✞ One begins to really live, when he begins to be a victim.
“Watch!” [Vigilate – “be vigilant”]
Ephesians 2:12-22, Luke 12:35-38.
My little Mary, the Gospel calls you: “Be ready, be vigilant, because you do not know when the Lord is coming.” Be firm and clothed in the armor of faith in God. Do not remain dormant in the sleep of this world, but vigilant like the sentinels who watch the horizon for the coming of dawn. If you are attentive and industrious like this, you will not fear, you will not be afraid of the most apocalyptic prophecies, even if they are authentic, because if you are in God, what is there to fear?
The Lord is already coming at your personal judgment. The sentence will be a condemnation, if He finds you unprepared, distraught and in your sin, since God judges with the scales of His justice and knows how to measure the weights for your salvation or condemnation. He calls humankind, [but] how many of His poor children amuse themselves in this world in the emptiness of its vanity and do not give thought to divine judgment? What will become of them faced with the sentence and the eternity that awaits them? This is a pain that pierces My Heart all the more because they are My children, and if for a parent it is a torment to lose a child on this earth, it is nonetheless a transitory tear [in the fabric of their lives] because if the child has perished in My grace, the parent will find him again. For Me, there are children who are lost forever.
My souls, be ready, girded by profuse prayer, by generous charity in giving mercy, through the conversion of the heart that acts in My Name. My path is not burdensome: if you embrace it in My love, taking and living it, it will become habitual and even sweet; it will give you peace and you will travel it quickly to meet Me without fear. What must you do other than become My echo, My purity, witnesses to what I am, so that in you I may take consolation and refreshment, being heartened by humankind.
Behold, I look from heaven, I walk on earth, I feel hearts, how they beat, whether they are righteous or wicked. I examine you from every Tabernacle and wait for human beings to repent, but also for you, yourselves, to become sentinels, guardians who vigilantly stand in defense of those brothers and sisters who have become blind, who do not know how to evaluate urgent times or the period of their own existence whose cycle comes to a stop—an end-point in the passing of years. Fight for them, pray, use the weapons of the Lord your God, as you are able, to ensure that you are working to save souls, those who live all around you, giving testimony to faith in Me with your intrepid love that wants their redemption. Even if you save one, it is an inestimable treasure that will last forever, given that the true treasures, the authentic riches, are the souls that need to be conquered through your custody of them, caring for their redemption for the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Lord calls everyone to be vigilant, but He calls not only His children, but also, and above all, the Church. The Church, which in this historical context is rather dormant, hardly vigilant, and which does little to combat the thief who comes to rob and seize Her members. Often the Church does the bare minimum, not touching the very heart of Her missionary work. This is a time of urgency, and you must be willing to lose your life in order to bring salvation to the faithful who have been plundered by the enemy.
It is essential that the Church go among the people, that She go out of her walls to call people to conversion, that She work with Her whole self and strength. Many priests in churches are like office workers who carry out their ordinary duties without going any further, without the impetus of the Spirit, of passion and missionary ardor, to cry out to their children and have them return to God.
It is said in the Gospel: “From those to whom much has been given”—who have had the light of the Divine Will and of their own commission—”much will be required,” and severe will be the blows given for failure regarding one’s own responsibility.
In the first reading, Saint Paul declares that it is a grace to be proclaimers of the mysteries of God, to proclaim to people the impenetrable riches of Christ and enlighten everyone—a proclamation that occurs through the Church. See how Saint Paul’s steps were conformed to Mine, having no rest. And all those who set out to follow Me are called like him—how much more those consecrated to Me. At this invitation, many of them say: “But even if we go, how many will listen?”
I say: “Go, even if there are few who welcome you; they are children [people] who will be saved and who would have been lost.” For just one of them, your Lord would let Himself be crucified again. Go and ask for vigilance. Time is urgent because, even tonight, many will be called to eternity and will be found unprepared. Be watchful!
I bless you.