Medjugorje - Pastoral Evaluation

By Father Leonard Orec. Source: http://www.medjugorje.org/orec.htm

One of the more famous contemporary pastoral theologians, Prof. Paul M. Zulehner from Vienna, came to research the phenomenon of Medjugorje in the Summer of 1988 and his conclusions were published in his discourse "Medjugorje eine mystagogische Lektio" (Hrsg. Medjugorje Zentrum, "Medjugorje eine mystagogische Herausforderung ? page 72.1) He begins with the theory that Mary's apparitions for our times are important and irrefutable (79). With regard to the messages of Medjugorje, he says that the essential catechesis is very good and that it is an excellent pathway to the message of the gospel" (82). It's precisely this which constitutes the ultimate criterion; Medjugorje doesn't lead away from the Sacred Scriptures, but rather aids the way, and the Blessed Mother is not an end in herself but a sign-post. (Nicht die Endstation sondern wie ein Wegweiser). The pastoral of Medjugorje, the preaching and the way of celebrating the Eucharist, leads those who go there on to the heart of faith. The pastoral incentive is aimed precisely at that end, i.e. that people live the Word of God, that they live the Sacred Scriptures and that they celebrate the Eucharist. It's also useful to link this pastoral with the Council (82). Pilgrims who visit Medjugorje carry a deep biblical and eucharistic devotion home with them to their own Parishes. "I am particularly impressed", he says, " that the pastoral in Medjugorje doesn't seek to take people out of normal church life, they rather seek to aid it's integration into their every day life back home, and I see this as one of it's most positive aspects. (82/83). Prof. Zulehner is also impressed that in Medjugorje, the simplest of people are drawn together. "There, anyone is accepted, there are no suggestions as to who ought to be excluded. It's a place that's open to everyone. And even those who don't consider themselves as particularly religious, just ordinary "plodders", can feel at home there...I'm so happy that the simpler people go to Medjugorje and that there they help themselves back onto their feet, that they receive new hope for their lives , and that they can return home with their heads held high....For me these are fruits of the Spirit which, without considering the apparitions, are, thank God, to be seen everywhere, because wherever the Spirit works, there the church is present, because Gods' intention is to raise mankind"(87).

In the events of Medjugorje, Zulehner discovers a "mistagogy", leading mankind into the depths of a mystery, from which God opens the heart from the inside, as in the case of Lydia in the Acts of the Apostles (see Acts 16:14). God in His mercy foreshadows the works of our Church. According to Zulehner, the true aim of pastoral work is to uncover the mystery of Gods' work in our own lives, and to submit to these mysteries in love. " I fear that, in today's church we have very much lost the mystical dimension of our faith" . We are therefore in danger of reducing the Gospel to straightforward morality. If the mystical disappears, there will be nothing else left. It would be a shame if Medjugorje were to be reduced to a moralistic message. That's not the objective intended. We must enter into the gist of the message through a mystical renewal, in the encounter of man with God. This is what's preliminary to every work and every moral. And without this, none of us can act morally.(96/97) Theologians and church-goers tend to interpret the message. However, in theology I've learnt that the mysteries of faith don't exist so that we can interpret them. Moreover we should immerse ourselves in them, and make our abode within them. The Church will be saved, if all of us individually, decidedly and courageously orient ourselves to live in these mysteries. (98/99). According to Zulehner, that's precisely what Medjugorje is: "mystagogy", assisting normal people to daily enter into the mysteries of the Gospel.

Alfons Sarrach even says: In Medjugorje there is the awareness that the Church is not an organization, or a perfect work of human hands, or an instrument of human violence. It's not a supermarket of sacraments, it's not an opiate or a drug, and neither is it something which has been fabricated. What it is, is a "mystery". When that has been verified throughout the whole Church, the lost will once again make their way to it, and within it they will feel secure, and they will freely adore their God undisturbed.( "The message of Medjugorje about the God who serves", Medjugorje 1995, page 143)

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