Beware of Hypocrisy and Worldly Leaven

Dear brothers and sisters, thousands and thousands follow Jesus. A great crowd, and in this situation one would say that it is wonderful, so many thousands and thousands, now Jesus will say something to them, but He does not say a single word to them. To these thousands, to the thousands, like you who often stand here in Medjugorje, it is as if He turned away from you toward the pastors of God, and Jesus said: first I will say something to you, my disciples. Jesus changes His way of speaking. Because it often happens that our communication with you believers is one-way. We speak, we direct, we preach, and perhaps we ourselves do not listen to anyone, neither to man nor to the Holy Spirit, we do not resort to anything to say the right words to the people. Therefore, it is very interesting how Jesus turns to His disciples, there lies the key to the beginnings of changes in our lives.

Because Jesus knows that if the pastors remain hypocrites, if the pastors, the servants of God, become saltless, lukewarm, uninterested, all these millennia who followed Him will be lost, and Jesus will not gather them, leave them as an inheritance, because they will not be able to hear the sound teaching, the proclamation and joy of the Gospel and the Risen Lord. Therefore, it is important that we, brother priests, listen a little more often to our believing people. I know that in their hearts the younger generations, I say to the priests, because on the occasion of certain presentations, you know, they get carried away. Then two, three come, they praise, or through social media they say, oh, how good. But that was only a few. And how many perhaps went home so that out of politeness they would not say it? Stop it, what is inside you is bad. What you do wrong is wrong. How you behave is unworthy. How you treat your believers is inappropriate. Because you sometimes love us wrongly. At the same time, you also destroy your pastors with false praise, this is hypocrisy, as you destroy us, which you do not even tell us, because it is as if you loved us, so you do not want to say anything beforehand. Help us, dear friends, to be better. Help us to be God's. You are called to this. That is why Jesus said to the disciples: Watch out for yourselves, the leaven of the Pharisees. Because in life everything starts somewhere with small things.

All of them, the leaven of evil, and leaven is a biblical image of how something spreads slowly, almost invisibly, and infects the whole material, the whole bread, the whole dough. And we cannot ignore it. And you, Pharisees, whom we know as a sect, were people. People who kept every prescription, kept the laws, did everything, did everything they possibly could, but the Lord knew, they had a double heart. A false life, a false life. And Christ does not want those, to us He addresses His word to His children, who tomorrow will speak to these thousands of thousands and share the joys and graces of the Gospel, the Word of the living God, oh how important this is, oh how good it is that we have our Jesus. The world is good, we know it, but we know nothing about it. It is full of the acid of the place of Parisian illustration. Today it is easy to ruin something. Today they can easily distract attention from important things with a few selfish people. We believe.

Therefore, do not follow in front of our eyes what is happening with us and what is happening with you. For example, yesterday in Split some people chanted something that is naturally unworthy and inappropriate. Two, three, four people whom this leaven caught and swept others along with them, because imagination has no conscience, imagination has no sense, imagination has no responsibility. And then such individuals, who in the name of patriotism seem to commit absolute nonsense, become the leaven of ruin, not a solution. And then an even worse leaven sticks to this leaven, and then they write that the church is to blame, that the catechists are to blame, that catechesis is to blame for why these fan chants are what they are. And here I dare say, they are a hundred times worse than those they call names. Behold, these ideologies, the seeds of Satan, must be laid bare.

Furthermore, what Jesus says here about this crowd, He says, they oppressed one another. They oppressed one another. Well, we experience this here in Medjugorje as well, and the priests in their parishes, when there are Christmas confessions. How people push and shove each other, oppress each other, even though they are going to confession. Then they cheat, they cut through the other line, they pretend to be naive, as if they did not know where the line begins. You see, brothers and sisters, how we trample people, corpses, lives, identities in order to achieve their ideals, to be successful in their careers, trampling on corpses, with the thought of creating a life for themselves and their children. How low, sick, and sinful this is. But Jesus answers all of this as well: everything you do and all that you are, everything will be exposed. There is no hiding with God and before God. What is said in the darkness will come to the light, what is whispered somewhere will be brought out to the housetops, so that the thoughts of human hearts may be revealed.

Therefore, dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, He speaks about Jesus, and the meaning of the whole thing is not to let your souls be destroyed by those leavens that distance us from the mystery of divine grace. When we read the book of the prophet Daniel, he speaks about what the worst punishment is for people: the spiritual punishment of the soul, the impossibility of seeing God, of gaining His grace, and the feeling of spiritual anxiety, eternal suffering. This is the worst of all, when they do not allow us to have our God, when we distance ourselves from God, spiritual sufferings arise.

And today we also commemorate a holy woman who had private revelations, and this evening we highlight two, where she says that God sent a message, lukewarm souls will become fervent, the gift will be given to His priests to touch even the hardest hearts. Behold, this is the care of the soul: how to touch hard hearts, how to mobilize lukewarm souls. Europe is a lukewarm soul, Europe has become hard-hearted. In many European parishes, there are Catholics on paper, but in reality, this is nowhere to be found, and neither is it with us. This is a sign that the leaven of the world, liberalism, materialism, and I would add, even Satanism, has taken the stage, taken the microphone, the keyboard, and all the screens, and is thus leavening us.

And now it offers to destroy souls. Because you see, many parents, and we older ones, now see that if someone attacks a child, all of us would try to protect the child. We would say, let us not do violence to children. And every day it is a display, dear parents, you drive the soul into violence for your children. Where dirty content is already exposed in our kindergartens and schools, where scandal is taught and preached. And here the parent will not go over to shout, do not do this to my child. And this childish, innocent, white, angelic soul is just about to be contaminated, before it even consciously set out into the world and to live maturely. And here I must raise my voice. Therefore, do not worry only about what kind of shoes your children went to school in, all dressed up, all in order, so that no one beats them. This is not enough. They strike your child from the inside.

And how many times you yourselves, because it is difficult to be with them, turn on programs of various statuses and contents for them, just so there is peace, and inside them chaos arises, trauma arises and lifelong stress, which many never resolve in their lives. Therefore, let us return to Jesus. Therefore, Jesus gives confidence, He says: do not be afraid, even your hairs are counted, God knows everything about us. You are not sparrows, do not be afraid. Today, love does not reign, but fears. People are driven into fear, even some pastors generate fear in you. Those of you who respect and glorify God with fear, because He will snatch them away, you have not known Christ. You have not met Him, you do not know the love of God, but you only avoid evil in fear, and we forget to do charitable mercy.

Jesus never generates fear, but gives security, gives freedom. He does not threaten, but teaches, and leads us in love, and always repeats to us: do not be afraid. Do not let yourselves be afraid. Brothers and sisters, in the captivity of any fear, if we do not do this so many times, let us not be afraid, this is not the way of Jesus. The way of Jesus is love, freedom, grace, and all of this ultimately brings a great joy, because the Christian has a joyful face. The Christian is a person of hope, therefore bravely all forward, and be the leaven of Jesus' Gospel, carry Him, the words of Jesus, the word of God, and the words of Mary, the Queen of Peace, who here in Medjugorje for so many years has so beautifully brought the leaven. Amen.