Reflection on the Message of April 25, 2004

LIVE MY MESSAGES IN HUMILITY AND LOVE

"Dear children! Also today, I call you to live my messages even more strongly in humility and love so that the Holy Spirit may fill you with His grace and strength. Only in this way will you be witnesses of peace and forgiveness. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of April 25, 2004

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The Virgin Mary is coming to us for 22 years and 10 months now. With a motherly heart, she is addressing her messages to us. Through her messages, she wants to lead us on the way of conversion and of holiness. Throughout these years, many children of Mary began to believe and encountered the vivifying force of her presence here, among us. The treasure of Heaven that is coming to us can remain undiscovered. This precious pearl can remain hidden and not found. Those who find it are able to give everything: their time, their love and their life. The Gospel is teaching us: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Mt 6,21) Mary wants that our treasure is in God, in spiritual values, and not in things and corruptible treasures of this world "that moth or rust corrupt”. (Cf.: Mt 6,20) Those who discover this treasure will not remain at the edge of the shore, attached to the banks of this world that is imprisoning us, but will dare to row to the open sea, where Jesus is calling us.

In the simplicity of the words of Our Lady is hidden the power of Heaven, the power of the Mother who is able to give a new beginning to our lives. In this message, she is calling us: “Live my messages even more strongly”. Our God is a God of humility and of simplicity. Simple motherly words that she is addressing to us are able to create in us a new mentality, the mentality of the Gospel, of the life of God that wants to blossom in us.

It is only in humility and in love that we can know God and recognize the messages of Our Lady as messages of the Gospel, as messages of the Kingdom of God that wants to begin to live in us, and through us in this world. In Jesus, God has humbled himself, he stooped down to us so that we can understand him and listen to him. During the Last Supper, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. He – who is God - stoops down to his disciples to wash their feet. The washing of the feet is a task of a servant or of a slave. It is possible to wash somebody’s feet only if one bends down or goes on one’s knees in front of somebody. One must be at the feet of somebody. This is precisely what Jesus is doing. He is on his knees in front of his disciples, he is looking at them from down upwards, like a little child that - since it is small – is looking at the adults from down upwards, as if it wanted to ask: Do you accept me? God speaks to man from down upwards, his Word resounds in humility. However, one would expect to hear the Word of God coming from another direction - and this is why God is not heard.

One could say that, in this place, Gospa also is speaking to us from down upwards. She is using the words of a child that each one can understand, and she is asking us: Will you accept me, will you listen to me, so that the life according to the Holy Spirit can flower in you, so that you can become the witness of what we need most: peace and forgiveness.

Let us listen to the Mother who is speaking to us and we will be happy in this world already.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje, April 26, 2004