Marija Bistrica, (IKA) – On the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, the main Eucharistic celebration at the Croatian National Shrine of Our Lady of Bistrica was led by the Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanić. Welcoming those present, the rector of the shrine, Msgr. Zlatko Koren, recalled that the shrine in Bistrica remembers many joyful moments: October 3, 1998, the day Saint John Paul II visited the shrine, is inscribed in golden letters.
Cardinal Bozanić specifically invoked the memory of an event that occurred 40 years ago, when the strength of the “Marian thread” of Croatian Catholics was displayed before the whole word. Thus in September 1976, amidst fierce communism, despite numerous threats, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims celebrated a double jubilee in Solin: the thousandth anniversary of the first known Croatian Marian shrine, Our Lady of the Island (Gospa od Otoka), which “the good Croatian queen Jelena, who was the mother of the kingdom and protectress of orphans and widows” had built, and thirteen centuries of Christianity among the Croats. Then the Croatian faithful began a great novena from Solin to Marija Bistrica, which preceded the epochal historical changes in Europe at the end of the twentieth century. Solin is inscribed in the history of the Croatian nation not only for the gathering of the people, not only because this gathering was a message, a cry of the nation for liberation from communist dictatorship attended and supported by distinguished persons from around the world, but this celebration was much greater than that. It was then that an oath was uttered that became an indelible sign, an honorable, contracted obligation of the Croatian nation with Our Lady, said the Cardinal, and recalled how his predecessor, the former Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Franjo Kuharić, in the name of the entire Church among the Croats, renewed the nation’s thousand years of fidelity to Jesus through Mary and reaffirmed the ancestral vow. The prayer uttered on that occasion also obligates us today, “when our people are crying out for demographic renewal, when the wind sways empty cradles, when our cities and villages are increasingly deserted, when we so sorely need courage, strength and confidence in life.”
“One thing is certain: neither as individuals nor as a nation can we achieve well-being without spiritual capital, and the path to it cannot be blocked by anyone, any institution, any ideology or any agency. It is only possible to achieve this capital through the same trust in God possessed by the Blessed Virgin Mary and the many to whom she was a paragon, said the homilist, and referred to one of Blessed Alojzije Stepinac’s last sermons at Marija Bistrica, dated 1944.
“There is a lot of good in our midst. In our nation there is a strong sense of solidarity that is manifested in the face of adversity and people’s needs. It is necessary to safeguard the memory of the magnanimous, courageous and simple gestures by our people when they were faced with the needs of others. We need to renew the zeal of confidence in ourselves, in our community, in the possibility of change for the better, because this nation wants to live with dignity in its homeland, it wants a better future for itself and its children. This nation, because it has always been adorned by peacefulness and a sense of justice, is tired of having to seek the truth about its history from courts outside its borders. Therefore, it wants conditions to be created in the homeland for a reliable legal and legislative system,” said the Cardinal, and concluded the homily as follows: “In the Croatian Marian shrines, we are particularly touched by the thread of Marian hope, confidence and influence, a thread that has been woven into the personal history of each of us but also into the history of our nation. That sash of Marian devotion that covers our hearts shows our nation that we are bearers of the dignity of its daughters and sons, and if we want to belong to Mary, then we must try to follow her in her humble sublimity, in the richness of her modesty, in the resplendent atmosphere of her mystery and especially in her unconditional belonging to Jesus. The circumstances of our lives will change greatly but this oath obligates us to lifelong fidelity to the One who first believed. Mother of God Assumed into Heaven, Queen of Heaven and Queen of the Croats, pray for us, for our families, for our homeland and for the whole world!”