Our Lady of Fatima

In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph

Today is the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima. My Catholic Life has a great summary on the events of Our Lady’s apparitions:

Three Portuguese shepherd children named Lúcia (age nine), Francesco (age eight), and Jacinta (age six), received three apparitions from the Guardian Angel of Portugal in 1916 and six apparitions from Our Lady of the Rosary in 1917. Lúcia later became a religious sister and received several more apparitions from Our Lady and Jesus Himself. These apparitions and their messages are among the most inspiring spiritual events to occur in modern times.

The first apparition took place in the spring of 1916 while the children were tending their sheep. While taking refuge in a cave during a storm, the children had eaten their lunches and prayed the rosary. They were playing games when they saw an angel in the form of a young boy on a cloud, who was whiter than snow, yet transparent and radiant with the sun. The angel said, “Do not fear! I am the Angel of Peace. Pray with me.” With that, the angel bowed to the ground with the children and prayed three times: “My God, I believe in Thee, I adore Thee, I hope in Thee, and I love Thee. I ask pardon for all those who do not believe in Thee, do not adore Thee, do not hope in Thee, and do not love Thee,” and then disappeared.

During the summer of 1916 the angel appeared to them again, almost chastising them, saying, “What are you doing? Pray, pray a great deal! The Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary have designs of mercy on you. Offer unceasingly prayers and sacrifice yourselves to the Most High.” When Lúcia inquired how they were to sacrifice themselves, the angel replied, “Make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners…”

During the fall of 1916, the angel appeared again, this time with a chalice and the Blessed Sacrament before which he bowed and prayed, “Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifferences by which He, Himself is offended. And I draw upon the infinite merits of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that You might convert poor sinners.” Afterwards, the three children received Holy Communion from the angel.

On May 13, 1917, the children, once again in the fields, received a visit from a lady from Heaven. She conversed with them and told them to return to that spot on the 13th of every month for six consecutive months. In their conversation she asked, “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God to bear all the sufferings He wants to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and for the conversion of sinners?” To which the children replied, “Yes.”

On June 13, 1917, the lady appeared again, this time with about fifty others from the town present. After they all prayed the rosary, the lady appeared to the children as before and conversed with them. In part, she said, “I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you, Lúcia, are to stay here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you in order to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. To whoever embraces this devotion, I promise salvation; those souls will be cherished by God, as flowers placed by me to adorn His throne.”

On July 13, 1917, a crowd of about 5,000 accompanied the children. They prayed the rosary, and the lady appeared as before. This time she gave the children a horrifying vision of hell and then spoke about the need for prayer and sacrifice to end World War I. She also warned that a worse war would come if her message was not heeded. She said, “To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church.” Then she asked them to add this prayer to each decade of the rosary: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need of Thy mercy.”

On August 13, 1917, as many as 20,000 people had gathered, but on that same day the children were arrested, detained in prison for a few days, and interrogated about their visions. The crowd, however, did see a phenomenon in the sky. On August 19, after the children were released, the lady appeared to them once again in the field.

On September 13, 1917, with a crowd of 30,000, the lady appeared and asked the children to continue to pray the rosary. She promised that if they did, the war would end. She then promised “In October, I will perform a miracle so that all may believe.”

On October 13, 1917, about 70,000 people gathered in the pouring rain. This time the lady revealed her name, saying, “I am the Lady of the Rosary.” She asked for a church to be built on that spot and promised that the war would soon end if they kept praying the rosary every day. When she left the children, everyone in the crowd saw the promised miracle. The sky opened, and those gathered were able to look directly at the sun as it glowed and danced. The sun then plummeted to earth, causing panic, but returned to the sky. Suddenly, everything—including the ground and everyone’s clothing—was completely dry.

Within a few years, Francesco and Jacinta died and went to Heaven as promised by the Lady of the Rosary. Lúcia entered religious life and received an apparition in 1925 during which Our Lady fulfilled her promise that she would return to ask for “the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.” In 1929, Our Lady appeared to Lúcia again, stating, “The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart.”

