April 7, 2024 / Divine Mercy Sunday
We are living dark times of evil. But God’s Mercy is infinitely greater. I want to share a message He gave us of great hope in His action in our times.
This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable. It has not been verified by the author.
“Blessed are those who do not see, and yet believe.” We have today, this gospel of the apparition of Jesus, through His apostles. Two apparitions, first to His apostles without Thomas and then with Thomas. And Jesus then speaks of the blessing of those who believe without demanding signs, miraculous signs. And your presence here today, because a lot of you are familiar with that we’ve been sharing words that we think our Lord is giving our community, but not for us to keep, but for us to share. And one of the things He’s talked about is great manifestations that will happen on this little Tepeyac hill. But they haven’t happened yet. And so a lot of people say we’re crazy. We’re just making this up, were deluded, or disobedient, or divisive, and so forth. And so your presence here today, without seeing, like, the signs, but just being drawn is, I think, it was both it’s very encouraging for us. But I think it’s also a sign of what the Lord is talking about, the blessing given to those who believe without seeing. Jesus said to Saint Faustina, “mankind will not have peace, until it turns with trust to my mercy.” And we know that Saint Faustina received many great prophetic words, and that her great prophetic words were condemned by the Church, by the Vatican for many years. And it wasn’t until the future John Paul II, who was very devoted to those words, knowing them from his growing up in Poland, began investigating them more carefully, that they were removed from that condemnation and now celebrated. Celebrated and specially, he had such a great devotion to them, we have this great feast today. Sometimes people ask about what’s the relationship between our little Mission of Divine Mercy and the messages of St. Faustina, because there’s already organization’s congregations like the Marion’s of the Immaculate Conception in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and now also other groups who are doing such a good job of promoting the messages given to St. Faustina. So we appreciate that a lot. And I think our mission is a little bit different. I think it’s not just to promote her messages. But I think it’s to continue, I think, to continue like a next stage, and these in this great plans of Divine Mercy that the Lord has for our times. Because we know that these times are very difficult. And I think a lot of us feel our own sinfulness, our own weakness, our own wretchedness, our own misery, as sinners very heavily, trying to be faithful to the Lord, but feeling that we’re often so weak and that we fall over and over again. And also, we know so many people that we love, who we know that so many of them have lost the faith, have turned away. And so our heart aches also for them. The Lord knows how bad, how evil, how difficult these times are, how powerful satan is in these times. And so for that, He wants to express especially His infinite mercy, especially for our times, that God’s always been merciful. But He has special mercy for our time because He knows how difficult our times are. And one of the ways that He’s sharing the special graces and that struck our little mission just, it was just about a little bit more than a month ago that we published our first message. And that was a very difficult step for us to take. Because we knew that there would be a lot of backlash, a lot of sanctions against our little community and a lot of criticism. People think that what we’re doing is evil. Some have said it’s diabolical, and some have called the messages diabolical and so forth. So we knew, we expected that, we knew we were going to lose a lot of even a lot of good-hearted people who have turned back from the mission because they think what we’re doing is wrong or they don’t understand it. So we were expecting all of that. So it was it’s been a very difficult step of faith. Knowing that the Lord wanted us to take this step, but also knowing how difficult it was going to be. But one of the things which has been so, so helpful for us, is a great number of people who have responded. And many of them have said, The Lord’s been saying the same thing to us, or to me, about the state of the Church, about Jorge Bergoglio. About the situation with the Vatican, and or other people say, we, as soon as I heard those words, I sensed, I sensed them in my heart, I sensed the peace, I sensed the presence of the Lord in my heart. And so I’m going to read you something in a little bit. And what the Lord will be talking about how because a lot of the normal channels are blocked the way that a lot of the normal channels are, the pastors of the Church aren’t doing what they should be doing. So the Holy Spirit is often now using like subterranean channels, and which He Himself is