My dear brothers and sisters, as you know, I have made it a point to start my reflections by praying a Hail Mary with you. I do this because, first of all, she is our Mother and we know how special all our mothers are, and while we're at it, a special belated Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there. Not every country celebrates this special day on the second Sunday of May, but many do. Secondly, of all our mothers, I think you would agree that the Lord has created one to be a model and support to all the rest, for she is the mother of the New Creation, the New Eve, the Woman who would right the wrong of the first Eve through her faith and obedience. A mother so beautifully prefigured as a Queen in the Old Testament, and made to be so in the New, she was none other than the mother of the Risen Lord, the Risen King of the Universe who upholds all things in his divine power.
The Lord has also deigned to allow us to experience her intense love through various visitations she has blessed the world with in what we call Marian Apparitions. Today we celebrate what is perhaps the most well-known of these, which happened in Fatima in 1917, in Portugal. As many of us already know (but for the sake of those who do not), “Our Lady of Fatima” appeared six times, on the 13th of each month from May to October. On the day of the last apparition, the world would witness a sign from God unheard of since the creation of the universe.
The Lord parted the waters for Moses. For Joshua at Jericho, he split rock. For the Queen of Heaven, the Mother of God, he moved the sun out of its orbit! And 70,000 people, gathered on that fateful day saw something the world will never again witness perhaps, until the great coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
They saw the sun, which dwarfs planet earth (1.3 million earths fit into the sun), being moved from its orbit in a miraculous and real way, dancing, and then plummeting towards the people, and then reverting back to its original orbit, like a little ping pong ball in the hands of a tiny child, but it was all a part of a greater message from God.
We should know that our Blessed Mother identified herself as Our Lady of the Rosary and at each apparition told the children to pray the Rosary daily for peace — a message that was meant for every single person, and as we continue to hear of the atrocities inspired by the devil in the Middle East, we should continue to be fervent in our prayer for peace throughout the whole world, as our Mother has asked. The Rosary, is the most powerful prayer, because she has given it to us as a means of focusing on the mysteries of the life of our Lord, our Redemption and a reminder of the most special prayer our Lord taught us we can utilize when addressing our tender and merciful Father in Heaven.
Those who know me, most likely also know that I should have died over thirty years ago in a terrible accident I had, in which I and a friend were miraculously protected from even the least scratch. The rosary beads alone remained wrapped around the rearview mirror in this crushed, written-off pickup truck we rolled down a hill in, but what’s most important, is that at that very moment, I would later find out that my mother (speaking of special mothers on Mother’s Day)… my mother was at home praying the rosary with my father, and specifically that our Lady would keep me safe exactly at the time the accident occurred! This is why I chose to begin each reflection with you with a Hail Mary, because I know first-hand, that no intercession is as powerful as hers with our Lord Jesus, and no prayer more dreaded by Lucifer and his angels, then the Hail Mary!
During the Blessed Mother’s visit on June 13, 1917, she gave one part of a directive to Lucia alone: “I want you to come on the 13th of next month, to pray the Rosary every day, and to learn to read. Later, I will tell you what I want.”
Our Lady would later make it clear to Lucia that it would be her mission to spread this Fatima message to the whole world, and that therefore it would be important for her to learn how to read and write. But she also made another prophecy when Lucia asked if she would take the three of them to heaven one day; “Yes, I shall take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you will remain a little longer, since Jesus wishes you to make me known and loved on earth,” Mary told 10-year-old Lucia. “He wishes also for you to establish devotion in the world to my Immaculate Heart.” Among Sister Lucia’s writings are the books Calls from the Message of Fatima, Fatima in Lucia's Own Words I, and Fatima in Lucia's Own Words II. Maybe we can get our hands on these at some point and get her first-hand account more completely.
In 1917, the apparitions began. In 1918 the influenza epidemic also began, and in 1919, at the tender ages of 9 and 11 years of age, Jacinta and Francisco, as the Queen of Heaven foretold, died and went to heaven. We can comment on the amount of extraordinary details packed into just these facts alone, but something else deserves mentioning before closing this brief reflection on the blessings of Fatima, especially as Catholics who understand the power and meaning of redemptive suffering.
Lucia recounts in her “First Memoir” that as little Jacinta was suffering, the Blessed Virgin appeared to her. Jacinta would explain that “she asked me if I still wanted to convert more sinners. I said I did. She told me I would be going to a hospital where I would suffer a great deal; and that I am to suffer for the conversion of sinners, in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and for the love of Jesus.”
Jacinta offered this suffering, first in the hospital in Ourem. Then the Blessed Mother visited her again to tell her of the sufferings awaiting her also in the hospital in Lisbon where she would soon go and there pass on to her heavenly reward. Every single word, every prophecy our Lady made, came to pass. When her tomb was opened on Sept. 13, 1935, that is, 16 years after her death, the people were astonished to see her face and body were incorrupt. She was entombed in a private chapel in Ourem. Her body had been sprinkled with quicklime because at the time the law stated that the body of anyone who died of the Spanish flu epidemic had to be treated that way. The quicklime was meant to accelerate, and not diminish natural processes from taking their course and disintegrating the corpse. Yet, to those who have suffered out of love for God, even their bodies have often not seen decay.
Francesco’s big wish before going to heaven, was receiving Jesus in the Holy Eucharist at least once. This was granted just before he died the following day. It was his First Holy Communion!
Dear friends, do some further reading on this amazing grace sent to us by God through our Blessed Mother, as it will help you to become more devout, and more embracing of the idea of penance. We live in a materialistic, cozy world, which dreads the idea of a penitential life, because it has no faith. “Live free, drink wine, be happy, dance the night away….” while all the while, an eternity awaits on the other side. Yes, the Lord does want us to live an abundant life. He wants us to get our rest as well. But what does a life of penance look like. We know that Francis told the friars that none of them would get to heaven, unless they practiced penance in their lives.
Our Lady, Queen of Peace, and Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Add comment
Comments