“We will never be able to tell people” what God is like…
On May 13, 2000, Pope John Paul II beatified two of the Fatima children to whom our Blessed Mother entrusted her message. On the occasion the Pope remarked: “According to the divine plan, “a woman clothed with the sun” (Rv 12: 1) came down from heaven to this earth to visit the privileged children of the Father. She speaks to them with a mother’s voice and heart: she asks them to offer themselves as victims of reparation, saying that she was ready to lead them safely to God. And behold, they see a light shining from her maternal hands which penetrates them inwardly, so that they feel immersed in God just as—they explain—a person sees himself in a mirror.
Later, Francisco, one of the three privileged children, exclaimed: “We were burning in that light which is God and we were not consumed. What is God like? It is impossible to say. In fact we will never be able to tell people”. God: a light that burns without consuming. Moses had the same experience when he saw God in the burning bush; he heard God say that he was concerned about the slavery of his people and had decided to deliver them through him: “I will be with you” (cf. Ex 3: 2-12). Those who welcome this presence become the dwelling-place and, consequently, a “burning bush” of the Most High.”[1]
Seeing the Light
Francisco and Jacinta saw a great light, and they saw “darkness”. The former said: “‘I was thinking of Jesus who is so sad because of the sins that are committed against him’. He was motivated by one desire—the Pope says—“to console Jesus and make him happy”.
A transformation takes place in his life, one we could call radical. It was a transformation certainly uncommon for children of his age. He devotes himself to an intense spiritual life, expressed in assiduous and fervent prayer, and attains a true form of mystical union with the Lord. This spurs him to a progressive purification of the spirit through the renunciation of his own pleasures and even of innocent childhood games.”[2]
Saint John Paul II reminds us that the message of Fatima is one of conversion, that our Lady of Fatima is our Lady of Sorrows because her Son is greatly offended by our sins. “Little Jacinta felt and personally experienced Our Lady’s anguish, offering herself heroically as a victim for sinners. One day, when she and Francisco had already contracted the illness that forced them to bed, the Virgin Mary came to visit them at home, as the little one recounts: “Our Lady came to see us and said that soon she would come and take Francisco to heaven. And she asked me if I still wanted to convert more sinners. I told her yes”. And when the time came for Francisco to leave, the little girl tells him: “Give my greetings to Our Lord and to Our Lady and tell them that I am enduring everything they want for the conversion of sinners”. Jacinta had been so deeply moved by the vision of hell during the apparition of 13 July that no mortification or penance seemed too great to save sinners.”[3]
At the School of Mary
The Pope ends his homily with the advice that all children should be enrolled at the School of Mary. “One makes more progress in a short time of submission and dependence on Mary than during entire years of personal initiatives, relying on oneself alone” (St Louis de Montfort, The True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, n. 155). This was how the little shepherds became saints so quickly. A woman who gave hospitality to Jacinta in Lisbon, on hearing the very beautiful and wise advice that the little girl gave, asked who taught it to her. “It was Our Lady”, she replied.”[4]
We can only become ‘burning bushes’ in the love of God by getting his divine light first from the Heart of Mary. Through the intercession of our blessed Mother and these two great little saints we can also console Jesus, be on the path to personal purification and sanctification, and in the end, in Heaven, see God as He is.
God bless you all. Amen
[Readings: 1 Peter 1:18-25; Matthew 10:32-45]
Author: The Contribution of Cornelio Fabro to Fundamental Theology. Reason and Faith, Cambridge Scholars Publishing: htps://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-9315-2
Poesía Sacra, Quemar las Naves, and Desde Fossanova, IVE Press: htps://ivepress.org/
[1] John Paul II, Homily for the beatification of Francisco and Jacinta, Fatima, May 13, 2000, https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2000/documents/hf_jpii_hom_20000513_beatification-fatima.html accessed May 25, 2024.
[2] Idem., n. 2.
[3] Idem., n. 4.
[4] Idem., n. 6.
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