Reflection on the Message of September 25, 2002

THROUGH YOU, PEACE WILL ALSO BEGIN TO FLOW IN THE WORLD

"Dear children! Also in this peaceless time, I call you to prayer. Little children, pray for peace so that in the world every person would feel love towards peace. Only when the soul finds peace in God, it feels content and love will begin to flow in the world. And in a special way, little children, you are called to live and witness peace – peace in your hearts and families – and, through you, peace will also begin to flow in the world. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of September 25, 2002

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Also in today's message, the Blessed Virgin Mary tells us that She walks with us, without ceasing to invite and to call human hearts and souls to God, the source of life.

Almost each one of Our Lady’s messages begins with the call to pray, to dialogue with God. Prayer is not a magic formula for the resolution of personal problems, of the problems of the family or of the world. It is an invitation to a relationship of love with God. Prayer brings us into God’s presence. Prayer would like to make our hearts humble and dependent on God. By nature, human beings are inclined to autonomy and independence, but Jesus tells us: “Truly, apart from me you can do nothing”. (Jn 15:5b) Only when, through prayer, we have become God’s friends, only when we have approached Him, He can give us everything. The fruit of this closeness is the peace that Our Lady is talking about in this message. God does not want to give us crumbs or something from Himself, but He gives us all of Himself. Before asking something from Him, we should seek the encounter with Him. Only when we have encountered Him, we posses everything: joy, peace, health, life… and then, all tragedies, sufferings, crosses and illnesses are neither awful nor dreadful anymore, but - with God - everything becomes full of meaning.

Our Lady speaks about troubled times. Troubled times are generated in troubled human hearts where God does not abide. The awareness of the fact that there is too much restlessness in us and around us, impedes us to easily believe the words of Jesus: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world gives.” (Jn 14:27)

“Only when the soul finds peace in God, it feels content, and love will begin to flow in the world” – Mary, our Mother tells us. Mother Teresa used to say often: “Works of love are works of peace”. Love generates peace. There is a lot of restlessness because there is not much love. Hence, God is love. Human hearts, families and the whole world need God like the parched land needs rain.

No one has loved Jesus as much as the Mother of God has. This is why She alone can best teach us how to love Him. She has not selfishly kept Jesus for Herself, but has taken Him to Her cousin Elisabeth. Each one of us is invited to receive Jesus in Holy Communion and to carry Him to our neighbours, to those whom God has placed on our way. To keep Jesus for oneself means to lose Him. It affords neither great things or works, nor sensational miracles or healings. The Mother of God was not great in proportion to human works or miracles; she became great by completely allowing God to do His will in Her and through Her. She emptied Herself completely so that God may completely dwell in Her. She renounced Her will and her desires, so that the will of God and the desires of God may be realised - in her and through Her - in us and in this world. If we want love, if we want God, then we have to embrace the way of sacrifice, the narrow and steep way that leads to life. God does not expect from us little bits of something - a bit of prayer, a bit of fasting, a bit of time, a bit of money, a bit of sacrifice - but He wants us totally, just as – in His Son Jesus – He has given us everything. Our God is a demanding God, just as Mary, our Mother, is demanding here. She is demanding towards us because she loves us, because She really cares. Not to accept her messages is much easier, but it is not better. Mary, our Mother, comes to you and to me today to tell us that this world does not hunger for richness and for money but for love, which means for God. There are many rich people who are truly poor in spirit.

Our Lady comes to us here with the abundance of the richness of Her heart, in order to give us this treasure. Let us ourselves begin to follow this motherly voice, without waiting for others to begin, because it may not happen at all.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje 26.9.2002