Reflection on the Message of January 25, 2002

Look Deeply Into Your Heart

"Dear children! At this time, while you are still looking back to the past year I call you, little children, to look deeply into your heart and to decide to be closer to God and to prayer. Little children, you are still attached to earthly things and little to spiritual life. May my call today also be an encouragement to you to decide for God and for daily conversion. You cannot be converted, little children, if you do not abandon sins and do not decide for love towards God and neighbour. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of January 25, 2002

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Mary, our Mother, calls us to turn our eyes away from the past, from the past year, and to look into our own heart where God dwells. The past has passed, the future is not yet here, all that exists is today, now, this moment, which will never be repeated. It is from our “now” that depends our future. It is now that I decide or do not decide for God. It is now that I can decide for prayer, now I can open or close my heart to God. In her messages, Mary has often spoken about the heart. “Pray with the heart, fast with the heart, adore my Son with the heart, follow me with the heart…” We have physical organs: eyes to see, ears to hear, and we have a heart with which to pray. We can recite prayers without the heart; we can do so many things without the heart. Cooks can prepare meals without the heart, doctors can treat patients without heart, sellers can work in shops without the heart, employees in a bad mood can wait for their clients in their offices. All of this is like food without salt, and so everything becomes insipid and lifeless. This is why Mary, our Mother, wants to awaken our sleeping hearts.

The Little Prince tells in the tale: “Only with the heart one can see well. The essential remains hidden to our eyes.” Sometimes, it is necessary even to close our eyes to see better. It is with our heart that we can feel God, not with our intellect.

We can also approach God with our heart, not only with our intellect. When the Bible and Our Lady speak about the heart, they think neither of a bodily organ, nor of emotions, feelings of joy or sorrow, but of a spirit, which – although we do not see it with our eyes - we feel that it is at work. It is just like seeing a tree: We do not see the roots, but we know that they exist, because the tree lives from it.

Why is it so difficult to detach ourselves from the earthly things that do not satiate us, but cheat us? Saint Paul said: I do know what is good, but I do not have the strength to realise it. Poor man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body submitted to death? Praise be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! (Cf: Rm 7:14-25)

Our Lady puts the means into our hands, and it depends on us whether we will listen to her or not. We are like a drowning man to whom someone has thrown a life raft. It depends on him, if he will catch it or not. Our Lady’s hand is extended to each one of us. Let us take it today, not tomorrow! Let us clasp at least the fringe of her robe, so that she may take us from darkness, from lack of trust, doubts and disappointments into a new life with Christ.

Our Lady’s hand is outstretched to each one of us. Let us take it today, not tomorrow! Let us catch at least the fringe of her robe, so that she may save us from darkness, from distrust and deception and take us into a new life with Christ. It is therefore necessary to reject every sin: lying, egoism, hatred, pride, blaspheme, licentiousness, drunkenness, wickedness… Without this, we cannot go forward, just as we cannot navigate on the sea in a boat, which is tied to the shore. We can row in vain. It is necessary to untie the boat. We also have to untie ourselves from all that makes us captive and trapped, so that Mary, our Mother, may take us to Christ.

Peace and good to you!

Medjugorje, January 26th, 2002
Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic, OFM