Each one of Francis’ apostolic journeys has a special hue. Fatima is the “journey of prayer”, the encounter with the Face of Jesus and with that of His Mother. On far too many occasions Marian devotion was branded as overly sentimental and even as a theological deviation. In his questions, Francis does not elude or remove:
“which Mary? A teacher of the spiritual life, the first to follow Jesus on the “narrow way” of the cross by giving us an example, or a Lady “unapproachable” and impossible to imitate? A woman “blessed because she believed” always and everywhere in God’s words (cf. Lk 1:42.45), or a “plaster statue” from whom we beg favours at little cost? The Virgin Mary of the Gospel, venerated by the Church at prayer, or a Mary of our own making: one who restrains the arm of a vengeful God; one sweeter than Jesus the ruthless judge; one more merciful than the Lamb slain for us?”
The way is clear, the path has been shown. It may be that the young shepherds possessed a limited sense of aesthetics when they said they had seen “a very beautiful Lady.” However, the Beauty of Mary does not follow fashion trends, nor does it follow womanly (or masculine) follies to preserve a form of –pseudo- youth. Rather its roots are found in another plane, equally real and ever consistent. It’s the realm of blessing that was
“was fulfilled in the Virgin Mary. No other creature ever basked in the light of God’s face as did Mary; she in turn gave a human face to the Son of the eternal Father.
Thus we can direct our gaze to her “the loving and solicitous Mother of the needy”, so she may let us embrace the gift and “may there descend the blessing of God, incarnate in Jesus: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace” (Nm 6:24-26).” We wait in our joyful hope that does not confine us in a bullet-proof garment but guides us towards the unfolding of our daily lives in the certainty of our mission:
“God created us to be a source of hope for others – the Pope reminds us – a true and attainable hope, in accordance with each person’s state of life. In “asking” and “demanding” of each of us the fulfillment of the duties of our proper state (Letters of Sister Lucia, 28 February 1943), God effects a general mobilization against the indifference that chills the heart and worsens our myopia. We do not want to be a stillborn hope! Life can survive only because of the generosity of other lives.”
Who are the others? Francis place them before our own eyes:
- each of the destitute and outcast robbed of the present,
- on each of the excluded and abandoned denied a future,
- each of the orphans and victims of injustice refused a past
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The three children, in their simplicity and spontaneity, have given us the answer: “Do you want to offer yourselves to God?”. “Yes, we do!”, they replied. And they remained faithful despite all forms of opposition. They had experienced “God’s light as it radiated from Our Lady. She enveloped them in the mantle of Light that God had given her.” They weren’t spared suffering, difficulties, pain, that enable to welcome “the sick and the disabled, prisoners and the unemployed, the poor and the abandoned” and direct them towards Her. All those who are sick, who are going through a difficult period and feel surrounded by darkness, in Fatima will have the possibility of experiencing “this mantle of Light that protects us, here as in almost no other place on earth. We need but take refuge under the protection of the Virgin Mary and to ask her, as the Salve Regina teaches: “show unto us… Jesus”. Far from being a naïve peroration, or a heap of abstract consoling words, Francis reminds us that “we pray to God with the hope that others will hear us; and may we speak to others with the certainty that God will help us.” Thus we are neither naïve nor fanatical people who expect a compensation for their ordeals, nor an even greater indemnity in the afterlife, which is rather inconsistent if it is conceived and believed according to these criteria. Our feet are deeply rooted in history, in the daily battle. But one thing we are sure of, as the Pope reminds us:
“With Mary’s protection, may we be for our world sentinels of the dawn, contemplating the true face of Jesus the Saviour, resplendent at Easter. Thus may we rediscover the young and beautiful face of the Church, which shines forth when she is missionary, welcoming, free, faithful, poor in means and rich in love.”
