Graces From Medjugorje

It’s Thursday, September 19th, and we’re just returning from our pilgrimage to Medjugorje. Those of you who were following along on petersboat.net will have some sense of our time there.

Apparition Hill, walking through the fields, International Mass at Saint James, and Cross Mountain: all these experiences have become signposts in our hearts, guiding our prayer to the memory of this place, so that, with a mother’s love, Medjugorje can continue to nurture our faith.

You might also be aware that today, September 19th, the Vatican Commission - established by Pope Benedict to investigate the happenings at Medjugorje - has spoken favorably on behalf of the movement of the faithful toward Medjugorje on spiritual pilgrimage. So that was special - to hear such an announcement the day after returning.

But, for those of us who were there this week, even this official announcement from the Church pales in comparison to the experience of being there, in Medjugorje. And that, to me, is the real phenomenon of what is happening there - it is the mystery of how Christ becomes present within the human experience of life lived together in Christian community.

For an entire week, we moved together, ate together, roomed together, prayed together, walked together, spoke together, sang together, and laughed together. And we come back now, into the Jerusalem of our lives, full of the memory of how our hearts were burning within us all along the way, and how Christ made Himself known to us in the breaking of the bread.

But, you see, we did not “make Christ happen.” Rather, He emerged from within our communion like a child birthed from the womb of a mother who had conceived by the Holy Spirit. Christ truly is born of the Church, even now, in that same mysterious way that Mary first conceived Him and gave Him birth. Christ truly is begotten, not made.

This is one of the graces I bring back with me, personally, this deeper understanding of how Christ becomes present. See, I often think that if I “say prayers in an attractive way,” or “perfect the liturgy,” or, most insidious of all, if I “nail the details of the program,” then Christianity will happen. But when I think of Medjugorje, I see that Christ was with us, but not because we made Him present, but that He became present as we lived together in His name.

This, I think, is what it would mean for us to bring Medjugorje back to our parish, which is what every pilgrim who visits there is resolved to do upon returning home: it would mean our living together - something both easy and difficult. It’s easy in that it relieves us of the pressure we put on ourselves to “make Christ happen” through exhausting projects and programs. But it’s also harder in that it bids us to trust - to pray together, and to trust that Christ will become present in our communion. And if He does, it will not be that we will have made Him present. It will be because God is a communion of persons Himself, and where two or three are gathered together in His name (that is, in the Trinity), there He is in the midst of them. +