Fifteen times I have had the privilege of going to the place of alleged apparitions called Medjugorje, which is in Bosnia Herzegovina, formerly Yugoslavia and I just want to tell you a bit about this place. There is also a connection with today’s readings. I have read enough about the events there to convince me either that is true and that it is false. I have often been slated by other priests for going there, or having anything to do with it. So why have I gone back so many times? Very simply because there is no other place I know of which continues to have such an extraordinary effect on people’s faith. In one sense I think it is almost irrelevant what might or might not be happening there, except that it continues to bring many people back to their faith. For me, that is enough. However, as a priest I have to be careful to respect the Church’s position on it, which I totally do. We are not obligated to believe in private revelation, but I believe that the Lord continually speaks to us in different ways to help us.
To date the Church’s official position on it is to say that ‘the supernatural character of Medjugorje cannot be established.’ That doesn’t mean it is false, but that they are not officially saying that it is true. However, it is now recognized as an official place of pilgrimage, where priests are allowed to bring pilgrims. In 2010 Pope Benedict XVI established another commission which was to investigate just the first seven days of apparitions and they voted 13 to 1 in favor, but the Church has yet to make an official declaration on it. The Church is always very slow to authenticate anything like that, which is wise.
In 1981 on the feast of John the Baptist, Our Lady is said to have appeared to six children there. The fact that it was on the feast of St. John the Baptist is significant. John the Baptist’s role was to announce the coming of Christ and to get people ready for him. What did he do? He preached about the need to repent and turn back to God. Our Lady has been doing the same thing. Since that time up to now, it is estimated that over 40 million people have visited Medjugorje.
For the fifty years prior to when the events there started, Medjugorje had been part of communist Yugoslavia and this particular area was greatly persecuted because it was very Catholic. Communism worked hard to try and wipe out Christianity in any form. The government continued to tell the people that there is no God and that their faith was an illusion. When Our Lady began appearing there, one of the first things she said to the children was: ‘I have come to tell you that God exists’. It was a kind of reassurance from heaven to encourage the people to continue to believe. Later when one of the children asked her why she came to that particular place, she said it was because she found many true believers there.
Our Lady’s message there, is really the same message in any of the places where she has appeared throughout the world. It is the message of the Gospel. She asks us for personal conversion, to read the bible every day, for daily mass, to go to confession and to fast and pray, especially the rosary. What is important is that the apparitions are not all about her. She is acting as a sign-post to Jesus. She is saying that we must turn back to Jesus and realise that we cannot live without God. God must be in the first place. Too much of our world lives as though God does not exist and we are seeing first-hand what happens when the world tries to live without God. What has always impressed me when I have gone there, is that the main focus of the place is not on apparitions, it is on the mass, adoration and confession. And this is how it should be.
Over 30 years ago I began to go to a prayer group in my hometown of Galway which was started directly because of Medjugorje. That prayer group brought me back to my faith and I ended up becoming a priest. Three other vocations came from it as well. Many priests I know say that their vocations came directly from Medjugorje and a huge number of people whom I know personally have come back to their faith as a result of visiting this place.
Today it is said that Our Lady continues to appear to 3 of the six children every day. One of the criticisms of this place is that it seems ridiculous that Our Lady would appear so many times and for so long. Yet we don’t find it ridiculous that Jesus continues to come to us every day in the mass. Perhaps the apparitions are still going on because people are so slow to respond.
There is one occurrence in particular which stayed with me. One of the visionaries called Mirjana had an experience which I think is worth mentioning. About a month and a half before Our Lady began to appear to the children, Mirjana’s mother died. When Our Lady began to appear to the children Mirjana asked her about her mother. Our Lady told her that she was in heaven and was very happy. Before Our Lady stopped appearing to Mirjana eighteen months later, she asked her if there was anything she would like her to do for her. Mirjana asked if she could see her mother again. She recalls that Our Lady then disappeared and her own mother then appeared before her. She was able to talk to her, to hug and kiss her. Her mother told her that she was very proud of her and that she should be obedient to her grandmother who was now looking after her. Mirjana now says, ‘I am living proof that there is life after death.’ It is very moving to hear her tell this story.
In the readings today, the Lord tells us about the need to correct people when they are going astray, to warn them for their own good. That’s what the role of the prophets was. That’s what John the Baptist did and that’s also what Our Lady has been doing in this place and many other places all over the world. The more research I have done the more amazed I have been at how many places throughout the world she has been appearing.
When Jesus was dying on the cross, He said to Mary, ‘Woman, behold your son. Son behold your mother’ (John 19:26). The son he was referring to was St. John the Apostle who was also there. St. John is considered the model disciple, who is a symbol of all Christians. We understand these words as Jesus entrusting us to Our Lady’s care. She is our heavenly mother and truly our mother. Mary has been sent to warn us that we are in great danger and we need to turn back to God. We cannot live without God.
When any mother sees her children in trouble, she will go to any length to help them. The Lord knows that our world is in trouble and He has sent Our Lady to put us back on the right track. God must be at the center. We need to read the Bible, to pray, fast, to confess our sins and go to the Holy Mass where we encounter God in the most extraordinary way.
'If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you.'
No comments:
Post a Comment