Faith of the Children at Fatima

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 20 October 2012)

1.   The Year of Faith is a command to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Saviour of the world.

2.   We, the Church, have the mission to faithfully proclaim the mystery of our Lord until it is finally manifested in full light.

3.   The call to conversion is not new. The mystery of our salvation has been filled with God’s seeking out mankind who often strayed, calling him to return to the Creator in heart and mind.

4.   After the New Testament, God’s messenger has been Our Lady herself, for conversion has been the “golden thread” that links her many apparitions throughout the world.

Mary’s faith, hope and love for humanity has sustained humanity’s faith, hope and love in God’s salvation in spite of man’s sinfulness.

And yet, Mary’s call to humanity in different continents throughout the centuries to… 

5.   …follow a different path and a different world than the tragic, materialistic, de-Christianised, sinful society, which is so close to all of our lives today, remains unheeded by too many.

6.    It is a call that has gone unheeded again and again. Our Lady is seen as weeping, weeping for the world… 

7.   …and pierced to the Heart. In the image of Her Immaculate Heart pierced by a sword, we see the heart of the Blessed Virgin stabbed for all of those who have lived – and died – by the sword, and by sin. Jesus said, “Put your sword back, for all who have lived by the sword, die by the sword.” (Mt 26:52)

8.   In this month of the Rosary, let us recall her message at Fatima, one of the most famous apparitions approved by the Church.

9.   The year was 1917. Three shepherd children, Francisco (aged 9), his sister Jacinta (aged 7) and Lucia dos Santos (aged 10) were tending their flocks at a field, the Cova da Iria.

10. The Lady appeared in a very bright light above a green oak tree by its own in the field. A conversation ensued between her and Lucia. They were told to go to the same spot on the 13^th of each month, at the same hour. The Lady would only reveal her name in the last month, that is, October.

11. They were told to go to the same spot on the 13^th of each month, at the same hour. The Lady would only reveal her name in the last month, that is, October.

12. She asked them to pray the Rosary daily for peace, to make reparations for the conversion of sinners. She taught them to pray the Fatima prayer after each decade of the Rosary. They were also shown a vision of hell.

13.  The core of the Fatima message was the call to prayer, sacrifice and penance – prayer for peace, for sinners and for the Pope; the penance of fulfilling one’s daily duty well, obeying God’s commandments, avoiding the near occasions of sin and acting according to God’s will in all things.   

14.  It was at Fatima that Our Lady drew devotion to her Immaculate Heart, surrounded with thorns.

15.  On the last day of her apparition to the children, the 13^th of October, the Lady revealed her name as the Lady of the Rosary. She requested for a chapel to be built there and asked them to continue praying the Rosary every day. She asked people to amend their lives and repent, for God was already much offended.

16.  Then, the crowd that gathered with the children witnessed the miracle of the dancing sun, while the children saw a vision of the Holy Family. These symbols of air and fire prepare for Christ’s second coming at the Last Judgement.

17. What can we draw from the Fatima episode, apart from the messages of prayer, sacrifice and penance? Perhaps we could emulate the faith and obedience of the children in carrying out faithfully the requests of Our Lady. Just as Bernadette in the Lourdes apparition, Our Lady had used simple children to convey the mysteries of our salvation. Lourdes pointed to Baptism and the first coming of Christ, while Fatima opens perspectives of the end times. If not for their simple and steadfast faith, the world would not have received the warnings and messages that were meant to stem the downfall of humankind.

18.  In this Year of Faith, let us, like the trustful children, place our faith in our Blessed Mother’s guidance and carry out the call of Fatima to prayer, sacrifice and penance so that we, too, would be conveying to the world the mystery of our Lord. Then, we would have fulfilled the command of the Holy Father for this grace-filled Year.