Fatima: The first saturdays

Sr. Lucia with the image she liked the most

When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. (Our Lady at the July 13, 1917, apparition)

The July 13th apparition was without a doubt the richest in content and also the most symbolic of the messages of Fatima. At this apparition, the three parts of the secret were revealed by Our Lady to the little shepherds, and it was also here that the Lady first spoke of the devotion of Five First Saturdays.

One of the reasons Lucia remained on earth and did not go to Heaven together with her cousins soon after the apparitions was to establish in the world devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the practice of the first Saturday of five consecutive months.

Modus Operandi
Few years after the apparitions at Fatima, in 1925 to be precise, when Lucia was already a Dorothean sister, Our Lady appeared to her to remind her of the First Saturdays Devotion which she had requested in 1917. This time the Blessed Virgin told her in detail how it was to be observed.

Because some doubts arose in Lucia as to how it should be carried out, the Child Jesus appeared to her the following year on February 15, 1926, to enquire if she had already spread the devotion to His most holy Mother. At this same apparition, Lucia reported that oftentimes people were not able to find a confessor on the first Saturday, to which the Holy Child said that they could do the confession on any day of the month provided that they were in the state of grace on the first Saturday for the Communion of Reparation.

“Look, my daughter, at my Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce me every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.” (Our Lady in an apparition to Lucia in her room in Pontevedra on December 10th, 1925)

In order to understand why reparation needs to be made to the Heart of Mary, it is necessary to understand that the seriousness of an offense is proportional to the dignity of the person offended. It is not the same to offend a person on the street as to offend one’s own mother. The crime can be the same but the seriousness is much greater when it is perpetrated against one’s own mother. Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote in his Summa Theologica that the Virgin Mary, since she is the mother of God, has a certain dignity from the infinite good who is God.

The offenses against Our Lady are much more serious because the Virgin Mary stands at a different level from us all. The angels and the saints live in the order of Glory, because they see God face to face; we, on the other hand, if we live in friendship with God, are at the order of Grace. Mary by being the mother of Jesus who is divine participates in some way in the hypostatic union; therefore, the offenses against Our Lady are very serious because indirectly they are offenses made against God himself.

When Our Lady appears with her heart crowned with a crown of thorns like her son’s around his head, she wants to show in an easier to understand symbolic way how much she suffers from the “blasphemies and ingratitude” of men. If the son suffers then so does the mother.

Why does Our Lady ask us for this devotion of the five first Saturdays? It is because she understands the evil we inflict upon ourselves when we offend her heart. The Virgin Mary is glorious in Heaven, she can suffer no more; it is the feedback or the consequences of our offenses made against her that concern her. When a son hits his elderly father or mother the greater evil done by this son is not what was done to the father or mother, but what he did to himself; such terrible evil that if one day he becomes aware of it the remorse will surely consume him.

When a confessor of Sister Lucia asked her why five Saturdays and not seven, the perfect number in the Bible, Sister Lucia referred the question back to Our Lord who replied: “My daughter, the reason is simple, there are five types of offenses and blasphemies uttered against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

1. The blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception;
2. Against her virginity;
3. Against the divine maternity, denying, at the same time, to receive her as the Mother of all men;
4. Those who publicly seek to infuse indifference, contempt, and even hatred in the hearts of children toward this Immaculate Mother;
5. Those who directly outrage her sacred images.

Apart from some non-Christians, there are many Protestant Christians who offend Mary and among the Catholics there are some countries that commit the vice of blasphemy, like Italy and Spain. In Portugal, no one, not even atheists, or agnostics let alone Christians publicly blaspheme against God or against Mary.

Henceforth, these offenses have to be rectified, that is, the natural order of things has to be put back into its right place. To do this, we must perform four acts:  going to confession with the intention of making reparation or restitution, receiving communion made with the same intention, praying the holy Rosary, and spending fifteen minutes meditating on the mysteries of Jesus’ life.

Confession
In addition to being a personal confession of our own sins if we have them, and we always have them, this confession has another dimension: it is a devotional confession, that is, we make it for those who do not make them, and we ask forgiveness for the sins of others. It is once again the missionary dimension of Fatima, piety not only for our own sanctification, but also at the service of the sanctification of others.

The confession has to have a restorative intention; in the case this intention is forgotten, remember it at the next confession; it does not need to be made on a Saturday, it can be made on another day, as long as on the first Saturday of the month the person is in the state of Grace.

The Sacred Communion
“Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:53)

Many Christians have abandoned the Sunday practice of going to Mass; and among those who still do, they have not for years considered themselves worthy to receive the body and blood of Our Lord. We make this Communion of Reparation not so much for ourselves, but for all those who are not joined with us in the Mystical Body, who are not in full communion with Christ and his Church, that is, the branches that are not abiding to the vine that is Christ. (John 15:5)

The Rosary
This is prayed with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We pray the Rosary for all those who do not pray it every day, and those who have not yet discovered the richness of this prayer, the time spent in contemplating on the mysteries of Christ in the history of our salvation.

