Homily at the World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. - Our Lady's Blue Army
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
World Apostolate of Fatima U.S.A. – Our Lady’s Blue Army
Asbury, New Jersey
13 July 2025
Dt 30, 10-14
Ps 19, 8. 9. 10. 11
Col 1, 15-20
Jn 6, 63. 68
Lk 10, 25-37
Homily
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In teaching the moral law to God’s people, Moses made it clear that what God asks of us is not something foreign to us. God Who gave us the moral law first created us. In creating the world and us, He has written a law within nature itself and upon the human heart, according to which all creation works together in harmony and man, steward of creation, cooperates with God in bringing about the good of all. In fact, the law of God, recorded in the Holy Scriptures, articulates the law which God first wrote upon the human heart. Therefore, Moses rightly teaches the people:
For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off …. But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.[1]
Sadly, from the sin of our First Parents, rebelliousness of will tends to blind us to the law of God written in our hearts and revealed in the Holy Scriptures. It beguiles us into thinking that we are the source of nature and can fashion it, according to what pleases us. When we give way to a rebellious spirit, we sin, working disorder and destruction upon our world and ourselves.
Rebelliousness of will leads us to question the moral law, even as the scholar of the law questioned our Lord in today’s Gospel. When the scholar asked our Lord about what is necessary to attain salvation, our Lord indicated to him what he clearly already knew.[2] Our Lord invited him to repeat the words of the law found in the Books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, which the scholar surely would have studied in depth, and which contain a summary of the whole law of God: man is to love God with his whole being and to love his neighbor as he loves himself.[3]
The rebelliousness of the scholar is seen in an attempt to interpret the second part of the Great Commandment, according to his own definition of neighbor. Our Lord takes the occasion to make clear the unconditional nature of the Great Commandment. As He did throughout His public ministry, our Lord restored the original meaning of the moral law, not taking away from it in any way but bringing it to fulfillment. By the Parable of the Good Samaritan, He taught the scholar of the law that, according to God’s plan, our neighbor is every man and woman without exception. The attempt of the scholar of the law to interpret the Great Commandment, according to what was comfortable for him, is corrected by the teaching of Christ.
The temptation which beset the scholar of the law is a temptation which besets man in every age. Today, we see it, for example, in those who claim to follow God’s law about the respect for human life and, at the same time, defend an individual’s right to define when human life begins and when it should end. We see it, too, in the attempt to redefine marriage, in contradiction of the plan of God, established for man and woman from the creation of the world.
But Christ continues to teach the law of God in the Church. Through the teaching office of the Church, to which He has given His own authority, He provides for us a check against the temptation to betray the law of God, introducing into the world disorder and destruction. The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council sets forth clearly the great gift of the teaching office or Magisterium of the Church in the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation:
But the task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ.”[4]
Reflecting upon the confusion about the moral law in our time, in the light of today’s Gospel, we are led to thank Christ for teaching us faithfully the truth of the moral law through the Magisterium of the Church. At the same time, we cannot fail to take account of the importance of our knowledge of the teaching of Christ, handed down to us, with integrity, in the Church. It is not a matter of some teaching remote from our lives but a teaching which leads us to respect and promote the order which God has placed in nature and in the human heart, and, thus, to be good stewards of creation and of the common good.
The Virgin Mother of God, under her title of Our Lady of Fatima, appeared to lead us to her Son Who alone can save us from sin and eternal death which are the work of our rebellious wills. She exhorts us to make reparation for our sins, carrying once again the cross, with Our Lord, on the way that leads to eternal life.
One hundred years ago, this coming December 10th, Our Lady of Fatima, with the Infant Jesus at her side resting on a bright cloud, appeared to the Venerable Lucia dos Santos, the surviving shepherd child of Fatima who was at the time a Postulant with the Sisters of Saint Dorothy in Pontevedra, Spain. Our Lady rested one of her hands on the shoulder of Lucia and with the other hand showed Lucia her Immaculate Heart encircled with thorns. The Child Jesus then spoke to Lucia with these words: “Have compassion on the Heart of your most holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them.”[5]
After these words of the Infant Jesus, Our Lady spoke:
Look, my daughter, at my Heart surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce me every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite one decade of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.[6]
The words of Our Lady referred to the second part of the Secret or Message of Fatima revealed to the shepherd children of Fatima on July 13, 1917, the third of her six apparitions from May to October of that year.
