Fatima: the Antidote to Today’s
“Insidious Apostasy” from the Father’s House
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Mary, sign of God’s mercy, does not leave Christians alone. …. She is the icon of God’s tenderness for us.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graces and Mercy
John Paul II had spoken of the Fatima apparitions of 1917 (-1929) in terms recalling Moses and his efforts to restore Israel to the one true God. The popes have indeed likened Fatima to a new Mount Sinai and the altar of the world. Unlike false apparitions, the true and authentic visitations of the Blessed Virgin Mary are deeply rooted in the Scriptures. And they also profoundly affect contemporary history.
The above picture illustrates the Fatima seer Sister Lucia’s great Trinitarian vision at her convent in Spain, with ‘Graces and Mercy’ flowing down onto the altar. Scott Hahn, in “a Father Who Keeps his Promises” (Charis, 1998), has taken up this very theme of Grace and Mercy, when combined, as “the single greatest attribute of God”; and he has done so in connection with Moses’ encounter with God at Sinai (pp. 159f.):
Mercy Me!
Did Moses end up with less intimacy with God than when he started? It might look that way, judging from his apparent loss of face-to-face access with [the Lord]. Upon closer examination, however, the narrative may lead us to the opposite conclusion.
Before the collective bargaining session had begun, Moses was able to enjoy very close encounters with God on a regular bass – he beheld [the Lord] with his own eyes. But whatever natural capacity Moses possessed that enabled him to see the glory of God physically manifest, still it was just that, a natural capacity. And that is all that he lost.
In exchange, Moses was ordered to hide his face “in the cleft of the rock”, so that the Lord could pass by and proclaim his name (see Ex 33:17-23): “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (v. 19). So “Grace and Mercy” are God’s very name, his own identity. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, divine grace and mercy combine to form the single greatest attribute of God.
Thus, the Lord more than compensated Moses for whatever he lost by way of a natural vision of divine glory; for in return, Moses received a far greater revelation of God’s supernatural glory, as it is revealed in his covenant grace and mercy. This is the deepest and most glorious mystery of all, unknowable by the human mind and invisible to the natural eye. It is the essence of God’s inner life and the heart of the covenant. We may be sure then, that Moses came out a winner that day, not a loser; for he gained much more than he lost, infinitely more.
[End of quote]
THE CONSECRATION OF RUSSIA TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
On the eve of the first Friday of June 1929, Sister Lucia in prayer near the tabernacle, saw a supernatural light which lit up the whole chapel, while a cross of light rising right to the ceiling, appeared on the altar. She saw a more intense light, at the upper part of the cross, God the Father and His body down to the waist, a luminous dove (the Holy Spirit) on His breast and the Lord Jesus Christ nailed to the cross. A chalice was seen above His waist, surmounted by a large host suspended in midair and drops of blood fell from His face and from the wound on His side upon the host and from there into the chalice. Our Lady was under the right arm of the cross. In her left hand was her Heart encircled with thorns and surmounted with flames. Under the left arm of the cross large letters, made of crystalline water flowing down upon the altar formed the words, "GRACES AND MERCY".
Lucia understood this to be the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. Our Lady then told her, "The moment has come when God is asking the Holy Father to consecrate Russia to my Immaculate Heart, in union with all the bishops of the world. He promises to save it by this means."
Sister Lucia, representing the chosen people at the new Mount Sinai - where now, not Moses, but the very Mother of God was ‘standing in the breach’ as the mediator (or Mediatrix, not however replacing Christ’s essential mediation) with the Godhead - was also the recipient of this tremendous ‘Sinaïtic’ mystery. Now it was in this awesome context that Our Lady of the Rosary (of Fatima) would ask for the collegial Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart - She had already, in 1925, asked for the Communion of Reparation (known as the Five First Saturdays) - to save the world from disaster, and, even more importantly, to save souls from Hell.
In September of 2007 Cardinal Bertone, the Secretary of State for the Vatican, referred to this Trinitarian aspect of the Message of Fatima, and to Fatima’s profound impact on contemporary history, when he said:
The profitable meeting of charisma and institution, of the Trinitarian mystery and the Christological mystery, is realized in the message. Mary, sign of God’s mercy, does not leave Christians alone. She gives us indications like a road sign to fight the battle between good and evil. Mary is the icon of God’s tenderness for us. [Fatima] is something that taps into and impregnates contemporary history like no other Marian apparition, and the density of its message touches the hearts of mankind, inviting to conversion and the shared responsibility for the salvation of the world.
