Chapter Thirteen
FINAL APPEAL
The requests of the Sacred Heart from 1673 to 1689 were the beginning of the "final appeal" of God's Love.
Let us read again the actual words of St. Margaret Mary describing that "final appeal" of our loving Savior as He held forth His Heart flaming with love:
"A final effort of His Love to favor human beings in the last centuries of the world and to withdraw them from the empire of Satan, which He intends to destroy and to replace with the reign of His Love."
Perhaps only now, after more than three hundred years, we can focus in on the words "in the last centuries of the world."
This final effort was not to be limited by the whims of French kings. It was not to be limited by the refusal of a degenerating world to recognize in war after war, and persecution upon persecution, that it needed God's Love -that it HAD to respond or self-destruct.
This is finally what we have been told at Fatima.
Now we are shown the thorn encircled Heart of the Mother and told that the alternative is not a king on a guillotine. The alternative is that "several entire nations will be annihilated."
Pope John Paul II Chosen
The importance of this message is emphasized by the fact that God chose the Pope, the successor of St. Peter, to make it known to the world.
In the 17th century, Jesus revealed His final appeal to a cloistered nun. How would she speak to the world? Did it not almost seem that Our Lord had made a mistake? But, he assured her: "I have chosen you for the accomplishment of this great design." When she asked how, He sent to her St. Claude de la Colombiere.
In "the Fatima week," after narrowly escaping death on May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II saw himself as chosen: "Perhaps this is why the Pope was called from a faraway country, perhaps this is why it was necessary for the assassination attempt to be made in St. Peter's Square precisely on May 13, 1981, the anniversary of the first apparition of Fatima...so that the voice of God...could more easily be heard and understood."
The Holy Father seems to be saying here that the accomplishment of the message of Fatima was a reason for him to be called to the papacy.
We have already seen to what lengths the Holy Father went in calling the attention of the entire world to the Fatima events. In October 1997, he spontaneously wrote a letter published in L'Osservatore Romano stating that Fatima was a great sign of our times not so much because of the miracle but because it indicates the specific response needed to save mankind from self-destruction.
That Urgent Message of the Pope
It is somewhat frightening that we live in a time when the Pope speaks and the world does not listen.
But if the world would not respect a miracle performed at a predicted time and place "so that all may beleive," how can we expect the world to respect the voice of the Pope?
The October 13, 1997 message of the Pope concerning Fatima should be shaking the world and, if not the world, at least the Church.
The "Pope of Fatima," as John Paul II could be called, said (in Tertio Millennio Adveniente) there was another special reason he felt called to be Pope at this time: To lead the world into the new millennium "in the hope of the definitive coming of the Kingdom." And, he said that "As we approach the millennium, it seems that the words of Our Lady of Fatima are nearing their fulfillment."
Is this not the ultimate promise of the "final effort" of Divine Love "to withdraw men from the empire of Satan, which He intends to destroy and replace with the reign of His Love?"
More than three centuries have passed since those words were spoken at Paray. Soon we will have counted another century since the final effort of Divine Love was reinforced at Fatima with the revelation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
If we now join the words of the Immaculate Heart of His Mother to the words of Jesus concerning His Heart, the appeal of Love should finally compel us. Indeed the Pope said that the message of Fatima "compels the Church."
His Own Words
Every word spoken in reference to His Sacred Heart could be spoken of the Immaculate Heart of His Mother, which is one Flame of Love with His.
To better understand the revelation of the Immaculate Heart at Fatima, let us quote the words of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary, substituting "Our Sacred Hearts" for "My Divine Heart." In doing so, we find several important answers:
Q. Why No Longer be Contained?
A.: "Our Sacred Hearts are so passionately inflamed with love for men, and for you in particular, that not being able any longer to contain the flames of Their ardent charity, they must spread them abroad through your means."
