Some people have asked us for text versions of Fr. John Mary’s homilies, so we are sharing this AI generated transcript. It has not been reviewed by Fr. John Mary. The AI is very accurate, but not one hundred percent. If something seems significantly wrong, please consult original audio and let us know if there is a problem. 

Also, it is good to keep in mind that this homily was intended to be listened to, not read. It was preached from notes, and there was no original written document. Nuance can be lost when it is only read. 

Lastly the headings are not original but AI generated.

God Sends His Messengers to Invite Us

The King’s Invitation and God’s Messengers

The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come.

It’s striking to see the overlap between this Gospel and the Gospel we heard last week, because there are many similarities. Last Sunday, we heard about the owner of the vineyard who sent his servants to collect the fruits. This Sunday, we hear about a king who sends his servants to invite people to a wedding. In both cases, God sends messengers, and in both cases, they are treated terribly.

Does this shed light on the situation we’re living in now—the situation of the reconquest? Let’s look more closely at these similarities. First, God is sending messengers. We know who the King represents: the King of Kings, our Lord. When people don’t respond to His invitation, He sends more servants with an even stronger invitation.

Who are these servants? They are the prophets. That isn’t just my personal reading of the parable; it is how the Church has traditionally understood it. Scripture is full of examples of God sending His messengers, His prophets. We see this commonly in the Old Testament, but God has continued to do it.

Last week, we mentioned some famous examples from Church history: Saint Catherine of Siena, who came to speak to the Pope; Saint Bridget of Sweden; Saint Vincent Ferrer; and Saint Faustina, who has such an important role here. God’s messengers did not appear only in the Old Testament. Throughout Church history, God has continued to send prophetic voices, and He is still doing so today.

I think this is very important for the situation we’re living in now and for the mission of our little Divine Mercy mission. Some people think we’re doing something strange or extreme by listening to people who say they are receiving a message from the Lord. But listening to the messengers God sends is almost nothing but traditional. Scripture and the faith are rooted in these messengers.

Of course, we have to discern whether a particular messenger is truly from the Lord or is a false prophet. The Catechism says that the faithful, guided by the Church, know how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or His saints to the Church.

Any particular messenger—including the messages we’re sharing—has to be discerned. But the fact that God continues to send messengers, especially in a difficult time like ours, is important. There is so much confusion and deception, and so many attacks from the evil one. If God did not send messengers today, with all these attacks and all this corruption in the Church, I would say it would be His fault. There is such a need today. God has sent messengers to His people for millennia, so it is not strange to think He would especially send them now. I think it is strange for a Catholic to reject the possibility.

Learning to Discern

The Lord began to lead us on this path about 30 years ago. As I’ve often mentioned, two ladies in Monterey came to me saying they were receiving locutions. I began investigating and trying to understand what was happening. In my formation, we weren’t taught how to discern this. I don’t think almost any seminaries or houses of formation teach it.

We were given something like an unwritten rule: stay away from that stuff. But that isn’t a criterion for discernment. As I began trying to discern, I paid more attention to Scripture. What does Scripture, the Word of God, say about the possibility of God continuing to send messengers?

As I became more aware of it, I began seeing that this happens throughout Scripture, not only in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament. There are many signs of God continuing to do this. I think the Gospels from last week and this week are also strong signs.

So that is the first key point: God sends His messengers. He has done so from the beginning and throughout the history of the Church, and He continues to do so today.

Who Receives the Messengers—and How?

The second point is: Who are these messengers being sent to, and how do the people they are sent to respond?

First, they are sent to the religious authorities. Notice that this Gospel, like last week’s, is Jesus speaking to the chief priests and Pharisees—the religious authorities who are so opposed to Him. He is saying this just a few days before they will conspire to put Him to death. I say “conspire” because we often hear the words “conspiracy theory,” as if something can be dismissed just by calling it that. But Jesus was killed by a conspiracy.

These religious leaders, who should have been most aware of and open to Him, became His greatest obstacles. How do they treat the messengers? At first, they ignore them. Then, when the king sends more, they seize his servants, mistreat them, and kill them.

In the same Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says that prophets will be treated this way. There is the beatitude, “Blessed are you when men mistreat you and say all sorts of false things against you.” That is how the prophets have been treated. The great messenger of God, the Son of God Himself, who is telling this parable, is about to be killed by them in a few days. There is great intensity in what He is saying.

A little later in the Gospel, Jesus says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you.” Imagine that you are sick, and someone who knows you are sick sends a doctor. You respond by killing the doctor. It wouldn’t make sense. But that is what Jesus is talking about: God sends us the light and the truth we need, and so often the response is to kill the prophets and stone those who are sent.

It’s easy for us to say, “That’s terrible, the way they did that.” But we have to ask ourselves: Is that happening today? If God continues to send messengers, are we accepting the messengers He sends today?

I think if you’re here, there’s an openness to that. But in the Church, it is a big question. It’s easy to say, “How terrible that the Jewish authorities killed the prophets,” but how are the authorities in the Church today receiving those God is sending now? It is easy to recognize the prophets who came 3,000 years ago—to recognize Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and the messages they gave to the people of their time. The essential thing is whether we can recognize the messengers God is sending to us today.

The Consequences of Rejecting the Messengers

The authorities didn’t just refuse the invitation, which is already very serious. They persecuted, tortured, and killed God’s messengers. The Gospel says the king was enraged, sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. There were very serious consequences for obstinately rejecting, persecuting, and killing God’s messengers.

