Illiterate that they were, the little shepherds of Fatima did not know the concept of a prophecy and for this reason they referred to the two visions regarding the future that the Lady showed them at the July 13th apparition as a 'secret’. Therefore what is widely known as the "Secret of Fatima” should be understood as the Prophecy of Fatima. It is in this sense that the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger called Fatima the most prophetic of all modern apparitions.
Prophecy and the signs of times
Following the Gospel of Luke quoted above, prophets are people who are wide awake and attentive to the signs of times, that is, to a present that is infused with a future that is already somehow foreseen here and now. It is one thing to see and another to be able to interpret and perceive the signs of a future already encrusted in the present moment.
For instance, throughout the centuries many people had seen how the steam from a pot of boiling water can shoot its lid off, and yet they could see nothing past a pot of boiling water. Mr. James Watt, however, saw beyond the obvious, and in trying to harness the power of steam, he built steam engines that greatly contributed to the industrial revolution.
Prophecy links the present to the future – in the sense that the future already gives news of itself and can somehow already be found in the present moment in the form of signs of times that only those who are wide awake are able to perceive; those who look at the world with eyes that look under and beyond the obvious, and at the same time, are always in contact with God who is the Lord of Time -- past, present and future.
Prophecy links the future to the present – in the sense that the future is not irreversibly fixed, but rather somehow interactive and susceptible to changes. In fact, the purpose of prophecies in the Bible is precisely to warn us of a future that is in our hands to avoid, as we have the freedom and the power to modify it and write history differently. In this sense, the future is not a train that has lost its brakes with no way of us stopping it, but rather a perfectly trained galloping horse whose reins are in our hands.
History of the secret
“The secret of the Lady”, as the children called it, consists of three clearly distinct parts; the first deals with the vision of Hell, the second with the militant atheism in Russia, and the third with a symbolic representation of the militant atheism throughout the 20th century.
The secret or the prophecy is composed of two visions that are the first and the third parts of the secret, with an intermediate discourse, the second part, from the Virgin which deals with the militant atheism in Russia. Communicated verbally in its entirety by the Lady to the three little shepherds on July 13, 1917, the secret was put into writing at two different occasions: the first and second parts were written on August 31, 1941, and the third on January 3, 1944.
In other words, it was only written down in full 27 years after the children first stated in 1917 that they were the keepers of a secret that they could not reveal. During the interrogations to which the children were subjected, out of curiosity that is innate in human nature, the questions regarding the secret were the most asked. First they were offered gold, silver and money to trick them into revealing the secret, and when this failed, the authorities threatened the children with death and psychological torture in the prison of Ourém. The children never gave in to any of their attempts, however.
Part 1: Vision of Hell
Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls, as if they were transparent burning embers and blackened, or burnished with human form, floating in the fire, carried by the flames of their own, together with clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side, like sparks in a great fire, without weight or balance, between cries and moans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear.
The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant, thanks to our kind Mother of Heaven, who had already prepared us by promising to take us to Heaven (at the first apparition) for if this was not so, I think we would have died of fear and dread.
The existence of hell is an inescapable fact of our faith. If we were to remove from the Bible all the pages in which hell is mentioned, we would undoubtedly end up with a noticeably smaller Bible, but then it would no longer be the Holy Bible that narrates the Word of God. There are more and more theologians who deny its existence, claiming that it exists like the zero in mathematics, to help only in the accounts, in virtue of a logical coherence, but that there is really no one in hell. Whether there is or there is not, we do not know or care to know; hell is the possibility of not being saved; it is the theological place of evil, just like Heaven is the theological place of good.
In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” (Luke 16:23-24)
In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, we have a vision of hell that, in the context of the parable, has the same pedagogical function as the vision that the little shepherds of Fatima had. By showing them this vision of Hell, Our Lady wishes to reaffirm its existence and that it is real the possibility of not being saved. The detailed description however, with souls falling into it and their torment in the midst of the fire plus the presence of demons that so terrified the little shepherds, is meant for pedagogical purpose and functions like an alarm bell for those who in this life do not follow Christ as the way, the truth and the life.
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)
In the Bible there are two forms of representation of hell: the hell as the eternal torture and the hell as the eternal death. The more common vision, the one that appears most often, is the hell as the eternal death, that is, a return into nothingness the one who was nothing, did nothing in life, served no one or nothing, and, instead of believing in God and eternal life, believed in nothing beyond death.
It is inconceivable that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ would condemn to an eternity of suffering and torture all those who in temporality, no matter how long, had lived in sin; not even the human court is this severe. There would be no just proportion between the crime and the punishment.
The few times therefore in which hell appears in the Bible as eternal suffering has merely a pedagogical purpose, based on the reality that human beings fear suffering more than death. From this, hell as the eternal torture is a motivational force to change lives here on earth that is far more superior than a hell conceived as an eternal death, although the latter is more in line with what it really will be.
As for the prophetic vision of hell, it is more compelling to view it as eternal torture. The little shepherds, therefore, did not see hell as it is, but rather how they imagined it to be, inspired by what they were told in the countless preaching in those days, in which hell as suffering was an almost obligatory theme.
Part 2: World War II and the militant atheism in Russia
You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go, to save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end, but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the pontificate of Pius XI.
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.
If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.
Our Lady proposed the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as the antidote to combat evil on all fronts, individual and social. If Salvation is the true vision of God, which surpasses the beatific vision that some have access to on this earth, the proposal of this devotion is nothing other than the echo of the Gospel of St. Matthew (5:8): Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. A heart that has been purged and purified of all evil and corruption sees God.
A heart that is clean is not divided, and is ready to commit unilaterally and unconditionally, wholly and totally, to God’s will. It is in this way a replica of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as she says, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). The heart is the central engine of human activity, where thoughts gain the motivation and drive to transform themselves into works or behaviour. When our hearts belong to Christ, sooner or later, we may say as the apostle Paul had said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC