Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call… Save yourselves from this corrupt generation. (Today’s First Reading)
There are news reports that Bibles are selling like “hot cakes” during this coronavirus crisis. “People are looking for hope,” says one headline. That can only mean that people are hungry, looking for answers that science, frankly, cannot give. As Pope Benedict XIV:
… those who followed in the intellectual current of modernity… were wrong to believe that man would be redeemed through science. Such an expectation asks too much of science; this kind of hope is deceptive. Science can contribute greatly to making the world and mankind more human. Yet it can also destroy mankind and the world unless it is steered by forces that lie outside it. —Spe Salvi, Encyclical Letter, n. 25
Clearly, we are living through a time when the experiments in our laboratories are becoming an experiment on the human race. Our trust in science and reason as a kind of savior has led to a false understanding of the human race, our dignity, and our relation to creation around us—not as something to abuse, but as an expression of God’s love and providence.
If you are searching right now for answers, it has been distilled down to today’s first Mass reading: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins.” That’s it; that’s the simple message of why Jesus came to earth, suffered, died and arose again: to save us from our sin which separates us from Him, to heal us from its effects, and restore us as sons and daughters by giving to us a divine gift: “receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
If you are new to Christianity or have let your faith die out, and you are beginning to rediscover and search for that “purpose” for your life… then you are not reading these words by chance. Right now, where you are, you can simply repent of your past sins, no matter how dark they are, and ask Jesus to forgive you. He is waiting to do this. He died to do this! Then ask Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit. If you are already a Catholic, seek out Confession where the Lord can restore your soul to the pristine state of baptism. For those who are not baptized, seek out a priest and tell him you wish to be so. Because of the current lockdown, though, this may be delayed for some time. However, Jesus knows your desire:
The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament… [Yet], the Church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the sake of the faith without having received Baptism are baptized by their death for and with Christ. This Baptism of blood, like the desire for Baptism, brings about the fruits of Baptism without being a sacrament. For catechumens[1]Catechumen: a person who is receiving instruction in preparation for Christian baptism or confirmation. who die before their Baptism, their explicit desire to receive it, together with repentance for their sins, and charity, assures them the salvation that they were not able to receive through the sacrament. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1257-1259
In other words, the most important thing today is that you make this act of faith and trust in God’s unfathomable love for you, and receive the sacraments when possible. For, as St. Paul says, “by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God…” (Ephesians 2:8).
Do not waste any more time—today is the day of salvation: “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
Footnotes
| ↑1 | Catechumen: a person who is receiving instruction in preparation for Christian baptism or confirmation. |
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Alicja Lenczewska
Elizabeth Kindelmann
Through what became The Spiritual Diary, Jesus and Mary taught Elizabeth, and they continue to instruct the faithful in the divine art of suffering for the salvation of souls. Tasks are assigned for each day of the week, which involve prayer, fasting, and night vigils, with beautiful promises attached to them, laced with special graces for priests and the souls in purgatory. In their messages, Jesus and Mary say that The Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the greatest grace given to mankind since the Incarnation. And in the not-so-distant future, her flame will engulf the entire world.
Father Stefano Gobbi
Why Gisella Cardia?
Thirdly, the messages have frequently been accompanied by visible phenomena, photographic evidence found in In Cammino con Maria, which cannot be the fruit of subjective imagination, notably the presence of the stigmata on Giselle’s body and and the appearance of crosses or religious texts in blood on Gisella’s arms. See the pictures taken from her apparition website 
Jennifer
Why Manuela Strack?
Why the Visionaries of Our Lady of Medjugorje?
Why Pedro Regis?
Why the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta?
of the saints. It wasn’t until she became a “Daughter of Mary” that the nightmares finally ceased at the age of eleven. In the following year, Jesus began to speak interiorly to her especially after receiving Holy Communion. When she was thirteen, He appeared to her in a vision that she witnessed from the balcony of her home. There, in the street below, she saw a crowd and armed soldiers leading three prisoners; she recognized Jesus as one of them. When He arrived beneath her balcony, He raised his head and cried out: “Soul, help Me!” Deeply moved, Luisa offered herself from that day on as a victim soul in expiation for the sins of mankind.
immobile, rigid-like state that appeared almost as if she were dead. It was only when a priest made the sign of the Cross over her body that Luisa regained her faculties. This remarkable mystical state persisted until her death in 1947—followed by a funeral that was no little affair. During that period in her life, she suffered no physical illness (until she succumbed to pneumonia at the end) and she never experienced bedsores, despite being confined to her little bed for sixty-four years.
Why Simona and Angela?
Valeria Copponi