Medjugorje - Theological Analysis of the Cultic Gatherings

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

In Medjugorje the Church congregate in the Holy Spirit as the people of God from all tribes and nations. Every evening celebration is experienced as one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church "where he who is in Rome feels at one with He who is in India (see Lumen Gentium 13..........) There the pilgrim church, marches on between the persecution of the world and the consolation of God, proclaiming the cross and death of Our Lord until He comes again (Lumen Gentium 8).

The celebrating of the mysteries of salvation are at the center of the cultic gatherings. All devotion flows in the direction of Eucharistic celebration, which is continued and prolonged in Eucharistic Adoration. By the sacrament of reconciliation, the individual enters personally into the mystery of reconciliation and the Church is increasingly free for glorifying in Spirit and in truth.

Mary, in Medjugorje appeared with the child in her arms offering Him to mankind as a gift. God's son is Mary's flesh and blood, and He took His human nature in her womb. "Mary nourished His tiny body with her own blood and kept him warm with the heat of her own virginal body. She was the first ciborium and the true tabernacle of our eucharistic Jesus. She was the first altar and Jesus' first Church in the world" (T. Sagi - Bunic, Mother of the Most Holy Eucharist, "Cana" No. 6 1987 page 12) Mary is included in the eucharistic celebrations in Medjugorje as the person who prepares and takes care of it (i.e. rosary before and afterwards, from the Hill of apparitions, she leads the way to the "Via Dolorosa"(Cross mountain) and to the Church, leading the faithful to the sources and founts of Divine grace).

"The Eucharist is exactly what this new world is hinged on, and the source from which peace flows. How can we think about it without recalling her? How can we think about her without associating her with preparation for the eucharistic banquet? : In it, we who participate become her children and "joint-heirs in Christ" (Romans 8: 17). "That's why it's easy to comprehend why Our Lady constantly exhorts us to eucharistic celebration." (Rupcic "Medjugorje in the History of salvation." p. 113) Giving Mary her due respect as Mother of Our Lord, the pilgrims open themselves up to the graces of redemption, and receive them all the more, inserting themselves into the mystery of salvation. And this is how the Church grows in the Holy Spirit.

Pope John Paul II, in his apostolic encyclical "Tertio millennio adveniente", looks at the Second Vatican Council as a "providential event", centered on the mystery of Christ and His church while being open to the world (18) He emphasized in a special way that today's world is "more than ever before in need of cleansing, and in need of conversion." (18) According to the Pope the council "showed to the world of today with a new strength, Christ " the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the Redeemer of mankind, the Master of history"(19) The great wealth of it's contents and it's new way of expression was hitherto unknown. These contents, in a manner of speaking, were the herald of a new era. The members of the council spoke the language of the Gospel, the language of the Sermon on the Mount and the language of the Beatitudes" (20).

Many Bishops and theologians see the realization of the providential event of the council in Medjugorje, they see this new manner of speaking, and the heralding of this new era in its' message of evangelical simplicity.

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