Jesus, I
trust in you!
The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to 3 shepherd children,
Jacinta, aged 7, Francisco, aged 9, and Lucia, aged 10, at Fatima on the 13th
of every month from May to October in 1917. Her apparitions were preceded by
apparitions by angels to the same children in 1916. Thus, from November 27 2016
to November 27, 2017, we are celebrating the Centennial of the famous Fatima
Apparitions. In as much as the Simbang Gabi or the Misa de Gallo is a novena to
the Blessed Virgin Mary, let us meditate on the messages of Our Lady at Fatima.
Whatever Our Lady revealed then to the shepherd children is very much relevant
to us because she spoke of our times. We are living in the time of the
fulfillment of the Fatima messages.
“The children were entrusted with a message for all humankind
(and not just for themselves): pray and do penance for the countless sins of
the modern world in order to save it or Divine Justice will be compelled to
punish humanity with a 2nd World War and the global spread of
Communism in which entire nations would be ‘annihilated’ before Russia was
finally converted.” (Francis Johnson, Fatima The Great Sign, 2.) People object
that the Fatima messages are just private revelations that are not binding in
conscience. To this objection, the Bishop of Regensburg, Dr. Rudolf Graber,
gave this answer in 1973: “It is to be noted that this objection comes
principally from those who neither respect the great revelation of God, nor of
Christ, and who even want to eliminate some fundamental truths of Faith such as
the virgin birth of Jesus, his Resurrection, his miracles and even his very
Divinity…It is absolutely certain that revelation as such was completed with
Christ and his apostles. What happens then if these private revelations confirm
and emphasize certain truths that are in found in this great revelation? This
is exactly what happens with Fatima. Fatima confirms the existence of angels
and demons that Modernists try to eliminate. Fatima confirms the very mystery
of the Eucharist that Modernists have stripped of all meaning. Fatima confirms
the existence of Hell, which is simply denied today. Fatima requires prayers
and penance, values to which people today feel themselves far superior and from
which they consequently dispense themselves. Nevertheless, all through the Old
and New Testaments, this penance is spoken of…Today, much is spoken about
fraternity, which naturally is not understood so much on a supernatural level,
but almost exclusively in the social filed and in technical developments.”
Indeed, everything that we need to know in order to be saved
was revealed to us completely by Christ and his apostles. But this does not
mean that after the great revelation, God will keep silent and no longer speak
to his people. He will not stay indifferent and abandon the world to
self-destruction. The prophet Joel said: “God will pour forth his Spirit upon
all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy and young men shall have
visions and old men shall dream dreams. He would pour forth his Spirit upon his
servants and handmaids and they shall prophesy.” (Acts 2:15-16) The prophet
Amos said: “Is a trumpet blown in a city and the people are not afraid? Does
evil befall a city, unless the Lord has done it? Surely the Lord God does
nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:6-7)
If the Lord reveals his secrets to the prophets, much more shall he reveal them
to the Queen of Prophets. And so, God, through the Blessed Virgin, speaks to us
even today to warn us of approaching danger.
“Fatima represents the great eschatological sign, the answer
of God to the errors of the present time. The world finds itself on the eve of
tremendous happenings breaking forth in the East. Hell seems to be let loose.
The maternal Heart of Mary offers to save the world.” Yes, Fatima was a private
revelation “but this does not mean that God and Mary are prohibited from
speaking again. God speaks once more today and in a manner all the more
intelligible as his 2nd coming draws nearer, and this is what Fatima
seems to indicate.”
The prophet Isaiah points out to us today what the Lord wants
to tell us through Our Lady of Fatima: Observe what is right, do what is just;
for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed. The
message of Fatima is a call to conversion – a call to repent and to return to
the Lord. In a world dominated by the spectre of mass apostasy from God and by
the constant threat of war, Fatima stands as a shining symbol of hope and a
promise of peace. From Our Lady’s shrine at Fatima, the Lord calls out to all
the nations: “The foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, ministering to
him, loving the name of the Lord, and becoming his servants…them will I bring
to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer…their sacrifices will
be acceptable on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for
all peoples. Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel:
others will I gather to him besides those already gathered.
Dearly beloved, let us unite in mind and heart. Let us begin
our spiritual pilgrimage to the Lord’s house, the sanctuary of Fatima.
O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse
to thee!
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