Reflection on the Message of November 25, 2002

I CALL YOU TO CONVERSION

“Dear children! I call you also today to conversion. Open your heart to God, little children, through Holy Confession and prepare your soul so that little Jesus can be born anew in your heart. Permit Him to transform you and lead you on the way of peace and joy. Little children, decide for prayer. Especially now, in this time of grace, may your heart yearn for prayer. I am close to you and intercede before God for all of you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of November 25, 2002

The Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of each man, addresses today also her maternal word to all those who want to listen and hear. She tells us: “I call you also today to conversion” as she has called us all the days for more than 21 years now. In Gospa’s words resound the words of John the Baptist: “Repent, because the Kingdom of heaven is near”. (Mt 3:2) Through Mary, a time of grace comes to us, a time when the Kingdom of Heaven wants to dwell in the heart of men. Through Mary, the Saviour of the world came to us, the Saviour of the world who wants also this year to be born in our heart. Conversion means change of path, of direction, of mentality, of sinful practices and habits. It is difficult, very difficult to change, but it is possible. It requires a permanent vigilance and perseverance, a permanent combat, it implies falls and raisings. Jesus speaks to us about the narrow and steep path, which leads to life. He wants to tell us that, on this path, we will be tired, that we will sweat, fall and bleed, but happy are those who persevere until the end. Life is a combat, and a proverb says: “Who does not want to fight, it is better for him not to live”. The Old Testament suffering Job tells us: “Isn’t the life of men on earth a combat?” (Cf: Job 7:1)

Mary, our mother, lived this same path of combat, renunciation and death to herself, so that God may live in her. Her glorification in Heaven shows that she was on the good path. At the moment of meeting God through the angel Gabriel, she did not say: “I understood what you say to me”, but “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word”. (Lk 1:38) We cannot nor should not understand everything, but it is important that we trust the word of God, that we trust the maternal words that are addressed to us in this simple message, in which we touch with the heart the maternal heart that beats for each one of us.

Conversion is the work of God, the work that He does in us if we allow Him. I cannot convert myself and even less can I convert others. What I can, it is to desire ardently, to seek, to yearn with all my faculties, all my forces and all the powers that God has given me and has put at my disposal. The problem is not in our distance from God, but in our negligence and our lack of desire to approach Him, to love him and thus to know him. God gives himself to those who seek him with their whole heart.

In this message, Gospa reminds us of the sacrament of Holy Confession, through which we should open our hearts and prepare our souls, so that Jesus can be born. Today still, Jesus wants and wishes to be born. Today still, he is thirsting for us and for our time, our prayer, and above all our heart to receive him. When Jesus enters into the life of a person, this life is not the same any more, but is transfigured and renewed. It is a life filled with peace and joy that this world cannot give.

The time of the Advent is in front of us, the expectation of the arrival and the birth of the Saviour of the world and of men. Let us allow Jesus to enter into our houses and our families. May the door of our families and of our lives be open for Christmas and during Christmas days. Let us be at home, at home in our inner self, to meet him and carry him to others, like Mary.

Thank you, Mary, for being close to us. Thank you for not ceasing to intercede and to pray with us and for us.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, November 26, 2002

Reflection on the Message of December 25, 2002

A TIME OF GREAT GRACES AND OF GREAT TRIALS

“Dear children! This is a time of great graces, but also a time of great trials for all those who desire to follow the way of peace. Because of that, little children, again I call you to pray, pray, pray, not with words but with the heart. Live my messages and be converted. Be conscious of this gift that God has permitted me to be with you, especially today when in my arms I have little Jesus – the King of Peace. I desire to give you peace, and that you carry it in your hearts and give it to others until God’s peace begins to rule the world. Thank you for having responded to my call.” Message of December 25, 2002

Also this Christmas, the Blessed virgin Mary gives birth to Jesus, leads us to Him and gives Him to us with the desire and the request that we receive Him as she has received Him. In the fullness of time, God the Father, in His eternal love and wisdom, approached Mary through the angel Gabriel, and asked her if she wanted to accept becoming the Mother of the Divine Child Jesus. God never forces anyone, but attracts; He offers His salvation and never imposes it. Mary spoke her “Yes” in the name of humanity entire, in the name of all generations, in the name of each one of us. Her “Yes” resounds until today. In Mary’s body and heart there was place for God. God bended down to the creature – to Mary – asking her collaboration for His plan of salvation of man. God did not want to be only God. He also became man. The Creator wanted to become creature. This is how He showed the value of man and his capacity to receive and to welcome the Creator. The ways of God’s love for man are unimaginable and inaccessible. God becomes small, insignificant, abandons Himself and gives Himself to men. God knows that man can make a home for Him in his life, and that is why He comes to him.

This is why, in this message, Mary again speaks to us the words: “This is a time of great graces, but also a time of great trials”. In his letter, St. James writes precisely about the utility of trials: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” (James 1:2–3). Our life’s experience tells us that trials go together with grace. Mary’s life confirms it, her life full of trials, suffering and burdens. In spite of it, she sung her Magnificat, because she discovered God as her only treasure. Mary, our Mother, is the most pure result of faith. During her whole life, even in her last trial, which was prophesied by the old Simeon during the Presentation in the Temple – that the sword of pain will pierce her soul – her fait has never wavered. He never stopped to believe that the word of God would be accomplished.

Our faith can undergo severe trials. The world we live in, situations, events, injustices, experience of evil and suffering seems to contradict the Good News of this Christmas event – the Incarnation of God. We have to turn ourselves always again to the witnesses of faith. Hence, one of the most pure, most holy witnesses, one of the examples that stand before us is Mother Mary, whom God gives to us in these days and in this our time. She does not come with empty hands and with an empty heart: today, she holds in her hands the Saviour of the world, the King of Peace. This is how she came on the first day of her apparitions, and this contains the whole programme of her messages, her invitations and her coming: to bring Jesus to us and to lead us to Jesus. The Mother does not cease to knock at the door of our hearts, as she knocked at the doors of the inhabitants of Bethlehem, that they may receive her with Jesus, whom she carried to them under her heart. Until today, she is not tired, although she has found many closed doors of our houses and of our hearts. Also in this Christmas night, she comes to us with Jesus. Let us not remain deaf and blind for this gift from heaven that opened itself to give us a home and warmth in our cold nights and houses. Let us not allow others near us to be cold because of our distance and selfishness.

We thank you, Mother Mary, for the Saviour whom you bring to us and to whom you give birth because of us!

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, December 26, 2002