5th Sunday - Garabandal "Do You Know Jesus, and Him Crucified?"

 

In St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he said, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified....”

Do you know Jesus and Him crucified? We come to know Jesus, through the sacraments, scripture and prayer and by reflecting upon His Passion.

Through Confession, we come to know His mercy and forgiveness. By receiving His mercy, we learn to more merciful to others and to do works of mercy.

Through the Eucharist, we come to know His love when He comes to dwell within our heart at Holy Communion. We get to know Jesus when we spend time adoring Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration.

We come to know Jesus through Sacred Scripture, especially through the Gospels, where we can read and meditate on how Jesus interacted with His disciples, His followers and with His enemies.

Through personal prayer, talking to Him from the heart and listening to His subtle inspirations, we come know what He asks of us.

When we gaze upon a crucifix we come to know the depths of His love, by His laying down His life for us. By looking at a crucifix we can see the pain and suffering He went through. We come to know Jesus crucified, by making the Stations of the Cross, by praying the 5 sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary (His agony in the Garden, His scourging at the pillar, His crowning with thorns, His carrying of His Cross and His Crucifixion).

When we come to really know Jesus and Him crucified, we make sacrifices and do penance, because by these, it reveals our love for Him and for others and we live a good and virtuous life, as a light in the world doing good deeds.

We are very proud of our young people who win basketball, football, volleyball, tournaments and state championships, and excel in wrestling, cross country, FFA, and academics. Sometimes, I wonder if its due to the water!

Athletic abilities, intelligence, a good work ethic, and desire to persevere are all gifts from God. We give God the credit. We should place the same energy that we give to activities, in trying to be holy, and excel in virtue and holiness. Young people, Jesus wants you to be saints.

When a young person plays sports, many sacrifices are needed. The sacrifice of working out, memorizing plays, going to practice every day. You sacrifice your time, because then you are unable to other things, you would like. It may be better for the team, if others play before us, and so we sacrifice not playing as much as we want.

Young people, you can offer all these sacrifices to God. If you play sports, play for Jesus. Our end goal should not be to win a game or a tournament.

Rather, our end goal is do our best for Jesus. If we play out of love for Jesus, you will happy if you win or lose. Playing as a team builds friendships because we sacrifice our desires for the sake of others. It teaches us obedience to the coach, and to rules, and therefore it teaches us to obedient to Christ and His Church. It teaches us self-discipline, which can help us to control our passions and be virtuous by fighting against temptations.

We practice virtue, when we avoid being a bad sport, when we don’t argue with the coach, when we are not jealous of other players.

If we keep in mind, Jesus Crucified, and our love for Him, whether we win or lose, we will be happy. Sacrifices become easy, if we do them out of love for Jesus.

Sometimes, when we lose, we feel sad. When Jesus was nailed to the Cross, it appeared as though He was defeated. When He was crucified, did He whine or pout, or complain? No. He looked with love at those who crucified Him. In the end, by His resurrection, He conquered death. He won, though, He appeared as though He lost. He won by His laying down His life for us.

Venerable Terisita Quvedo (1930-50) was the captain of her high school basketball team and a tennis star. Though tremendously talented on the tennis court, she never managed to win a championship. In her senior year, she was favored to win; worried that a victory would inflate her pride, Teresita asked the Blessed Mother not for a victory, but for whatever would be most pleasing to Jesus. When she lost, Teresita was able to accept the outcome with such joy that her mother, on seeing Teresita’s face, assumed her daughter must have won.

God wants all of us young and old, to make sacrifices and do penance. Penance is when we do something to make amends for our sins. We get a penance in confession to make up, in a small way for our sins. But we need do more penance, other than just the few Hails Mary when we receive penance in confession.

Out of penance, people who live in Medjugorje and pilgrims who go there walk barefoot up a rugged mountain, where the Virgin Mary appeared.

In many apparitions of the Virgin Mary, She asks us to do penance for our sins. For example, in Garabandal, Spain, the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared to four young girls. On Oct. 18^th, 1961 Conchita described what we must do. She said, “We must make many sacrifices, do much penance, and visit the Blessed Sacrament. But first, we must be very good. Otherwise, a chastisement will befall us.” On June 18^th, 1965, She said, “You must turn the wrath of God away from you by your efforts. You must make more sacrifices. Reflect on the Passion of Jesus.”

These alleged apparitions have never been condemned nor approved. Mary asked more importance to be given to the Eucharist. That we sincerely ask God to forgive us and amend our life. To make sacrifices, to do penance, and reflect on the Passion of Jesus.

The Virgin Mary told Conchita Gonzalez, one of the visionaries, in the 1960’s, there will be an important synod. There is currently a synod going on in Rome. She said there would be three popes and then when the last pope dies, it would begin the end of times (not end of time, but end of times, meaning a new era). When Pope Benedict died, he was the last of the three popes (Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI) and so now the end of times will begin. This did not mean there would never be more popes, it just means after the death of those popes it will be the end of our current way of living our life. Our Lady of Good Success, an approved apparition in Ecuador, promises the restoration of the Church and a new era of peace.

Mary told Conchita, a pope will visit Moscow, but when he returns to the Vatican, immediately hostilities will break out in Europe. But God would intervene in a miraculous way and put an end to them. Pope Francis plans to go to Moscow soon. Will this cause the prophecies to be fulfilled?

Mary said there would be a great warning, then the great miracle. The great warning is believed to be an illumination of conscience. It will be seen and felt by everyone on earth. It will be terrifying. It will be supernatural. It will be of short duration. It will be a correction of the conscience of the world. It will help people to repent and follow God.

If these things are true, then in a short time after the warning, perhaps, in a month or so, there would be a miracle in the location, Mary appeared, and then a permanent sign will be left there.

Based upon these events, the illumination of conscience may happen soon. Hostilities will break out in Europe. The great miracle is about to take place and a permanent sign is about to occur. But, if people do not return to God, don’t make sacrifices or do penance a great chastisement will occur.

To hear about hostilities breaking out in Europe and a chastisement, can sound frightening, but that’s because they are. Due to all the terrible sins going on the world, God wants to stop murders, the drugs, abortion, transgender confusion, homosexual actions, pornography, war, contraception, a man-made virus etc.... As a loving Father, all He wants is mankind to turn back to Him, to love Him in return, to respect and worship Him, who created us and He wants us to love each other.

Today, as a parish, we can walk with Jesus during a Eucharistic procession, for about 10 minutes, because its chilly, it will be a little sacrifice, we can offer as a penance for our sins. We will do it for Jesus, because we love Him and believe He is really present in the Sacred Host.

We can offer up the sacrifice of being a little chilly as penance for our sins.

In conclusion, our Lady said, God wants us to reflect on the Passion of Jesus and be very good. To pray the Rosary every day, go to Confession often and come to daily Mass. Young people can come to Mass before school. Make sacrifices, do penance for Jesus. Never stay in the state of mortal sin.

Brothers and sisters, let us get to know Jesus and Him crucified by responding to Our Lady’s requests. We need to do our part. If we are very good, our good works will be a light for others. Jesus, the light of the world, will shine through us. He said, “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”