When God Intervenes…

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author. 

“Jesus was transfigured before them, His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light.” Today, we have two great manifestations of God and our messed up, confusing world full of a lot of evil, we have two interventions of God. One is Abraham that we have in the first reading, and then this one we just heard in the Gospel the transfiguration. And I think these have a special meaning for us today, for this little Mission of Divine Mercy and for this reconquest that the Lord has begun. And so, let’s look at these two. One to Abraham; it began simply as God calling one person, and from that call to one person, it would have immense consequences for billions of people. Because that one person and those of his household, responded faithfully. And then the second one in the transfiguration was this amazing Transfiguration, but it was only to three people. Only three people saw it. And we know that Scripture is full of these manifestations of God, of these interventions of God. These are, like, the key points in Scripture. For instance, think of Abraham. There was a whole bunch of stuff going on at that time. You know, there was a bunch of people doing a bunch of stuff. We don’t know most of it, but scripture highlights Abraham, because these are the key points, these moments in which God intervenes. And when we are closed to these interventions of God, and Scripture gives a lot of examples of people being closed to which belongs to Jesus Christ. The Church belongs to God, and He can do what He wants. It’s His church. He can do what He wants with His Church. So, He has set up a structure, a structure of hierarchy that He wants us to normally follow; but in times of deep crisis, God can also act in extraordinary ways. He is not limited to how He can act, and if those who are in positions of authority are not listening, God can act in different ways. Bishop Strickland, I would encourage everybody to be following the messages that Bishop Strickland is giving now. He gives them often, once or twice a week, and they’re, I think, extremely inspired. So, I would invite you to look and see. The Church is in an emergency. How many Catholics do you think know the Church is in an emergency? How many priests know? How many bishops know? It seems that most of them don’t seem to know, because they don’t seem to be acting as if there was an emergency. They seem to be acting as it’s kind of same old, same old. Oh yeah. The Church has always had its ups and downs, and you know, we’re going through one right now. But no, Bishop Strickland, and Bishop Strickland is one of the few bishops who has the courage to speak openly, and that’s why he was removed from his post. But he continues to speak strongly. He says the Church is in an emergency. He says, a real emergency measured not in feelings, but in facts, an emergency measured by silence, when there must be answers, silence when there should be answers. He says, the Church does not need more silence. What he means is the pastors being silent when they should be speaking. He says, The Church does not need more silence. She does not need more delay form of surrender, when continuing to wait becomes a form of surrender. And then he says, that moment has arrived. That moment has arrived. We’re living that moment in which we need to speak, we need to act. And so, this all has special relevance, and these readings today are, I think, especially relevant to our little mission. Yesterday, March 28 was the second anniversary of the beginning of the reconquest. And over 30 years ago, some of us received a promise of manifestations, a promise from the Lord of manifestations, which would involve great mercies and graces, many conversions and healings that would lead many to the faith. So that was 30 years ago. I’ve often talked about that when I was in Monterey, and several of us were there, some of us now in the community. And so that time, 30 years ago, was for a number of us, kind of ……….so let’s look at that, that reading, that first reading about Abraham. It says, “The Lord said to Abraham, go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.” Notice that God doesn’t give him a GPS coordinate. He doesn’t tell them where. He just says, I’ll show you. And this passage has been very important to us. I know it’s been very important to me. So Abraham is 75 years old when he receives this surprising call to set out with his household, with his family, and he doesn’t know where. All he knows is that God will guide him. And he and Sarah have been childless, and now they’re very old, but the Lord makes an extraordinary promise – I will make a great nation of you. And then many years go by and go by and go by and they’re still childless. There’s no sign of the fulfillment of that promise. And it makes me think of I mean that this Abraham’s been an inspiration for us here at MDM. As I say, we had that call 30 years ago in Monterey, and it began a long, difficult time without seeing many results. It’s been a long time, and so often the path we don’t know where exactly the Lord is leading it’s often very obscure. St John of the Cross talks about a dark night that God leads us along this dark night, and that’s been so much what our path has been. And then something happened, and I’ve shared this on some other occasions, but I wanted to, I thought today it would be good to share it again. So, this was June of 2023, so a couple years ago, we had just made our annual community retreat, our weeklong community retreat. The Lord has wanted that to be our desert day, our quiet day, and so at Mass that night, the reading was precisely this first reading from Abraham that we just heard today about Abraham. And as I was listening to the reading, I sensed something surprising. I sensed that the Lord there was a new meaning when the Lord says to Abraham, he says, “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk in your father’s house to a land that I will show you. And what I began sensing, what surprised me was that the Lord had a new meaning for us right now. That the Lord was asking us to make a change, to make a move, not a physical move, to another place, but to change our situation by beginning to share His messages publicly, these messages that we had kept, we had had to keep quiet for many years. And so that would not mean leaving the Church. I think the Lord would never ask us to leave His Church, but it would mean leaving our old way of being in the Church, in which we had been very quiet and discreet about these prophetic messages and also about what they say about the corruption at the