Medjugorje priest warns against lures

of the world and a limited notion of faith   

God wants to be involved in all aspects of your life: He is either nowhere or everywhere, says Fr. Svetozar Kraljević in a lecture to Medjugorje pilgrims: Being a believer takes positive action, merely saying to believe will not bring us anywhere, he adds while warning that if the Word of God is not made flesh in us, the word of the world and the devil will deceive us.

(c) Spirit Daily 

By Jakob Marschner in Bosnia-Hercegovina 

“Indeed someone might say: ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me, then, your faith without works – and I, with my works, will show you my faith.” (St. James 2:18)

MEDJUGORJE, March 30^th – It is not possible to compromise with God, and faith and prayer have a bodily dimension that we often tend to forget. If Christians do not allow the Word to become flesh in their lives every day, they can not be said to believe and there will be no real Christianity, the Medjugorje priest Father Svetozar Kraljević said to pilgrims during a lecture on Friday. 

“Prayer has a dimension of the body that we often tend to forget. Too often we reduce our faith to something intellectual. But the issue is not whether if you believe in God or not. Merely saying you believe will not bring you anywhere,” Father Svetozar told a group of visitors at the Virgin Mary’s foremost modern apparition site. 

“96 percent of the European population say that they believe in God. But at the same time Europe is becoming as God-less as absolutely possible. People are already speaking of the post-Christian Europe and the post-Christian world,” he continued. 

“When we do not go to Church on Sunday we make a profound positive statement against God: ‘I have no interest, no time and no place for You. God, You and I are separated. We have nothing to do with each other.” 

As the only working alternative to what he sees as a grave lukewarmness among people claiming to be Christians, Father Svetozar gave prominence to the concept of pilgrimage prayer, allowing the Word to become flesh: 

“Our Lady is teaching us a new kind of prayer: The pilgrimage prayer in which the Word becomes flesh. Without this kind of prayer there will be no real Christianity in the world,” he said while pointing to his audience as examples of what he was talking about: 

“It is about your body, your schedule, your relationship with the world. Someone may have told you that there is something going on in Eastern Europe, and it may have registered in your mind, or it may not. But then more people may have told you, or someone might have been so persistent that you actually considered coming here. The issue is if you are ready to surrender, to truly let the Word become flesh: Spending  $2,000, giving up family and friends for ten days and be stupid in the eyes of the world,” said Father Svetozar before going on: “Or even in your own eyes.” 

“God is either everywhere or nowhere in our lives. He is not there to compromise with you. The tragedy of our prayer is when we limit it to moments of actual prayer. God wants pilgrimage prayer, incarnated prayer, the Word becoming flesh in our lives. He wants to be involved in everything in our lives: Our work, our relationships, our schedule, our family, our money. I can not sufficiently emphasize that prayer has to do with your body. When prayer involves your body it becomes real”, the Franciscan friar went on. 

Father Svetozar issued a clear warning that if the Christian of today is not aware of this condition, she is vulnerable to deception and attacks from a world which grows increasingly un-Christian and God-less: 

“Someone else’s word would like to become our flesh: A cultural word, a political word or a word of society at large – but always according to some special agenda or interest. The danger of our time is that the world, society or state would like to provide everything for you. Like going into a supermarket where you find everything you need”, he said. "We become what we like, see and do. The world says: Let my word become your flesh. But that is the mentality of Judas: When we think we have to compromise. We develop this mentality of selling The Lord, allowing the world to interfere in everything.” 

As the only working alternative Father Svetozar pointed to the Eucharist: “We have to become aware that our faith is totally Eucharist centered. Prayer begins in the Eucharist and the main measurement of our faith is the Eucharist. It is when receiving the Eucharist that we as a body of believers are transformed into the Body of Christ. We become the Bread of Life. And then, when we go to work, we can not help but being Christ-like.”

 “However, this can only happen when we allow ourselves to be changed from a secularized person into a person of God. When we allow God to transform us through the Eucharist, God will transform others through us. And every time we pray we should also be changed as the bread which is changed on the altar. Then God will take care of the rest,” he said.

 “Whomever owns and controls your body, your business, your relationships, your money also possesses you. If God does not control your body, you are not of God.”