[End of quote]
The comparison with Sinai is also most fitting given that our Third Millennium world, is like that of the nation of Israel, lost in a ‘Sinai wilderness’, drifting far away from God, lured again by the seductive ‘Golden Calf’ in its many forms. This, too, was explicitly noted by Cardinal Sodano in his homily of 13th May, 2007 (90th anniversary of the first Fatima apparition), especially in relation to Europe:
Today, 90 years have passed since the apparitions at Cova da Iria. We would like to ask Mary to continue to show all her motherly tenderness for the men and women of our time, who are sometimes tempted to forget God and set their hearts on the golden calf of earthly fatuity. Mary knows that the eternal salvation of her children is at stake, and for this reason repeats to us Jesus’ call: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15).
Mary’s call, it is strong and decisive, such as a mother would address to her children at the important moments of their life….
Today, we feel the need to address her with the invocation of a well-known hymn of the liturgy: “Monstra te esse Matrem”; “Show us, O Mary, that you are Mother!”
Many people today seem to be drifting away from the Father’s house, and we cluster around our Mother so that she may enlighten their consciences and bring prodigal sons back to the Father’s house.
It is particularly the children who live in Europe who are tempted to forget the faith that was their strength down the centuries. An insidious apostasy is taking place in our countries, which should give us cause for concern.
Today, let us entrust to the Immaculate Heart of Mary the future of the people and peoples of our Continent, committing ourselves to restoring to the heart of our society that Gospel leaven which permeated history down the ages. Let us also promise Mary to work intensely for this noble end, seeking to be “salt of the earth and light of the world”. With our prayers, our work and our Christian testimony, we will thus respond to Mary’s call and foster the dissemination of Christ’s Gospel in today’s world. Indeed together with the Second Vatican Council (cf. Gaudium et Spes, n. 10), we believe that the “key, the centre and the purpose of the whole of man’s history is to be found in her Lord and Master … Jesus Christ, [who] is the same yesterday and today and for ever” (Heb 13:8). Amen!
“Insidious Apostasy” from the Father’s House
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mary, sign of God’s mercy, does not leave Christians alone. …. She is the icon of God’s tenderness for us.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graces and Mercy
John Paul II had spoken of the Fatima apparitions of 1917 (-1929) in terms recalling Moses and his efforts to restore Israel to the one true God. The popes have indeed likened Fatima to a new Mount Sinai and the altar of the world. Unlike false apparitions, the true and authentic visitations of the Blessed Virgin Mary are deeply rooted in the Scriptures. And they also profoundly affect contemporary history.
The above picture illustrates the Fatima seer Sister Lucia’s great Trinitarian vision at her convent in Spain, with ‘Graces and Mercy’ flowing down onto the altar. Scott Hahn, in “a Father Who Keeps his Promises” (Charis, 1998), has taken up this very theme of Grace and Mercy, when combined, as “the single greatest attribute of God”; and he has done so in connection with Moses’ encounter with God at Sinai (pp. 159f.):
Mercy Me!
Did Moses end up with less intimacy with God than when he started? It might look that way, judging from his apparent loss of face-to-face access with [the Lord]. Upon closer examination, however, the narrative may lead us to the opposite conclusion.
Before the collective bargaining session had begun, Moses was able to enjoy very close encounters with God on a regular bass – he beheld [the Lord] with his own eyes. But whatever natural capacity Moses possessed that enabled him to see the glory of God physically manifest, still it was just that, a natural capacity. And that is all that he lost.
In exchange, Moses was ordered to hide his face “in the cleft of the rock”, so that the Lord could pass by and proclaim his name (see Ex 33:17-23): “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (v. 19). So “Grace and Mercy” are God’s very name, his own identity. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, divine grace and mercy combine to form the single greatest attribute of God.
Thus, the Lord more than compensated Moses for whatever he lost by way of a natural vision of divine glory; for in return, Moses received a far greater revelation of God’s supernatural glory, as it is revealed in his covenant grace and mercy. This is the deepest and most glorious mystery of all, unknowable by the human mind and invisible to the natural eye. It is the essence of God’s inner life and the heart of the covenant. We may be sure then, that Moses came out a winner that day, not a loser; for he gained much more than he lost, infinitely more.
