💌“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE FAITHFUL

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

- John 8:32 -

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

There comes a time when silence before what one sincerely knows to be true becomes painful. Not because one wants to argue.  Not because one wants to win.

But because truth matters.

Our Lord said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  For every Christian, seeking truth is an obligation.  Truth belongs to God.  And where there is truth and light, there we may recognize His Hand.

This is the plea for Naju.

For more than forty years, testimonies have come from ordinary pilgrims, religious, priests and bishops who went there and witnessed what they say they saw.  Records and physical objects associated with the reported extraordinary manifestations have been preserved.  Thousands have spoken of conversion, confession, renewed prayer, reconciliation and a deeper love for the Eucharist.

Yet for many,

the word Naju has come to mean only one thing:

Condemned. And herein lies the pain.

Behind that one word are people who were there.  People who saw, prayed, wept—and came home different from the people who arrived.

When what they sincerely witnessed as light is spoken of as darkness, when something that drew them closer to God is dismissed without their testimony being truly heard, something within the heart cries out: Please, look again.

Perhaps Scripture has already given us the better words.

When Philip told Nathanael that they had found Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael asked:

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Philip did not argue.  He did not demand belief. He simply answered:

“Come and see.”

And Nathanael went.

Had the word Nazareth been enough for him to turn away, he might never have encountered Jesus. How painfully familiar that can sound.

Can anything good come from Naju?

Then perhaps the fairest answer remains the same:

“Come and see.”

Hear those who were there.  Examine what has been preserved.  Ask the difficult questions.  Allow everything to stand in the light. Nothing added by those who believe.  Nothing distorted by those who doubt.

If something is false, let the light expose it.  But if it is true—then, for the love of God, let us not call darkness what may have come from His Light.

And those who love Naju carry an even greater responsibility:

For what would it profit us to defend Naju passionately if our lives do not become more truthful, more prayerful, more forgiving, more faithful to Christ?

If we ask others to seek the truth, then we must belong completely to truth ourselves.  No embellishment.  No bending of facts.  Not even the smallest falsehood should be allowed to touch what we believe is holy.

God needs no darkness to protect His Light.

And then there is the call that makes all of this almost painful to contemplate.

In one of the Messages of Love, Our Blessed Mother speaks of never ceasing to call Her children to come, until Her throat bleeds. There is something almost unbearable in those words.

A Mother calling Her children.

Calling until Her throat bleeds.

And still She calls.

Perhaps that is where words should almost stop.

Because what if the truth has been before us all along?

What if something from Heaven has been standing in the brightness of day, while we remained at a distance because judgment had already told us there was nothing to see?

What if the judgment reached us before the truth did?

That thought should not make anyone triumphant.

It should make us tremble.

Because the truth about Naju belongs neither to those who defend it nor to those who reject it. It belongs to God.

And if one day the fullness of truth should reveal that His Hand had indeed been there, there would be no victory in saying, “We were right.”

Perhaps there would only be silence.

Perhaps tears.

And the heartbreaking realization that Heaven had been calling for so long—and we never came to see.

Lord Jesus, You are the Truth and the Light.  Give us courage to seek what is true, humility to accept where it leads, and eyes that will never turn away from Your Light.  Amen.

Mrs. Lulu T. Villacorte

a devotee from the Philippines