Fr. Jozo – The following is part of the talk that Fr. Jozo gave to a group of
English-speaking pilgrims on March 31, 2008
Welcome. A Happy Easter to you all –
to you, to your loved ones, to your families. An abundance of peace and joy and
Easter blessings to you all. When Jesus appeared to His disciples, the Mother,
before them, saw Him. And Mary Magdalene also saw Him before the disciples.
Thus, we the sinners also have a chance. We are called to meet the Mother, to
meet Jesus, to meet the Church, to meet the new better life of the Church that
believes, the Church that prays, the Church united with the Mother. That is what
Medjugorje is - for twenty-seven years where we recognize Jesus in the breaking
of the bread; that temple were Jesus draws with His own blood, where He forgives
the sinners. How beautiful it is to kneel in Medjugorje and confess, to enter
into the river, this current of God’s mercy to be purified, cleansed. I ask you
to look here to your left. You see the image of the Divine Mercy? That mercy of
God bids each one of us and frees us from every evil, every woe. And we feel
well. Why? Because God becomes so near to us, so close. Perhaps you as a priest
or a lay person did not meditate on the message of Our Lady, Her message of the
last month, where as it shocked me. You might say, “I am a Christian
already, I go to church regularly. I celebrated Easter.” Do you remember
what Our Lady said a week ago? “Dear children, work on your
personal conversion.”In this springtime, you will see where a
person abandoned his field or his garden. And everyday it grows worse and worse.
All the weeds will grow, showing that the owner does not love the land to work
on it. Our Lady wants us to work on ourselves. God wanted us to work the ground
and bear fruit. And even more so we are called with our life, our soul, our
marriage. Our Lady says work on your conversion. If you only knew what
conversion was. If only the grace that took place, and God would illuminate our
hearts – that as priests and lay people, as parents, when they recognize what
conversion is. What is to convert? It is a wondrous call. The first call of Our
Lady was for conversion. And twenty-six years and 8 months, Our Lady again says
convert. Work on your conversion, thus saying that you have neglected your heart
and soul. You have neglected the spiritual values that are so abundant. They
(the heart and soul) are full of weeds. They are full of fruitlessness. You are
not sowing the good and fertile soil. To sow the seed, much needs to be
prepared. The soil needs to be cleared, plowed, nurtured, and only then the seed
is planted and again must be nurtured and cared for. Because as Jesus said, if
the seed falls upon the rocks, if it falls amongst the thorns, if it falls on
rock, road, or thorns, it bears no fruit at all. When does the seed bear its
fruit? When it falls on the good, prepared soil. On good and noble soil, every
grain bears fruit – one thirty fold, another 60 fold, another yet 100 fold
yield. Let us try to reflect on what that means.
Fr. Jozo’s passionate testimony is as strong today as it was 27 years ago
when the events of Medjugorje first began. He, like John the Baptist, is a
herald in the wilderness for our times, urging Our Lady’s children to live Her
messages with deep commitment and responsibility as Her witnesses to the
world.
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More than 40 years ago, I took time to seriously contemplate
this parable. I came to the field where I grew up. I took one grain of wheat and
placed it on my left palm. And with that grain in my heart, I saw the life and
the fruit from the seed. Then I piled around that one grain, thirty other grains
as a parable of Jesus. And my eyes were opened. Thirty grains is a lot. It is
almost that I couldn’t even distinguish the one grain in the center. My entire
palm was full of grains. To get 60, I added 30 more grains. And nearly my palm
and fingers were full. And to get 100, I had to add over 30 more. I remember
when there were so many grains in the palm of my hand and fingers, they started
to fall, one by one. My entire palm and fingers were not enough to hold 100
grains. And all I could say was, “My Master, what an incredible teacher you are.
You have opened my heart. I recognize your parable.” I feel that this is
conversion. Because Jesus says in the Gospel, the Father wants you to bear
fruit, then your fruit will remain. The Father is glorified when you bear much
fruit. But if I do not work on my conversion, then I am a rock. Then I bear
weeds. Then I permit the enemy to bring darnel and plant it therein. It is
terrible when the darnel, the weeds come about, because Jesus says, it must not
be uprooted because then the wheat will be uprooted with it. Much time has past
when the harvest is finally separated. How necessary it is to understand Jesus’
parable. Am I asleep? Am I working on myself? Or am I just asleep, like the
owner of the field that sowed the seed and went to sleep, thinking this is
wonderful. I have done my job. But didn’t count on that the enemy would come and
plant and sow darnel…We stand here before Our Lady, the parable of Jesus and
before the words of Our Lady. We stand before Her message, “work on your personal
conversion.” What does that mean? In twenty-seven years, She has
built the theme of conversion in many of Her messages. And a week ago, again She
said, “you are far from
meeting with God in your heart.” What does it mean, far? It
doesn’t mean that you are close. Father (a priest) comes from Chicago. Chicago
is far from here. He has to cross the entire Atlantic to come. He has to cross
much of the American continent to come. They came far. And from that far away,
we need to take a step in order to meet God. Why? Because we are far away. Who
is saying this? She, She who sees where we are, that we may not be deceived. Our
Lady is not speaking to those who are not on pilgrimage. She’s, first of all,
speaking to us who are on pilgrimage. You are far away. Why? Because you take
the messages irresponsibly. I feel that in my heart. Many of you feel that
Medjugorje to be just some kind of news, some kind of an information,
insignificant. But Our Lady in Her messages, in Her apparitions, says that they
are important for the entire world – for the entire world. I know that the sun
is important for the entire universe. If it were to be extinguished we would
never be, there would no longer be life. Imagine something that is so important
for the entire world as Her apparitions, as Her messages, as Her time among us.