At the conclusion of the apparition on July 13th, Our Lady showed the three shepherd children, Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, and the Venerable Lucia dos Santos, an understandably terrifying vision of Hell and spoke to them with these words:
You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.[7]
The vision of Hell is the first part of the Secret or Message.
Our Lady then made clear that the devotion to her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart is a devotion of reparation for the many and grievous sins which offend the Most Sacred Heart of her Divine Son and, therefore, offend her Heart perfectly united to His Most Sacred Heart. The reparation made to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary for the grievous offense caused by our sins thus rescues souls from eternal death.
Our Lady then made known what Our Lord was asking through her apparition. She declared:
To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated.[8]
While making clear the great suffering which results from a failure to take up devotion to her Immaculate Heart, Our Lady also gave words of hope:
In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.[9]
Our Lady’s words on devotion to her Immaculate Heart are the second part of the Secret or Message.
There is also a third part of the Secret or Message, which the Venerable Lucia only committed to writing on January 3, 1944. She wrote:
At the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated toward him from her hand. Pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’[10]
The Secret or Message speaks about the practical apostasy of our time, that is, the going away from Christ by many in the Church and the violence and death which are its fruit. Many, while they may not directly espouse heretical teachings, in practice reject the truth and love which flows unceasingly and immeasurably from the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Instead, they embrace the confusion, lies and violence of contemporary culture. Their lives contradict the most fundamental truths of the faith.
The third part of the Secret or Message described the martyrdom of those remaining true to Our Lord, those of one heart, in Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, with His Most Sacred Heart. The Servant of God Lucia writes that beneath the two arms of “a big cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork tree with the bark … there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in their hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.”[11] As is clear from Our Lady’s message, only the Faith, which places man in the relationship of unity of heart with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the mediation of her Immaculate Heart, can save man from the chastisements which rebellion against God necessarily brings upon its perpetrators and upon the whole of society. It is also clear that living the Faith in a totally secularized culture means readiness to accept indifference, ridicule, misunderstanding, persecution, exile and even death, to remain one with Christ in the Church under the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Through the call for reparation and penance, Our Lady shows the way to salvation from eternal death, the fruit of mortal sin.
Regarding the Devotion of the First Saturdays, the Venerable Lucia received a second vision of the Child Jesus on February 15, 1926, just some two months after the vision of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, with the Infant Jesus at her side on a bright cloud. In the vision of February 15, 1926, when the Servant of God observed to the Child Jesus that her confessor had declared that the devotion of the First Saturdays was not lacking in the world, He replied:
It is true, my daughter, that many souls begin them, but few finish them, and those who do finish them, do so to receive the graces that are promised. It would please me more if they did five decades with fervor and with the intention of making reparation to the Heart of their heavenly Mother, than if they did fifteen decades in a tepid and indifferent manner.[12]
In both the apparitions of December 10, 1925, and of February 15, 1926, Our Lady made clear the substance of the devotion of the First Saturdays: 1) a profound realization of how sin offends Our Lord and His Sorrowful and Immaculate Mother, 2) a humble and contrite heart which strives to make reparation for sins committed and the offense they cause to Our Lord and His Mother, and 3) trust in the promise which accompanies the devotion, that is, Our Lady’s promise to assist at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, those who observe the First Saturdays with true repentance and the desire of reparation. The devotion is not an isolated act but expresses a way of life, namely, daily conversion of heart to Christ’s Most Sacred Heart, under the maternal guidance and care of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
Our Lady’s insistence on the devotion of the First Saturdays is a wonderful expression of her unfailing maternal love. She appeared at Fatima to the three shepherd children and at Pontevedra to the Servant of God Lucia dos Santos to show her children the way to freedom from the rebellion before God, which is grievous sin with its fruit, eternal death.
Let us now lift upon our hearts, one with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus, opened for us in the Eucharistic Sacrifice by which He makes sacramentally present for us His Sacrifice on Calvary. Let us lift up, with our hearts, the love which inspires the devotion of the First Saturdays in reparation of the offense which our sins give to our Lord’s Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of His Virgin Mother. Let us commit ourselves to the devotion of the First Saturdays and the way of life, the way of conversion to Christ, which it expresses. Let us trust that through the confession of our sins and Holy Communion – the most perfect communion of our hearts with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus – , and through the meditation on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, the mysteries of our communion with the Lord – the Mystery of Faith – , we will be purified of the rebellion of sin and confirmed in the grace to be His faithful “fellow workers in the truth”[13] for the salvation of the world.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
[1] Dt 30, 11. 14
[2] Cf. Lk 10, 25. 29.
