Reflection on the Message of November 25, 2003

BE LOVE, JOY AND PEACE

"Dear children! I call you that this time be for you an even greater incentive to prayer. In this time, little children, pray that Jesus be born in all hearts, especially in those who do not know Him. Be love, joy and peace in this peaceless world. I am with you and intercede before God for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call." Message of November 25, 2003

---

Once again, the Virgin Mary invites us to prayer in this time of Advent that is approaching. Advent and Lent are liturgical seasons in which the Church, as a Mother, invites us to re-examine our life, to make concrete decisions, promises, more decisive turnings on our way towards God. Today, as during all these years, Mary wants that our days do not pass in vain, that our time does not pass beside us, that we do not circumvent God in this time that we live - God who calls us, who seeks us, who stirs us up through Mary.

The greatest joy of a mother is her children. Can we imagine the joy that we are for Mary - the Queen of Peace? She is “the cause of our joy” and she invites us to become the cause of her joy. Her only desire is that Jesus may be born in our hearts. She is most saddened when we lose Jesus, when He is not with us, more precisely, when we are not with Him. It is necessary to undertake everything to return to Jesus, to find Jesus. Humanly speaking, Mary and Jesus suffer when we move away from them, when we abandon them in any way and for any reason. However, our Mother leads us to her Son; with her, it will be easiest for us to find Him and to remain with Him. She has no other more important task than this one, but she can attain it only with our co-operation. This is why she stirs us up and she puts into our hearts the means that the Church offers to her children during the centuries, by leading them to God and by engendering them to a new life in God.

The goal of Our Lady’s messages and of her apparitions is that all know God, that everyone encounters God. She wants that - through us - God may reach everyone. We are all linked to one another and we all are responsible for one another. God can come into this world only through human beings, from one to another. God wants to come into this world through you and me. If He does not pass through us, how will he come? The only full meaning of our life is to enable Him to come. If we do not allow Him, then what is the meaning of our life? And what are we on this earth without Him?

Also in this time of Advent, and in Christmas that is approaching, God wants to come. He has time. He has the whole eternity. But we have only today, the present moment. The eternity does not belong to us - it belongs to God. God needs our naturalness, our simplicity. God needs our nearness, and we need his nearness even more.

It is only through the nearness of God that we will be able, from day to day, to become love, joy and peace in this world, as Our Lady tells us. Because works of love are works of peace. And when love is shared, we feel peace that gets hold of the one who gives love and of the one who receives love. When peace is there, God is there, and thus, God touches our hearts and shows his love for us by spreading peace and joy in our hearts.

Blessed Mother Teresa was praying: “Lead me from death to life. From lie to truth. Lead me from despair to hope. From fear to trust. Lead me from hatred to love. From war to peace. May peace fill our hearts, our world and our universe, peace, peace, peace.”

We are not alone; Mary is with us, with her presence and the strength of her maternal love, desiring that peace of her heart may enter each heart. Let us allow her that.

Fr. Ljubo Kurtovic
Medjugorje November 26, 2003