In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It is the source of deepest joy to return once again to this holy place of the Virgin Mother of God under her title of Our Lady of Fatima and to offer the Holy Mass for the intentions of all who have come on pilgrimage today and of all who have asked to be remembered in prayer here, even though they are unable to come on pilgrimage. I thank Mr. David Carollo, the Executive Director of the World Apostolate of Fatima USA, for the invitation to offer the Holy Mass today. At the same time, I express, in the name of us all, deepest gratitude for his excellent and faithful service of the Apostolate. I thank also the staff, the volunteers, the benefactors and all who make possible our pilgrimage today. I am likewise deeply grateful to the Most Reverend James F. Checchio, Bishop of Metuchen, for his warm welcome to the Diocese.
The apparition of the Virgin Mother of God to the holy seers, Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto, and the Servant of God Lucia dos Santos, at the Cova da Iria on July 13th of 1917, contains the heart of all that Our Lord wanted to communicate to His children at a time of shocking abandonment of Christ and His Way with all the suffering, spiritual and material, which it always entails. Our Lady asked that the Holy Rosary be recited daily and insisted strongly, especially through the Vision of Hell granted to the little seers, on the importance of undertaking penance for the conversion of sinners and of the world.
Just before the Vision of Hell, Our Lady instructed the children: “Sacrifice yourselves for sinners and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”[1]
The instruction of the Mother of God resounds in our hearts today as we live in a world which is ever more beset by the rebellion against God and His plan for our eternal salvation through the Redemptive Incarnation of God the Son. The rebellion is the work of hearts, beguiled by Satan – “a murderer from the beginning, … a liar and the father lies”[2]
– , which pridefully and stubbornly refuse the care of the Mother of Divine Grace by which she draws us to her Divine Son Who alone brings us peace in this life and eternal peace in the life which is to come.
What grieves and wearies our hearts even more and instills in us even greater fear and trembling is the manifestation of the rebellion within the Church herself, in apostasy from Christ, from the Apostolic Tradition by which Christ continues to teach, sanctify, and guide us along the way of our earthly pilgrimage to our eternal home in Heaven. Sacred truths of the faith and of the moral life are ignored, trivialized, and even denied. The result is confusion, error, and division in the Church whose Head and Shepherd is Christ Who alone is “the way, and the truth, and the life.”[3] In such a situation, Satan tempts us to discouragement and doubt, and even to the abandonment of Christ in His Mystical Body, the Church.
Our responsibility is, as Our Lady of Fatima, teaches us so clearly, to transform the situation of the world and the Church by overcoming in our lives any sin and darkness, by daily turning to Christ and seeking to follow him with all our heart. Our Lady leads us to Him through the praying of the Holy Rosary, through acts of penance and reparation, and, above all, through the extraordinary encounter with Him in the Sacraments of Penance and of the Holy Eucharist. We must daily turn to Christ and embrace the white martyrdom of indifference, ridicule, and persecution. Some of us may even be called to give the ultimate witness of red martyrdom, of death in remaining faithful to Christ and to His plan for our salvation and the salvation of the world.
We know that the Virgin Mother of God, given to us as our Mother by her Divine Son as He died upon the cross,[4]
will be with us always, guiding us to Him, keeping our hearts, one with her Immaculate Heart, united to His Most Sacred Heart. With Mary Immaculate, we trust the promise of the Lord spoken through the Prophet Isaiah: “For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.”[5]
Thus, even in great suffering for the love of Christ and His Mystical Body, the Church, we can pray with the Prophet: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.”[6]
The terrifying Vision of Hell during the apparition on July 13th was not to discourage Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia, or to lead them to doubt the promise of salvation. Our Lady assures them that, through devotion to her Immaculate Heart, the world will be saved by the immeasurable and unceasing love pouring forth from the glorious-pierced Heart of Jesus. In the face of the terrifying suffering caused by man’s sins, Our Lady instructed us, through Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia:
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.
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.[7]
Thus, at the conclusion of the apparition on July 13th, Our Lady requested:
When you pray the Rosary, say after each mystery: O my Jesus, forgive us, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need.[8]
Each of us is called, with Mary Immaculate, to do our part in Christ’s saving work, according to our vocation in life and our distinct gifts. Each of us is called to pray and do penance for the conversion of Russia, to make the First Saturdays of Reparation, and to pray the Rosary, keeping in our hearts, one with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, all that Our Lord has said and done for our eternal salvation.[9]
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. May we, one in heart with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, keep always in our hearts the Mystery of Faith, so that we, with Mary, may bring Christ and His saving work to the world.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
[1] “Sacrificai-vos pelos pecadores e dizei muitas vezes, em especial sempre que fizerdes algum sacrifício: Ó Jesus, é por Vosso amor, pela conversão dos pecadores e em reparação pelos pecados cometidos contra o Imaculado Coração de Maria.” Carmelo de Coimbra, Um caminho sob o olhar de Maria. Biografia da Irmã Maria Lúcia de Jesus e do Coração Imaculado O.C.D. (Marco de Canaveses: Edições Carmelo, 2013), p. 61, [Hereafter, Carmelo de Coimbra]. English translation: Carmel of Coimbra, A Pathway under the Gaze of Mary: Biography of Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart, tr. James A. Colson (Washington, NJ: World Apostolate of Fatima, USA, 2015), p. 68. [Hereafter, Carmelo de Coimbra Eng].
[2] Jn 8, 44.
[3] Jn 14, 6.
[4] Cf. Jn 19, 26-27.
[5] Is 61, 11.
[6] Is 61, 10.
[7] “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.
Por fim, o Meu Imaculado Coração triunfará, O Santo Padre consagrarMe-á a Rússia que se converterá e será concedido ao mundo algum tempo de paz.” Carmelo de Coimbra, pp. 63-64. English translation: Carmelo de Coimbra Eng, pp. 68-69.
[8] “Quando rezais o terço, dizei, depois de cada mistério: Ó meu Jesus, perdoai-nos, livrai-nos do fogo do inferno; levai as alminhas todas para o Céu, pirncipalmente aquelas que mais perciarem.” Carmelo de Coimbra, p. 65. English translation: Carmelo de Coimbra Eng, p. 69.
[9] Lk 2, 51.