JESUS, I TRUST IN YOU!
The angel appeared to Zechariah and
revealed to him God’s gift of a son. His son, John the Baptist, is to be the
last prophet of the Old Testament whose role is to “prepare a people fit for
the Lord.” This he shall do by preaching a baptism of repentance. He will be
the voice crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord. John’s
preaching will be accompanied by a lifestyle of penance and prayer. The angel
said: “He will drink neither wine nor strong drink.” The Lord Jesus himself
will say: “John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘he is
possessed by a demon.’” John the Baptist would feed on locusts and wild honey.
Similar to the life and message of
John the Baptist, the most important aspects of the Fatima message are prayer
and penitence (pagpapakasakit). “Would you like to offer yourselves to God, to
accept all the sufferings which he may send you in reparation for the countless
sins by which he is offended and in supplications for the conversions of
sinners?” thus Our Lady asked the children on the first time they met. To her,
Lucia consented, speaking for all three. Our Lady nodded her approval and said:
“Then you will have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort.”
The place of penitence in the
Fatima messages will only be understood in the light of sin as an offense
against God. “Fatima discovers for us the true sense of sin; sin as an offense
against God, as a negation of love, of adoration, of faith and of hope…The idea
of the offense made to God by sin was engraved forever on the children’s minds,
and it was this that prompted them to make so many sacrifices as reparation and
expiation. They wanted ‘to console our
Lord.’ ‘Does he still remain so sad,’ Francisco would say, ‘I am so sorry that
He is sad like this.’
“In the message of Fatima, sin
exacts a temporal suffering that must be undergone on earth or in Purgatory, or
eternal punishment for those who die as enemies of God…For the whole of their
lives, the little seers made sacrifices for the conversion of sinners, in
expiation and reparation for the sins of men.” (Cardinal Dofner, 1975)
The children were shown by Our Lady
a vision of hell on July 13, 1917. Our Lady said to them: “You have seen hell
where the souls of poor sinners go.” The vision of hell made a very strong
impression on the children, most especially Jacinta. Lucia said, “The vision of hell filled her
with horror to such a degree that every penance and mortification was as
nothing in her eyes, if it could only prevent souls from going there.” After
seeing it, the three children undertook the most severe penances for the
salvation of sinners. They wore a rope tightly round their waists, they gave
their lunches to the poor, or even to their sheep; they did not drink during
the furnace-like heat of August 1917.
The vision of hell would often move
Jacinta to pray the prayer Our Lady taught them: “O my Jesus, forgive us, save
us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are
most in need.” She would say to her brother Francisco, “We must pray very much
to save souls from hell. So many souls go there! So many!” Added to the message
of penance, the message of Fatima requires a life of prayer, prayer understood
as a personal and intimate conversation with God. The prayer of the message is
a gratuitous prayer, that is to say, disinterested, not seeking personal
advantage; but only for the conversion of sinners and for peace. The prayer of
the message goes hand in hand with sacrifice. In the 2nd angelic
apparition, the children were told: “Offer prayers and sacrifices constantly to
the Most High. In every way you can, offer sacrifices in reparation for the
sins which offend Him, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners.”
“The apparitions of the angel
produced immediately in the seers a compelling need for silence. The silence of
Fatima, a silence so desired by the little shepherds, is a call to encounter
with God in grace and love. This is the 1st and the deepest meaning
of the word penance in the message of Fatima, the anguished cry of the Mother
delivered to all the children of the Church and to all of humanity. Fatima has
sounded the call of universal metanoia, interior conversion, renewal, and the
transfiguration of the sons of men into children of God.”
As we hear today of the vocation of
St. John the Baptist, let our reflection of the message of Fatima bring us into
the wilderness of prayer and penance. Let the constant cry of penitence save us
from our frantic rush along the broad road of having, of unbridled enjoying,
that leads fatally to the abyss of destruction. Let the messages of Fatima lead
us back to our interior home, to the most intimate depths of our inner selves
where the great transfigurations take place. Like the prodigal son who “entered
into himself” (Luke 15:17), we shall recognize our tattered condition, our
wasted self, and thereby come to the saving decision: “I will rise and return
to my Father’s house.”
O Mary conceived without sin, pray
for us who have recourse to thee!
No comments:
Post a Comment