Episode Transcript  

One

The Approved Apparition of Mary at Kibeho Rwanda 

Beginning November 28th, 1981 and continuing until November 28th, 1989 Mary appeared to three teenage girls, Alphonsine Mumureke, Nathalie Mukamazimpaka, and Marie-Claire Mukangango in Kibeho, Rwanda, a country that was 65% Catholic and comprised of the Tootsie and Hutu tribes. On August 15th, 1982, Mary wept during the apparition. She was inconsolable because she was carrying the message of salvation, but the world refused to listen.

Then Our Lady gave a vision of a deadly civil war, a river of blood, abandoned corpses and a gaping abyss. She begged the people to convert, to turn away from sin and turn back to God by means of prayer, especially meditation on the Word of God in the Rosary and the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, examining their lives, taking responsibility for their sins, asking God for forgiveness in Confession, and, finally, forgiving all people, especially their enemies from the heart. Because this is the only way to peace.

But they refused to listen. They said: These visionaries are crazy with their prophecies of doom. Yet every detail came true. Civil war erupted in 1990. And tragically in the summer of 1994, one million Tootsies were murdered by their Hutu neighbors.

Two

A Message for the Whole World

It would be easy to think, “What a tragedy for them,” and leave it at that. But Our Lady said plainly that her warning was not only for Kibeho, nor even for Africa, it was for the whole world. She told the visionaries, “When I show myself to someone and speak to them, I am speaking to the whole world.

If I turn to the parish of Kibeho, it does not mean I am concerned only for Kibeho…or for Africa. I am concerned about the entire world. The world is evil and rushes toward its ruin. It is about to fall into an abyss. The world is in rebellion against God. Many sins are being committed. There is no love and no peace. If you do not repent and convert your hearts, you will all fall into an abyss.”

In 1982, Alphonsine, one of the young visionaries, responded to Mary during an apparition with almost trembling obedience, “Yes, Mother, I will repeat it exactly as you ask. To the people of the earth, you say three times: You opened the door and they refused to come in. You opened the door and they refused to come in. You opened the door and they refused to come in. Yes, Mother, I will tell them: you saw the world in a terrible state, and you came to save us, but we refused to listen…”

And Alphonsine continued, faithfully echoing Mary’s urgent question to humanity—spoken three times like a trumpet blast: What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for?

Three

Medjugorje 

The warning given at Kibeho did not end in Rwanda. It continued, almost seamlessly, with Our Lady’s apparitions in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, which began on June 24th, 1981, just months before Kibeho, and which continue to this day. The Vatican has given Medjugorje the Nihil Obstat, the highest possible positive evaluation under the new guidelines.

The message of Mary at Medjugorje is the same as that of Kibeho: a mother urgently calling her children to conversion. Our Lady says, “Be Converted!” “It will be too late when the sign comes. Beforehand, several warnings will be given to the world. Have people hurry to be converted. I need your prayers and your penance…The only thing that I would want to tell you is be converted. Make that known to all my children as quickly as possible. No pain, no suffering is too great to me to save you…You cannot imagine what is going to happen nor what the Eternal Father will allow to come to earth. That is why you must be converted.” 

Four

Same Message as Jesus  

The message of Our Lady at both Kibeho and Medjugorje is unmistakably clear: this is an urgent call to conversion. I have just returned from ten days immersed in the life of Jesus in Jerusalem and the Galilee. And what struck me again and again is this: Jesus’ central message is the same. His very first public words were, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

In Luke 13, people came to Jesus with the shocking headlines of their day: Pilate had massacred an innocent group of Galileans. Eighteen people were crushed when a tower collapsed in Jerusalem. And Jesus responded in a way that must have stunned them, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Immediately, He followed this with a parable that reveals just how urgent conversion really is. A man came three years in a row looking for fruit on his fig tree. Finding none, he ordered it to be cut down. We are that fig tree, and the fruit Jesus seeks is the fruit of conversion: a changed life, a turning away from sin, and real growth in virtue.

The question is simple and unavoidable: Are we bearing the fruit of repentance?

Five

The Process

Let’s end with the concrete steps of conversion.

Step one: listen to the Word of God. Every day, take in something from God’s Word through Scripture, Tradition (the writings of the Saints), and the Magisterium (the teaching of the Church). As soon as something strikes you, stop and pay attention because that is what God is trying to say to you today. 

Step two: reflect or think about what struck you. Try to understand it and apply it to your life, asking, “Am I living this or not?” Then look honestly at the gap between what Jesus is saying and how you are living. From that gap arises a simple question, “What, practically, am I going to do about it today?”

Step three: a concrete resolution. A resolution is a small, practical action inspired by your meditation, something you will practice repeatedly throughout the day until you build a new habit. Examples: Thank God for the good things He sends today. Accept small sufferings with patience and offer them to Him. Refuse to gossip, no matter the conversation.

Step four: Write your resolution on a scrap of paper or a note on your phone. Keep it with you. Begin practicing it immediately. Every time the situation arises, do the good action you chose. At the end of the day, ask yourself, “Did I remember? Did I practice my resolution?” If we work at our resolution, we grow in virtue. If we neglect it, nothing changes, and we drift backward into vice.

Jesus has spoken, Mary has spoken. Now the only question left is the one Our Lady asked at Kibeho, “What are you waiting for?””

If you enjoyed this meditation, subscribe below.