[4] “Munus autem authentice interpretandi verbum Dei scriptum vel traditum soli vivo Ecclesiae Magisterio concreditum est, cuius auctoritas in nomine Iesu Christi exercetur.” Sacrosanctum Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum II, “Constitutio Dogmatica de Divina Revelatione, Dei verbum,” 18 Novembris 1965, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 58 (1966) 822, n. 10. English translation: Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, ed. Austin Flannery, rev. ed. (Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Company, 1992), pp. 755-756, no. 10.
[5] “… tem pena do Coração da Tua Mãe Santíssima, que está coberto de espinhos que os homens ingratos a todos os momentos Lhe cravam, sem haver quem faça um ato de reparação para os tirar.” Carmelo de Coimbra, Um caminho sob o olhar de Maria. Biografia da Irmã Maria Lúcia de Jesus e do Coração Imaculado (Marco de Canaveses: Edições Carmelo, 2013), p. 168. [Hereafter: Carmelo]. English translation: Carmel of Coimbra, A Pathway Under the Gaze of Mary: Biography of Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart, O.C.D., tr. James A. Colson (Washington, NJ: World Apostolate of Fatima, USA, 2015), p. 158. [Hereafter: CarmeloEng].
[6] “Olha minha filha, o Meu Coração Cercado de espinhos, que os homens ingratos a todos os momentos me cravam com blasfémias e ingratidões. Tu ao menos procura consolar-me e diz a todos aqueles que durante cinco meses, no primeiro sábado, se confessarem, recebendo a Sagrada Comunhão, rezando um terço e me fizerem quinze minutos de companhia, meditando nos mistérios do Rosário, com o fim de me desagravarem, que eu prometo assistir-lhes na hora da morte com todas as graças necessárias para a salvação das suas almas.” Carmelo, p. 168. English translation: CarmeloEng, p. 158.
[7] “Vistes o inferno, para onde vão as almas dos pobres pecadores; para as salvar, Deus quer estabelecer no mundo a devoção a Meu Imaculado Coração. Se fizerem o que Eu vos disser, salvar-se-ão muitas almas e terão paz.” Carmelo, p. 63. English translation: CarmeloEng, p. 68.
[8] “Para a impedir, virei pedir a consagração da Rússia a Meu Imaculado Coração e a Comunhão reparadora nos primeiros sábados. Se atenderem a Meus pedidos, a Rússia se converterá e terão paz; se não, espalhará seus erros pelo mundo, promovendo guerras e perseguições à Igreja. Os bons serão martirizados, o Santo Padre terá muito que sofrer, várias nações serão aniquiladas.” Carmelo, p. 63. English translation: CarmeloEng, pp. 68-69.
[9] “Por fim, o Meu Imaculado Coração triunfará. O Santo Padre consagrar-Me-á a Rússia que se converterá e será concedido ao mundo algum tempo de paz.” Carmelo, p. 64. English translation: CarmeloEng, p. 69.
[10] “Vimos ao lado esquerdo de Nossa Senhora um pouco mais alto um Anjo com uma espada de fogo em a mão esquerda; ao cintilar, despedia chamas que parecia iam incendiar o mundo; mas apagavam-se como o contacto do brilho que da mão direita expedia Nossa Senhora ao seu encontro: O Anjo apontando com a mão direita para a terra, com voz forte disse: Penitência, Penitência, Penitência!” Carmelo, p. 64. English translation: CarmeloEng, p. 69.
[11] “… una grande Cruz de troncos toscos como se fora de sobreiro com a casca … estavam dois Anjos cada um com um regador de cristal em a mão, neles recolhiam o sangue dos Mártires e com ele regavam as almas que se aproximavam de Deus.” Carmelo, p. 64. English translation: CarmeloEng, p. 69.
[12] “É verdade, minha filha, que muitas almas os começam, mas poucas os acabam e as que os terminam é com o fim de receberem as graças que aí estão prometidas; e me agradam mais as que fizerem os 5 com fervor e com o fim de desgravar o Coração da Tua Mãe de Céu, que as que fizerem os 15, tíbios e indiferentes.” Carmelo, p. 171. English translation: CarmeloEng, p. 160.
[13] Cf. 3 Jn 8.