27.

Jesus knew that without help we humans would not be able to pass on his message about our heavenly Father to future generations. Without assistance, we would also struggle to recognise the Father's will for our lives and to comply with it. Jesus therefore promised us the Holy Spirit who will lead and guide us if we sincerely want to be led and guided by Him. The Holy Spirit will also give us his gifts, those gifts that we need to be able to become credible witnesses of God's work through our lives.

28.

All people who have made an honest effort to recognise the will of God and live according to it may be in the presence of God after their death and go towards their perfection. These people have already made an effort during their lifetime to be close to other people and to help them on the basis of neighbourly love. They did not discard this trait after their death, but it was sanctified and perfected by God. We may call upon such people, whom we call saints, for their help and ask them for their heavenly companionship. The saints, because they are still human beings - redeemed human beings - can ask God for our requests. God, who respects our human freedom and who does not intervene of his own accord in our lives and in our freedom, can and will respond to these petitions if they serve the fulfilment of his holy will. In everyday life we are often grateful for good human companionship, and the saints, because of their holiness, have been given by God even more opportunities to help us from heaven than was ever possible for them on earth.

29.

This possibility of interceding for us with God was given to Mary to an incomparably greater extent. Mary, who had made the Incarnation of Christ possible in the first place through her YES and her unconditional surrender to God, received very special graces from God to accompany us human beings. Her goal is to lead all people who trustingly turn to her to Jesus her Son. Mary, however, has been given another role by God, namely as a mediator between God and humanity. This is much more than the role of intercessor, which the saints also have. She has been given permission by God to make contact with people in such a way that many people can participate directly and indirectly. We can make petitions to heaven, but Mary, on the other hand, has the possibility to quietly correct the course of our ship of faith when it is necessary, but without restricting our freedom.

The messages that Mary addresses to us humans through her apparitions are nothing new. The revelations of God are, after all, concluded with Jesus. Mary’s messages are basically reminders of what Jesus has already told us. They are reminders of Jesus' calls, which in the course of time have become increasingly faded in our consciousness and which have been forgotten by many people and indeed are no longer lived. These apparitions and messages of Mary represent the care of a mother who knows more than her children and who wants to assist her children.

Mary appeared to humanity in times of greatest need, for example in times of brutal colonial wars in which countries were conquered with fire and sword under the sign of the cross in an unimaginably cruel way. In the process, Christianity was often imposed on the conquered peoples in a severe and cruel way. In her apparition in Guadalupe in 1531 (Mexico), for example, Mary did not comment in any way on what had happened, but through her loving presence she gave the unmistakable heavenly sign that she had come to give people love, help and guidance in their faith. The people of Latin America were thereby enabled to accept the Christian faith, despite the cruelties of the conquerors.

In 1858, Mary appeared in Lourdes (France) in a time agitated by revolutions and the Enlightenment, a counter-movement to the Church. In 1917, Mary appeared in Fatima (Portugal) in an atheist environment, during the time of the Russian Revolution and the First World War. In 1981, apparitions began in Kibeho (Rwanda) in which Mary warned of bloodshed. The genocide in Rwanda then began in 1994. There have also been apparitions in other places which have been recognised by the Catholic Church or are awaiting recognition as they are currently ongoing (e.g. Medjugorje, Bosnia).

God sent his Son into the world to proclaim his kingdom to humanity, a kingdom of love, peace and justice. But what have the fruits of our human freedom, and our christian lives been? Besides wonderful fruits of love, mercy and justice, there were and are also horrible wars, oppression, slavery, genocides and great injustices.

Mary did not and does not say anything new in her apparitions, but she continues to call people with all her strength to pray for peace on earth, to repent and to turn to God. She also warned urgently, just as Jesus did, against the power of Satan, which in modern times is generally understood only symbolically. She also emphasises that without our prayer she cannot help humanity. God responds to our petitions. If we do not pray and ask for peace, God, respecting our freedom, will not intervene.

30.

Jesus also knew that people alone are not able to carry the faith down the generations. He therefore founded the Church and gave it the mission to preserve the faith. The Church as a community of believers is a place of grace in which many fruits of the Holy Spirit have grown and are still growing. Jesus loves his church.

However, one must also admit with dismay and a sense of guilt that even within the Catholic Church there were and still are people who do not take Jesus' mission seriously and betray Jesus' goals through their lives. As a result, people have been and continue to be hurt and kept from believing in our loving God, because faith is usually equated with the Church. There have also been some awful developments for which the church is to blame, abuse of power, crimes and various kinds of unkindness and injustice. In the past, this also resulted in various groups splitting off from the Church. In an honest effort, they wanted to try to follow the ways of Christ, which were often preached in the church, but not always followed. This disunity between christians remains an open wound today.

 Another great and difficult wound to heal is the fact that in the past the Church has often joined forces with the powerful and the rich and abandoned the poor and the oppressed. The Church has done too little to stand up for the poor and persecuted, and too little to show mercy and, above all, justice. When political parties were founded to fight social injustices, they were subsequently directed not only against the powerful and the oppressors, but also against the Church, by which people felt abandoned. Many of these parties are still critical of or even hostile to the church today. For millions of people worldwide this remains an obstacle in getting to know their loving triune God.

But our gaze should not remain fixed on what was wrong, on human mistakes and guilt, nor on missed opportunities in the proclamation of faith. God still loves his Church, he is close to her in light and in dark times, and he works through the sacraments when they are received with a sincere heart.

Jesus said: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them". This applies to all people, wherever, however and in whatever community they meet to seek the ways of God together. It also applies in a special way to his church, where people gather to hear God's word and where they strive to direct their lives towards God's will.