Today we take up again the theme of “private apparitions and revelations”. The latter are the messages received in apparitions or interior allocutions.
Yesterday I emphasized that we should pay attention to them, because – as long as they are authentic – they are guidelines given to us by the Lord, showing us a way and providing us with help in the concrete situation in which we find ourselves, whether at the level of the world or of the Church.
There are quite a number of private revelations, but it is certainly not necessary to know as many of them as possible. We must be careful not to be carried away by a kind of religious curiosity and to want to know in advance and in detail the course of the coming years, in order to have an (apparent) security. This can become a spiritually unhealthy attitude, and this is certainly not the intention of the Heavenly Church when it comes to our aid with such messages or apparitions.
Rather, the intention of the authentic prophetic voices is that we deepen our faith and resort to spiritual weapons to ward off the attacks of darkness. It must be kept in mind that often prophecies do not intend to give an exact sequence of coming events; rather, they warn us of what can happen if mankind does not convert.
However, an announced punishment can still be avoided or mitigated, as happened in the case of Nineveh (Jn 3:1-10). Our Heavenly Father does not delight in punishing; he wants to save. This is always the intention of private revelations, which often call for penance and atonement on behalf of mankind. It is this that must be emphasized, rather than focusing on the phenomenology of the prophecies. Certainly the prediction that this or that catastrophe could befall us can provoke a “fright” that serves us for good, increasing our fervor to work for conversion and offer atonement. But each thing must be in its proper place, and the priority is in the advice we are given to face situations according to the Will of God.
To respond to a call from the Heavenly Church is to assume a responsibility of love. When we have come to know the Lord and we see in His light the extent to which humanity has strayed from His Will, this responsibility is incumbent upon us. Intercession for others and atonement are part of our Catholic life, because the Lord Himself offered Himself as a victim of atonement for our sins. And we are called to “make up all the hardships that still have to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church” (Col 1:24), as did the holy Apostle to the Gentiles.
If we look at various private revelations, both past and present, we will see that, in their essence, they give us a similar message. They usually describe the situation of the world in their time, which has turned away from God; they exhort to conversion and call to remain faithful to the faith. In some of them reference is also made to atonement. If we follow these indications, we will be fulfilling what is essential and, therefore, corresponding to God’s intentions. In Sacred Scripture and in the life of the Church, too, we are familiar with such warnings. It is a matter of actualizing the call to conversion in the “now”, which is particularly urgent in the present times, which, from my point of view, have an apocalyptic character.
If we remain in the authentic doctrine and praxis of the Church, if we deeply embrace the Word of God, if we walk the path of holiness, taking the steps that the Holy Spirit invites us to take; if we trust unreservedly in our Heavenly Father, we should be well prepared to go through these difficult times. The authentic prophetic messages remind us again and again of the essential: the urgency of the call to conversion and cooperation in God’s plans for the salvation of souls.
The important thing is that we do not allow ourselves to be deceived, because a “spirit of deception” is really at work, which goes so far as to present evil as good and good as evil (Is 5:20).
The Lord will not allow us to go astray, if we remain faithful to Him.
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Meditation on the reading of the day: http://en.elijamission.net/2021/03/12/
Meditation on the Gospel of the day: http://en.elijamission.net/2019/03/29/