highest levels of the Church. And so. this would mean letting the Lord speak out boldly about the crisis in the Church, as Bishop Strickland said, that this emergency in the Church. And so it would mean leaving the familiar situation that we were in and setting out again, not physically, but changing things, and we don’t know exactly where this will go. How you know. And we knew, and we had already experienced in San Antonio in our efforts to try to share these messages with the archbishop and the other bishops. But it’s not just here in San Antonio. It’s most places that there’s a lot of prophetic words. And so, this was very daunting. It was very intimidating to contemplate this, because we knew it would have grave consequences, and we’d been working to gradually build up this little mission for over 20 years, and we knew that this could destroy our mission. Could destroy all that we’d been devoted our life to, and we would probably be called schismatics, we might well be declared excommunicated. And so, I was dreading this. I knew that there would come a time that we’d have to share His messages. But I thought, and I thought I’d understood from earlier messages that that time would not come until He had given the manifestations He had promised. He had promised these great manifestations, and once that happens, it will be much easier for many people to believe. But this was also surprising. It seemed like He was asking us to begin sharing His messages before the manifestations. And so, who’s going to believe us? Who’s going to believe these extremely controversial messages? And what proof we can just say, Well, God told us to do that. Well, yeah, what proof do we have? Well, we don’t. What proof did Abraham have that he should do this? I don’t know if, I don’t know if people asked him on this journey. Abraham, are you sure? Are you sure God asked you to do this? So, we felt the messages were very, there’s great truth, great hope in these messages, in a world that needs hope, a lot of consolation, but also it was denouncing very clearly the evil in the Church. And we knew that would be very shocking, and of course, it would be rejected. When you’re saying that about the Church, that people who the message says are not the authentic pastors, they’re actually usurpers. How do you expect them to respond? And so, as I said, this was very daunting. And I want to make clear that this did not come as a message. I mean, it wasn’t like Sister received this message. It was something that I perceived and not even like clear words, but just kind of like a quiet, gentle but strong, deep perception, like a new realization that this time had come. And so, this was like, actually a lot of our most important decisions, like the decision to found the community or to buy this property, it didn’t come from a prophetic message, but it came from like something I sensed interiorly. And I mean, that’s often the way God speaks through interior lights and understanding. And I think that had advantages, because it made it clear that the mission wasn’t because some people might say, Oh, the mission is just kind of remote controlled by people who say they’re getting prophetic messages. And so, this was my role as the guardian that Lord is sharing this to me, but I couldn’t be 100% sure. I mean, this was a big decision which would affect not just me, but the whole mission, and I couldn’t be 100% sure. I thought it was from the Lord, but I could be wrong. And so, it needed discernment, and so I didn’t feel I should make this decision alone, and I discussed it with the community and also, we didn’t want to rush into this, because it was such an important decision, we wanted to take time to discern. So, we took months to pray, to discuss, to discern, to consider this. And over time, unanimously, we came to the conclusion that God did want us to do this, in spite of how, what the consequences might be. And this was very difficult for an organization to make such a radical decision without being destroyed, without being ripped apart. And I thought that might be one of the reasons the Lord has left our community, our little mission so small. Because if we had been bigger, it would have been much harder to make this decision again without rippingour community apart. It was very striking to me that our community made this decision unanimously. And so during these months where we were trying to discern, I was attentive to see this had not come through a message, but I was attentive to see if the messages seemed to say no stop, don’t do that. Or if they seem to confirm the direction. In fact, no message did say no stop, you’re making a big mistake. Don’t do that. Rather, the messages subtly but clearly, I think, were affirming it. In fact, they even went back and read the messages, because often during our retreat, the Lord would give some messages to our community. And I went back and found two messages that he had given during the retreat. And one, this was a personal one to me just so this was again, just a few days earlier. It said, “a little while longer, and I will unleash you. I will unleash the truth that shall pierce through all barriers and reach the depths of each soul to set them free.” So, a few days earlier, I had forgotten this. It had been talking about unleashing.And then there was a message to the whole community during the retreat. And I’ll read it was kind of a very solemn message, short, but solemn. It said, “the mystery of God, the Eternal One, thunders from on high, from His throne upon the Cherubim.” And here’s what particularly struck me. It said, so it’s kind of mysterious. It says, “one time and my preparation will conclude. One more time, and the chains that bind will be loosed, then shattered, and a third time more, and what has remained hidden shall be unveiled. What has been kept in darkness and obscurity shall be brought out into full daylight. Soon and very soon, all prophecies will be fulfilled, all prompts born, all humiliation to open the way of salvation. I who have poured myself onto every living thing that they might have life, I will do it. I will accomplish.” But He’s giving three stages. He says, one time and My preparation will conclude. So, the preparation will conclude. And then he says one more time, and the chains that bind will be loosed, then shattered, so the preparation concluding, and then the chains. And I think that’s the way we felt, having to keep these messages quiet and not being able to respond as we’d want. It’s like being chained. And he’s saying the chains that bind will be loosed, then shattered. Then the next stage, He says, a third time, and what has remained hidden shall be