One hundred years ago this weekend, three young children:
Francisco Marto aged 9, Jacinta Marto aged 7 (his sister) and their
cousin Lucy dos Santos aged 10 were given six apparitions of Our
Lady. Initially an angel came to them to prepare them for Our Lady’s
visit. Then on May 13th Our Lady appeared to them for the
first time. She would appear to them on the 13th of each
month until October.
Our Lady told Francisco and Jacinta that they would die young, but
first they were asked to pray much and suffer much for the conversion
of sinners. Francisco died two years later aged 11 and Jacinta the
following year aged 8. Lucy eventually became a Carmelite nun where
she spent the rest of her life. She died in 2005 at the age of 98. Our Lady told the children that there
would only be peace if her requests were heeded. She asked that
people would pray the rosary daily, wear the brown scapular and that
Russia would be consecrated to her. She told them that war was a
punishment for sin and that only through prayer and penance could war
be avoided. She also said that if Russia wasn’t converted it would
continue to spread its errors (Communism and atheism) throughout the
world. What became known as the three ‘secrets’ of Fatima were
also given to the children. The first was a vision of Hell, the
second was a prophecy of World War II and the third remained secret but was
believed to have to do with the sufferings of the Church and the Holy
Father.
On the last day of the apparitions, which was on October 13th,
the people who came to the place of the apparition were allowed to
see the miracle of the sun. It was raining heavily but then suddenly
the rain stopped, the sun came out and many people saw the sun
‘dancing’ or spinning, with many different colors coming from it
and finally the sun seemed to be careering towards the earth but then
stopped. It is believed that between 30 and 50,000 people witnessed
this miracle. The miracle of the sun was granted to them to help the
people believe in the reality of the apparitions.
Apart from the fact that it is an interesting story, what has this
got to do with us today? Like so many other aspects of our faith it
has everything to do with us. If God sends Our Lady to us, there must
be a serious reason for it. Our Lady has also appeared in other parts
of the world throughout the centuries and the message is always
basically the same. It is never about her, it is always her pointing
us back to God. She tells us that the world is living as though God
does not exist and that if we continue to live that way we will
destroy ourselves. If we ignore God and his teachings we just have to
listen to the news to see what happens. Greed, corruption, desire for
power, all lead to misery and war. God shows us the way, but if we
ignore it we bring nothing but suffering on ourselves and as always
it is the ordinary people who suffer. Those with power play political
games and war games, those at the bottom suffer the consequences.
In the Old Testament Moses says to the people,
“I call heaven
and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and
your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by
holding fast to him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that
you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, to give them…” (Deut 30:19 ff)
We are offered the same choice today and the consequences are just
as serious. If we want the world to be a better place for us and our
children, then we must begin with ourselves. Sorting out the
world’s problems is not where we start. We start with ourselves by
obeying the Lord’s commandments; by repentance and prayer and
keeping God at the center. That is what changes the world.
Why did Our Lady show the children a vision of Hell? I'm sure to
make us realize that it is real, that we can lose heaven and that our
actions do have consequences. We will be accountable for the way we
live. Does that mean that we should be afraid? Absolutely not. The
Lord promises us that the smallest effort on our part is enough to
win his infinite mercy. What is important is that we try and that we don't take it for granted that heaven is ours no matter what. What we
have to try and remember is that our time here on earth is the time
of sacrifice, of love and service. We will struggle until the day we
are brought home to heaven, but we need to remind ourselves that it
is not all about us, but about loving and serving the people around
us.
The truth is that we don’t take sin and repentance seriously
enough. If unrepentant sin is the one thing that could cause us to
lose our greatest happiness, which is life with God when we die, then
we need to take it very seriously. God gives us all the tools that we
need, the Eucharist, the priesthood to give us the Eucharist and the
forgiveness of sins, but we must choose to use them. If you think
back on your time in school: at the time it seemed long, but now it
is already in the distant past and seems unimportant. Our life on
earth is something similar. Now it often seems long and difficult,
but soon our time on earth will be over and then it will seem
remarkably short. How we live it is what is really important.
Remember the words of Our Lady at the wedding at Cana when the
married couple ran out of wine. Mary told Jesus what was wrong
she then turned to the servants and said: ‘Do whatever He tells
you.’
Our lady of Fatima, pray for us.
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