Help From Our Lady

On this Sunday, when we hear Our Lord say to the deaf man, “Ephphatha!” - that is, “be opened” - we hear Him say the same thing to us. “Open your heart to Me.”

Even though it shouldn’t be, since we were made to live in relationship with Him, opening our heart to God is difficult. I think we’re sometimes afraid of what He will ask of us, or what He may want to change.

The deaf man must have found it difficult to trust that Jesus’ intention was good as Our Lord was taking him away by himself, away from the familiarity of the crowd, but he allowed Him. We, too, should believe that God’s will for us is good.

Our Lady wants to help us with this. She comes to us, even now, in these times, to encourage us to imitate her own openness, which she models for us. “Be like your mother,” she says. “See how I open my heart to God.”

And on this September 8th, as the Church celebrates the Birth of Mary, we remember just how trustingly Blessed Mother opens her heart to Him. She is perfect openness.

This is one of the greatest gifts we receive from the Rosary. Blessed Mother gives us her heart with which we can love her Son - a heart that is open and trusting.

When preparing the group to leave for Medjugorje on pilgrimage this Tuesday, I said to them, “All that Our Lady is asking of us is that we be open. We don’t need to see miracles or visions. We need only to be open.”

Of course, our openness to God is very imperfect. Our Lady knows that. But she, as we said, wants to help us. That’s what Medjugorje is about. It’s Blessed Mother’s way of helping us to open our hearts to God by learning to pray with the heart.

Is God more present in Medjugorje than here in the States? Of course not. But there is something about Medjugorje that helps us to allow our hearts to “be opened” by The Lord. The graces of Medjugorje are accomplished through the assistance of Our Lady’s disarming love. +