Respond to the Mother’s Call to Come… She’ll Hook You!

(Medjugorje) Homily September 26, 2010

“We are all blessed, you and I, and my brother priests behind me. All of us have responded to the Mother’s call to come, to come and deepen our faith, to come and deepen our love in Her Son. We have come to be blessed; we have come to draw strength. How many are here for the first time? Please raise your hand. Praise God, wow, a lot of you for the first time.

Father Neil, from Hurricane, West Virginia in the United States has been to Medjugorje 19 times since 2002. He’s called Medjugorje the ‘septic tank of the world for sin.’

“This is my 19th trip since 2002; I would like to think that Blessed Mother has a lot more work for me to do, to become more refined. She hooked me back in 2002, and I try to be obedient to Mother Mary.

“We are challenged today. We were challenged yesterday by the message (September 25, 2010 monthly message for the world) we received from Our Blessed Mother, and I think very, very timely with our Gospel passage today.
 

“Because, what happened? Well, Father Abraham send someone to my brothers so they don’t have to go through this. We sent them Moses, we sent them the prophets, and they didn’t change. What more do you want? Do you think they are going to believe someone risen from the dead? The challenge to us is to repent, and how do we repent? We turn away! We turn away from what the world is preaching. We turn away from our sinfulness, which, you and I are going to constantly be in battle with. We are in a battle. The message yesterday from Our Blessed Mother tells us, we still have work to do.

“Look at our First Reading; ‘Woe to the complacent in Zion lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches. They eat lambs taken from the flock and calves taken from the stall, improvising to the music of the harp.’ Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Come on, this is not Heaven, and we are looking for Heaven here on earth. We are not to be living what the world is preaching to us today. And, that is what we are looking at.
 

“What happens, we come here to Medjugorje to be blessed, and we come to Medjugorje to receive strength and power to go out there and do battle. But, you know what happens? It is real easy to do it here. You leave here, you get on the plane, and you go home and Wham! You are scratching your head saying, ‘I need to get to Medjugorje.’ And, I have heard the voice saying, ‘Neil, you were just there last week.’

“Okay, listen to what She had to say, ‘Today I am with you and bless you all with my motherly blessing of peace, and I urge you to live your life of faith even more… (But Mom!) because you are still weak and are not humble. I urge you, little children, to speak less… (Wow!) and to work more on your personal conversion so that your witness may be fruitful. And may your life be unceasingly prayerful. Thank you for having responded to my call.’

“I urge you to speak less, and to work more. We are still weak, that’s right we are. Why are we weak? Why are we slacking off? Why will we leave here after having received so much blessing and strength, and go home and slack off? We have become complacent. We want to lay down on that bed of ivory and eat calves and lambs. And, we say someone else will do the battle. We are all in this together, this is a battle and we must continue to fight. We cannot become complacent.
 

“How can we become more united to Christ? You have one very, very powerful Sacrament that has to take place while you are here. You have to receive it! And, I’m not speaking of the Eucharist, which is also very important. How can you receive God’s Blessing if you are coated, covered, and sinking in sin? Do you know what this is out here? (Father points to the Confessionals) This is the septic tank of the world for sin, because it just floats and God takes it.
 

“We want to love God, we want to praise God. We don’t want to be complacent, but, satan and the world says, ‘It’s no big deal, it is no big deal.’ Face your weakness. Face your sin. Dump it while you are here. If you don’t go to Confession while you are here, you have missed out! Missed it! Wow, I’m glad I’m not in West Virginia in Father’s parish, he’s a kook!!!

“Think about it. When your drain is plugged up in the kitchen sink, you reach for Drano, or a snake to get things moving. You don’t go, ‘Oh well…’ No, but that’s what we do with what; with our soul. We have Eternal Life that we are looking for; this is our goal not this world. This is a means to an end and yes, at times it is difficult, but we have everything at our disposal.
 

“We have 29 years of messages. But, what do I do? ‘Oh, did you see the message from yesterday? Oh, well you know, humph! She was a little bit insulting. You know She urges us, and is telling us to speak less. Maybe on the Second of the Month, maybe She will say something to Mirjana that will be a little bit kinder. I like kind messages.’ That’s what we get wrapped into, that’s how we become lazy and complacent. ‘Oh, humph, it doesn’t fit me!’

‘No, we have the messages. Do you realize in reading the messages, there were times when She appeared, that She did not say anything; She was crying. Yeah, crying! Because of what? Because, we are not getting it, that’s why. And, that’s why we have been called, and thank you for saying yes.
 

“Some of you might have thought, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll go to Medjugorje, so and so have been, so I will go.’ No! You have been called. You are here for a reason or reasons, just like I and my brother priests are. And, we need your prayers because, you know what? If we fall down, guess what, there is no Eucharist. Without Eucharist, what do we have? Nothing!

“So, take every opportunity, don’t be going out buying stuff, and stuff, and stuff. You are here to pray, you are here to dump your sins. Do it, revel in the moment, be amazed, be thankful. Go home and live the messages. Go home and don’t talk about Medjugorje, you live Medjugorje and show it by your actions. You are going to be out there and people are going to go, ‘You haven’t changed a bit.’ You want change. Change from sinfulness to God’s Mercy and Love and Grace. The Mother rejoices, the Son rejoices and let us continue with our celebration rejoicing that Our God loves us unconditionally, but does not like the sin. So, make God really happy while you are here. Go and dump the sin!”

For a previous homily by Father Neil posted on Medjugorje.com titled Medjugorje: The Septic Tank of the World for Sin visit this page.