This was a talk given by Fr. Stefano Gobbi on June 24, 1996 to the Marian Movement of Priests
Brother priests, we are priests chosen for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is why Our Lady made the Marian Movement of Priests arise within the Church. She has chosen us priests to be part of this Movement, so that we may be instruments of the triumph of her Immaculate Heart in the world. But in order for us to become instruments for the triumph of her Immaculate Heart, Our Lady must triumph in our lives. To be able to triumph, she asks us to consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart, so that she can enter into our priestly lives as our Mother and work to transform us and to make of us, ever more, priests according to the Heart of Jesus. When she sees us similar to her Son Jesus, then her Immaculate Heart triumphs in us.
In order to help us on this journey, she asks us to gather in cenacles, so that the Holy Spirit may transform us. She molds us through her messages, and by means of these she helps us live our consecration to her Immaculate Heart so that this Heart may triumph in our lives. Then, as It triumphs in us, we become the instruments of the triumph of her Immaculate Heart.
This reflection leads us to today’s second meditation. Where does her Immaculate Heart triumph? Her Immaculate Heart triumphs only in the glorious triumph of Christ.
This is a meditation I want to make, but I am a little apprehensive since this is a new theme. I myself was surprised to discover how Our Lady has revealed this to us in her messages. [This is] a theme on which perhaps, humanly speaking, I was not prepared, since this aspect was never a part of my theological studies; that is, the triumph of the Immaculate Heart comes about with Jesus’ return in glory. Brother priests, this is stated clearly by Our Lady; it is clearly and forcefully affirmed in her last messages. I looked through the first messages in order to find out when Our Lady first mentioned this theme, and I realized that indeed she mentions it from the very first messages – from the very beginning.
Let us look at one of them: On December 24, 1975 – twenty-one years ago . . .
Our Lady says:
“Do not fear: as my Heart has given you the Savior, so now in these times my Immaculate Heart gives you the joy of His salvation. Soon the whole world, which is pervaded with darkness and which has been snatched from my Son, will at last rejoice over the fruit of this holy night. The triumph of my Immaculate Heart will be realized through a new birth of Jesus in the hearts and the souls of my poor wandering children. Only have confidence, and do not let anxiety or discouragement take hold of you. The future that awaits you will be a new dawn of light for the whole world, now at last made clean.” (89m-p)
This theme is again taken up and further clarified in the message of December 24, 1978. It continues throughout [the book], and the last messages go on to repeat the same theme; therefore, we cannot deny it. We must try to deepen our understanding of it, to know it well ourselves so that we are able to explain it to others who will ask us about it. We must be ready to give witness – as the Pope says – to the hope that is in us.
This message from Our Lady [December 24, 1978] is precisely about his Second Coming.
“His second coming, beloved children, will be like the first. As was His birth on this night, so also will be the return of Jesus in glory…
The world will be completely covered in the darkness of the denial of God, of its obstinate rejection of Him and of rebellion against his Law of love. The coldness of hatred will still cause the roadways of this world to be deserted. Almost no one will be ready to receive Him.
The great ones will not even remember Him, the rich will close their doors on Him, while his own will be too busy with seeking and affirming themselves…
‘When the Son of Man comes, will He still find faith on the earth?’ (Lk 18:8) He will come suddenly, and the world will not be ready for his coming. He will come for a judgment for which man will find himself unprepared. He will come to establish His kingdom in the world, after having defeated and annihilated his enemies.
Even in this second coming, the Son will come to you through His Mother. As the Word of the Father made use of my virginal womb to come to you, so also will Jesus make use of my Immaculate Heart to come and reign in your midst…” (166e-i)
At this point, brother priests, I ask myself: Our Lady spoke of the ‘triumph’ of her Immaculate Heart. Strangely, she used this word – ‘triumph’ – in a century in which everything possible would be done against ‘triumphalism’ in the Church. Our Lady uses the word ‘triumph’. She does not use ‘joy’, she does not use ‘comfort’, she does not use ‘consolation’ – but ‘triumph’. Triumph is not only fullness of joy; triumph is a joy that comes from a great victory – this is triumph. When the great Roman condottieres won, they entered [the city] to receive their triumph; therefore, the triumph of the Immaculate Heart implies the idea of a great victory of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
But I ask myself: this is the Heart of a Mother. Where can the Immaculate Heart of Mary – the Mother – obtain her triumph? Only in the triumph of her Son. If the Son does not triumph, the Heart of the Mother does not triumph. Since the triumph is the culmination of a great victory, only when Christ obtains His great victory will the Immaculate Heart of Mary triumph. And Christ will obtain His final and great victory with His return in glory. So now I understand why, in her messages, Our Lady says: “The triumph of my Immaculate Heart will coincide with the return of Christ in glory.”
But how should we interpret this return of Christ in glory? I would like to read to you a few words from the introduction [of our book]: “In reading this diary, which for many priests has already become a book for daily reflection, each sentence must be accepted with discernment; that is, according to the true meaning that is derived from the whole context.
Let us consider, for example, Our Lady’s advice to give up newspapers and television. For some, this may be interpreted literally. For many priests, it means, rather, not wasting precious hours following programs that are frivolous and tendentious, and refraining from reading world events as interpreted in a materialistic sense, on the part of much of the present-day means of social communication. (…)
Another example can be found in the frequent expressions, that at first sight can leave us uneasy, in which it is affirmed that the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary coincides with the coming of the glorious reign of Christ. These expressions are, of course, to be interpreted in the light of what is taught in Sacred Scripture (Rev 20:1-7) – (and here we should entrust ourselves to the expert… ) – and to the authentic Magisterium of the Church. In this regard, let us keep before our eyes the frequent references which, in his first encyclical, “Redemptor Hominis” and in other important documents, Pope John Paul II makes concerning the Church of the second Advent which awaits the second coming of Jesus.” (Preface – To the Priests, Our Lady’s Beloved Sons – pg. xlii)
Traditionally, we have always identified the return of Christ in glory with the ‘Parousia’, when He will come as Judge, since there has never been any in-depth theological study on this topic. This is also the case for other truths which are believed, but about which no in-depth studies have ever been made. Of late, these messages which refer to Christ returning in glory to this world have given rise to a more serious theological study on this subject.
A few years ago when I was in Spain, a priest, a theologian, gave me a book to have translated into Italian – unfortunately, I lost it somewhere along the way. In it, he showed how Sacred Scripture and the Fathers of the Church speak clearly of a glorious coming of the reign of Christ into this world, apart from the one at the end as Judge!
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