|
[Cette lettre en français] [Dieser Brief auf deutsch] [Deze brief in het Nederlands] [Esta carta en español] [Questa lettera in italiano] [Esta carta, em Português] |
25 de desembre de 2000 Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ |
Francisco Marto was born on June 11, 1908; his sister Jacinta on March 10, 1910. Their cousin Lucia, who saw the Blessed Virgin with them, was born on March 22, 1907. All three came from a hamlet named Aljustrel, close to Fatima, in central Portugal. The Marto household exuded a Christian ambiance, founded on a solid, natural integrity. Love of truthone could not liewas a fundamental rule carefully respected. Love of purity was another distinctive family trait. Entertainment, words, attitudesall of them were honest, gentle, and pure. Christian piety and prayer, attendance at Sunday mass, and the reception of the sacraments were regular.
The peasants in Aljustrel scraped an existence from the resources of their rocky earth and their sheep. Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta customarily gathered their herds to graze them together, and they organized games that did not prevent them from keeping watch. One spring day in 1916, an Angel appeared to them. Bending his forehead to the ground, he repeated three times: «O My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love You! I ask pardon for all those who do not believe, who do not adore, who do not hope, who do not love You!» During a second apparition that summer, the Angel recommended them to offer to God «prayers and sacrifices.» He returned in September, bearing a chalice over which a Host hovered; from the Host, drops of blood flowed. The Angel kneeled with the children and had them repeat three times: «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 Our Lord Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages by which He is Himself offended. Through the infinite merits of His Sacred Heart and through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.»
On May 13, 1917, Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta had led their sheep to a place called Cova da Iria. It was noon, and the sky was clear. Suddenly, a flash of lightning crossed the skies. Believing that a storm was coming, the children pressed the herd towards the base of the narrow valley. Standing before them was an extraordinarily beautiful young woman, completely illuminated, wearing a long white robe and a veil which extended to her feet, which were resting on an airy cloud that brushed against a little green oak. She appeared to be about eighteen years old. Lucia asked her, «Where do you come from, Ma'am?»«I come from Heaven.»«And what do you want of us?»«I come to ask you to return here six times in succession, at this same time, the 13th of each month. Afterwards, I will tell you who I am and what I want of you.»«You come from Heaven! And will I go to Heaven?»«Yes, you will.»«And Jacinta?»«She will, too.»«And Francisco?»«So will he. He must pray the Rosary...»
Oh, that we might see good things! (Ps 4:7)
After having strengthened the children with this inestimable promise of Heaven, the Lady introduced them to the mystery of the Redemption, which, with exquisite gentleness, she asked them to associate themselves with. «Do you want to offer yourselves to God to make sacrifices and gladly accept all the sufferings that He wishes to send you in reparation for the sins that offend His Divine Majesty? Do you want to suffer to obtain the conversion of sinners, to make reparation for the blasphemies as well as all the offenses made to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?»«Yes, we want to!» Lucy replied. «You will have much to suffer, but the grace of God will assist you and will sustain you always.» While speaking, the Apparition opened her hands, and this gesture shed on the visionaries a beam of mysterious light which, penetrating their souls, made them see themselves in God.
First to console Jesus
The parable of the prodigal son reveals to us that the drama of sin is not only that of a son who wanders from the paternal home, but also the tragedy of the father who suffers from this estrangement. God mysteriously finds Himself in this situation when we commit sin. In our human language, we say then that God «suffers» from our estrangement. Souls inhabited by a very intense love of God preoccupy themselves with the repercussions of sin on the Heart of God, which they wish to «console.» This seems to have been Francisco's case. This little visionary, who seemed less favored on the level of apparitions, attained the highest summits of Christian spirituality.
The effect of the apparitions on Jacinta was made manifest especially after July 13. That day, Our Lady showed the three children Hell. Lucia would write, «She showed us an ocean of fire and, submerged in this fire, demons and souls like black and transparent embers amid cries and groans of pain and despair which terrified us and made us tremble with fear.» The Blessed Virgin told them to keep this vision secret. She did not permit Lucia to reveal it until 1941. Jacinta retained an impression of it which left a profound mark on her. From this day on, she was very preoccupied with the fate of poor souls who went to Hell. She often sat on the ground or on a rock, and, deep in thought, she would say, «Oh! Hell! How sorrowful I am for the souls who are going to Hell!» Yet she did not confine herself to futile pain but, under the motion of a most elevated charity, she prayed and sacrificed heroically for those who were in danger of being lost.
A painful reality
In the face of the events of Aljustrel, the supporters of anticlerical politics in Portugal were growing restless. The administrator of the Vila Nova de Ourem district, to which the hamlet belonged, was a sectarian. On August 13, he went to Fatima, and took the three children to Ourem by trickery. The little visionaries were dismayed at missing the meeting with the Blessed Virgin. They offered this sacrifice to Our Lord. Interrogated about the apparitions, they related what they had seen, but remained faithful to the secret. They were promised pieces of goldnothing could shake them. As a last resort, the administrator led them to the prison and told them, «If you delay too long in talking, you'll be fried in oil.» That evening, having found them unshakable, he commanded a cauldron full of oil to be prepared. Then, turning to Jacinta: «Tell the secret that you claim to have received.»«I can't.»«You can't? Well, I'm going to see to it that you can!» A gendarme took Jacinta away. After several minutes, the administrator addressed Francisco: «See, your sister has been fried! Now it's your turn! Tell me your secret.»«I can't tell anyone.» And he was likewise taken away. Then came Lucia's turn. In reality, it was a show; yet Lucia would later avow, «I believed that it was for good and that I was going to die. But I wasn't afraid and I recommended myself to the Blessed Virgin.» Such courage among children manifests a supernatural intervention from God, granting them the gift of fortitude.