Spend 15 minutes meditating on the 15 mysteries of the Rosary
These 15 minutes are spent being with the Lord contemplating on his mysteries, initially 15 and now 20. Since the meditation or contemplation is on the Lord, it can be done during the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, it can also be a meditation of the Word of God such as Lectio Divina which nowadays many Christians practice; what is important is that we spend 15 minutes alone with Jesus hidden sacramentally in the tabernacle, and spiritually in our hearts.

The value of this Campaign
It is evident that both the offenses, as well as the acts of love for God, revert back to us. God does not need the good that we do for him nor does the evil that we do reach him. Both the evil as well as the good stay with the one who practices it. It is fundamentally we who bring evil upon ourselves, and God suffers not because of any evil that we do to him, but rather that this evil that we presumably do to him revert back to us. “The spell returns to the sorcerer” or “Whoever does evil, evil will happen to him”, says the people.

Many campaigns are made to awaken dormant values in the hope that once awakened it will continue with the help of certain practices. The campaigns are made to conquer the inertia, so that once on the move the hope is that it will continue on its own. This is what we observe in business practices when new products are advertised or if certain products are brought back into the market. The same logic works in religious practices; it is difficult to take people out of a mediocre life, immobility, and spiritual apathy, or as the Italians say, “doce fare niente”, which means sweet laziness.

In conversation with the Child Jesus at the apparition in Tuy on 15th of February, 1926, still on the subject of the first Saturdays, and why Lucia’s confessor had expressed certain reservations regarding the importance of this devotion:

“But my confessor said in the letter that this devotion is not lacking in the world, because there are many souls who receive You on the First Saturdays, in honour of Our Lady and of the Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary.” (Lucia)

“It is true, my daughter, that many souls begin the First Saturdays, but few finish them, and those who do complete them do so in order to receive the graces that are promised thereby. It would please me more if they did Five with fervour and with the intention of making reparation to the Heart of your heavenly Mother, than if they did Fifteen, in a tepid and indifferent manner…” (Child Jesus)

In every campaign there has to be an appealing factor to take people out of their inertia. It is necessary to promise something in return; in this campaign, it is the promise of help, and that at the hour of death there will be all the graces necessary for salvation for those who are faithful to this devotion. But it is clear that God, as the Child Jesus pointed out to Sister Lucia, prefers those who practice this devotion for pure love and not for reasons of “spiritual commercialism”.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC

If Muhammad does not go to the mountain...

To each their own – In human relations it is inevitable that conflicts arise, and the outcome of long heated discussions between individuals with different personalities and opposing views on the same topic are oftentimes quarrels and breaking off ties.

Quite often neither of the parties involved are aware of being offensive; in fact, both may even feel that they have been offended. This difference of opinion most likely occurs because both parties are accountable for being simultaneously the offender as well as the offended. As the saying goes, “it takes two hands to clap”.

In order to re-establish peace and harmony, the offender must ask for forgiveness while the one who was offended must be willing to forgive. When everyone does what they are supposed to do to restore communication, the quarrel ceases and a stronger and more lasting peace is reinstated between the parties.  They are now appeased even though initially they may have had to contradict and suppress their natural instincts and swallow their pride.

Easier said than done. In reality, this way of resolving arguments does not happen very often. On the contrary, too often the offender never asks for forgiveness and the one who was offended never pardons.

It is expected for Muhammad to go to the mountain
So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24)

This Scripture passage asks the aggressors to recognize their fault and apologize. But if they fail to do so and in order to prevent a stalemate or a state where no one involved in the conflict makes a move, the Gospel exhorts the offended party to approach the guilty one. This situation is described in detail in the Gospel of Matthew (18:15-18).

In the Bible, one of the very first questions that God asks man is, “Where is your brother?” (Genesis 4:9), to which I cannot simply shrug and say that I do not know since I am not my brother’s keeper, as Cain did. If we seek to love our neighbour as ourselves we will then realize that we are indeed our brother’s keeper.

When we place ourselves before God, like the faithful in the passage of Matthew’s Gospel, He acts as a mirror and makes us see who we really are and how we relate to others. It is, therefore, impossible within this context not to recall the evil that we have done to our neighbour. If we ignore the voice of conscience prompting us to seek forgiveness from our brothers and sisters, then we are hypocrites; we can pray all we want and carry out all sorts of religious and pious practices but God will continue to turn His back on us for as long as we do not seek to reconcile with our neighbour.

The first commandment tells us to love God, the second to love our neighbour, but how can we love God whom we cannot see if we do not love our neighbour whom we can see (1 St. John 4:20)?  It is therefore only when we love our neighbour that we manifest and prove that we love God. This is presented in chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me…

The final judgment, as described in this chapter by the evangelist, touches upon the commandment of love of neighbour and not on love of God. So it is in a way a civil judgment and not a religious one. With this in mind, we can conclude therefore that any religious practices that do not lead to personal growth, to become a better person and to improve our relations with others, act like opium and lead to alienation.

