With great joy I bring you the King of Peace

Fr. Jozo's Reflection on Our Lady's Message of Dec. 25, 2007

"Dear children! With great joy I bring you the King of Peace for Him to bless you with His blessing. Adore Him and give time to the Creator for whom your heart yearns. Do not forget that you are passers-by on this earth and that things can give you small joys, while through my Son, eternal life is given to you. That is why I am with you, to lead you towards what your heart yearns for. Thank you for having responded to my call." (12/25/07)

This is a Christmas message and also the last message of this year. In the time leading to Christmas, we were witnesses of our preparation and maximum effort and activity in preparing the way to the Lord who was to come.
To all those with open hearts the Holy Mother and Virgin is able to say: "With great joy I bring you the King of Peace, that He may bless you with His blessing." How many hearts have received this precious gift of the King of Peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and in Holy Communion! They have done so in complete unity with the Church, which was preparing them to open their hearts for that great gift - the King of Peace - through prayer, fasting, dawn Masses and the Sacraments. This peace and joy of Christmas shines from joyful hearts.

Such believers are completely different from those motivated by purchasing gifts to bring joy to their own hearts and to the hearts of others. Because this is not possible, once again, those individuals were deceived and disappointed. After the feast, they remained even more empty and tired. This is not Christmas. They lack Jesus, the King of Peace. They lack peace and His joy, which He gives to the prepared hearts, families and the Church.

Life and a frantic rush inspired and moved by the inclination and desire of a goal to possess and enjoy has never been blessed. In fact it is worthless. It is most sad to recognize and to live in the vicinity of someone who lives only for things. Our heart and our nature long for something higher than things or pleasure. Our hearts can be satisfied and filled only by their Creator, by God who came as Christ, the King of Peace.
Therefore, this warm Motherly teaching is for each of us: "Adore Him and give time to the Creator for whom your heart longs." Our manger scenes in Churches and in families are not decoration or folklore. They are a place of prayer and adoration of the King and Lord. It is so important for us to find time to dedicate to prayer and thanksgiving for His birth and our salvation. A manger where a family does not gather and take time for prayer is an empty sign to us and to our children. It is almost on the level of false display windows and illuminated cities, which in an external way show their tradition but not the faith, gratitude and love for the Mother and the Child given to us.

Our Lady calls us to adore Jesus, our King. From the beginning, She has been asking for this in Her messages. This is why our prayer community in its program lives from the Eucharist and adores the living and present Jesus in the Holy Sacrament. Unfortunately, some members easily dispense and free themselves from Adoration on Thursdays, or fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays. In Adoration we are so close to Him. We are at His feet, listening to His teaching of grace and receiving His blessing and peace. Our life and our heart longs for Him. Every time we meet together in prayer, in reflection on the message of the Queen of Peace and in Adoration of the most Blessed Sacrament, we give important time to Him for whom we long.

My dear ones, once again, our good Mother cautions us not to forget that we are passers-by in this world. It is painful to listen to or speak to a person who acts and lives as if he will never die or account to God for his life. It is difficult to meet people who, sunk in their selfishness, feel no responsibility for others with whom they share their life and gifts and who do not think at all about those who are to come after them. Because of this, we have polluted the air we breathe, poisoned the food we eat and poisoned the family in which we are born and raised. We have poisoned the earth, the hearts and everything that we have seized in our selfishness as solely our own. If we are not aware that we are passers-by on this earth and that things of this earth are not our goal or of greatest value, most certainly we have forgotten eternal life and the un-passing joy that our King of Peace and Savior brought and gave to us by His birth. This especially pertains to technology and offers of pleasure and enjoyment. Christmas and its celebration are not a time of pleasure and entertainment but a discovery of what is not passing and is eternal. All of this is a gift to us for which we must be grateful.

 We must take time in song, prayer and in listening to the Word of God to give thanks to the Lord.
In a most beautiful way, the Mother explains to us that She is with us to lead us towards that for which our hearts long. We are like a child in front of a shop window stopping before our toy, our dreamed of desire, trying to force our mother to enter into the shop and to buy it for us. If a child does not succeed, he cries and throws a tantrum, putting his mother in an uncomfortable position and she most often gives in. How are we to pass through this world of consumerism and of great offers when it seems to us that somehow we need all this? Everyone else has this or that new product, so why shouldn't I?

Permit me to share a story with you. A hermit walked through a city. He walked by all the shop windows and all the shops. He enjoyed looking at the most beautiful things that people were buying and taking home.

He was whole-heartedly grateful for everything: for beautiful clothes, expensive shoes, all the food products and an abundant market of all kinds of fruits and vegetables. At the end of the day he prayed: "How wonderful and good you are, Lord. Thank you for all the most beautiful things that my brothers and sisters are buying. Thank you for everything, but especially thank you for the gift that I do not need any of those things. Thank you that I am perfectly happy and free because I can be without all that I have seen." This is the freedom that we need. We have become addicted to technology and such expensive things telling ourselves that we cannot be without them. As a consequence, we are not free.

On the same day, when Our Lady gave this message through Marija, Our Lady explained through the visionary Jakov not to seek joy in the things of this world but to open our hearts and to accept God.
On everything we touch we leave behind our fingerprints, and simple expertise reveals the person who has touched the item. It is the same with our hearts in watching advertising on television, newspapers, and other media. An identifiable imprint of our addiction or our freedom remains.

God wants us to be free. He does not want us to live for things, but for Him who is our peace and our all. Let us persevere in the Motherly school of Our Lady. Let us not reject it or superficially take it to heart. This message, in particular, is completely Gospel based; "Jesus said to him, if you want to be perfect, go and sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven and come follow Me (Mt. 19, 21-22)."