Above all, the messages of Fátima reveal the ongoing need to make reparation for the sins and sacrileges committed against the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and to pray for the conversion of poor sinners. Daily sacrifice and penance, offered with prayer and profound faith, do more good than we could ever imagine. As we honor these most glorious apparitions today, reflect upon your own willingness to make reparation for the sins of the world through your daily sacrifices. “Make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God…” Doing so will not only appease the Justice of God, it will also bring about the salvation of many souls.

Much has been written over the years about the three secrets that Our Lady told to the children. In 2000, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published an authoritative declaration and commentary on these secrets.

The first two secrets concerned the vision of hell, the affliction of the world wars, and the call to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart and offer reparation on the First Saturday of each month. The third secret, as described by Sr. Lucia decades later, but only published in 2000, which Pope John Paul, together with Sr. Lucia, believed referred, among other things, to his attempted assassination on the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima in 1981, is as follows:

After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: 'Penance, Penance, Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that is God: 'something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White 'we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.

In the CDF document, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger offered a profound interpretation of the meaning of these private revelations, a perfect meditation for today’s feast:

«To save souls»‌ has emerged as the key word of the first and second parts of the «secret»‌, and the key word of this third part is the threefold cry: «Penance, Penance, Penance!»‌ The beginning of the Gospel comes to mind: «Repent and believe the Good News»‌ (Mk 1:15). To understand the signs of the times means to accept the urgency of penance - of conversion - of faith. This is the correct response to this moment of history, characterized by the grave perils outlined in the images that follow. Allow me to add here a personal recollection: in a conversation with me Sister Lucia said that it appeared ever more clearly to her that the purpose of all the apparitions was to help people to grow more and more in faith, hope and love - everything else was intended to lead to this.

Let us now examine more closely the single images. The angel with the flaming sword on the left of the Mother of God recalls similar images in the Book of Revelation. This represents the threat of judgement which looms over the world. Today the prospect that the world might be reduced to ashes by a sea of fire no longer seems pure fantasy: man himself, with his inventions, has forged the flaming sword. The vision then shows the power which stands opposed to the force of destruction - the splendour of the Mother of God and, stemming from this in a certain way, the summons to penance. In this way, the importance of human freedom is underlined: the future is not in fact unchangeably set, and the image which the children saw is in no way a film preview of a future in which nothing can be changed. Indeed, the whole point of the vision is to bring freedom onto the scene and to steer freedom in a positive direction. The purpose of the vision is not to show a film of an irrevocably fixed future. Its meaning is exactly the opposite: it is meant to mobilize the forces of change in the right direction. Therefore we must totally discount fatalistic explanations of the «secret»‌, such as, for example, the claim that the would-be assassin of 13 May 1981 was merely an instrument of the divine plan guided by Providence and could not therefore have acted freely, or other similar ideas in circulation. Rather, the vision speaks of dangers and how we might be saved from them.

The next phrases of the text show very clearly once again the symbolic character of the vision: God remains immeasurable, and is the light which surpasses every vision of ours. Human persons appear as in a mirror. We must always keep in mind the limits in the vision itself, which here are indicated visually. The future appears only «in a mirror dimly»‌ (1 Cor 13:12). Let us now consider the individual images which follow in the text of the «secret»‌. The place of the action is described in three symbols: a steep mountain, a great city reduced to ruins and finally a large rough-hewn cross. The mountain and city symbolize the arena of human history: history as an arduous ascent to the summit, history as the arena of human creativity and social harmony, but at the same time a place of destruction, where man actually destroys the fruits of his own work. The city can be the place of communion and progress, but also of danger and the most extreme menace. On the mountain stands the cross - the goal and guide of history. The cross transforms destruction into salvation; it stands as a sign of history's misery but also as a promise for history.

