Chapter Five
OUR BELATED EFFORT
Cast by the leaders of the French revolution into the Bastille prison, the grandson of the king who had received the request of the Sacred Heart was awaiting execution. Was it too late? Even though the requests had been ignored for a hundred years, if he did finally what God had asked of his grandfather, would the Sacred Heart give him protection?
A document on which was recorded the last will and testament of the desperate monarch was found wedged in the wall of the prison. It read:
"If God will deliver me from this prison alive within a year, with the bishops of my Kingdom, I will take all necessary measures to establish in canonical form a solemn feast in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to be celebrated in perpetuity throughout France on the Friday following the Octave of Corpus Christi. This shall be followed by a public procession to repair the outrages and profanations performed in the holy temples by schismatics, heretics, and bad Christians. Within three months I will go to Notre Dame,10 and at the foot of the altar I will pronounce a solemn consecration of my person and of my kingdom to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with a promise to give my subjects an example of the honor and love due to this Sacred Heart."
He postscribed a further promise: "Every year I shall renew the act of consecration with procession."
Cut off from his people by the walls of his prison, he could make this promise only to the prison walls. But, he wrote that he was "ready to do so also in my blood," and added: "The most beautiful day of my life will be when I shall publish this aloud in all the churches of my realm."
But only prison walls could hear. It was too late.
Responsibility Now
God placed the responsibility for responding to the requests of the Sacred Heart upon the king of France and the French nation.
In the case of the revelations of the Immaculate Heart, God placed the responsibility upon the bishops of the world and upon the Church.
Jesus "insisted" that all the bishops of the world be informed and participate so that "My entire Church will know...so that it may extend this devotion later on, and put this devotion alongside devotion to my Sacred Heart.11" ("Later on" refers to the time after cessation of religious persecution in Russia, circa 1990.)
What was the role of the Pope in this?
Obviously it was up to the Pope to take the initiative. But he was not asked to act on his own as seems to have been the case of the king of France. Our Lord involved all the bishops of the world, and spoke of "My entire Church" in asking for the implementation of the First Saturday Devotion of Reparation.
Pope's Mission Like St. Claude's?
Might we conclude that as God chose St. Claude after St. Margaret Mary as the principal messenger for the revelations of the Sacred Heart, for the revelations of the Immaculate Heart, after Sister Lucia, God chose the Pope himself?
In Crossing the Threshold of Hope, the Pope affirmed that the Fatima message was from God. He said the children of Fatima "could not have invented those predictions," and added:
"Perhaps this is also 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 all could become more transparent and comprehensible, so that the voice of God which speaks in human history through the signs of the times could be more easily heard and understood." (Emphasis added.)
John Paul II was rudely awakened to study the Fatima message by an assassin's bullet in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, feast of Our Lady of Fatima. The bullet also struck the Pope into a new awareness of Fatima as he himself said.
From his hospital bed the Pontiff sent for all the documents of Fatima, which he now had time to study carefully.
Instructions Sent to All Bishops
Finally realizing the urgency and importance of the Fatima message, he decided to send letters of instruction, transcribed in their own languages (rather than in Latin or in just a few common languages), to every bishop in the world. Included were detailed acts of consecration of the world and of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Less than eight months after emerging from the hospital, the Pope went in person to Fatima (May 13, 1982) to make the consecration.
Apparently not all the bishops of the world responded. Perhaps, in his haste, the Pope had not made clear that he was renewing the two acts of the consecration of Russia and the world, previously made by Pius XII, and that he asked all the bishops to JOIN with him in that act.
So another letter went out to the more than two thousand bishops of the world that they might participate with the Pope, who would make the consecration again, this time in St. Peter's Square (March 25, 1984).
Still To Be Done!
The request for the collegial consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was fulfilled.
But the reparatory devotion to Her Immaculate Heart, which Our Lord asked to be promoted throughout the Church following the act of consecration, is still largely ignored.
And is that not the most important part of what God requires to save the world from atomic war?
After prophesying that "several entire nations will be annihilated," Our Lady said that "to prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart (which had now been done) and for the First Saturday Communions of Reparation."
Our Lord had promised that when the collegial consecration was made, there would be a change in Russia with cessation of religious persecution in that country. The reason He "insisted" on the collegial consecration was so that afterwards, "My entire Church will know that it was through the Immaculate Heart of My Mother that this favor was obtained, so that later on it may extend this devotion..."
Incredible as it seems, it appears that after all those years of wars and suffering and almost daily threat of nuclear war, God abruptly brought about the change in Russia just so all the bishops of the world would know beyond doubt that they had to promote devotion of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
In fact, of course, the change in Russia and the end of the cold war could have come much sooner if the collegial consecration had come sooner. Sister Lucia was told that it was because of the world's failure to respond to the message of Fatima that the Popes were not moved to make the collegial consecration sooner.
In a word, we are all responsible.
Our Lord said explicitly to Sister Lucia that the consecration was delayed because we had not deserved it.
In a letter of August 18, 1940, Sister Lucia explained the delay: "To punish the world with His Justice for so many crimes and to prepare it for a more complete turn towards Him."
Are we finally "prepared" to accept the message? Will the next Divine Intervention, whatever it may be, turn the tide?
Only if we, and in particular the laity, vigorously intervene.
It is so easy, and self-excusing, to place the responsibility on the shoulders of the Pope and the bishops. In fact, an entire book could be written on all that the Popes have done to call the attention of the world to the Fatima message.
The Popes Have Acted
Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart.
Pope John XXIII instituted the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.
Pope Paul VI made an unprecedented trip to Fatima (at a time when Popes rarely left the Vatican) and affirmed the message before the entire world.
Pope John Paul II made the collegial consecration and has honored the Immaculate Heart of Mary alongside devotion to the Sacred Heart in many ways, even speaking of the "alliance of the Two Hearts."
Rome has made the feast of Her Immaculate Heart obligatory and placed it on the day after the feast of the Sacred Heart (which falls on the Friday following the octave of Corpus Christi), thus liturgically relating the Sacred Heart and the Eucharist and the Two Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
Since the Popes have responded in this manner, and since all the bishops of the world responded by participating in the collegial consecration of March 25, 1984, what response is needed now?
As we shall see in a moment, what finally happened with fulfillment of the requests of the Sacred Heart reveals that a special and very important responsibility lies on the shoulders of the laity.
A Bitter Lesson
Our Lord Himself had told Sister Lucia that as the kings of France had ignored the requests of His Sacred Heart, these requests in favor of the Heart of His Mother would finally be fulfilled..."too late."
The exact words of Our Lord were: "They will repent and do it, but it will be too late. Russia will already have spread her errors throughout the world provoking wars and persecution of the Church. The Holy Father will have much to suffer."
It was in saying this that Our Lord compared our belated reaction to the revelations of the Immaculate Heart, to the belated reaction of the kings of France to those of His Sacred Heart.
The comparison becomes a bitter lesson indeed when we recall that before he wrote that document in the Bastille, while the gutters of Paris ran with blood, Louis XVI must have been previously well informed of all the requests of the Sacred Heart: for the collegial consecration of the nation (himself with all the bishops of the realm), for the feast, for the permanent chapel to the Sacred Heart, for annual renewal of the consecration. (How similar to all the requests for the Immaculate Heart!)
In the face of his execution by the mob, he desperately pledged them all. But one must wonder: Why did he not make those simple acts before it was too late?
And why do we now hesitate to fulfill the simple requests asked of us? What is missing? Who is responsible?
This and other books by John M. Haffert
God's
Final Effort | Too Late? | The Day I Didn't Die