Fatima - 100 Years Ago

Europe was in the throes of a world war the like of which had never been seen. Untold suffering was afflicting every country involved. At the same time many countries in Europe were experiencing internal difficulties because of the spread of ideologies. On the one hand the Marxist-Lenin philosophy was influencing England, France, Russia and other countries while Fascist socialism was gripping Germany, Romania, Italy, Spain and Portugal. What the two had in common was atheism. Both wanted the end of religion's hold on the human heart. Both wanted humanity to turn away from God and put humanity and materialism at the center. These movements would spread to every part of the world influencing the directions of governments and changing the cultures they would infiltrate. God saw the evil that was threatening His world and His beloved children and He would act.

In an obscure village of Portugal, called Fatima, three young children had been undergoing spiritual experiences through the apparitions of an angel. They were led through the angel's guidance to deep prayer and penance preparing them for even greater experiences. God would send the Virgin Mary as His Prophet to call humanity back to God, to call them to repentance and prayer and to warn them that if they did not respond a greater and more terrible war would come upon the world and the errors coming out of Russia would spread across the world causing untold suffering, the death of millions and the annihilation of nations.

It would not be the first time that God sent His mother to bring a message to the world. Here in the Americas in the 1500's, Mary had intervened powerfully in Mexico bringing a message of God's love through her maternal care to a culture steeped in paganism and human sacrifice. She left behind an image of Herself on a tilma made of cactus fiber that became a constant reminder of Her love, drawing three million Aztecs to the worship of the true God through Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In France, Mary came to Sister Catherine Laboure, in 1830, asking that a medal be made of her image from which rays of grace fell upon the world. This was a reminder to people to put their faith in a God who had not abandoned them in their distress but sent His mother as a reminder of His love. The miracles that occurred as people asked for Her intercession through this image were so great that the medal became known as the Miraculous Medal.

In 1858, in the mountainous village of Lourdes, Mary came again to remind the people of God's love for humanity was so great that He made one of our own, a gentle handmaid of Nazareth. a partner in the salvation of humankind. He prepared her through Her Immaculate Conception to be the Mother of our Savior whose sacrifice of salvation would make possible our return to grace through Baptism. In these apparitions she called for prayer and penance and left behind a healing spring, a visible reminder of the graces that come to us through her intercession.

The world was greatly in need of an intervention from God once more and God would again send our Mother, Mary. Beginning in May, 1917, Mary would appear to the three children of Fatima, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, six times on the 13th from May to October. She came with a prophecy for the whole world. She came with a peace plan for the world. She came to call her children home because we had wandered far from her maternal care and far from the House of our Father.

Through the angel the children had already been led to intercessory prayer “O my God, I believe in You, I adore You, I trust in You and I love You. I beg pardon for those who do not believe in You, do not adore You, do not trust in You and do not love You.”

The children had been led in the way of penance, invited to sacrifice much for sinners and to make reparation, console the Heart of God, for the offenses committed against Him. Mary would lead them deeper into prayer, requesting that they pray the rosary daily for peace in the world and offer their daily lives as sacrifice for sinners. She would reveal to them that God is greatly offended by the sins of humankind and that if they did not repent, a greater and more terrible war would come upon the world. Russia would spread its evils throughout the world, great suffering would come upon the world, the church and the Holy Father would have much to suffer, and many would be martyred. They were given a vision of hell and an apocalyptic vision of the chastisements to come that became the third secret. Mary asked that Russia be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart, and that a devotion of Five First Saturdays be established to make reparation to Her Immaculate Heart, and to form us in Her Way of prayer, repentance, devotion to the Eucharist and the rosary. She told them that Francisco and Jacinta would die soon and that she wanted Lucia to remain for some time to spread devotion to Her Immaculate Heart.

And she made a promise, that despite any chastisements that would come, in the end Her Immaculate Heart would triumph and there would be peace. As a sign from God that Her message was true, at the last apparition on October 13, 1917, the great miracle of the sun was seen by thousands of faithful and skeptics in a forty mile radius. The sun “danced in the sky” and seemed to plummet toward the earth so that the people thought it was the end of the world. As it receded to its place in the sky, it left a bewildered crowd amazed that they were alive, the soaked ground was dry and their wet clothes clean and dry. Many came to believe that day and the secular press could not ignore it, publishing pictures and accounts of the miracle.

Now a hundred years later, we can look back on these supernatural occurrences and know the truth of them because the prophesied events have occurred. Jacinta and Francisco did die within a few years and Lucia lived on until 2005. Many responded to Mary's call, but not enough, and the chastisement of God came upon the world. Humankind wanted to live without God and so He left us to our free will. The rise of Hitler, the Holocaust, World War II, the Atom bomb, the rise of Stalin and the spread of atheistic communism throughout the world, spawning revolutions and the take over of China, Vietnam, Korea, Cuba and Eastern Europe are the fruits of sin.

More people were killed by their own governments in the last century than in the history of the world and many more were martyred for their faith in the past century than in all the centuries of Christianity. We saw genocide in Rwanda, and Serbia, continuous conflict in the Middle East, Africa and South America and the rise of Islamic terrorism. It is not a coincidence that Mary appeared at a place bearing the name of Mohammed's daughter, Fatima. Only the Virgin Mary is revered more than here in Islam.

Fatima, I believe, is God's answer to the evils of our world. Mary did not abandon her children during these hundred years but repeatedly appeared in places around the world to console, give hope and to repeat her message of warning, prayer and repentance. We are battling spiritual evils and we need God's help more than ever. Is it any wonder that Pope Benedict said that the message of Fatima is more relevant today than ever before. And we are still awaiting The Promise!!!

Will we finally respond and realize that we cannot achieve peace on our own? Will we accept the Peace Plan of Fatima and live lives of prayer and penance, interceding for the sins of the world? Will we realize the love of our Eternal Father and return to God with our whole hearts? We have experienced both political and natural chastisements in the last 100 years and we can find all kinds of explanations for them, but in the realm of the Spirit, it may be God disciplining His wayward children, drawing them back to His Heart. Let us honor this 100th anniversary by responding wholeheartedly to the call to prayer, repentance and the offering of our lives as a sacrifice for our sins and those of the whole world.