THE HOMILY’S VIGIL OF THE SOLEMNITY
His excellency Celestin HAKIZIMANA, the Bishop of Gikongoro diocese in his homily insist on main reasons is calling all Christians to convert their heart and pray without hypocrisy said that: Dear Brothers and Sisters the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared here in Kibeho today in 1981 (43 years ago) and told the Visionaries she is the mother of the word. In our faith as we profess it in Credo the Son of God became man and was born of the Virgin Mary.
God loved us so much that he sent his son to save us from death. It was a great miracle of love that, the Creator who has the whole world in his hands, becomes a human person. Christian faith is to believe that God became man in Jesus Christ and this means Mary the mother of Jesus becomes also the mother of God. This is an important of faith that the BV Mary in Kibeho came to remind us.
As we heard in the Gospel the “Word became fresh” that is what Our Lady reminded us. For the first time in history of apparitions Mary revealed this in Kibeho.
The plan of God to send his son to save the people was prophesised long ago as we had in the first reading, Isaiah saying, “A virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel”. This came to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ as we heard from St Paul in the second reading.
The mother of the word reveals the nature and mission of Mary and at the same time it is deeply connected with the identity of Jesus Christ the word of God made flesh. The word is something very meaningful. When somebody tells you a word he/she opens his/her heart to you and shares with you his/her life. God created us by his word and shared his life with us, made us his children.
In the message Our Lady told us in Kibeho is that the world is going from bad to worse and we need to be converted and pray without hypocrisy. We see this today in world is full of conflicts, violence and war particularly on our African Continent. To pray without hypocrisy is to pray with fraternal love and where one has offended the others to try to ask for forgiveness, to forgive and reconcile and pray with a reconciled heart.
Mary our mother units us in our differences just the beaty of the flowers is their different colours. She said that we need to obey the commandments of God and be vigilant because Atheism and heresies will come in a disguised manner. This is what we see today, people spreading hatred and violence using the name of God and ungodly behaviors confusing love with concupiscence and lust and even want a blessing.
She recommended us to pray, say the rosary, she taught us the rosary of the seven sorrow, her dearest prayer. As Jesus warned us, “Pray so that you don’t fall into temptation because the heart is seeking to do good but the weakness of the flesh overcomes it pray the heart that seeks the good will overcome the weakness of the body.”
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