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How close we are to the fulfillment of this only God knows, but we do know that the Blessed Mother has been imparting to innumerable visionaries and messengers that her time to be among us in a special way is nearly at an end. This is confirmed by the cessation of numerous apparitions and messages/locutions over the past few years. We don’t know God’s timetable for "no one knows the day nor the hour" but we also cannot presume that it will go on that much longer. It could be within months, it could be years. Whenever it is, we must be prepared. That is the chief reason Our Lady has been with us daily at Medjugorje now for over 15 years. No apparition in history has lasted longer. The number of apparitions, well over 6,000, in this time span is also unprecedented.
What can we do in so little time? Go back to basics. Pray, Fast and receive the Sacraments frequently and worthily. It is vital that all partake in the Sacrament of Reconciliation as Blessed Mary advises for Confession is the mighty "Eraser" which will eradicate sin on our souls. It’s also important to take time to go back and re-read the words of Blessed Mary. If we do this, calling on the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, to fill our hearts with Understanding, Fortitude, Wisdom, Knowledge, Counsel, Piety and Fear of the Lord, we will better understand Sacred Scripture for the Bible clearly states that all creation shall tremble and every knee shall bend before the Lord our God. This is the direction Our Lady is guiding us. She merely asks us to be living examples of the Gospel lived, recognizing the proper, edifying and uplifting way in which we, God’s children, are to worship Him by obeying His laws and loving one another as He has loved us. As we have printed often, all the messages the Mother of God conveys at Medjugorje and elsewhere around the world, are and must be always rooted in Sacred Scripture. There is nothing really new in any of the messages, only a confirmation of what God has given us in Scripture and through the Dogmas, Doctrines, Traditions and Teachings of Holy Mother Church.
The fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, which Our Lady emphasizes time and time again, capsulizes the journey and reasons for Medjugorje. For fifteen centuries the people of this area have fought against bondage, fought to be free, to have true peace. Yes, for fifteen centuries they have been fighting "the phantom" of peace for there can be no true peace without God. They, as well as we, must strive to adhere to Paul’s words in Galatians 5: 1, "Stand fast, and do not be caught again under the yoke of bondage." For seventeen years Our Lady has given them and us the formula for true peace. Yet, when we look at the overall picture from our view it indeed looks mundane and tedious, discouraging that the world has not been converted yet, that we have not progressed as far spiritually as we would like. We have accepted as commonplace Rosaries turning gold, the sun spinning, lights flashing, etc. while forgetting the salvific shadow over our shoulder. That shadow is the loving, caring Son of God Who is with us always, constantly bearing the brunt of the weight for each one of us in carrying our cross daily. It is only through Jesus and all that His Blessed Mother asks that this "burden" can become a true joy! This Jesus promised in Matthew 11: 28-30: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden light."
Because of the importance of the messages, we repeat the five steps toward sanctity imparted by Our Lady in the conversion process of the messages in Mary's Call to Peace from the Queen of Peace.
The true answer to all Our Lady asks at Medjugorje is her Divine Son Jesus. Night and day He can be found in our hearts and in the Tabernacle where He calls all of us to come to Him. That is the Medjugorje Our Lady is calling all of us to - her Divine Son. Only by fleeing to Him, by placing ourselves in His loving and powerful arms, by giving our will totally to Him in total submission can we achieve all His Blessed Mother asks and achieve the crowning Glory of guaranteed passage to Heaven.
When God's Word is meant for limited situations or persons, it's called "rhema"; otherwise, it's "logos". For example, the Bible says sell all and give to the poor and follow Jesus. That's a "rhema". If everyone did that, they would have no way to support their families or enjoy homes, and they would be impoverished. However, if the Lord called you to evangelical poverty as He did St. Francis of Assisi, then there would be an anointing. If the Lord called you to exercise faith for a mountain-moving miracle, then the anointing would accompany that faith. You can cause a disaster if you don't know about the anointing for certain kinds of miracles-if you were to interpret a "rhema" as a "logos".
There was a young priest who read the passage in Matthew 10:8 that says go out and cure the lepers and the blind and raise the ead-clearly a "rhema" passage. As he had a funeral that day, the priest went to the undertaker's parlor and in the presence of all the family and the mourners told them to pray with him that the deceased would arise! Peter did it, Paul did it, and many saints performed that miracle of raising people from the dead. The young priest felt he could do it, too, if he exercised his faith.
He walked over to the corpse and laid hands on it. The family stood about totally bewildered. It would be terrifying if the deceased did sit up in the coffin and yet a joy if he did. They didn't know whether to have anticipated joy or fear or hesitancy-in short, they were torn with all these conflicting emotions. The priest said to the corpse," In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to rise from the dead!" But he had no anointing to do that and nothing happened. There was no inner positive assurance and so his faith was not a substantiated faith, but simply wishful thinking. It certainly was not a matter of aligning himself with God's will. He didn't ask to know whether it was God's will to raise that person from the dead. All he said was, "I'm assuming it is God's will."
The result was that the faith of the family and friends gathered was shattered. They left nervous wrecks, a heavy guilt trip laid on everyone. The figured they, too, must not have had enough faith. Secondly, they now doubted the Word of God to be true because it says to go out and raise the dead and here it hadn't worked. All because of the imprudence of acting without the anointing or the full gospel message that the anointing and the certitude must be present.
In the next installment, I will continue on "Anointed Faith" with part two.
