Jesus, I trust in you!
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Mary
sang about the great things the Lord has done for her and for people. She sang
of how the Lord looked upon her lowliness and exalted her by doing great things
for her. Thus, she will be called blessed by every generation. But the Holy
Spirit also enabled Mary to recognize what God does for the poor and the humble
ones: He shows mercy to those who fear him; he shows the strength of his arm to
the humble; he lifts up the lowly; he fills the hungry with good things; he
comes to the help of Israel his servant. However, while he looks mercifully on
the poor, he deals with the proud and the arrogant: he scatters the proud in
their conceit; he casts down the mighty from their thrones; he sends the rich
away empty. Coming from a 15 year old girl, the song is indeed radical and
revolutionary because it upsets the usual paradigm by which the world looks at
reality. The world extols the rich, the powerful and the proud while it looks
down upon the poor, the hungry and the humble. But God has a different
paradigm: he exalts the humble and humbles the proud.
When Our Lady appeared to the
children at Fatima, she asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart.
If her requests were not heeded, Russia will spread her errors throughout the
world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church, the martyrdom of the good,
the suffering of the Pope, and the annihilation of many nations. Why Russia and
what errors would she spread? At that time, the message was not very clear
because Russia was not a powerful nation to deal with. In fact, it was beset at
that time with political and social unrest. On February 1917, Tsar Nicholas II
was deposed from power and he was replaced by a weak Russian Provisional
Government. Because of its involvement in World War I, a national crisis
developed in Russia: disorder in industry and transportation intensified and
obtaining provisions like food became very difficult. Vladimir Lenin rode on
this social unrest and overthrew the provisional government by taking control
of the Winter Palace through his Red Guards. He tried to gain public support
for the Bolsheviks, pro-communist political party, through the use of the
slogan: “Bread, Land, Peace and all Power to the Soviets.” But failing to get
that support, he overturned the results of the elections for the Russian
Constituent Assembly in November 1917. Using the armed guards, he prevented the
meetings of the democratic assembly. This is now known as the October Rising or
the Bolshevik revolution. In 1918, the Bolshevik became the Russian communist
party and it endeavored to put the tenets of Karl Marx into practice. The error
of Communism spread throughout the world. Nations disappeared and these became
powerful Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). Communism seems to be in
accordance with the revolution spoken of by the Magnificat of Mary: the
upsetting of the social and political order, the inversion of power. However,
there is that one great difference: Communism is a God-less ideology. It seeks
to invert the social order independent of God. God had no place in the
communist society. Religion was forbidden. Man separated from God is man
dehumanized. If the human dignity is basically founded on the fact that man is
the image of God, what would man be if the existence of God was denied?
St. Paul spoke of the doctrine of
mutual responsibility and the common destiny of mankind. Because we are members
of the Mystical Body of Christ, whatever affects one affects everybody. “If one
man suffers anything, all the members suffer with it.” (1 Cor. 12:6). The
collective responsibility of individuals applies to nations as well. Our Lady
asked us to pray and to make sacrifices for Russia and for the conversion of
sinners. Since we are one in Christ in his Mystical Body, we also become
saviors of each other in the mystery of the Communion of Saints. We must
collaborate in the work of redemption and so “complete what is lacking in
Christ’s sufferings on behalf of his body, the Church.” (Col 1:24)
Due to the sacrifices and prayers
of the devotees of Our Lady, communism has collapsed (except in China). Russia
is beginning to show signs of conversion. Vladimir Putin is now a very strong
defender of the Christians who are being persecuted in Syria and in Iraq.
(Surprisingly, the US, under the administration of Obama, has given a mediocre
response to the plight of the persecuted Christians in the Middle East.) A
little more sacrifice, a little more prayer and the Holy Father will consecrate
Russia to Mary, Russia will be converted and peace will be given to the world.
True peace will be found when Christ truly reigns in the world. This is the
triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Let us join Mary in the true
revolution that would change the world.
O Mary conceived without sin, pray
for us who have recourse to thee!
No comments:
Post a Comment