Last Sunday, I mentioned that many traditionally drew a parallel with events about 40 years after Jesus spoke: the Jews revolted against Rome, and Rome responded by laying siege to Jerusalem and destroying the city. That wasn’t God taking revenge; it was the consequences that rejecting God brings upon us.

Another famous example we’ve often cited is the messages Our Blessed Mother gave at Fatima to the three children. Those messages included a special message addressed to the authorities in the Church, as well as warnings about the terrible consequences for the Church and the world if they were not heeded.

I say this because people—especially people in the Church hierarchy—often treat this as a weird little subject that some pious old ladies are interested in. They think they are doing the serious work through synods, commissions, administration, and so on. But there is nothing more serious for the Church to do than to listen to and discern the messengers God is sending. The consequences of doing so or not doing so are extremely serious.

I’m not saying anything new. Many of you have heard me say this many times. The point I’m trying to make is how much this message appears throughout Scripture, including in the Gospels we heard last week and this week.

Messages for the Church’s Leaders

How does this apply today? God continues to send His messengers to everyone, but in a special way to the religious authorities and the authorities of the Church, because of their particular responsibility.

In our situation, when the sister began receiving her messages, the Lord had us arrange a meeting with the Archbishop in the very first months. He also gave a special message to the Archbishop. We had the meeting, and then there were other messages for the Archbishop and for the other bishops, but there was basically no interest.

When the public reconquest messages began in February 2024, the Lord spoke very strongly first of all to His priests and bishops, as a father. I’ll quote from that message: “I need your help, sons. I called you, I created you for this hour, that you might help me and help your brothers.” He is speaking as a father calling His beloved sons to help Him.

In that same message, I think, He says what they have done with His messengers. Again, that is what these Gospels are talking about. He says, “For years, you have been deaf to my voice.” Think how serious it is for the pastors of the Church, who are supposed to be its teachers and leaders, to be deaf to God’s voice.

He says, “For years you have been deaf to my voice, that speaks in these small voices, small voices scattered throughout the world, and in each age of the church.” We’ve mentioned Saint Faustina, a nun hidden in her convent, who had a message especially for our time. I think the messages we’re sharing here are one example among many throughout the world today—small voices scattered throughout the world and in each age of the Church.

The Lord says, “You have cast them aside, considering them superfluous, just imaginings of unstable minds.” Imagine the pastors of the Church casting aside the messengers God is sending. That is terrible, but it is what has happened throughout salvation history. They are treated as superfluous, as if our human ideas were more important than the messages God might be sending.

When I think of my own experience bringing messages in Monterey, in my diocese, and to pastors of the Church—bishops and priests—this is an accurate description of how many have responded. There are exceptions, thanks be to God. Saint John Paul II was one: he was very open and did much to promote Saint Faustina. There are exceptions today, too, but they are exceptions.

The Lord gives them time—a generous time, but a limited one. He calls it “one hour.” He says, “I wait for you, sons, one more hour, because the time is running out, the time is pressing.” But He still stretches out that time to give them what He calls one more hour. It is not one hour by our reckoning; it is much longer. That message was given in February.

Then, in November 2024, He said, “It is the time of decision for my priests, sons, and bishops. The hour is coming to a close. Choose, sons.” He is calling them to make a choice.

Then, in May 2025, He said, “The hour given to those who should be shepherds and guardians has passed.” Notice that He says, “Those who should be shepherds and guardians.” He is saying that they are not acting like shepherds and guardians. He continues, “Their hour, if they have not chosen, has passed.”

The Lord also speaks about the messengers themselves. On May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, 2024, He said, “How much pain has been caused to my little messengers, the voices entrusted with our voice to carry our words to you. I do not forget their pain, nor the humiliations they were subjected to, which is their glory now.”

He remembers the pain caused to the messengers—the voices entrusted with His voice to carry His words. In the Gospel, when those first invited reject the invitation, the king extends it much more widely: “Go out therefore into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.”

The invitation is not just for the authorities in the Church. The Lord says, “I gather you now in my army. I call to you from every corner of the world, and from any situation you are in.” He extends the invitation to anyone who will respond, from any situation: the poor, the little, and those whom nobody would count—those who seem, as Saint Paul says, to be of no value. He is calling all of us, poor sinners.

The Invitation and the Wedding Feast

What are the messages about? We’ve looked first at the fact that the Lord sends messengers, and then at who He sends them to and how they respond. Last Sunday, the messengers came asking for the fruit owed to the owner. This Sunday, they bring an invitation. The messages the Lord has given us call His luminous army to the great battle of His reconquest—the very difficult battle we are already in.

But beyond the battle is the wedding feast. The Bride, His mystical Bride, the Church, is called to suffer with Him in the great tribulation and to be united with Him in glory forever.

What is this great wedding feast? We’ve often spoken about the Book of Revelation, which says, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” We hear these words right before Holy Communion every Sunday. The Bride is His Church, and each of the faithful is betrothed to Christ, to become one spirit with Him. Ultimately, all God’s messages lead toward union with Him.

Listening with Our Blessed Mother

To conclude, let us remember our Blessed Mother, who, as Saint Elizabeth said, is blessed because she believed there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. The Lord is asking us to believe what He is saying to us through His messengers today. With our Blessed Mother, let us listen.

I’ll conclude with this prophecy we heard from Isaiah about the great feast—the prophetic image of the feast the Lord is preparing for His Bride. You can close your eyes to listen, if you wish:

“On this mountain, the Lord of Hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines. He will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face. The reproach of His people He will remove from the whole earth. On that day, it will be said, ‘Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us. This is the Lord for whom we looked. Let us rejoice and be glad that He has saved us.’”

Amen.