Homily of H.E. Mons. Claudio Gatti of June 7, 2009

Holy Trinity (Year B)

1st Reading: Deut 4:32-34, 39-40; Ps 32; 2nd Reading: Rom 8:14-17; Gospel: Mt 28:16-20

I will not spend a single minute in Purgatory for not having done my duty, so I have to intervene in a serious and sometimes inflexible way when situations within the community break up. It is a grave sin of omission not to operate the fraternal correction, for it prevents your brother to take advantage of a useful reminder to change lifestyle and then enjoy Heaven when death occurs.

You know that the right path to holiness is like a railway track consisting of two components: the Eucharist and the Word of God. To reach holiness is not enough to attend the H. Mass on Sunday. This was never told by Our Lady and me either. If you want to become a saint you have to love Jesus the Eucharist and to know Jesus the Word; if you do not know God's word, you will not succeed to behave properly, in fact, in our community some not very nice situations have occurred.

As also mentioned by High Above, I never got to Jesus' severity toward the apostles and not even Padre Pio's, but some of you complained. If you read again the letters of God, you can verify I am telling the truth, I never said one thing for another. Sometimes I said unpleasant things for those who were listening to me, not because they were wrong things, but, as I was touching the depths of their conscience, it was teasing their pride, deceit and touchiness.

It happened for instance that I made a fraternal correction to a family and two other people because of bad behavior towards the Seer. The family admitted its mistake and apologized, while the other people could no longer be seen, then they even showed discomfort and irritation when a brother and sister from our community went to see them and practice the fraternal correction. I urge these people to change or else there is the door and no need to come back any more. Brotherly love is lost when these situations occur. I wonder what would happen in this community if, let us say, Marisa were already in heaven, where I hope God will soon take her and if the Bishop were no longer present here. There is a Latin proverb saying: "Tot capita tot sententiae" (So many heads, so many opinions - editor's note). I do not know if the two groups, the young men and the adults, would be capable to be harmoniously united. In the group of young people there seems to be a strong cohesion, certainly stronger than among adults. You cannot think to be self-sufficient, when you are unable to show responsibility in small things, for you seem to forget them.

If you need explanations and instead of contacting the Bishop you talk among yourselves, you are not showing humility and simplicity, so misunderstandings occur and you do not comply with Our Lady's directions.

When the Mother of the Eucharist makes some observations, we must not withdraw into a defensive stance. Someone even got to a point of saying: "Just because is Our Lady saying it I believe, but I do not think so". This statement is absurd and there is lack of humility. It is useless to pray if you behave in this way.

I do not like to make comparisons, but Our Lady on July 15, 1996, on the occasion of our 25th year of suffering and working together, made this statement: "There was so much difference between Jesus and apostles, apostles and disciples and among disciples and the people they met along the way" and she added: "There is just as much difference between...". Do complete the sentence with the right comparison terms and you will understand the situation. Do not let the Word of God to be a hollow sound to you. "Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes" (Deut 4:34). This question was asked to the Jews, but I can ask it to our community. You, who attend this thaumaturgic place with commitment on Friday and Sunday, are called to holiness.

Consider the works God has made before your eyes: astonishing Eucharistic miracles, healing of many people who would have died or were to undergo surgery and donation of children to those who could not have any. Let us ask then what is our attitude towards all that and, if we are worthy, when Our Lady too will be revealed to us.

Spiritual life is humility, simplicity and sincerity, all of which should be completed by love. So many times I explained what negative consequences arise if you form small groups within the community. Once Our Lady used the expression "gossiping", for which you all take offense. On those occasions when you are together, while driving to this site or at other times, do pray and if you want to talk, do it about yourself and not others, especially if people are not present. Instead the opposite has occurred and this is not nice.

Talk about Heaven, the letters of God and Eucharistic miracles, or about the Church moving towards a situation of total decline because of the men governing it.

The great mission has begun: to pray for the Church rebirth. On Thursday's prayer vigil you were plenty, but on Friday's Bible class there were fewer people. You could have given a little bit more to God, for He gave us everything. Those who left earlier to go back home to have a rest, did not enjoy the beautiful conversation between Jesus and Marisa. You need not hurry when you pray, you often stay up late to watch television, read things of little importance or have a chat among friends, but when we gather to pray for the Church you have no strength and love to stay longer.

The Church cannot be reborn if those who have been called to this mission do not work to become saints. Each of us has his own private life, but if I am here to talk and pray, despite several sleepless nights, you too can do it.

Charity and love leave much to be desired and so you cannot reach holiness. Grandmother Iolanda is a saint not because she studied theology and written textbooks, but because she gave love and received little of it in proportion to what she donated. She once told me: "I did good to all and no one does it to me, if it were not for you, Excellency, I would have been dead long ago". I have no inhibitions in speaking and I always tell the truth, I also paid in person for having behaved like that, but when I will be before God, He will not be able tell me that I lied. I have been difficult, but Jesus was more difficult than me. "Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me" (Mt 10:37), "If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off" (Mk 9:43), "And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out" (Mk 9:47), "If anyone causes one of these little ones, those who believe in me, to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea" (Mk 9:42). Perhaps you have forgotten these teachings which should not be taken literally, but serve to make you understand the severity and inflexibility that Christians must oppose to evil.

Do not raise barriers to your attendance of the Bible classes. Today you regret the Eucharistic miracles, but when many of them used to occur, many people had grown accustomed to it. I wonder how you will do when Our Lady's apparitions will be no more because Marisa will be up in Heaven, or when your Bishop will no longer be in this place to explain the Word of God.

The Lord, in the Old Testament, asks to comply with His laws and teachings and we have received many of them. Nowhere there have been so many appearances as in this place: in Lourdes there were eighteen, nine at Fatima and in Medjugorje they are over since a few years. From 1986 up to now we have had thousands of Our Lady's apparitions and they still continue today. Let us ask ourselves if we deserve all this. It's time to put ashes on our heads, recognize our mistakes, our failings and hide not behind personal problems. In today's last lines of the Gospel of Matthew it is written: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Mt 28:19-20). I am convinced that I am teaching you exactly what Jesus in turn taught. I never offended the truth and if I was hard, I had to be because of charity. Some people are still part of this community thanks to your Bishop's hardness and when we will go to the other side they will be fawning on me for all eternity. You cannot work a fraternal correction nor raise your children if you have a mawkish attitude; love with its many facets is required: warmth, sweetness, dialogue, but also severity, authority and strength. Jesus' teaching: "I am with you always, to the very end of the age" means that He is present when there is grace in us. If there is grace in our soul, Jesus shows His presence in various ways: when two or more people are gathered in His name, when we meditate on His word, that is, the Gospel, or when we are tested and suffering.

We bow our heads to the Trinity. God, by revealing himself in the apparitions, allowed us to call him with the most gentle and familiar names: Daddy, Brother and Friend; thanks to our experience, the whole Church can benefit from this manifestation of goodness, fatherhood, brotherhood and friendship of God.

The Church can only be restored through the holiness of each one of us. It is useless to blame the bishop, cardinal or priest who is not fulfilling his duty, if we too do not always carry it out.

Take advantage of this rebuke, for it is not easy to speak in this way, it would be much easier for me to say that you pray well and that you are good, then I would even find more support. No community pray as we do, in no church you may appreciate the silence and meditation present here and many of you have a greater spiritual formation than priests. However I am not pleased, for you are not yet saints. This must be a community of saints. It is not impossible to become saints or else I would not be here wasting my time in vain. Holiness is living our own life in an ordinary, simple and passionate way, do not believe that it is so difficult. If the grass of useless chatter were to take hold again, I will mention the names openly and cast out those accountable for it, I will not let a few people pollute everyone.

I would like to say "see you later in Paradise", not in the Waiting Paradise but in the Paradise of Beatific Vision. Basically you have been called to a modest and simple life, without big commitments or responsibilities. If a brother is in need, help him, do not wait for him to ask you, if a sister is in trouble, gently intervene. To whom help is offered may not be arrogant by rejecting it, for this has happened as well. If a brother ask you how you are and you are sick, do not answer that you are okay or that it should not interest him.

Now instead of reciting the Creed we recite the Act of Contrition.