“the Lord is with Thee”
Fatima is a wakeup call for the atheist who has abandoned God and Grace, in the favor of man and nature. It is also a wakeup call to the Christian who having accepted God and Grace has become lukewarm and has lost the penitent heart of a Christian.
“It is not that God has abandoned the world but that the world has abandoned God and cast its lot with nature divorced from nature’s God. Man throughout history has always become wicked when, turning his back on God, he identified himself with nature.”[i] Nature if left alone and not ordered with Grace can become destructive. Think of a garden, which is left untended. It eventually becomes a mess of tangled plants not pleasing to the eye but disordered and wild. Our human nature if left untended by God and Grace also becomes a mess of tangled thoughts, words and actions and thus our life is not pleasing to God or man but rather disordered and wild. Fulton Sheen uses the example of both the atom and alcohol, both are a part of nature and both can become destructive if they are abused rather that used correctly. “The atomic bomb acts on humanity as excessive alcohol acts on a human. If a man abuses the nature of alcohol and drinks to excess, alcohol renders its own judgment. It says to the alcoholic: ‘God made me. He intended that I be used rationally, that is, for healing and for conviviality. But you have abused me. I shall therefore turn against you, because you have turned against me. From now on you will have headaches, dizziness, and upset stomach; you will lose your reason; you will become a slave to me, and this although I want you not.’ So with the atom. It says to man: ‘God made me. He put atomic fission in the universe. That is how the sun lights the world. The great power that the Omnipotence has locked with my heart was made to serve you for peaceful purposes; to light your cities, to drive your mothers, to ease the burdens of men. But instead like Prometheus, you have stolen this fire from heaven and used it for the first time to destroy noncombatants. You did not first use electricity to kill a man, but you first used atomic fission to annihilate cities. For that reason, I shall turn against you, make you fear what you should love, make millions of hearts shrink in terror from your enemies, doing to you what you have done to them, and turn humanity into a victim of Frankenstein, cowering in bomb shelters from the very monsters you have created.’”[ii]
VIDEO “Duck And Cover (1951)”
The fear of the atomic bomb was so great in the 1950’s that the government produced TV ads and well as education courses to instruct citizens on what to do in case of an atomic bomb. When nature is abused rather than used correctly we begin to fear nature rather than see it as a blessing from God. When man turns from God, there is only one way to go, toward nature, toward self. In turning toward nature alone, man trembles in fear.
ACTIVITY – What do you fear?
If you have a time of fellowship, meal or snacks prior to your meeting, you have ask the individuals in your group to write down three of their greatest fears. Once gathered have a volunteer come up with a top 10 list and share the list in the context of the lesson. If you have a co-ed group you can split the group into girls and guys and make a top five list for each. See if there are any similarities. Overall the activity is to have the group think about fear. We usually fear something in nature. It is usually something in nature that is not ordered, for example a wild bear. We are better able to face and understand our fears when we look not just at nature, but nature as God intends it to be, nature perfected by Grace.
VIDEO “My 10 Greatest Fears”
Fulton Sheen goes through what mankind as a whole has feared throughout history. First man feared God or gods. This could be a good fear as in the fear of the Lord which helps us to respect, honor, worship and not want to offend God. This can also be a bad fear if we begin to feel that God or the gods are always out to get us or curse us. Many religions out of a bad fear of God, sought to please the gods as to get on their good side and receive blessing and thus avoid being cursed. Second, man feared his fellowmen. This manifested itself as country warred against country. In just 21 years the world saw two world wars. In the 1950’s we see that man is capable of fearing nature, even the smallest of all things – the atom.
VIDEO – Fatima Portugal 1917 and The Miracle of the Sun in Fatima
No greater natural power in the universe than the sun and so God used the power of the sun, which is a bunch of atoms to show His control over nature. That which man fears, nature can only be controlled by the grace of God. It is through the Blessed Mother, who in her nature is full of Grace, that God shows his power over the sun in Fatima during the miracle of the Sun on October 13, 1917. God also used the Blessed Mother in Mexico. Our Lady of Guadalupe appears standing in front of the sun. The sun was worshiped by the Aztecs and so when a lady pregnant with child appears standing in front of the “the sun god” it showed that not only was the Lady more powerful than nature, for she was full of Grace, but that she would give birth to God, the creator of the sun. During the time of the Miracle of the Sun, many people had abandoned faith and in its place put science, they rejected Grace and in its place accepted only nature. In the miracle of the sun, God in His mercy gave the people what they wanted. They accepted only nature, so he would allow them to witness one of the most powerful forces of nature, the sun, plummeting to the ground. They accepted only science, so he would give them a sign, which could not be explained through science in order to help them open both their minds and hearts to faith, not just reason.
The Miracle of the Sun brought about countless conversions. An atheist editor of the anarchist Portuguese newspaper O Seculo, was one of seventy thousand who witnessed the event. Most NFL football stadiums hold seventy thousand people. Imagine a whole stadium witnessing the same thing, especially as spectacular as the sun failing to the ground. Before the miracle it had rained for days and the ground was soaked, after the miracle the ground was completely dry.
