I Am With You…

There is an expression that is repeated very frequently in the messages of the Queen of Peace, perhaps so much so that her distracted children miss the importance of it and their hearts are unmoved by it. This expression is: “I am with you!”

When asked what he thought the most important message Heaven was offering us through Medjugorje, Padre Slavko would respond: “Mary’s special presence in our midst.”

Our Lady, in fact, calls us with incredible insistence to recognize and acknowledge that her presence in this time is an exceptional grace: “This time is my time” ( msg. 25 Jan.1997 ); “Dear Children, it is a grace that I can be with you” ( msg. 25 Nov. 1992 ). Mary calls us in impassioned motherly tones not to trivialize the gift, and to put to interest this unrepeatable effusion of grace that gushes forth through her special presence in our midst: “Therefore, my Children, listen to and live what I say to you, because it will be important for you when I shall no longer be with you to recall my words and all that I have said to you” ( msg. 25 Oct. 1992 ); “Therefore, my Children, I beseech you to accept and to live the messages seriously, so that your soul won’t be sad when I shall no longer be with you” ( msg. 25 Dec. 1989 ).

Why then, does Mary repeat so assiduously that “She is with us”, that we are not alone, that “her Heart closely follows our steps” ( msg. 25 Dec. 1986 ), almost as if to make us see in Her presence a gift of grace that is something much more profound and fundamental?

In the book of Exodus, at the beginning of the history of salvation, when Moses confessed his radical incapacity to fulfil the mission of freeing the people of Israel from the oppressor with which the Most High had entrusted him: “Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”, Yahweh simply responds, “I shall be with you” (Ex 3:11-12).

This then is the true seal of victory over all our inner paralysis and radical inadequacy to serve the giddy mission to which Mary calls us in this time. It is the foundation of the absolute certainty that our “yes” to Her call will open the gates for the fulfilment of the salvific plan that the Father entrusts to us through Mary: “Dear Children, I want you to understand that God has chosen each of you in His plan of salvation for mankind.…I am with you so that you may fulfil everything” ( msg. 25 Jan. 1987 ), “I want to save all souls and offer them to God” ( msg. 25 Aug. 1991 ).

So it is important to grasp: “the breadth, the length, the height and the depth” of this unspeakable Love “that surpasses all knowledge” (Eph 3:18), which is behind and at the roots of Mary’s special presence “with us.” Today, in fact, the Queen of Peace does not descend into the midst of her children alone, but with Her there is the extraordinary presence of the entire Church: the Angels, Archangels and all God’s Saints are exceptionally close to our souls which desperately thirst for pure love and are tragically incapable of receiving it and giving it: “now it is said that God is distant, but in truth He has never been closer” ( msg. 25 Sept. 1999 ).

Mary is with us now so we can fully participate in that same Love that reigns in the New Jerusalem, love that She wants for all her children and the entire universe. When the enormous current of celestial grace touches the earth, devastated by men and mortally corrupted by the great sin of a world that refuses filial communion with the Heart of the Father, that current of grace becomes power of sacrificed love. It is the “new song” of the Slain Lamb. Through the special presence of the Mother of God, the Slain Lamb wants to triumph today in the hearts of her children, and through them, lead the entire creation to the new heavens and new earth that radiate from the glorified flesh of the Risen One.

Thus, Mary’s “I am with you” is today a founding grace, a gift of inexpressible value offered to the Church and the world, whose fertility is derived from Her total offering to God for our sake, so that the children She has called might become fully participant in Her own salvifi c mission, be made instruments elect and vessels enflamed with Her own immaculate love for the sake of souls and the entire creation.

In perfect communion with her Son’s “kenosis” (self-emptying, Phil 2:7), Mary does not hesitate to mystically immerse herself in the abysses of human suffering present in the hearts and flesh of her children: “I am with you, and your suffering is mine” ( 25.04.92 ), for she wants to obtain for them the grace of offering their lives to God without reserve thereby uniting them intimately to His life, and to produce a powerful effusion of love greatly exceeding their inadequacy and human frailty: “I have already managed to take upon myself a part of the cross Jesus had destined for you. This cross is heavy and you are little! Thus, my Children, love me so you will not lose me” (msg. 14.04.85).