unveiled. What has been kept in darkness and obscurity shall be brought out into full daylight.” And all these years, our community has had to keep these messages from the Lord hidden in darkness and obscurity, and that’s what I felt he was saying would be unveiled. So that was actually before, that was during the retreat, and then a few days after, I had sensed this thing just, I think two days later, he gave another message, another message to me, and it was striking that he referenced Abraham, which was very significant. And then He also said, in that message, He said, a new phase is beginning, in our plan before you, do not fear. He emphasized that a new phase is beginning. Do not fear. “Yes, I am breaking chains so that what must be free may be free.” So that seemed to me a confirmation. He wasn’t saying, Stop. He was saying, I am breaking the chains. Do not be afraid. Because I was afraid. I was very afraid. I don’t like doing something so controversial, and I don’t like being called schismatic, disobedient, called excommunicated. So, I was afraid, and I won’t go into all the other messages, but there was a number of other messages, which all seemed, many seemed to indirectly confirm this step. And so, this call of Abraham that we read today was very significant, the Lord asking us to move forward towards what He promised. Then today we also have this transfiguration. So, to prepare His apostles for the great trial of the passion, He gave three of them this grace of the Transfiguration, to see Him in His glory. And the Lord has promised there will be manifestations here which would be graces of great mercy and conversion and renewal, also purifying and healing and giving strength. He said these manifestations would prepare for the illumination of consciences. That is that moment in which everybody will have a special light from God, to know the truth of God, and also to know the truth of their souls, the situation of their souls. And also, these would also prepare us for the storms, because he says, there’s great storms, tribulation coming, and also to prepare us for the deceptions of the Antichrist. And so, He even said that all those, I mean, this is extraordinary, He says that all those who come to the mission at that point will witness these manifestations. So, it won’t just be, you know, a handful of visionaries. It will be all who come. And so, I want to, I’ll just read you an excerpt from one message. This was a message that of the reconquest. So, a public message. This was given in May 21, 2024 and he’s talking about, it’s called the strength of a new Pentecost. And so, He’s talking about first the need to see His face. He says “this preparation requires that you see the face of my Jesus, His true face, not the disordered one that many of you have learned and that now causes you so much confusion and anguish, because not being the truth, it wounds your soul.” And here, Sister added a footnote. She says, “I sense that seeing the face of my Jesus is referring to knowing Him in truth, and not as He has so often been presented to us, the taking away of His royalty, of His suffering, of His divinity, and turning Him into a simply, into a simple, idealistic social worker.” Our souls desire the true image of the face of God, and this is why these distortions wound the deepest longing of our soul to see and know God. And then she continues, “it is also reference to the grace they have promised to grant when their manifestations come to the little hill, to Tepeyac and when we see the apparitions, their faces would become engraved on our souls as a consolation, but especially as a protection. I perceive that it is a necessary grace in order to be able to resist the seductions of the Antichrist, who will try to pass himself as the Christ. And that is why it is of great importance to be able to recognize the true face of Jesus and His name in any situation, and why they will engrave them on their souls.” So, the message continues. “We will show you our faces, and you will carry them in your souls as jewels and as shields. But before you receive them children, you must be purified in faith.” Then a little bit later, the message says, “I remind you once again of what happened to my beloved sons, my beloved apostle sons at Pentecost, they were transformed and strengthened in order to fulfill the mission entrusted to them at all cost and sparing no sacrifice. The Most Holy Spirit of God descended into their hearts and completed and sealed their preparation. It will be the same with you little children.” And remember, this was not a private message. This was a public message given to all those responding to the reconquest. “It will be the same with you little children. Do not be afraid. What you live now each of you, each in such varied circumstances, is part of this preparation prior to His coming.” And so, I think again, this is not talking about His final coming, but His coming through this manifestation. “Yes, children, what has been promised will be fulfilled. What has been announced will take place. The rivers of grace will flow from my little hill and will gather all the pure waters that the Father has brought forth in each continent, people and region, because the Holy Spirit is acting in places all throughout the world.” Then she says, “The New Pentecost that will seal the preparation of my army and ready it for the battle in which all the forces of evil will be gathered as well.” And so, like the transfiguration was a preparation for the trial of the cross, and then the Pentecost was a preparation for all the challenges the apostles would face that these manifestations the Lord is speaking of, it’s to prepare us that will be especially powerful, to prepare us for the extreme difficulty of the tribulation that will come.  And so, to conclude. So, I’m sharing this with you today because I think it concerns all of us. We’re talking about things that are happening right now, right now, and which involve even this little mission. And so that’s why these times are so difficult, and why following the Lord today is so difficult, is often obscurity, confusion, tensions, divisions, a lot of sacrifice. But all this, all these trials and sacrifices, when we offer to the Lord, they’re preparing the graces that He wants to pour out on His children. And so, as we celebrate this holy sacrifice in union with our Blessed Mother, let us, like Abraham, respond to the Lord’s invitation to move forward in faith and to offer our sacrifices to Him for the salvation of souls, for a new Pentecost.  Come Holy Spirit, come Lord Jesus. Amen. 

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Matthew 17:1-9
Genesis 12:1-4