“…a spectacle unique and incredible....One can see the immense crown turn toward the sun which reveals itself free of clouds in full noon. The great star of day makes one think of a silver plaque, and it is possible to look straight at it without the least discomfort….The astonished eyes of the people, full of terror, with their heads uncovered, gaze into the blue of the sky. The sun has trembled, and has made some brusque movements, unprecedented, and outside of cosmic laws. According to the typical expressions of the peasants ‘the sun danced’. The sun turned around on itself like a wheel of fireworks, and it fell almost to the point of burning the earth with its rays….It remains for those competent to pronounce on the danse macabreof the sun, which today at Fatima has made Hosannas burst from the breasts of the faithful and has naturally impressed even freethinkers and other persons not at all interested in religious matters.”[iii]
What do we fear?Human Respect, we care a lot about what people think. We care many times more about what other think about us and our actions, rather than what God thinks about us and our actions. We also fear Death. It is God that calls us out of fear, into peace. He does this through the virtue of charity. “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. There is not fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.”[iv] This perfect love that drives out fear is seen in the life of Our Blessed Mother. We see that there was no fear at the Annunciation, in fact the Angel Gabriel said, “Be not afraid.” Acting not out of fear but out of perfect love, Mary said, “Be it done according to Word.” Mary does not fear what others will think of her being pregnant, but instead acts in perfect love. Mary’s life also gives us reason to not fear what others think of us. Her life also gives us reason to not fear death. There is not fear in the assumption, for God in His great love brings Mary to Himself both body and soul. We should not fear, but have hope that God, in His great love for us will bring us to Himself, first our soul and then reunited with our body at the resurrection of the dead.
Once released from fear, we can allow the virtue of charity to transcend our ever relationship. “Man to be happy must maintain two relationships: one vertical with God, the other horizontal with fellow men. In modern times, man first severs his vertical relations with God by indifference and irreligion, then his horizontal relations with neighbor by war and civil strife.”[v]
In what ways to we sever both our relationship with God and with man?Those who profess the faith, we sever our relationship with God but indifference, lukewarmness, not living what we profess. We sever our relationship with men by holding grudges, pride, refusing to forgive, etc. We are reminded of these two relationships when we see the vertical and horizontal beams of the Cross, it is only through the Cross that we can have relationship with God and man and thus live out the greatest commandment, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”[vi] Atheism is such a danger in our time, because it negatively affects both the vertical and horizontal relationships. Our relationships need the guidance of both faith and grace. In a modern world in which we have replaced nature with grace and reason with faith, we rely only on nature and reason to guide our relationships and this is not enough.
VIDEO “Coexist Bumper Sticker?” POP CULTURE CONNECTION – 0:40 minutes
In a world that uses only nature and reason, we strive just to coexist. One can coexist without loving the other person. A husband and wife can coexist, but this does not mean that they love one another. To coexist we use the natural virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. These are good but only go so far. When we are dealing with people, we need all the help we can get; we need the virtues of faith, hope and charity. We need the example of Christ, who lived these virtues perfectly and modeled them for us in the Gospels. If our goal is to love, then we have to be willing to sacrifice. We can only sacrifice if there is a good, a truth, willing to sacrifice for. If our goal is to just coexist, we do not have to sacrifice, but rather just tolerate. There also cannot be an ultimate truth or good, because they would demand that we can others live according to what is good and true.
For the Atheist, Fatima showed the limits of a life lived solely by nature without grace and reason without faith. For the Christian, the message from our Lady is: Penance, Penance, Penance. Mary warned that if we do not have a penitent heart, God will punish the world for its crimes by means of war, of hunger, and of persecution of the Church and the Holy Father. Our Lady of Fatima said, “To prevent this I come to ask the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the first Saturdays. Russia will be converted, and there will be peace. If not, Russia will scatter her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have to suffer much, and various nations will be annihilated.”[vii]
Penance includes the following and are the conditions of peace and disposition of each Christian.
Repentance– Pope Paul the VI said, “the loss of the sense of sin is the greatest sin of the century”
Prayer– Communication with God
Sacrifice– There is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend
Where do we see these in society? How do we many times see just the opposite?
How can we focus more on penance in our life?We focus on the three, prayer, repentance (fasting) and sacrifice (almsgiving) each Lent, but we need to keep the focus and live them out all year. We are aided by the evangelical councils of chastity, which helps us to give our self without blemish to God. The virtue poverty helps us to remain “poor and spirit” and thus rely on God for both our temporal and spiritual needs. The virtue of obedience helps us to sacrifice our life for God and neighbor. Jesus, who we imitate, lived perfectly the evangelical councils and all Christians by their baptism are called to follow Christ living out chastity, poverty and obedience according to their state in life. Religious take temporary and then perpetual vows to live out the councils.
[i] Servant of God, Fulton J. Sheen; The World’s First Love; The Woman and the Atom; page 270
[ii] Servant of God, Fulton J. Sheen; The World’s First Love; The Woman and the Atom; page 269-270
[iii] Servant of God, Fulton J. Sheen; The World’s First Love; The Woman and the Atom; page 272
[iv] 1 John 4:16-18
[v] Servant of God, Fulton J. Sheen; The World’s First Love; The Woman and the Atom; page 269
[vi] Matthew 22:37-38
[vii] Source: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html