On September 13, the Blessed Virgin confirmed her promise of a great miracle for the 13th of October. That day, the Lady gave her name: «I am Our Lady of the Rosary. I desire that a chapel be built here in my honor, and that the Rosary continue to be said every day.» The crowd was estimated at least at 50,000 people. At the end of the apparition, the sun began to dance, and to give off all sorts of colors. Then it seemed to rush by zigzag ricochets on the crowd, and finally took its place again, a miracle which substantiated the apparitions. In the days that followed, the children were plagued with interminable interrogations by all sorts of individuals. Following the Blessed Virgin's recommendations, they offered their sufferings to God. Their desire for sacrifices in order to save sinners had become insatiable.
«What a beautiful light!»
Jacinta was likewise struck by the epidemic. From a little girl who was sullen, frail, and who used to love games and dancing, she had become patient, strong, and even tough in the face of suffering. Yet she was not gloomy. While leading the sheep or picking flowers, she would sing improvised airs. «Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation! Immaculate Heart of Mary, convert the sinners, save their souls from Hell.» She had a singular love for the Pope. During the apparition of July 13, 1917, the Blessed Virgin had said, «The Holy Father will have much to suffer.» A little later, Jacinta received two private revelations. One day, she told Lucia, «I saw the Holy Father, in a very big house, on his knees in front of a table, with his head between his hands, and crying. Outside, there was a big crowd. Some were throwing stones at him, others were shouting insults at him and were saying bad words to him. Poor Holy Father! We have to pray a lot for him!» Another time, she saw the Pope praying, with a crowd, before the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These revelations inspired Jacinta with a love-filled fervor in her prayers for the Holy Father. Pope John Paul II, aware of having himself been the beneficiary of these prayers, expressed his thanks to Jacinta in the homily of the Beatification Mass: «And once again I would like to celebrate the Lord's goodness to me when I was saved from death after being gravely wounded on May 13, 1981. I also express my gratitude to Blessed Jacinta for the sacrifices and prayers offered for the Holy Father, whom she saw suffering greatly.»
«It's so good to be with Him!»
She was taken to the hospital in Vila Nova de Ourem. The separation from Lucia cost her more than everything else, for only her cousin was in a position to understand her. A fistula had opened on her left side. «Don't tell anyone that the wound hurts me,» she confided to Lucia, who had come to visit her. «Tell Jesus in the Tabernacle that I love Him very much.» One day, she related to Lucia, «The Blessed Virgin foretold to me that I will go to Lisbon, to another hospital. I will not see you again, or my parents. After suffering a lot, I will die alone.» The prospect of this made her suffer much. «What does it matter,» Lucia was prompted to remark, «as long as the Blessed Virgin comes to get you!»«Yes, that's true. But there are moments when I forget that She will come to take me with Her.»
Jacinta was transferred to Lisbon for a surgical intervention especially painful since the sick girl's weakness did not permit a total anesthesia. Once the operation was over, the dressings made the child suffer horribly. The Most Blessed Virgin came to visit her and took away all her pain. Mary's face appeared quite sad. «The sins that lead the greatest number of souls to perdition are the sins of the flesh,» she confided to her privileged one. «People must renounce sin and not persist in it, as has been done until now. It is essential to make great penance.» A few days after the operation, complications arose. The evening of February 20, 1920, she made her confession. The priest thought he could wait until the next day to bring her Holy Communion. However, that same night, around ten-thirty, she died peacefully.
A little while longer
On this occasion, the Pope recalled, «God does not want anyone to be lost; that is why two thousand years ago He sent His Son to earth, to seek and to save the lost (Lk 19:10). And He saved us by His death on the cross. Let no one empty that Cross of its power! In her motherly concern, the Blessed Virgin came here to Fatima to ask men and women 'to stop offending God, Our Lord, who is already very offended.' It is a mother's sorrow that compels her to speak; the destiny of her children is at stake. For this reason she asks the little shepherds: 'Pray, pray much and make sacrifices for sinners; many souls go to Hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them.' »
This appeal from Our Lady is addressed to every one of us, especially in this jubilee year of conversion and intercession. On April 20, 1943, Lucia specified to the Bishop of Leiria which penances God expects from His children: «The good Lord is grieved to see such a small number of souls in a state of grace, and disposed to the renunciations necessary to observe His Law. This is precisely the penitence that He now demands, the sacrifice that each person must impose on himself so as to live a just life in conformity with His Law.» The message continues that God desires as mortification «no more than the simple and honest accomplishment of daily tasks, and the acceptance of difficulties and troubles; and He desires that this way be shown clearly to souls, for many imagine that penance means great austerities, and, having neither the strength nor the magnanimity to undertake it, they become discouraged and fall into a life of indifference and sin.»
With the help of grace, everyone may implement this quite simple program of penitence, through the duties of daily life, drawing one's strength from recitation of and meditation on the Rosary. This is what we ask for you from the Immaculate Heart of Mary and from Saint Joseph, as we wish each of you and your families a very Blessed Christmas and a Holy New Year 2001.