Starting from the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast, the speaker warns that the grace received in Holy Communion and the word of God must be nourished with prayer in our daily lives and families. He urges that our pilgrimage to Medjugorje should not be a superficial religiosity or a search for comfort, but a source of true conversion, forgiveness, and a changed life.
Dear brothers and sisters! In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of the mustard seed: that it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows, it develops into a large tree. Then He speaks of the yeast that a woman mixes into the flour until the whole batch rises. Two simple images, but a deep truth lies within them about our relationship with God. For God often begins with the smallest things. With something almost imperceptible, barely seen by human eyes, yet carrying within it the power to grow, to come to fulfillment, and to transform our entire life.
Contemplating the Gospel, we must ask ourselves some honest questions. What do we do with what God gifts us? What happens within us to the word of God that we hear? What becomes of the grace that we receive in the Holy Eucharist? What happens at that moment when we approach the altar, open our hearts, and welcome the living Christ? Is the Kingdom of God growing in us, or do we allow our sins to choke it out like weeds? The problem is never with God. The question is what we do with the divine grace that we receive. God sows, but we do not water. God richly gives His gifts, and we often neglect them.
We come to Holy Mass, listen to the word of God, approach Holy Communion, yet our lives do not change. Why is this? Because we are like rocky ground where nothing can take root, where everything dries up. We come unprepared, purely out of habit, just to somehow pass the time. How can the sown seed develop in us when our heart is far away and the ground is not prepared? We have received the living Christ – but what do we do afterwards? Do we even realize what we received in that holy moment? Do we continue the watering with prayer so that this grace may transform and renew us?
I often see this rush: the Holy Host is still in my mouth, but I am already hurrying back to my place to grab my bag of religious articles and push to the front of the fence because the post-Mass blessing is about to start. As if the blessing did not reach past the cordon! Brothers and sisters, let us stop for a moment! The living Christ is not a piece of candy that we just pop in and run on. Stop and pray! Give thanks to Jesus that He entered your heart! Religious articles do not save you, but rather the Christ who is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. What do you do when you go home from Holy Mass? What do you do until the beginning of the next Mass? Do you water the received Christ with prayer?
Hardly do we step out of the church with the Lord's body in our hearts, what do people start talking about? They judge others: how someone was dressed, who came with whom, what someone did. We watch the lives of others as if that were the most important thing. What happens then to that holy seed we received? Instead of tending to it with prayer, we bury it with slander. Instead of nourishing it with love, we choke it with envy. Instead of letting the Kingdom of God grow, we nourish weeds and the darnel of sin within ourselves.
What does Our Lady give us here in Medjugorje? Why did we come here? She gives us this mustard seed: the Eucharist itself. She teaches us that without this seed we cannot live, in this is our salvation. She invites us in her messages to take this seed into our families. We must pass on the word of God and sacramental grace with prayer in our homes. But just look at our families: is this really what we do? How many times have we prayed for peace, how many times have we received Communion for our children – and what happens when we get home? Does prayer or sin fill the house? Does a blessing or cursing spring from our lips? Forgiveness or resentment? Do we even have time for God in our daily lives, or do we only scramble for Him when we are in trouble?
We want our children to go to church, but we do not show them an example with our own lives. Then we are surprised if they later turn away from prayer and faith becomes indifferent to them. What did you sow in their heart? Did you water the seed of faith, or did you sow quarreling, hatred, and indifference before them? Our Lady speaks of parents as vine-dressers who tend the hearts of their children. What you sow and water, you will eventually reap.
God has been persistently calling us to the source here in Medjugorje for decades. To that source from which living water flows to water the seeds of faith. Our seeds often dry up without the water of life. The Lord shows us where to find this source: the deepest source is not on Apparition Hill and not on Križevac, but in His heart. Apparition Hill and Križevac are paths that lead to this source. It is painful to see that many come here yet do not reach the source. One can come to Medjugorje in such a way that one does not allow one's heart to be touched at all, and the mustard seed cannot develop within.
One can go up the mountains while criticizing other pilgrims the whole time instead of praying. One can stand through the Holy Mass while our heart is full of judgment and dissatisfaction. One can walk up to the statue of Our Lady merely to take pictures, gather likes on social media, and then go home without having taken a single sincere step toward conversion. We can pass through Medjugorje in such a way that Medjugorje never passes through our hearts. Many come, and yet they depart empty-handed.
You often hear complaints: "Everything here is full of shops, hotels, and stores, everything revolves around money!" Indeed, there may be things worth viewing critically, but ask yourself: why did you come here? To seek God and Our Lady, or to find faults and criticize? Did you come to meet the Lord, or simply to have something to talk about at home? Who creates this consumerist mindset? The person who expects hotel comfort and constantly complains about the food, the room, the bed, or the service. What did you come here to seek, man? God, or the comfort of a hotel? Did you come to nourish your soul, or do you want to pamper your body? Did you come to pray for the forgiveness of your sins, or to rate the quality of the mattress?
Our Lady did not call us here to eat our fill, rest in a comfortable bed, and then go home full but with an empty heart. What good is it if you climbed Križevac, but are unwilling to lay down your own cross: pride, anger, envy, and selfishness? What good is it that you knelt before the statue if at home you are already incapable of humbly asking for forgiveness and admitting you were wrong? What is the point of your pilgrimage if you return home with the same wounding tongue, closed heart, and burdened with sins?
Our Lady did not call us to rest, but to convert, to reconcile with God, to be ready to forgive, to love, and to live differently. Do not leave Medjugorje with just a restaurant receipt! Take with you the determination to change your life. Do not just take home a photo taken on a mountain, but the reality of forgiveness. Do not just buy a new rosary, but actually pray on it. Do not just preserve the memory of the Mass, but carry the living Christ into your everyday life. Because at the end of life, it will not matter what your hotel room was like or how much you spent, but solely this: did you allow God to transform your heart? Were you able to love and forgive? Did you allow the small seed of faith to grow into a spreading tree within you, in the shade of which others too may find peace and shelter? Amen.
AI translation. This text was made with artificial intelligence from the live broadcast of Radio Mir Medjugorje. It may contain small inaccuracies; the homily as preached in Croatian is authoritative.