Q. Why?
A. "That men may be enriched by Their salutary graces necessary to hold them back from the abyss of ruin."
Q. How?
A. "Offer your heart to Ours." (St. Margaret Mary suggested that we imagine taking our hearts into our hands and offering them to be engulfed in Their Flame of Love.)
Q. Why make reparation?
A. Both Hearts have been shown to us (at Paray and Fatima) surrounded by thorns..."signifying the pricks in Them caused by your sins... Our Hearts have received nothing but ingratitude and contempt. This is more grievous to Us than all endured on Calvary. If they would only give Us some return of love, we should not reckon all that we have done for them, and we would do yet more if possible. But, they show only coldness and contempt for all Our endeavors to do them good. You, at least, can give Me the happiness of making up for their ingratitude."
How to make reparation? "You are to receive Holy Communion on the First Friday (and Saturday) of each month."
Two Other Requests
In addition to the once a month Communion of Reparation, the Sacred Heart asked two things from the Church in general: Consecration to His Heart, and a feast-day in honor of His Heart on the first Friday after the feast of Corpus Christi. The Church responded with the consecration and the feast.
For the Immaculate Heart of His Mother, at Fatima, He asked the same. The Church responded, placing the feast of the Immaculate Heart on the next day after the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and in 1996, made it an obligatory memorial. And the consecration was made by the Pope in union with all the bishops of the world.
The Final Vision
There were also two personal requests of the Sacred Heart: First He asked St. Margaret Mary to receive Communion as often as possible; Second, on the vigil of Friday: "You are to rise between eleven and twelve o'clock and remain with Me upon your knees for an hour...to appease the anger of My Eternal Father and to ask of Him pardon for sinners."
It was while making this very devotion in the chapel of Dorothean convent in Spain that Sister Lucia had the final, and perhaps most meaningful of all the apparitions of Fatima.
Jesus appeared hanging on the cross. Above Him were images of God the Father and the Holy Spirit. From His Head and His Heart, Blood flowed down to a Host suspended above a chalice while, from His left Hand, there flowed down over the altar a stream (as of water) with the words "Graces and Mercy." Beneath the right arm of the cross stood Our Lady, Her Immaculate Heart pierced with thorns.
A Book Could Not Contain It
A book many times larger than this would not have enough pages to explore all the mystery of this vision: The Trinity; Awareness that GOD was on the cross; Awareness that through this sacrifice, renewed in the Mass, GOD is with us in the Eucharist; Awareness that as the Blood flowed from the pierced Heart of Jesus, multiple thorns pierced the heart of His Mother.
We would like to make just one observation of a meaning not readily apparent: the meaning of Blood flowing ONLY from the Head and Heart of Jesus.
Obviously, this is a symbolic vision because He is alive on the cross, even though His Heart is pierced and Blood is flowing only from His Head and His Heart.
Blood actually flowed from Wounds all over His Body, pooling at His Feet. So why does this historic vision show Blood flowing only from Head and Heart?
My God, My God!
A person is defined as a being of intellect and will. And the flow of Blood from the Head and Heart of Jesus is seen as a reminder that on this cross is a DIVINE PERSON-One with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, Who are represented above Him on the cross by a Paternal Figure and a Dove.
Here are represented the presence of the other two Divine Persons of the Trinity as the Blood of Our Lord flows from His Head and His Heart, symbolizing His Person, One with the Person of the Father and the Holy Spirit as He redeems mankind.
This final vision of Fatima astoundingly carries us back to the very first appearance to the children, in which Our Lady revealed Her thorn encircled Heart and from it rays shone upon the three children causing them "to feel lost in God" and to exclaim:
"O Most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee! My God, My God, I love Thee in the Most Blessed Sacrament!"
Oh, indeed the Fatima week has just begun! On what day of the remaining week will awareness of this wonder of God's Love for man permeate the world?
What wonders of Grace and Mercy there are to come!
This and other books by John M. Haffert
God's
Final Effort | Too Late? | The Day I Didn't Die