inspiring people all over the world. And a lot of them have just kept quiet. A lot of them haven’t said anything to anyone, because they think, no one will believe me, everybody will just think I’m crazy. And then they said, “We’re so glad to hear someone saying this out loud.” So what we’re seeing, and so many of them are contacting us right now, what we’re seeing, are these like subterranean channels that the Holy Spirit has been preparing. And the Lord has been telling us all these years, He said, your sufferings are preparing souls to receive my words. And now we’re seeing the fruit of that. And so we’re seeing the way the Lord is already acting in a special way, the Holy Spirit, acting. And now He says He wants to now unite his army, which has been like this little scattered, scattered throughout the world. And now Him wanting to unite it. And this very beginning of the reconquest and the publication of these messages is a great new stage of Him beginning to gather and unite His army. And then He’s also spoken like He’s spoken to many, many, and many prophetic messages for a long time, and to many different persons, about a special Illumination of Conscience that is coming for our time, in which the Lord will give a special grace to each person. So that in the midst of all the lies and the distortions, and the confusion of our times, He will give a special grace of His light. So the person can see the truth of their own life, and the truth of our world, in the very light of God, not with all these lies and distortions. And so the Lord has very special graces for our time. And just us being here today, on this little hill, in this, on this feast of Divine Mercy, and this Mission of Divine Mercy in this year 2024, with the beginning of the reconquest, is part of God’s special plans for our time, and that you and I have been chosen to be part of His army for these times, not because we’re saints, not because we’re holy, not because we don’t have our own faults, but because God is merciful. And He is calling us not only to be the sinners that He forgives, but to also be His friends, that He can find a mission and this great reconquest. And so that’s what we’re here today on this little hillside right now. And He’s turning on the spotlight. I wish He would turn it down a little bit, but the spotlight is on. So I’ll tell you something. A week ago, we were reading the forecast and the forecast said we’re predicting thunderstorms for right now. We said, Oh, and Mother Magdalene said that we need to ask God the Father to take care of the weather. And I think He’s done a very good job. So thank you. But so what I wanted to do today on this very special moment is share with you. You know, the Lord’s been speaking to us for many years, and we haven’t been able, we’ve wanted to but we haven’t been able to publish those messages because they were prohibited. And so now that we feel that we need to do this, I want to share one of those messages with you. This was given last year, and it was given to the Amici Christie, the Amici Christie’s our lay branch, and every Friday, before Divine Mercy Sunday, we have a special little mini retreat for them as they prepare to make their commitments. And so last year, the Lord gave a special message for them right at preparing for Divine Mercy Sunday. And I want now to share this message with you all and it’s kind of a long message, so you won’t be able to remember it all. We’re recording this and hopefully the recording works. So recording this homily, so that you can hear it, if you want to later on, you can listen to it again. But you won’t be able to remember all these words you don’t have to. More than with your mind, let the word sink into your heart and soul, even beyond what you remember, understand, you don’t have to understand it all. Remember what Scripture says about our Blessed Mother. It says, When the word of Jesus at His at his finding Him in the temple, it says that they didn’t understand the words of Jesus. But Mary kept them in her heart and pondered them. And so we can follow the example of our Blessed Mother and ponder these words in our heart, even if we don’t understand it all, but letting them sink with their graces into our heart. As I say, it’s kind of a long message. My beloved friends, I rejoice to see you gathered around me, spending this time with me, and offering me your love, as I offer you mine. Yes, I offer to my love, how much you need it, and how much I need to give it to you. Be at peace, my children in this world that is descending more and more into chaos, into the nothingness and darkness of sin in my absence, my apparent absence. And here’s sister added a footnote she said, I sense that this absence of his is twofold. On one hand, it is because he has been rejected, cast out from most of our society, willed by man but instigated by the enemy. On the other hand, it is because it is part of the agony that the church must go through the total apparent, abandonment by God, apparent the absence of God in the human moral realm, and the absence of God in the spiritual realm. Either one is terrible, but when they are combined, how painful and how terrifying. So that was the footnote she added. So she was the one who received this message. So he goes on, I am your anchor. And where is your anchor? In Heaven. In Heaven, my children, far above the maelstrom of the raging spiritual battle, far above all sin, far above all darkness, infinitely far above hell. That is why the more the battle rages, the more that darkness and confusion envelop everything. You must look up at me, at heaven, at our light, at our love. Otherwise, children, darkness will envelop you too and despair will lay hold of your heart, and hope will be stifled. Look up at me, my children, I have conquered, that the gates of heaven might be open to you once more. I have obeyed in everything that you might have life. I have offered everything to the Father, that you might be with me forever. Forever, my children conquer with me, obey with me. Offer with me. You are my friends, and I am yours. I just want to interject that because now this new situation, we’re finally able to share these messages openly. So he continues, I see your hearts. I see the pain you carry. I see the sacrifices you make that no one sees. I see the efforts in the work, no one appreciates. But I do. I see. I know. I appreciate. And as you have given all these things to me, I unite them to all my pain, all my hidden work, all my effort, and I offer it all to the Father. Nothing is lost or is fruitless when you offer it to me. My children, be on your guard. Be at peace. More and more see with my eyes beyond the appearances of this world. For now more than ever before. The enemy is using all his wiles to distort reality, to confuse, to hide and stab, to destroy all my works. And if he cannot destroy, he tries to contaminate, wound, and attack you relentlessly Be on guard children, look at me. Look at your Jesus to remember where your hope is, what reality is, who the victor is, who loves you, who your anchor is. Only your Jesus. These are the times when your faith must be tried and strengthened, that it may be heroic and steadfast. You have my help, and the help of my mother and yours, and that of my heavenly army, and of all your brothers and sisters who are in Paradise, and those who are being purified. All of us surround you children during these hours of trial, pain and darkness, how much this pain seeps into your souls, my little ones, I know, pain and sorrow have seen so many fall at feeling yourself so weak, and that seen all the woundedness in the world, and in my church. My poor, poor church, so battered, a very little of it remains sound. And soon it will be entirely like me, betrayed, abandoned, scourged, crucified, mocked, and insulted, and laid in the tomb. Do not abandon my church, but rather pray for it, and offer it to the Father covered in my blood. And in the blood of all my martyrs, the physical and mystical blood, that atones in practice that mystical that is all our sacrifices, that atones and cleanses, plead the tears of my mother, and of all the hearts that love me, that it may be purified and raised. And here, there’s a little section and beautiful section about Lazarus, the friend of Jesus that He raised up. Lazarus from Bethany that he raised from the dead. But I’m going to omit that part not to be too long. But he speaks of the special friendship of Lazarus with him, and Lazarus’ fidelity. You are my friends, too. And you too, are undergoing the second great darkness. The second great darkness. The first great darkness, of course, was when it was on Holy Saturday. But he’s saying that we are living through now, as members of the church, the second great darkness as the church follows Jesus and his passion. You are undergoing the second great darkness. You are not alone. Just as in that terrible hour of my crucifixion, the life of the spirit was never more active or present. So it is now again, behind the dreadful appearances, the light of faith and of hope, and the endless work of the reconquest is taking place. Bind these words to your heart, write them upon your mind, repeat them to yourself, so as to remain steadfast, those who stood by my cross with me, and those who obeyed from afar, stood and obeyed, because my words had penetrated to the depths of their soul. And though all human appearances and all the hatred of that hour said to them that it was all ended, that I was an imposter, that it was all futile. My words gave them light, and their faith and trust in them, and in me, allowed them to see beyond the darkness of what their eyes and their mind told them. That is why I insist on faith, trust, obedience. I want to mention something a lot of people are accusing the mission of being disobedient. It’s precisely by because we’re trying to be obedient to God, that we’re taking this steps. As St. Peter said to the religious leaders of his time, we must obey God rather than