This 13th day of October marks the anniversary final apparition of Our Lady at Fatima in the fateful year of 1917, to the three seers Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia. The Virgin appeared as the Sorrowful Mother, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel, along with Saint Joseph and the Christ child, who blessed the earth. It is also the day on which a ‘global jihad’ is being called, whatever that might entail.
All things in perspective. Fatima occurred during some of the worst days of World War I, and just before the so-called Spanish Influenza would kill millions across the globe. Unlike most flus, this one targeted mainly the young and healthy (for complex physiological reasons) including the two young visionaries, Jacinta and Francisco, who predicted their own deaths.
As readers likely know, the tens of thousands who gathered to see what they could see were huddling in a torrential downpour, drenched to their skins, when, during the vision, the Sun began to dance and whirl in the sky, hurtling towards the Earth, then receding. People cried out, praying, thinking the world was ending. But nothing harmful happened; rather, the Sun emitted a warm and wonderful array of all the colours of the spectrum, and when it returned to its natural place, everyone found themselves perfectly dry and warm.
There are any number of prophecies and revelations at Fatima, none of which we are strictly bound to accept (even the dancing Sun, whose provenance we know not – did the million-mile diameter orb really unhinge in deep space? Impossible? quia non erit inpossibile apud Deum omne verbum. We are only bound to accept with Faith those things already in public revelation, such as the existence of judgement, heaven and hell, the need for reparation, the importance of the Holy Eucharist and the Rosary, and so on, about all of which Our Lady of Fatima reminded us.
We should strive to increase our devotion to the Virgin Mother of God, as Pope John Paul and countless others have exhorted. But always take with some degree of caution all the hype over all the apocalyptica surrounding this vision. Yes, there will be wars, calamities, famines, storms, plagues, as there have been since Adam and Eve partook of that forbidden fruit: Cain slayed Abel, with murder and mayhem galore, so that by the sixth chapter of Genesis (signifying only God knows how much ‘real’ time) the Lord saw that the wickedness of man on the earth was great, and that man’s every thought and all the inclinations of his heart were only evil. Then came the Flood, suddenly, when men were least expecting it, except, of course, Noah.
Things have not changed all that much since those early days, and the last ‘Fatima century’ has seen some of the worst wickedness in Man’s history. In consequence, there have always been cataclysmic destructive forces, and eventually there will be the final one, not with water, as God promised Noah, but by fire, if the first Pope is any indication and speaking not figuratively: The supervolcano beneath Yellowstone? The asteroids that seem to be flying by a little closer each time? Nuclear war with Korea and China and Russia and Iran and the U.S. and who knows who else? A solar flare? A black hole wandering into our solar system? All of the above?
But why worry and fret? Our own private apocalypse will occur at the time and moment when God so wills, whether today, or next year, or at ‘the end’, and the best way to be ready, as Our Lady has always repeated, is to maintain a healthy relationship with her Son, to participate in Mass, at least on Sundays, daily if one is able; fighting our ‘evil’ passions, with a healthy asceticism, regular examination of conscience and Confession; to stay united to Christ and His Church, growing daily in charity by acts of kindness and self-giving, especially those that are sent to us by providence and that go against our own grain; to be joyful, even with an act of the will if need be, lifting others up; to realize that this passing life is indeed so temporary and fleeting. All those the pilgrims in the photograph accompanying this article, even the little children, have by now all gone before their Maker. All the good that we can do here and now will be multiplied a hundredfold, poured into our lap, and brimming over.
Two of the visionaries, brother and sister Francisco and Lucia, died of the ‘Spanish’ flu in April of 1919 and February of 1920 respectively. Lucia became a Carmelite, living a long and pious life, and going to her own eternity in 2005. Our Lady appeared to Lucia in 1925, and said:
See, my daughter, my heart surrounded by thorns which ungrateful men pierce at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude.
Our Lady went on to promise that those who, for five months on the first Saturday, confess their sins, receive Holy Communion, recite the Rosary, and keep her company for fifteen minutes while meditating on one or more mysteries of said Rosary, that she would assist them at the hour of their death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their souls.
You can take that to the bank – or, given the state of our banking system, maybe not. For God most definitely wills our eternal beatitude, and has shown us clearly the path thereto. All we must do is follow it, or, more to the point, follow Him. On the way, His mother will show us the way and lead us.
So be of good cheer. Christ has indeed already overcome the world, and we just have to be found on His side, whenever we are called.
Our Lady of Fatima, and Saints Jacinta and Francisco, orate pro nobis!