Be builders of peace and carriers of joy or the Risen One
The message Our Lady of Medjugorje gave us on Wednesday May 25, 2022, is one which has a direct mission for you and me: Be builders of peace and carriers of joy of the Risen One in you and around you, for the good to win in every man.
In this brief yet profound message Mother Mary is giving us the right and exhaustive context in which she is saying to us these priceless words. First of all she is admitting her constant maternal care for each and every one of us. She said: I am looking at you. Furthermore, Mary is looking at us not sternly but joyfully. She is so happy that she is our Heavenly Mum! The phrase and thanking God for each of you, because He permits me to still be with you, to encourage you to holiness, shows us that she wants to help us grow in holiness because she herself is, by God’s grace, full of grace. Mary is happy when we commune with her in God’s holiness.
That is why Pope Francis in his penultimate number, 176, of his apostolic exhortation on the call to holiness in today’s world, Gaudete et Exsultate, writes: I would like these reflections to be crowned by Mary, because she lived the Beatitudes of Jesus as none other. She is that woman who rejoiced in the presence of God, who treasured everything in her heart, and who let herself be pierced by the sword. Mary is the saint among the saints, blessed above all others. She teaches us the way of holiness and she walks ever at our side. She does not let us remain fallen and at times she takes us into her arms without judging us. Our converse with her consoles, frees and sanctifies us. Mary our Mother does not need a flood of words. She does not need us to tell her what is happening in our lives. All we need do is whisper, time and time again: “Hail Mary…” (no.176).
In her message Our Lady tells us openly that is Satan who is disturbing our peace and fomenting peacelessness. However, and as a caring and wise Mother, Mary is giving us the means to combat him and his devilish plan: That is why, may your prayer be even stronger so that every unclean spirit of division and war may be stilled.
It was specifically for this reason that Pope Francis, on Tuesday 31 May 2022, prayed the Rosary and pleaded Mary to intercede in order that peace in Ukraine and the entire world will be brought about. He thus interceded:
This evening, at the end of the month especially consecrated to you, we are again before you, Queen of Peace. Grant us the great gift of peace; quickly end the wars, which have been raging for decades now in various parts of the world, and which has now invaded even the continent of Europe. We are aware that peace cannot be the result of negotiations alone nor a consequence of political agreements alone but is above all an Easter gift of the Holy Spirit. We are certain that with the weapons of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and the gift of your grace, human hearts and the fortunes of the whole world can be changed. Intercede for us with your son. Reconcile hearts full of violence and vendetta, correct thoughts overcome by the desire for easy enrichment and make your lasting peace reign over all the earth.
Within this ecclesial perspective it makes perfect sense that Our Lady is encouraging you and me and giving us this most noble mission: Be builders of peace and carriers of joy of the Risen One in you and around you, for the good to win in every man. May we respond to her call by being so!
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