[End of quote]
THE CONSECRATION OF RUSSIA TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
On the eve of the first Friday of June 1929, Sister Lucia in prayer near the tabernacle, saw a supernatural light which lit up the whole chapel, while a cross of light rising right to the ceiling, appeared on the altar. She saw a more intense light, at the upper part of the cross, God the Father and His body down to the waist, a luminous dove (the Holy Spirit) on His breast and the Lord Jesus Christ nailed to the cross. A chalice was seen above His waist, surmounted by a large host suspended in midair and drops of blood fell from His face and from the wound on His side upon the host and from there into the chalice. Our Lady was under the right arm of the cross. In her left hand was her Heart encircled with thorns and surmounted with flames. Under the left arm of the cross large letters, made of crystalline water flowing down upon the altar formed the words, "GRACES AND MERCY".
Lucia understood this to be the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. Our Lady then told her, "The moment has come when God is asking the Holy Father to consecrate Russia to my Immaculate Heart, in union with all the bishops of the world. He promises to save it by this means."
Sister Lucia, representing the chosen people at the new Mount Sinai - where now, not Moses, but the very Mother of God was ‘standing in the breach’ as the mediator (or Mediatrix, not however replacing Christ’s essential mediation) with the Godhead - was also the recipient of this tremendous ‘Sinaïtic’ mystery. Now it was in this awesome context that Our Lady of the Rosary (of Fatima) would ask for the collegial Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart - She had already, in 1925, asked for the Communion of Reparation (known as the Five First Saturdays) - to save the world from disaster, and, even more importantly, to save souls from Hell.
In September of 2007 Cardinal Bertone, the Secretary of State for the Vatican, referred to this Trinitarian aspect of the Message of Fatima, and to Fatima’s profound impact on contemporary history, when he said:
The profitable meeting of charisma and institution, of the Trinitarian mystery and the Christological mystery, is realized in the message. Mary, sign of God’s mercy, does not leave Christians alone. She gives us indications like a road sign to fight the battle between good and evil. Mary is the icon of God’s tenderness for us. [Fatima] is something that taps into and impregnates contemporary history like no other Marian apparition, and the density of its message touches the hearts of mankind, inviting to conversion and the shared responsibility for the salvation of the world.
[End of quote]
The comparison with Sinai is also most fitting given that our Third Millennium world, is like that of the nation of Israel, lost in a ‘Sinai wilderness’, drifting far away from God, lured again by the seductive ‘Golden Calf’ in its many forms. This, too, was explicitly noted by Cardinal Sodano in his homily of 13th May, 2007 (90th anniversary of the first Fatima apparition), especially in relation to Europe:
Today, 90 years have passed since the apparitions at Cova da Iria. We would like to ask Mary to continue to show all her motherly tenderness for the men and women of our time, who are sometimes tempted to forget God and set their hearts on the golden calf of earthly fatuity. Mary knows that the eternal salvation of her children is at stake, and for this reason repeats to us Jesus’ call: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15).
Mary’s call, it is strong and decisive, such as a mother would address to her children at the important moments of their life….
Today, we feel the need to address her with the invocation of a well-known hymn of the liturgy: “Monstra te esse Matrem”; “Show us, O Mary, that you are Mother!”
Many people today seem to be drifting away from the Father’s house, and we cluster around our Mother so that she may enlighten their consciences and bring prodigal sons back to the Father’s house.
It is particularly the children who live in Europe who are tempted to forget the faith that was their strength down the centuries. An insidious apostasy is taking place in our countries, which should give us cause for concern.
Today, let us entrust to the Immaculate Heart of Mary the future of the people and peoples of our Continent, committing ourselves to restoring to the heart of our society that Gospel leaven which permeated history down the ages. Let us also promise Mary to work intensely for this noble end, seeking to be “salt of the earth and light of the world”. With our prayers, our work and our Christian testimony, we will thus respond to Mary’s call and foster the dissemination of Christ’s Gospel in today’s world. Indeed together with the Second Vatican Council (cf. Gaudium et Spes, n. 10), we believe that the “key, the centre and the purpose of the whole of man’s history is to be found in her Lord and Master … Jesus Christ, [who] is the same yesterday and today and for ever” (Heb 13:8). Amen!
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