Those of you who live so close to the Anglicans, Protestants, those who have
lost the love for the Blessed Virgin, thinking that She is no longer important.
They think that they can turn Her aside and only convert through Jesus. That is
over – No. She wants to give birth to you. She desires to find you each day
anew. Behold your Mother. It is better not to come to Medjugorje at all, than to
be here superficially. That is why I implore you, do not come again if you do
not want to listen to Our Lady. It is better not to come. Because there are
people who do not come, there are Bishops who do not come, there are also
priests who do not come because they are afraid. They are afraid because Our
Lady says fast. It is easier for them to say, “I have not accepted Her
messages.” And perhaps it will be easier on the surface for you because Our Lady
is calling you to fast, and you yourself are saying, “I can’t.”…That is why you
are far away, you are irresponsible for the messages. And that is why the
Church, us, we are showing our immaturity. You do not know Her voice, you do not
know Her sigh. You do not know Her call to Her children. We act in ignorance…You
are far away. You say you are Christian. No, we are not. You celebrated Easter
after Lent, but Easter is not a calendar event. Easter is life. It is a meeting
with God. Who exits, Who is, Who is responding to you, Who desires to give you
the gift of every grace. I cannot receive the gift if I am dead. Therefore, I
must be around so that He may say to me through my priest in confession, “I
absolve you from your sins. I raise you to new life.” It is He Who died for
you…
Pictured above with Fr. Jozo is well known speaker Wayne Weible, along
with Nancy Latta, Fr. Jozo’s translator. Wayne was recently in Medjugorje, and
on this day, March 31, 2008, Fr. Jozo invited him to give his testimony of
conversion through Our Lady’s apparitions in Medjugorje to the pilgrims
gathered. Wayne Weible and Caritas Founder, A Friend of Medjugorje, have been
good friends for many years, since they both became involved in Medjugorje
during the mid-80’s, more than 20 years ago. Wayne told us that he checks out
mej.com everyday.
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God gave us His commandments. And God gave a means of how we
are to live. We don’t need somebody else to say to us, “I believe better than
this or that. Yes, our weakness says to ourselves, “Yes, it is easier not to
fast. It is easier to sleep than to pray. It is easier to sit than to kneel.” I
know that you have thrown away the kneelers in your churches because the Risen
Jesus is no longer with us. We don’t have anyone to kneel before. Both of our
last Popes (Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict) implore us as a Church to
return Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in six documents. What are we doing?
We are listening to what is easier for us. Not to reply is sleeping, through the
lips of the Blessed Virgin Mary, through the lips of our Church. Let us reflect
on what it means to work on our own conversion. It really means to stop before
the mirror. And I see this as our mirror. This is a measure of our love, Jesus
Crucified, the measure of God’s goodness towards us. And as we stand before this
mirror, you have to admit that you do not love, that love is not love, that you
really do not believe. When you stand before this mirror of the Crucified, you
will see that you are an unbeliever. And as St. Francis, you need to ask. He
heard the voice of Jesus saying, “Francis, my church is falling apart. My
church is falling apart in divorces, in those lost in darkness, in arguments,
immorality, sloth. My church is falling apart.” “Lord, what do you want me to
do?” “Help me to rebuild my church.” Is it possible to rebuild the Church?
Is it possible to have Jesus? It is a gift to help Jesus. It is a blessing to
help Jesus. And we desire to fear. This mother who raised Him, and for
twenty-seven years has been educating and raising us that we may become a light.
She says to us, “You are far
away.” For three days, Jesus went far away from Her. Her eyes
could not see where He was lost. She set out to seek Him, and today She is
seeking us. She is looking for us, and we must recognize that and return home
with Mother. How? Is that possible? Yes, that is why She is here among us
because it is possible - to hear the Mother, to meet with the Mother, to love
the Mother…http://www.medjugorje.com/
