. That is what He zeroes in on. And to make sure that the point He is making is going to stick, Jesus is quite categorical about it. He ends up basically saying to the man, "The ones you think is going to be there, aren't. Blessed are those who get there, for sure. But don't think the people you think are going to be there. He is quite categorical about it. You can't get much stronger than the statement he made, "I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner." That is a lot of privileged people, excluded.
Well in that case, who is going to taste His dinner? Who will eat bread in the Kingdom of Heaven? Jesus provides us with the answer. The poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame, plus anybody else the Master can find who doesn't say "no" to the invitation. Anyone who shows up, anyone! Compel them to come in.
So let's stand back for a little while and ask ourselves who are we? Who are we? Well at the very least, we are those who have not said "no" to the invitation of the Mother of God to come here! He sent out His servants, a lot like what Mary has been doing here lately. Send out the servant. Mary sees herself as the servant of the Kingdom. She is sent out to gather us in. And when we say "here" it is really an important thing, right here in particular, here in Medjugorje, as mention was made in the message on Sunday (November 2, 2014). Here! In a very real sense this is where the banquet is beginning! At least, we are getting the hors d'oeuvres here, that's for sure!!
We have to agree that we, gathered here, are in fact the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. That is who we are when we get here, and that is also who we remain when we go home, with one difference - I am still a poor man, but I have a rich friend as I go home. I am still crippled, blink and lame, but now I walk with Jesus' legs and Mary's eyes. Their legs and eyes. Left on my own I am no more afterwards than I was before, but that is the point, I am not on my own any more. I am not on my own any more after being here.
It is here that you and I grow (and I love that expression) into true spirituality. Do you get it? There are lots of spiritualities out there, but true spirituality! And how do I get that? Our Lady tells us by adoring Jesus, and praying for those who do not yet know His love, the love of her Son. That, friends, is true spirituality...Adoring Jesus and praying for those who do not yet know the love of her Son.
But we can't stop there. Were you as amazed as I was when you heard her call us, this rag tag collection of stumblers from all over the world, who have stumbled our way to Medjugorje...were you as amazed as I was when I heard her call us the "souls of the just" ? Just because we are here? That is who she said we are, you and I. How can that be? Well according to her, it is because: 1. We strive to say our prayers from the heart. We don't always succeed, but we try to, right? That is all she asks for, that we strive to. 2. We offer our pain and suffering to her Son. We don't anesthetize it. We offer our pain and suffering to her Son. 3. We realize that this life is only a blink, in contrast to the information and life style around us. 4. And we yearn for the Kingdom of Heaven. Those are the four things that make us the just. We yearn for the Kingdom of Heaven.
And because this is true of us as we stumble along, her Son has promised us that evil will never win. That is what she says. Evil will never win because you and I are doing those 4 things at her invitation.
Now back to our story. Can we be as categorical as Jesus was about who will never taste His dinner? Probably not. But we can truthfully say a few things about people who will never taste the dinner of the Lord. And that is also true of us whenever we lose track of what we have received here or by the grace of our Sacraments. Who will not, if we judge by our Blessed Mother's words: 1. Those whose heart is not in their prayers. 2. Those who anesthetize their pain and suffering rather than offering it to her Son. 3. Those who treat this life as though it was not just a blink, as if somehow this is all there is to it. You have to pack eternity into just a few years here on earth. 4. And those who yearn only for the kingdom of the self and not the Kingdom of Heaven. I think it is fairly clear that those are the ones who probably will never taste the dinner.
This is a thumbnail description of folks who are invited but just can't be bothered, who have decided that being all wrapped up in themselves is the recipe for the good life. And treating themselves as god is the way to go. They will not taste His dinner because they haven't prepared it. And they are not prepared to taste anybody's dinner they haven't been in charge of. Or as Mary puts it, people who actually choose hell. Hard to believe that, but it's a fact. Most of us have lived long enough to see people who would much rather be in hell than recognize that there is a God. They would much rather spend their life detached from God than live under Him. Satan is like that, "I will not submit." Right? And there are far too many people who are just like that, and these are her beloved children. This is why in the first part of the message on Sunday (November 2, 2014) she says "I weep for my children." Some of you have got kids just like that. You weep for yours, I weep for mine.
Sadly this group of invited guests who don't come and won't taste the dinner includes not just overt atheists and sundry manufacturers of their own spirituality, purveyors of New Age nonsense, but it also includes any baptized Christian who is too proud or too educated to pay attention to six un-credentialed children who just happen to be God's chosen instruments to scour the highways and the byways of this world to bring into the Lord's banquet whoever is willing to come, at the invitation of Our Lord's beloved servant, our Mother Mary. And that is the saddest part of all.
I hope and pray that all of us whom Jesus describes Himself as the rag tag chosen few, the riffraff who get there, will never underrate the privilege of being here.
Thank you Fr. Jacobson, for this beautiful homily!! May we all accept our invitation to the feast right away, with no hesitation. We want to dine with the Lord in His heavenly Kingdom!!!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
©Mary TV 2014
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