By Father Rich Tomkosky
In this holy season of Advent, Jesus is calling us to a deep personal relationship with Himself. All of us are searching, sometimes desperately, for ultimate meaning and purpose in our lives.
There are so many false paths to take to this goal, as Saint Paul says, “The night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.”
The pre-eminent way this happens for us Catholics is through regular Confession and receiving the Holy Eucharist, with faith in the state of grace, and through the cultivation of a deep interior life of prayer in company with Our Lady. Do we daily ask our Heavenly Mother to help us? Do we have a deep love for Jesus and so come to Mass out of a sense of love and devotion, or do we come to Mass simply out of obligation?
The Lord thirsts daily for our love, but He won’t force us to do anything. He invites us; He beckons us to His heart.
Saint Mother Teresa’s favorite Scripture passage and motivation for her life of charity was when Jesus said on the Cross, as He was dying, “I thirst” (Jn 19:28). It says in the Bible that He said this on the Cross to fulfill all things, meaning his mission to draw all people to Himself – to do everything possible on His end to save our souls. He thirsts for our response, for our love, to give our lives over to Him in total trust.
As we hear in the Gospel, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. … Therefore, stay awake, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”
Sounds like life in our time – so many diversions and distractions. Let’s respond to His message with faith and conversion of heart and life. Our Lady will help us.
A living relationship with God changes everything! We put things in proper prospective. But daily it is a battle – we must constantly work at this. It doesn’t happen automatically. It’s so easy to lose sight of the Lord and His narrow way, in the midst of the daily whirlwind of family, work, social activity and various problems. However, once we make the daily resolution to come back to the Lord as the living fountain of our lives – over time we will make progress in holiness.
Cultivating a life of prayer, which is mostly accomplished by simply being docile to the Holy Spirit and putting in the time, is the anchor for this living relationship, along with the Sacraments, charity, and sacrifices for souls.
One of the recent Church approved (June, 2001; Feast day November 28) apparitions of our Lady says as much. Our Lady appeared in the African country of Rwanda back in the early 1980’s in the town of Kibeho to three young women periodically from 1981-89. Among other things she predicted a future genocide (the seers saw a river of blood on August 15, 1982) if the people there did not let go of the hidden, and not so hidden, hatred in their hearts toward their neighbors.
This satanic event occurred in 1994 in Rwanda where an estimated million people were slaughtered in three months, which is beyond frightening! This prophecy is the main reason the Church has approved this apparition.
Our Lady of Kibeho had many messages for the modern world, but the one that ties into my message right now is on the importance of prayer. She re-taught them the forgotten devotion of her 7 Sorrows Rosary, for the conversion of souls. Mary said no one goes to Heaven without suffering. Mary showed the seer Alphonsine a vision of Heaven, Purgatory and Hell and why the souls were there – an 18-hour mystical journey.
Our Lady explained, “The first place (Heaven), the happy world of the cherished of God, was reserved for people whose hearts are good, who pray regularly, and who strive always to follow God’s will. The second place of purification (Purgatory) was for those who called on God only during times of trouble, turning away from Him when their troubles were over. The last place of heat and no name (Hell) was for those who never paid God any attention at all” (Our Lady of Kibeho by Immaculee Ilibagiza, p. 138; Hay House publishers, 2008). Have a blessed Advent.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and the Pastor of Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
