Mary’s message at Medjugorje on March 25, 2010: Dear children! Also today I desire to call you all to be strong in prayer and in the moments when trials attack you. Live your Christian vocation in joy and humility and witness to everyone. I am with you and I carry you all before my Son Jesus, and He will be your strength and support. Thank you for having responded to my call.
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Dear children! Also today I desire to call you all to be strong in prayer and in the moments when trials attack you. Live your Christian vocation in joy and humility and witness to everyone. I am with you and I carry you all before my Son Jesus, and He will be your strength and support. Thank you for having responded to my call.
This message ties nicely with many of the Sorrowful Mysteries. First, Mary asks us to be strong in prayer in times of great difficulty. This sounds very much like the First Sorrowful Mystery where Jesus prayed to the Father for strength before Judas betrayed Him and handed Him over to the authorities to be crucified. All too often we tend to move away from God in our trials of life or blame Him when bad things befall us. But Mary asks us to not only pray in these times, but remain joyful and humble in our faith for all to see.
Mary also talks of “carrying” us before Jesus Christ who will provide us strength and support. This reminds me of the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery where Jesus took up His cross. In my meditation on this rosary mystery I discuss how our love of God will help us through the difficult times in our life. Jesus ultimately overcame the pain and torment of the crucifixion by rising from the dead. Likewise, Mary reminds us that our faith and love in Jesus Christ will ultimately help us overcome any problems we encounter in this world. While some will overcome these trials in this life through the intercession of miracles, others may need to be patient as their comfort will come in the next one in the kingdom of Heaven.
Today’s rosary meditation focuses on the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery — Jesus Carries His Cross. This mystery encapsulates many of the Stations of the Cross. We see Jesus take up the cross, fall repeatedly, meet the mourning women, be stripped of his garments, and nailed to the cross. Like the other Sorrowful Mysteries, Jesus carrying His cross teaches us about the nature of suffering and that we are called to love God and do His Will despite any suffering we may encounter in our lives.
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Today’s rosary meditation focuses on the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery — Jesus Carries His Cross. This mystery encapsulates many of the Stations of the Cross. We see Jesus take up the cross, fall repeatedly, meet the mourning women, be stripped of his garments, and nailed to the cross. Like the other Sorrowful Mysteries, Jesus carrying His cross teaches us about the nature of suffering and that we are called to love God and do His Will despite any suffering we may encounter in our lives.
While carrying the cross, Jesus fell down repeatedly. His falling is significant since we dedicate three Stations of the Cross to it. And yet each time Jesus fell He got back up. But why did Jesus continue to get up and continue suffering at the hands of the Roman soldiers? He must have known that each time He got up His situation was only going to get worse as He became more tired and beaten and crucifixion was the only thing that awaited Him. Why didn’t He just give up and die where He lay and avoid the increasing pain and torment? What pushed Jesus to get back on His feet?
Jesus continued because He understood that the purpose of following God’s Will is not to avoid suffering and find comfort in this life. Just the opposite, our purpose in life is to follow God’s Will despite the suffering it may bring. Jesus followed God’s Will out of love for His Father and love for us. Jesus’ love was greater than the physical pain He felt and that is why He got back up and continued to His crucifixion. Likewise, God desires us to love Him despite the suffering we may encounter doing so. We know that part of loving someone is to make sacrifices at times. And while Jesus taking up His cross is an extreme example of this truth, this mystery reminds us that we are also called to love God regardless of our earthly situation.
We may think there is a huge difference between the Son of God mustering up the strength to carry on in the face of great suffering versus us finding it in our daily struggles. It is very common to question God’s plan when “the going gets tough” and we do not get what we want or what we think is fair. I often come across people on Catholic forums asking, “Why me?” “Why can’t I find a job?” “Why can’t I find a good spouse?” “Why did I get this illness?” “I pray every day, I go to Mass, I go to Confession, and I don’t commit any mortal sins so why does God make my life so difficult?” The answer to all these questions lies within this mystery. Suffering is part of this life while our reward for loving God and doing His Will will be part of the next. We endure the trials of this life because our faith tells us that we will find comfort and relief in God’s Kingdom. Unfortunately, this is not the answer many of us want to hear. We want instant miracles. We want our problems to disappear. We would love God to “bail us out” immediately when we pray to Him. However, we do not see the big picture as God sees it. What we see as monumental suffering now in this life ultimately amounts to nothing compared to the glory of Heaven that awaits us in the next life. At the same time, following God’s Will, even in the face of great suffering, will yield tremendous happiness and comforts in Heaven. And in the end, finding eternal happiness in Heaven is all that really matters, not the momentary suffering and comforts in this world.
We should pray for all those who have “fallen” in life that they find the strength to get back up and follow God’s plan. We should pray for those who think God has abandoned them when in fact God is right here pushing them to work through their troubles. We should pray for those who do not follow God’s Will just to reap the comforts of this life at the cost of comforts in the next one. We should pray for the understanding that we love God most when we follow Him regardless of the earthly consequences. Finally, we should pray for the faith that all earthly suffering will be relieved when we enter into our true home, God’s kingdom of Heaven.
The rosary has the ability to heal and mend what is broken in our lives. Fr. Dwight Longenecker, on Catholic Online, discusses how praying the rosary brings us inner peace by replacing all that is earthly with what is heavenly.
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The rosary has the ability to heal and mend what is broken in our lives. Fr. Dwight Longenecker, on Catholic Online, discusses how praying the rosary brings us inner peace by replacing all that is earthly in our life with what is heavenly.
From the article:
In a mysterious way Christ’s perfect life and the perfect love he shared with his mother, flow into the wounded places in our lives. This grace empowers us to return to the confessional with a clearer vision. It helps us to be open to the healing Christ brings through the Eucharist, and it gives us the strength to continue the daily hard work of being transformed into Christ’s image.
I really like this idea of replacing our “wounded places” with Christ’s love. It goes hand-in-hand with many of the message from Mary at Medjugorje when she asks us to clean out all that prevents us from fully accepting God’s graces.
The article also discusses how our lives mimic the values and themes seen in each mystery of the rosary:
Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical Rosarium Virginis Mariae writes, “The rosary marks the rhythm of human life, bringing it into harmony with the rhythm of God’s own life.”
Pope John Paul II said that we can reflect on all the joys, sorrows, and challenges in our lives by looking at the ones shown in the mysteries of the rosary. Over time, through rosary prayer, our ways begin to mimic Jesus’ ways revealed in those mysteries. For example, we see Jesus taking up the cross in the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery. We know that Jesus fell down repeatedly and yet He always got back up and continued on. We can learn that we all have our “crosses” in life and at times we might fall (either by sin or just lacking faith and spiritual energy). However, to imitate Jesus we must get up and continue working towards His kingdom.
The next time we pray the rosary, let us ask ourselves what each mystery reveals about our own lives. Are we imitating what Jesus did in those mysteries or are we ignoring His teachings and example?