men. These are the only acts of your soul of your whole being that can pierce through the darkness and the lies of the enemy. My little ones, I am leading you up a very steep, rocky path. So maybe just a little climb up this little Tepeyac hill is a sign of the steep rocky path that he’s leading us up. So that’s what you can think of when you climb this hill. It doesn’t count if you come with a golf cart, right? My little ones, I am leading you up a very steep, rocky path, painful and exhausting. But I am leading you up high, beyond the reaches of the enemy and his words, he pulls out your every step, he places obstacle after obstacle, terrified that you are more and more out of his grasp. Do not fear I am leading you. Soon I will come to strengthen you. So that’s a great promise. Soon, I will come to strengthen you. The hour of great darkness is also the hour of the greatest mercies. The hour of the great darkness is also the hour of the greatest mercies, as and as the times are unprecedented in the denial of God, and the multiplication of sin and error, and in the betrayal to my children and to me. So these times are also unprecedented in grace and mercy, and the help that I give my children to help them continue on and survive. My children, look up at me, fix your gaze, your heart, your thoughts on me. Remember that I love you, that you belong to me, that I will not leave you bereft of my grace, and the helps that you need. They run deep beneath the surface, like an aquifer, invisible on the surface to your eyes, but present and active. And I’ll just make another comment here that this whole mission depends on aquifers, we have to dig very, very deep, to get those aquifers and especially as things are so dry, it’s sometimes a challenge some of the aquifers sometimes dry up. And so it’s a sign also the very, very aquifers that are under us right now are a sign of what he’s talking about. They run deep beneath the surface like an aquifer, invisible on the surface to your eyes, but present and active. Each act of faith, of love, of obedience, of humility, each offering up of your pain and frustration, of your not understanding of your fear. These all deepen and widen this divine reservoir and the depths of your soul. My beloved ones, do you see how you helped me to quench the terrible thirst that my children have been left to die in the terrible desert of sin by allowing yourselves to be filled with my divine water. By widening and deepening your souls through faith, you feed these souls that are dying. It is the hidden work of the Spirit that is taking place like never before. For the usual channels of grace are being blocked and polluted, eliminated. The streams of grace now must run underground, hidden, protected. And that’s what I said that we’re experiencing as so many people are contacting us, these hidden channels of the Holy Spirit’s grace. You do not feel like you are working, helping much in this divine reconquest. But I am showing you it is how you’re helping me. You are helping your brothers how I am at work and how my reconquest is taking place. Do not be deceived with false hopes of a human restoration of what is now crumbling down. Just as I told my apostles and disciples, do not be deceived by the idea of a human Messiah, who had freed them from the oppression of the Romans. No, our work children goes infinitely beyond human reconstructions. That is why it is so painful, so tiring, so crushing. And why an indomitable faith is necessary. This is the work I am calling you to and forming you for. The restoration and purification of my whole creation. The restoration and purification of my whole creation. A restoration not limited by and to time, or physical creation. And in this work, you are united to me to all the church, past, present, and future, on earth and in heaven. You are united to the Heavenly host, and to everything that I have brought forth into being. So he’s showing us the immense infinite scope of this work that we are called to. Help me, my children, my friends, my beloved friends, stand firm with me, look up at me and never fear. I am with you. Always. I love you. And I bless you, you are mine. And I am yours. Your Jesus, who will come to you soon. Will come to you soon. I don’t know what soon is. But he says I will come to you soon. And so he’s telling us that in these dark times that we’re living, they are also times of special grace and Divine Mercy. Now, these times that we’re living right now in this 2024, these times, in which the reconquest has begun. And here, this little Mission of Divine Mercy, this little Tepeyac is one of the little places scattered throughout the world, where he is where he is acting in a special way. And so with our Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Divine Mercy, we pray, Jesus, we trust in you. Amen.
And I want to say now, a few words in Spanish. So the rest of you can take a little nap while I’m doing this.
KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
John 20:19-31