Kibeho, Receiving a Prophet

There is something in this Gospel that doesn’t seem to fit – Jesus talks about receiving a righteous man – He talks about giving a glass of cold water to a little one – those are fairly common opportunities, but before that He says, “ Whoever receives a prophet, because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.” – how often do you have the opportunity to receive a prophet – it seems like that isn’t something we have the opportunity to do today, because we think it is something from the past, but this important passage is reminding us Jesus’ disciples will have the opportunity down through the ages of the Church to welcome prophets that He is sending – those of you who know the Mission of Divine Mercy well, know we have often come back to this topic…it is essential to what the Lord is asking of the Mission of Divine Mercy – St. Thomas Aquinas says prophesy continues throughout all ages of the Church – second thing is, He wants us to receive the prophets – an example people aren’t aware of, because prophets don’t make the news – in 1981 in an African country of Rwanda, in the village of Kibeho, in a local boarding high school run by religious Catholic sisters, there was a new student who had just been there a couple of months and her name was Alphonsine, 16 yrs. old – one day she was serving in the kitchen and suddenly the other people ran out of the cafeteria into the hallway and she said she heard a voice calling her – she said the voice was soft as air and sweeter than music – she saw a beautiful woman neither white nor black, floating above the floor in a flowing seamless dress with a veil that covered her hair – she gave her a message of conversion of keeping the faith and praying without hypocrisy – she shared that message with those who asked, but there was a part that she didn’t share with them – she didn’t tell them, she was supposed to deliver messages to the government even to the president who was a member to the Hutu tribe – the message she was transmitting to them was a message of praying the Rosary daily (there were a lot of Catholics in that country), following the Ten Commandments and the message warning them of their policies of discrimination against the minority tribe the Tutsi – some of the people there began to hear about her messages and didn’t believe her – a lot ridiculed her – they tormented her – said that she was crazy and wanted attention and was possessed – some did believe her, because of the signs they were seeing – a few months later, another student Anathalie, began to experience apparitions with the message of redemptive suffering and unceasing prayer for a world that is very bad and at risk of falling into an abyss – another girl Marie Claire a ring leader who was most opposed to AlphonsineT, often mocking her – then several months later, she began to experience apparitions of our Blessed Mother, receiving an urgent call of repentance for herself and others – one of the local priest also didn’t believe and even encouraged opposition to Alphonsine until he received a strong personal sign that convinced him – soon there were thousands of people coming to witness these apparitions that were ongoing – those were the three principle visionaries , but gradually three other girls and later on a boy, a young man who also began reporting apparitions – even later on a larger number, but they seemed very doubtful –  most of the original visionaries apparitions ended by 1983 – in 1982 something very shocking happened on a Feast of Our Blessed Mother, August 15, when they saw the Blessed Mother crying tears of pain – then they had a vision of rivers of blood – of savage murders – the rotting remains of hundreds of thousands of people – Our Blessed Mother said if her warning came to pass, not to cry for those who would die, because the gates of heaven would be open for them as they would have died innocently – cry for those who would remain alive – many would be tempted to violence and revenge – others would not be able to live with the wrong they did to others – there will be some left to tell the goodness of God – there is nothing else that can console them, after the pain they  have experienced – (I think of Immaculee and her mission ) – to recall the situation, there were two principle tribes the Hutu, which was the ruling tribe, the majority and then the Tutsi – they lived together as neighbors, friends and even intermarried for years – there were some who were intensifying tensions between these two tribes – members of the Hutu government intensifying this conflict and sometimes those doing this were members of the Church…even some pastors of the Church – this seems to have a  lot of relevance for those who are trying to intensify hatred, division and violence in our country, today – the devil is always working to divide and cause hatred – that warning had been in 1982 – over ten years in 1994, as predicted by Our Blessed Mother, a terrible genocide came to Rwanda in the spring of1994 – more than a million innocent souls out of a total population of seven million murdered with machetes, by the ruling tribal government in an effort to exterminate all of those who belonged to the Tutsi tribe – colleagues, neighbors, friends, and even family members slaughtered one another – thousands upon thousands of decapitated bodies were dumped into the river that ran thick with human blood – several of the visionaries died in that genocide – the survivors of the tragedy described burning Churches, streets filled with corpses, starving livestock, mass graves, lost orphans, famine and disease everywhere – the very things described by the three girls during their visions – this genocide lasted about three months – the bishops had been cautious, since the reports of the apparitions began in 1981, but the amazing and detailed accuracy of our Blessed Mother’s predictions convinced everyone, the authenticity of these messages – finally in 2001, after 21 years of investigation and seven years after the genocide, with overwhelming evidence the local bishop declared the apparitions to be authentic – the pope added Kibeho to the list of approved Marion apparition sites – the bishop was approving just the first three visionaries, because there were reservations about the other four and even more so about the later ones – the bishops wrote…yes… the Virgin Mary appeared at Kibeho on November 28, 1981 and the months that followed – there is an interesting document the bishop wrote at this time, which said this decision was not an infallible decision – it was not something he claimed to be absolute certain, but is based on proofs of probability – he emphasized each Christian is to free to believe or not in this – he said a recognized apparition that strengthens the life of faith and prayer is certainly a powerful help, but the message linked to this apparition is not a new revelation, it is rather a way of recalling the ordinary teaching of the Church, which has been forgotten – so Kibeho which also experienced this genocide, has now become a place of sanctuary and of pilgrimage, a place of reconciliation and hope – a place of love, peace and renewal in a country that has just experienced something so terrible – it is striking the parallels with Medjugorje  – this was an example of the Gospel where Jesus talks about receiving prophets – recognizing a person sent by God with a mission and message – this requires discernment and prudence, because there are also false prophets – we need to have a balanced, mature, prudent attitude – sometimes people don’t respond very quickly, which seems more prudent to them – most prophetic messages are first of all for the people at that time, which is one of the reasons the Lord continues to give prophetic messages to alert us to  particular circumstances that we are living – in times of especially great need – and times of a lot of confusion and crisis – that is often when the Lord needs to send prophetic messages to help His people to know the way in those difficult times – like in Kibeho the Blessed Mother knew the dangers and she was warning them, trying to prepare them, so this danger could be avoided or at least mitigated – there is so much suffering that could be avoided, if we listen to what the Lord was trying to tell us – so Jesus says, “ Whoever receives a prophet, because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.” – the Lord is giving this light and grace to a prophet not just for the prophet, but for all those who receive him – when we accept an authentic prophet, we receive the light and even the warning the guidance that the Lord wants to give and often consolation and hope – St. Paul says often messages can be encouragement, consolation and hope, which is one of the greatest needs of our society, today – when people lose hope, so the messages the Lord gives us strengthens us, not in human hope, but in Divine hope – solid eternal hope – a true prophetic message always leads to God and leads to eternal life , that is the great reward of drawing a closer union with God – in these very difficult times in our country and Church that we are living right now – Father thinks God is continuing to send His prophets, His prophetic messages – true prophetic messages always leads to Jesus, He is the solution to all that is going on in our country right now and that is the role of prophetic messages to guide us to Jesus – so the Creed reminds us the Holy Spirit has spoken through the prophets – Revelations of St. John says, “ Let he who has ears hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.”  – with our Blessed Mother, today let us have ears to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church, today…Amen