At this point human persons appear: the Bishop dressed in white («we had the impression that it was the Holy Father»‌), other Bishops, priests, men and women Religious, and men and women of different ranks and social positions. The Pope seems to precede the others, trembling and suffering because of all the horrors around him. Not only do the houses of the city lie half in ruins, but he makes his way among the corpses of the dead. The Church's path is thus described as a Via Crucis, as a journey through a time of violence, destruction and persecution. The history of an entire century can be seen represented in this image. Just as the places of the earth are synthetically described in the two images of the mountain and the city, and are directed towards the cross, so too time is presented in a compressed way. In the vision we can recognize the last century as a century of martyrs, a century of suffering and persecution for the Church, a century of World Wars and the many local wars which filled the last fifty years and have inflicted unprecedented forms of cruelty. In the «mirror»‌ of this vision we see passing before us the witnesses of the faith decade by decade. Here it would be appropriate to mention a phrase from the letter which Sister Lucia wrote to the Holy Father on 12 May 1982: «The third part of the 'secret' refers to Our Lady's words: 'If not, [Russia] will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated'‌.

In the Via Crucis of an entire century, the figure of the Pope has a special role. In his arduous ascent of the mountain we can undoubtedly see a convergence of different Popes. Beginning from Pius X up to the present Pope, they all shared the sufferings of the century and strove to go forward through all the anguish along the path which leads to the Cross. In the vision, the Pope too is killed along with the martyrs. When, after the attempted assassination on 13 May 1981, the Holy Father had the text of the third part of the «secret»‌ brought to him, was it not inevitable that he should see in it his own fate? He had been very close to death, and he himself explained his survival in the following words: «... it was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path and in his throes the Pope halted at the threshold of death»‌ (13 May 1994). That here «a mother's hand»‌ had deflected the fateful bullet only shows once more that there is no immutable destiny, that faith and prayer are forces which can influence history and that in the end prayer is more powerful than bullets and faith more powerful than armies.

The concluding part of the «secret»‌ uses images which Lucia may have seen in devotional books and which draw their inspiration from long-standing intuitions of faith. It is a consoling vision, which seeks to open a history of blood and tears to the healing power of God. Beneath the arms of the cross angels gather up the blood of the martyrs, and with it they give life to the souls making their way to God. Here, the blood of Christ and the blood of the martyrs are considered as one: the blood of the martyrs runs down from the arms of the cross. The martyrs die in communion with the Passion of Christ, and their death becomes one with his. For the sake of the body of Christ, they complete what is still lacking in his afflictions (cf. Col 1:24). Their life has itself become a Eucharist, part of the mystery of the grain of wheat which in dying yields abundant fruit. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians, said Tertullian. As from Christ's death, from his wounded side, the Church was born, so the death of the witnesses is fruitful for the future life of the Church. Therefore, the vision of the third part of the «secret»‌, so distressing at first, concludes with an image of hope: no suffering is in vain, and it is a suffering Church, a Church of martyrs, which becomes a sign-post for man in his search for God. The loving arms of God welcome not only those who suffer like Lazarus, who found great solace there and mysteriously represents Christ, who wished to become for us the poor Lazarus. There is something more: from the suffering of the witnesses there comes a purifying and renewing power, because their suffering is the actualization of the suffering of Christ himself and a communication in the here and now of its saving effect.

And so we come to the final question: What is the meaning of the «secret»‌ of Fatima as a whole (in its three parts)? What does it say to us? First of all we must affirm with Cardinal Sodano: «... the events to which the third part of the 'secret' of Fatima refers now seem part of the past»‌. Insofar as individual events are described, they belong to the past. Those who expected exciting apocalyptic revelations about the end of the world or the future course of history are bound to be disappointed. Fatima does not satisfy our curiosity in this way, just as Christian faith in general cannot be reduced to an object of mere curiosity. What remains was already evident when we began our reflections on the text of the «secret»‌: the exhortation to prayer as the path of «salvation for souls»‌ and, likewise, the summons to penance and conversion.

I would like finally to mention another key expression of the «secret»‌ which has become justly famous: «my Immaculate Heart will triumph»‌. What does this mean? The Heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her heart, has changed the history of the world, because it brought the Saviour into the world - because, thanks to her Yes, God could become man in our world and remains so for all time. The Evil One has power in this world, as we see and experience continually; he has power because our freedom continually lets itself be led away from God. But since God himself took a human heart and has thus steered human freedom towards what is good, the freedom to choose evil no longer has the last word. From that time forth, the word that prevails is this: «In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world»‌ (Jn 16:33). The message of Fatima invites us to trust in this promise.