Chapter Four
TOO LATE
It is of utmost importance to see the link between the change in Russia and the First Saturday devotion.
They are first linked by Our Lady in the words: "To prevent this (the annihilation of nations) I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and for the First Saturday Communions of Reparation."
Next they were linked by Our Lord when He explained that He insisted on the collegial consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of His Mother, so that afterwards (after the consecration and the subsequent change in Russia), devotion to Her Immaculate Heart would be placed alongside devotion to His Own Sacred Heart and then the Pope would propagate and encourage the First Saturday devotion.
It follows, as we have said before, that this is the time (the third day, the post-consecration period) for what Pope John Paul II has called "the alliance of the Two Hearts," and for the Communions of Reparation.
Important Parallel
It is also important to see the parallel in history between the way the world ignored the requests of Heaven for devotion to the Sacred Heart, and the way it has ignored the request to place devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary "alongside devotion to My Own Sacred Heart."
Our Lord Himself, in one of His colloquies with Sister Lucia, referred to this parallel between how the world
reacted to the revelations of His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, and how the world has reacted (and is reacting right now) to the request for devotion to the Immaculate Heart of His Mother.
On August 29, 1931, Our Lord told Sister Lucia: "Make known to My ministers that given the example of the King of France in not executing My command, they will in turn fall into misfortune."
Does this mean that Popes and Bishops will suffer as happened in France? When the grandson of Louis XIV was beheaded, so were 2,400 bishops, priests, and nuns. And, commenting on the words of Our Lord quoted above,
Sister Lucia said:
"Unless this act intervenes (the consecration to the Immaculate Heart),
war will end (in the world) only when the blood spilled by the martyrs is
enough to appease Divine Justice."
The lessons to be drawn from this comparison, made by Our Lord Himself, will be revealed in the paragraphs which follow. Behind it all is the gradual unfolding of the meaning of the gospels through the years.
Unfolding Doctrine
Devotion to the Sacred Heart began early in the Church. Notably in the 13th century when, on the feast of St. John the Evangelist, St. Gertrude had a vision in which St. John revealed the depth of devotion to the Sacred Heart which he experienced when he rested his head on the Heart of Jesus at the last supper.
She asked St. John why he had not mentioned this in his gospel.
The evangelist explained that this has been an "unfolding" message-only later coming into focus. He told St. Gertrude: "My writings were for the Church in its infancy."
The Church has been maturing for 2,000 years. Late in that maturation is our ability to grasp the role of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in the economy of salvation.
The Historic Parallel
In 1673, over four hundred years after the apparition of St. John to St. Gertrude, three hundred years before the new millennium 2000, Jesus revealed His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary. He made eight amazing promises to those who would practice this devotion, the greatest of which was: Those who would make a Communion of Reparation to His Sacred Heart on nine consecutive First Fridays would not go to Hell.
The saint was told that God desired this devotion to the Heart of Jesus because His Heart had suffered so much for our salvation.
This, of course, is why He desires devotion to the Immaculate Heart of His Mother, which Simeon foresaw would be "pierced by a sword." Her heart suffered with His.
Both devotions, unfolding one after the other, are in a way "final."
Triumph
St. Margaret Mary said that Jesus revealed to Her that this was 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."
We presume that when Our Lord said this final effort was being made "in the last centuries of the world" that those centuries began at the time He spoke. Since then, already more than three centuries have passed.
But here we are not preoccupied with time but with the spiritual crisis of here and now.
Our Lord told St. Margaret Mary that Satan greatly fears this devotion and would do everything to hinder it, "knowing how many souls would, because of it, be converted and sanctified."
Our Lady at Fatima said that finally Her Immaculate Heart would triumph. And Jesus had said He would reign through His Heart, despite His enemies. By the "Alliance of the Two Hearts," we are approaching the triumph. And again the Church takes the lead. Two symposiums of world-class theologians, directly under the auspices of the Pope, have presented the solid theological foundations for that expression which Pope John Paul II had repeatedly used: "The Alliance of the Two Hearts."
The consequences of continuing to ignore this final effort of God's Love could be catastrophic.
A Frightening Discovery
As we continue to look at the historic parallel between the lack of response to the revelations of the Sacred Heart and those of the Immaculate Heart (as Jesus did in His words to Sister Lucia), we come to a frightening discovery.
The revelations of the First Saturdays in 1925 were followed in 1930 with an explanation of their important connection to the consecration of Russia, which had embraced militant atheism and spread its errors throughout the world. The revelations of the Sacred Heart (which took place between 1673 and 1676) were followed in 1689 by a request for the consecration to the Sacred Heart of the nation of France, from which the atheistic revolution would rise.
We see, therefore, that long before it happened, the God of history was offering His Love to prevent the miseries which man was about to bring upon himself.
He made His appeal of Love when the atheistic revolution was first brewing in France.
A hundred years later, it would be too late for France. Before how many years will it be too late for us?
His Promises Rejected
Jesus told St. Margaret Mary: "The eternal Father, wishing to repair the bitterness and agony which the Heart of Jesus endured in the palaces of earthly princes, wishes to make use of the reigning monarch of France (Louis XIV) to proclaim public devotion of reparation to that Sacred Heart." He asked that the king erect a shrine in which a picture of his Divine Heart would receive homage, and that the king request the Holy See to authorize the Mass in honor of the Sacred Heart. He said: "It is by this Divine Heart that God wishes to dispense the treasures of His graces and of salvation."
In return, Our Lord promised that the king would be the friend of His Sacred Heart, and would have His blessing and protection from all his enemies.
But the French court was rife with scandal. Louis XIV had another love he was not willing to give up for the Love of Jesus. He did not respond to the request of the Sacred Heart even though knowledge of this extraordinary message appeared to have spread in the court, some of whose ladies began to practice the devotion.
Let us take note of this. Just as since 1984 all the bishops of the entire world know the message of the Immaculate Heart, the king of France knew the message of the Sacred Heart. (We will refer later to this important parallel.)
Not for Lack of Knowing!
In the light of history, it is somewhat amazing that Louis XIV did not respond. In 1667, the first series of wars began which continued throughout his entire reign. Yet Our Lord was promising to end the wars and give great graces and benefits: "Success to his armies, so as to make him triumphant over the malice of his enemies."
Nine years after the King refused to accept the devotion, in a second war against the Netherlands, France was defeated. Then came the war of the Spanish Succession, in which France was defeated again. Finally, impoverished by war, the nation fell into a state of economic crisis which ended in the debacle of the French revolution.
All this failed to move the spiritually lukewarm king. His son, Louis XV, also did not respond. And exactly 100 years after the Sacred Heart made His ignored request, in 1789 came the French revolution which destroyed the monarchy and set the stage for worldwide disasters.
This and other books by John M. Haffert
God's
Final Effort | Too Late? | The Day I Didn't Die