Reflection on the Message of January 25, 2005

PRAY FOR UNITY OF CHRISTIANS

"Dear children! In this time of grace again I call you to prayer. Pray, little children, for unity of Christians, that all may be one heart. Unity will really be among you inasmuch as you will pray and forgive. Do not forget: love will conquer only if you pray, and your heart will open. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of January 25, 2005

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Today also, the compassionate heart of our Heavenly Mother is speaking to us. We are her children, and she knows well that we are still on the way towards our celestial fatherland. This is why she is coming to help us, so that we choose the way, which she took, to arrive where she is now.

Mary calls us to prayer. Prayer is the precondition of realisation of all that God can wish for us, of all that He wants to give us. There is not another way towards God and the gifts of God except prayer. This is why Saint Theresa of Avila said: “If somebody tells you that there is another way towards God except prayer, do not believe in it.” Mary repeats assiduously and unceasingly this first lesson of faith and walking towards God. Through her messages and her apparitions, she is showing that she is walking with us. She is our Mother and the Mother of the Church, and this is why she invites us to pray for the unity of Christians, so that all may be one heart. The Mother knows that this unity is possible and that we can and must implore it from God. This unity is a gift of God, a gift which He wants to grant to his children.

Today, on the feast of the conversion of Saint Paul, is ending the week of prayer for the unity of Christians. Our obligation, our prayer and our desire of unity of those who confess the faith in Christ should not however stop.

January 19, 2005, at the general audience of Wednesday, our Pope said: “Since the reconciliation of Christians exceeds human forces and possibilities, the prayer expresses the hope which does not disappoint, trust in God who makes all things new. Prayer must be accompanied by the purification of the intelligence, of feelings and of memories. The unity is a gift of God, and must be beseeched unceasingly in humility and in truth.”

Only Jesus Christ, the only foundation of the Church, can unite us. Saint Paul says this to us in his epistle to the Corinthians: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.” (1 Co 3,11-14).

The Holy Spirit, which guides the Church, also inspires it to pray for the unity of Christians in Christ, because it is in Him that we are one.

Our Mother tells us that unity is possible, and that it will take place among us, insofar as we are ready to pray and to forgive. Mary also invites us to open our hearts, because God can come and bring his gifts only to an open heart. Prayer opens the human heart and makes it merciful and filled with compassion for all men, for each creature. Even in the midst of sufferings, prayer floods from such a heart, including for those who do evil. The world of today needs such hearts, opened and sympathizing, such prayers, which rise even in the midst of moaning.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, January 26,2005