“Dear children! In this time of grace, pray with me for the good to win in you and around you. In a special way, little children, pray united with Jesus on His Way of the Cross. Into your prayers put this humanity which wanders without God and without His love. Be prayer, be light, and be witnesses to all those whom you meet, little children, so that the merciful God may have mercy toward you. Thank you for having responded to my call.” -Our Lady of Medjugorje, in private revelation given to Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti, on March 25, 2024
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27)
“The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave Me alone; yet I am not alone, for the Father is with Me. I have said this to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:32-33)
From “The Cross and the Beatitudes” by Venerable Fulton J. Sheen:
It is evident from these words that our Lord offers a peace and a consolation which He alone can confer, a peace which comes from the right ordering of conscience, from justice, charity, love of God, and love of neighbor. And blessed are those peace-makers who continue to spread that message of peace for they shall be called children of God; that is, they shall be recognized as possessing a divine characteristic which shall stamp them as God-like.
But these very lovers of peace, who follow in His footsteps, who take up their crosses daily, who love Him more than all the world, who surrender all to be completely His, who trust in the Providence which feeds the birds, who have the faith of little children, and who love Christ and therefore seek that interior peace of conscience which only Christ can give—they will by that very fact be hated by the world.
The poor in spirit will be hated by those who pursue self-interest; the meek will be opposed by the self-assertive; those who hunger and thirst after justice will be scorned by the indifferent; the merciful will be ridiculed by the unforgiving; the pure of heart will be the laughingstock of the Freudians. The world whose false peace is based on self-love will make war against those whose peace is based on conscience.
In that sense, our Lord brought the sword—we might say, He even made war, war against war, war against selfishness, war against sin, war against godlessness. And if His war against evil brought Him to the Cross, then His followers who preach His peace must also expect to be crucified.
A reflection by Saint Teresa of Calcutta, from the book “Seeking the Heart of God: Reflections on Prayer”:
Surely, if God feeds the young ravens which cry to Him, if He nourishes the birds which neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, if He robes the flowers of the field so beautifully, how much more will He care for human beings whom He has made in His own image and likeness and adopted as His children, if we only act as such, keep His commandments, and have confidence in Him.
I don’t want the work to become a business, but to remain a work of love. I want us to have that complete confidence that God won’t let us down. Take Him at His word and seek first the kingdom of Heaven, and all else will be added on.
Lord, help us to see in Your Crucifixion and Resurrection an example of how to endure and seemingly to die in the agony and conflict of daily life, so that we may live more fully and creatively. You accepted patiently and humbly the rebuffs of human life, as well as all the tortures of Your Crucifixion and Passion. Help us to accept the pains and conflicts that come to us each day as opportunities to grow and to become more like You. Enable us to go through them patiently and bravely, trusting that You will support us.
Pope Francis, in a papal address on March 2, 2024:
[I]n suffering, God’s first answer is not a discourse or a theory, but it is to walk with us, to stay next to us. Jesus lets Himself be touched by our pain; He travels the same road as us and does not leave us alone, but rather frees us from the burden that oppresses us by carrying it for us and with us. And, as in that episode (see Mark 5:21-43), the Lord wants to come into our home, the home of our heart and the homes of our families devastated by death: He wants to be close to us, He wants to touch our affliction, He wants to give us His hand to lift us up as He did with the daughter of Jairus.
Brothers, sisters, thank you for making room, in your heart and in your stories, for this Gospel. Jesus Who walks with you, Jesus Who enters your home and lets Himself be touched by pain and death, Jesus Who takes you by the hand to lift you up again. He wants to dry your tears and He wants to reassure you: death does not have the last word.
The Lord does not leave us without consolation. If you continue to bring Him your tears and your questions, He gives you an inner certainty that is a source of peace: He makes you grow in the certainty that, with the tenderness of His love, He has taken your children by the hand and said to them too, as He did to the little girl, “Talità kum, arise!” (see Mark 5:41) And He wants to take you by the hand too, so that in the light of the Paschal mystery, you may hear His voice that repeats to you too: “Arise, do not lose hope, do not extinguish the joy of living.”
And it is beautiful to think that your daughters and your sons, like the daughter of Jairus, have been taken by the hand by the Lord; and that one day you will see them again, you will embrace them again, you will be able to rejoice in their presence in a new light, that no one will be able to take away from you. Then you will see the Cross with the eyes of the Resurrection, as it was for Mary and for the Apostles. That hope, which blossomed on Easter morning, is what the Lord wants to sow now in your heart. I hope that you will welcome it, let it grow, cherish it in the midst of your tears. And I would like you to feel not only God’s embrace, but also my affection and the closeness of the Church, who loves you and wishes to accompany you. I hold you in my heart and I assure you of my prayer. You too, please, remember to pray for me. Thank you.
