Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Health Vailankanni

When Jesus put out to sea with his disciples he wasn't just thinking of that particular fishing expedition. That is why... he said to Peter: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men”. And divine effectiveness will not be lacking in the case of this new kind of fishing, either: the apostles will become the agents of great marvels in spite of their personal failings. And we, too, if we struggle daily to acquire sanctity in our day to day lives, each according to our own condition in the midst of the world and the exercise of our professions, then I venture to affirm that our Lord will make instruments of us, capable of accomplishing miracles, even the most exceptional ones if needs be. We will give light to the blind. Which of us could not tell of a thousand examples of the way in which someone blind, almost from their birth, has regained their sight and received the light of Christ in all its splendor? Someone else was deaf and another dumb, unable to understand or articulate a single word as children of God...: now they understand and express themselves like adults... “In the name of Jesus” the apostles give strength back to a sick man who was incapable of all useful action... “In the name of the Lord, stand up and walk!” (Acts 3:6). Another, a dead man who already had a stench, heard God's voice as at the time of the miracle of the widow of Naim's son: “Young man, I tell you, arise!” (Lk 7:14; Acts 9:40; cf. Jn 11). We will work miracles like Christ, miracles like the first apostles. Perhaps these wonders have happened in you, in me: perhaps we were blind or deaf or sick or smelt of death when the Word of God snatched us from our prostration. If we love Christ, if we follow him definitively, if he alone is the one we seek and not our own selves, then in his name we will be able to give without cost what we have received without cost.

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Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give

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