Many Muhammads do not go to the mountain
When I was young I used to love to play with my cat and was always amazed by its agility. To put this to the test, I used to lift my cat up by its four paws and let it fall on its back but regardless of the distance to the ground, it was always able to turn itself around just in time and land on its four paws.

Very much like my cat, many offenders always land on their feet as they never admit that they have done anything bad and look for subtle ways to excuse themselves from any wrongdoings. They deceive themselves by rationalizing their bad behaviour, telling themselves that they did it without meaning to and that it was not done with any evil intentions. However much it costs some to admit, where there is smoke there is fire, i.e. where there is an offended there is an offender, and there is never an offense that is done for a good reason or for the good of the offended, but rather all to the contrary.

Time heals everything except old age and madness – Then there are those who know well enough that they are responsible and accept the fault, but because of their pride they reason that to apologize is to humiliate themselves before others so they hope that time will heal the wound of the one whom they have hurt. Psychology, however, teaches us that this is not what happens. When we ask for forgiveness the offense is removed; when we do not ask for it, the offense remains in the heart and mind of the one offended and probably building upon all the previous hurts, magnifying it and poisoning any future relationships.

Not to seek forgiveness is similar to a deep wound that for all intents and purposes appears to have healed externally because it closed so fast; however, internally the layer right beneath the surface begins to fester, generating pus and changing colour. Then when one least expects it, the wound erupts, creating a much messier situation than was originally intended.

Oftentimes we are astounded and left speechless when witnessing an episode of disproportionate outburst in the face of what seemed to be a small offense. What we didn’t realize is that this seemingly small offense is only the last drop needed to break down the dam of animistic resistance and the resilience of that person.

Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. (Ephesians 4:26-27) – As St. Paul suggests, it is better to always ask for forgiveness every time we sin and never let an occasion go by without doing it so that there is never a build-up of guilt and resentment.

What makes it difficult for some people to ask for forgiveness is the possibility of not receiving one in return, as well as the likelihood of having to face the anger and being humiliated by the person they have offended.

If Muhammad does not go to the mountain, then the mountain must come to Muhammad
If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church… (Matthew 18:15-17)

If Muhammad does not go to the mountain, then the mountain must come to Muhammad – This is the most popular formulation of the old saying. Historically, however, the saying was first formulated the other way around, If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain. This version first appeared in chapter 12 of Francis Bacon’s Essays published in 1625.

Perhaps making a reference to the Gospel of Mark (11:23) when Jesus told his followers that if they have faith they can move mountains, Muhammad made the people believe that he had the power to call a hill from the other side of the valley to himself and from the top of it offer his prayers for the observers of his law. Again and again, Muhammad called the hill to himself but the hill did not heed or obey so it remained standing still. Not feeling at all embarrassed or humiliated in front of his followers, Muhammad said unabashedly, “If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain.”

In order to prevent a standstill, the calm before the storm, the Sargasso Sea of human relations, or the cold war, the Scripture above has something to say to the offenders as well as the offended. To the offenders, it urges them to seek forgiveness from whoever they have offended. In the event that they do not do so, and fail to fulfill their duty, then we, the offended, can and should forgive them in our hearts like Jesus did on top of the cross.

However, to forgive from our heart alone is not always enough and it is not instructional, neither for us the offended nor for them the offenders, because it is a passive behaviour.  The ideal reaction, in this case, is a proactive assertive behaviour: to go to the offender with a white flag hoisted as suggested by the Gospel passage above. First by ourselves, then with one other person preferably a friend of ours, and go as many times as needed gradually including more people, to give more weight to our cause.

When Jesus forgave his offenders from the cross, he did so in his heart alone because suspended on the cross he could do nothing else. At any other time, however, he showed us how to be proactive as when the servant of the high priest struck him on the face and despite being bound and surrounded by soldiers, Jesus asked the servant, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But is I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”  (John 18:23).

We are not to approach the one who offended us with accusations, this would be an aggressive and counterproductive behaviour because faced with a verbal attack the natural tendency of everyone is to defend oneself. In the hope that our aggressor will take responsibility for his acts and therefore become remorseful on his own, all we can and should do in front of him who have offended us is to take on the responsibility for the consequence of his action; that is, to impart to our offender, not the harm that he did to us but the harm that we have suffered or are still suffering as a consequence.

As the Gospel suggests, when someone who has hurt us does not apologize, then to avoid a stalemate and a cold war of resentment we should go and confront him, not with his wrongdoings but with the pain and sorrow that he has caused. This denounces his offense more eloquently than our accusing voice would have and is infinitely more efficient in eliciting an apology from him.

Grammatically, the assertiveness although a proactive action uses the passive voice, in the hope that faced with our misery the one who has caused it would acknowledge his own fault, be merciful towards us, and ask us for forgiveness.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC