Homily of H.E. Mons. Claudio Gatti of September 14, 2007

Bishop's commentary to the prayer for the Church (link)

Today we enter an important period in the Church history. Both in the letter of God and in the prayer you have read before the celebration of the Holy Mass, but especially during the summer months, first the Holy Trinity and then Our Lady coined for us a new expression because they no longer speak of the Church rebirth but of her triumph. Rebirth is a time of labor, suffering, sacrifice, hardship, blood and tears; triumph, instead, is a booming expansion of joy, happiness and delight. The longer the labor the more it means that what is to be born and revealed is important and great. Never in the Church there was such a long, painful and suffered labor like ours; I use the word "ours" because to the extent desired by God, you too have contributed and participated. I hope the Church is in the last phase of this labor, after which the triumph will burst. The triumph is implemented by God himself, who has chosen the way, vocations and tools to do all this and today it is concentrated in the liturgical feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. It is not by chance that Jesus recalled the reasons why we not only celebrate the Exaltation of the Cross but also the first Eucharistic miracle followed by all the other one-hundred eighty-four Eucharistic miracles. We remember and celebrate the anniversary of the beginning of the Episcopal office of our Bishop ordained by God with benefits in the whole Church. You have been a witness to some of them, including the fifty-one Episcopal ordinations and seventy-seven priestly ordinations, just to mention a few. Today we also celebrate the seventh anniversary of the signing of the decree. I, just ordained Bishop, would have never dared to affix my signature on a decree which certainly the Church history will talk of, but I was commanded by God to carry out this act. It has been publicly stated that the apparitions of the Mother of the Eucharist, the Eucharistic miracles and Trinitarian theophanies have a supernatural origin. The Church will, of course, attain her triumph for God has made these actions and made them here, started them here, in a small and humble place, in the presence of a tiny core of small, simple and modest people. What matters is always the action of God and that He is the efficient cause of everything. Jesus said that the great men of the Church have tried to stifle these divine actions, and from a human standpoint, they succeeded because if we look around we have to declare ourselves losers and defeated, but it is not like that, because what they attempted to kill in Italy, and in Rome in particular, is bursting with great vehemence in the rest of the world. How many times, in private apparitions to Marisa and to me and also in your presence, Our Lady repeated: "You do not understand, not even imagine how and how much in the world the Triumph of the Eucharist is accomplished, how much the Mother Eucharist is known, how much the Bishop ordained by God and the Seer, God's chosen instrument, are known" and added: "You all are known in every corner of the earth". This has happened because God has acted, and then let's get ready, always with humility and simplicity, to live this great third triumph. The first was the triumph of the Eucharist, then the one of the Mother of the Eucharist, we now are waiting for the Church triumph. The Church triumph coincides with our triumph because no one, more than us, has the right to say or think that has made a strong contribution to the Church triumph, nobody but ourselves has loved the Church, suffered and prayed for her, my dear, nobody but ourselves can state: "We have been working for the Church". This is a special and important moment in which all opposing forces, diabolical and human ones, even if you have no explicit clarification and feeling, are coalescing. The evil forces are clinging a wicked and hellish pact to give a heavy blow, and in this way they think they can destroy the Church. Fools, fools and fools they are. It is God sustaining the Church, she can be devastated and wounded, she may even shed blood but will never collapse. For this reason, on Aug. 5, while we were preparing for the apparition of the Mother of the Eucharist, I uttered this prayer, it came directly from my heart, I conceived it, believe me, without having prepared it or thought of it beforehand. I let my heart speak, I removed the gag from my soul and from my mouth these words came forth more or less in the same order as you have read and heard. I thought I had done a little thing, it was something between me and God to whom I turned to plead for His Church, and did not think, and in this, believe me, there is still from our part an act of obedience to God, that the Mother of the Eucharist would immediately, in the name of God, order to write it down, spread and make it known. I realize that some expressions, perhaps, are too strong, but it is reality. I was, as usual, driven by huge sincerity, I said what I thought and I was free in expressing myself because I did not think it would ever become public. Here is the prayer, perhaps a bit long and, as Our Lady said to Marisa, should always be recited at the beginning of the H. Mass, just to get in tune with Christ. This prayer has certainly received a special light from God, due to the fact that we are truly turning to Him to strengthen the relationship between men and God.

The expression "Daddy God" is an achievement in today's theology, it means to see God's fatherhood as an interwoven relationship of freedom, sensitivity, dialogue and conversation. Brother God is the Son of God standing on our side and is calling us brothers and God the Holy Spirit, our friend, a confidant to whom we turn, with whom we speak, from whom we get advice, help and guidelines and the Triune God to whom I tried to entrust His Church. The Church does not belong to the Pope or to cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns; the Church belongs to God and every member of the Church hierarchy, from the highest to the most humble, must truly live the mission as a service. It is useless for someone who says he is the servant of the servants of God, then, instead of serving, is dominating. It is useless for someone who is a servant to dare, claim and impose himself as master, woe to them because they will be thrown out of first place and not just to the last place but right outside and out of the table.

This Church is plagued by dangerous storms: the Church dangers come both from inside and outside. Still nowadays we have a Church devastated and wounded that seems to be about to collapse and her enemies, who are nested inside her, feel that they can sing, soon, full victory, but when they think of raising the paean of Victory a trumpet from Heaven will sound such a loud music to overwhelm any other earthly sound, as there will be room only for the heavenly music. The Church does not collapse, several attempts have been made but not only nothing happened but even celebrated the funerals of those who wanted to kill and destroy her. The Church is kept alive by the power, love, and grace of God. Unfortunately, humanly speaking, the reality is painful. Dangers are inside, as the woodworm eats the wood from the inside and leaves the outer structure intact; these woodworms have long since begun to eat into the hold of the Church and in some places have even caused a lot of leaks hoping that it would embark a lot of water. The ship needs to move forward with intact sails in order to harness the strong wind that will allow her to spring forward, but the sails are torn and not stitched up by those who I have called the helmsmen. The helmsmen, for those with a little knowledge and familiarity with the military hierarchy, represent those who belong to the category of non-commissioned officers, in our case, the priests. Even among them many are sleeping and think only about their own affairs, just the same as those staying at a higher step, the bishops, namely the officers, who should take in their hands the helm of the Church and steer it in the right direction, but their hands are dirty, so they cannot direct her according to God's compass. Priests and bishops will be tossed out, placed in the position of being disowned. We must pray for this and entrust the Church not only to Daddy God, Brother God, Friend God, but also to the Mother of the Church Head and founder, she who is the Mother of the Mystical Body, that is to say, of all the baptized forming a binding and profound unit. The Mystical Body needs to feel protected, defended, to feel the warmth of Mary's maternal love. May we miss, perhaps, S. Joseph? Oh no. For the reason that he defended baby Jesus, he still has the task to defend the Mystical Body of Christ having loved Jesus as a Son, and we hope that he goes on, with the same care and foresight, protecting and defending the Church. Only God can mend the torn sails, only God can stop the leaks present in the hold of the boat, only God can send the Holy Spirit so that it may send its powerful breath to steer the Church on the right course and when this ship will be truly protected and open to Mary's maternal love and to the warmth and power of the Eucharist, then she will not fear any enemy, and finally the big moment, the great triumph will start, as a result of her rebirth. Then the vanquished enemies can only sneer on this earth, or worse for them, in hell. Faced with this prophetic and wonderful vision we must bow our forehead, bend our knees and raise our song to God for He alone can and must let the Church to triumph for His glory and for the spiritual good of all souls. Praised be Jesus Christ.