THE SERMON OF BISHOP VLADIMIR FEKETE DURING THE SOLEMN HOLY MASS ON THE ARRIVAL OF THE STATUE OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA IN AZERBAIJAN, OCTOBER 16, 2022

Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ!

I cordially greet you at our Sunday Holy Mass as we are one spiritual family of disciples of our Lord!

I also heartily greet all our dear guests who have decided to visit our church today and share the joy of prayer with us! Perhaps you are of a different religion; or adhere to non-religious beliefs, or maybe you are in a spiritual search, and, of course, not everything that happens in a Christian worship service can be understandable to you. But I would like to say that you are very welcome here, because you are in the house of God, where your heart can find true peace and where in the presence of Almighty God you can find answers to the questions and problems of life that concerns you.

These days the Catholic Church in the South Caucasus is experiencing an extraordinary time of grace. Yesterday we had the opportunity to receive a special gift in our church – the blessed image of Virgin Mary – a statue of Our Lady of Fatima from Portugal, which has been revered by believers for more than a hundred years. Since not everyone can visit Fatima, this blessed statue has come to us, to Azerbaijan, in order to revive our faith and our hope through her presence here among us.

Now, just like a hundred years ago, the Mother of God invites all people of good will to pray with Her and more zealously seek ways of reconciliation and mutual forgiveness.

One hundred years ago, during the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, the First World War raged around the world and took millions of lives.

Unfortunately, the fire of war is still blazing in many places on our earth today. The peoples are carried away by traps of evil and cannot live in peace and serenity: cities are getting destroyed, young soldiers and innocent civilians are dying.

Pope Francis has often said in recent years that the Third World War, having been dispersed in many places on the planet, has in fact already begun. And it seems that there is no force that can stop this fratricidal fight and the suffering of the innocents.

It is the special task of politicians and rulers to seek peaceful solutions to disputes and to lead their peoples along the path of forgiveness, reconciliation and life in cooperation.

We as Christians must constantly remind the world that violence breeds more violence and that peace cannot be achieved through weapons, but only through personal repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation.

But in order to believe in this by ourselves and encourage others to do so, it is necessary to pray regularly and persistently.

Today’s Scripture readings mark this in a very specific way.

In the first reading, we see how old Moses can no longer pray with outstretched hands, and how he is helped, supported in prayer by his assistants Aaron and Hor.

And in the Gospel, the Lord Jesus clearly points out the need for persistent prayer in the story of the poor widow and the evil judge who does not want to consider her case. Despite the fact that she was refused many times, the poor widow again and again comes to the judge to defend her case in a dispute in which she got involved through no fault of her own and because of which she suffers unjustly. For a long time, the judge remains indifferent to her fate. Finally, something awakens in him, and the judge decides to help her. Jesus uses this human story to encourage us to pray persistently. Sometimes we also doubt whether God hears our prayers, whether He cares about us, because He does not seem to answer our prayers and does not help us. But it only seems to us.

Our human weakness and our impatience want to dictate even to the Lord God when and how He should intervene in our affairs.

Jesus tells us to arm ourselves, like the poor widow in the Gospel, with patience and, above all, with trust. God is incomparably better than the indifferent judge in the parable. And yet, if He lingers, we must trust that He has everything under control and that in the end everything will work out better than we could have imagined.

This is not a utopia. This is the daily experience of believers all over the world and in all generations. God cannot be surpassed or shamed. If we trust Him, He will even work miracles for our spiritual good and growth. But the Gospel ends with the question of Jesus: Will the Son of Man find faith on earth when he comes?

It depends on each of us. It depends on each of us whether we will keep the faith ourselves, whether we will be able to pass it on to our children and grandchildren. The Church, and therefore us, has the mission of proclaiming the Gospel to all people, especially to those who do not know Christ at all.

Holy Mother of God, help us in these days to pray with even greater zeal for peace in the whole world and for peace in human hearts. Help us to get to know Your Son Jesus better and testify of Him with our lives and words. Pray for us, Queen of Peace, so that wars stop and people will desire and be able to live as brothers and sisters, in peace and cooperation. Amen.