The content of the third part of the secret, which kept the world in “suspense” for decades, was somehow already known to the public as it was implied in the words of the Lady at the July 13th apparition regarding Russia. It was like one of those well-hidden treasures because it was in a place where no one would think to look or where people least expect to find.
The third secret as it was called is the third part of the one single secret, and is nothing but a symbolic illustration of the words of Our Lady in the event that Russia is not consecrated to her Immaculate Heart. All that the secret says has already happened, up to the day when Russia was indeed consecrated.
The prophecy of Jonas
Since the secret of Fatima is fundamentally a prophecy, any prophet in the Old Testament can provide us with a key to its hermeneutical interpretation. Among all the prophets, we choose Jonas because it is him, more than all the others, who gives a clear example of what in essence is a prophecy, and what function it fulfills within the revealed word.
As we know, after some reluctance and even a show of defiance, Jonas sent by God went to Nineveh with the prophecy that the city will be destroyed if the people did not repent and convert. Since the destruction of the city was precisely what Jonas was hoping for, we can imagine the total lack of conviction with which he must have preached during the three days that took him to travel through the city. And yet against all odds the people converted and the city was not destroyed.
The prophecy of Fatima
After the two parts which I have already explained, we saw at the left of Our Lady and a little above, an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Or Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’ First scene of the third part of the secret.
Let us now examine each of the images that makes up the third part of the prophecy:
The Angel with a flaming sword ready to strike – This represents the final judgment, the possibility of being condemned in the case if one does not convert. Like the suspended sword of Damocles, it is a fatality that can happen. Do recall Joshua’s discourse in the book of Deuteronomy (30:15), “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity”. The possibility of reducing the world into a mound of ashes is no longer a fiction but a sober reality. Since the modern man is the lord of his own destiny, it is him therefore who has forged the most destructive sword, the atomic bomb.
Penance, Penance, Penance! – The purpose of the vision is not to show what will inevitably happen in the future but rather what can happen, and the ways to prevent it from happening. It is therefore a staunch warning. If the intention of this prophecy was to reveal the irreversible fate of the world, it makes no sense that the Angel would cry ‘penance’ three times, as if this would somehow prevent this disaster. Nor would it make sense for this or any other prophecy if there were no ways to avoid the fate. No one is really interested in knowing the day or the hour or the way he will die; and God would be a sadist if he were to reveal it.
At the left side of Our Lady – The vision shows us the power opposed to destruction, represented by the resplendent image of Virgin Mary to the right of the Angel. Therefore, on one side representing Death is the Angel with the sword ready to strike, and on the other is Our Lady representing Life. The vision calls to our freedom to choose. That is, what we will see in the next scene is not a future that is irreversible, that cannot be changed and will happen as described, but rather the contrary, the image of a future that can be prevented and, therefore, will not happen if we do what the Angel advises.
The intent of the vision is not to show on film a future irrevocably fixed, but rather to orient, enlighten and guide our freedom, and our energies and resources in the opposite direction so to avoid this disaster. Just like the preaching on the destruction of the city of Nineveh led its people to do penance, so is the purpose of this vision.
And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it’ a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father’. Other Bishops, Priests, religious men and women going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way;
Having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, religious men and women, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God. Second scene of the third part of the secret.
The city represents human history, and the mountain is the path going up to the cross, the redemption for all humanity. The Holy Father, bishops, priests, religious men and women, and lay people going up the mountain represents the Church in the history of mankind, on its ascent towards Heaven. It is the history of salvation inserted in the history of humanity.
Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God – This is a clear reference to the book of Revelation (7:14), ‘these are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’. All who are washed by the blood of the martyrs are saved, inasmuch that this blood, as has always been said, is the seed of Christians.
… he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way – The walk-through history towards Christ, represented by the cross, is slow, and on the way some fall victims to evil. In particular, the vision represents the sacred path of a century of persecution and death that Nazism, Fascism, and especially militant atheism brought to the believers. In this vision, the Pope is shot and killed like many martyrs.
After the assassination attempt on his life on May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II while still convalescing in his hospital bed at the Gemelli Polyclinic, asked for the sealed letter containing the secret to be brought to him. It was inevitable that in it he would see his own destiny, and a future that did not happen by a whisker. And it did not happen because Mary did not want it to happen; in the words of the Pope, she deflected the bullet that passed only a few millimeters from his vital organs. It is again clear that the future is not unchangeable, and that faith, penance and prayer can influence history, and that ultimately prayer is more powerful than bullets, and faith that can move mountains is more powerful than the destructive power of armies.
We can now understand the affliction of poor Jacinta who saw all this in her visions without knowing what would be the final outcome. It is true that she did what the Angel in the same vision advised everyone to do, that is, penance and prayer. Somehow she also knew that this dark future, even the death of the pope which was certain in the vision, could be prevented with her own personal penance and prayer. This was the reason why she never ceased to pray for the Holy Father. If Jacinta was certain that the future seen in the vision could not be avoided, she would not have prayed so fervently for the pope like she did the rest of her life.
During a meeting that Sister Lucia had with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, on April 27, 2000, she stated that she fully agrees with this official interpretation of the Church, according to which the third part of the secret is a prophetic vision similar to those found in the Bible, which consists of the persecution of the Church and the believers by the militant atheism inspired and promulgated by Russia throughout the 20th century.
This is also in line with the personal interpretation of Pope John Paul II: It was a mother’s hand that guided the bullet’s path and the Holy Father in his throes to halt at the threshold of death. Lucia continues: We did not know the name of the Pope. Our Lady did not say the name of the Pope. We didn’t know if it was Benedict XV, Pius XII, Paul VI or John Paul II, but it was the Pope who was suffering and that made us suffer too… especially Jacinta who has said many times: Poor Holy Father! We must pray very much for him.
Already, but not yet…
The events to which the third part of the “secret” of Fatima refers now seem part of the past. Cardinal Sodano
The Kingdom of Heaven is already in the midst of us, but not yet in all its fullness and glory, says theology with respect to the Kingdom of God and its presence in the history of mankind. Inspired by Cardinal Sodano, as well as the then prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the faith, Cardinal Ratzinger, we can say, on one hand, that this third part of the secret, like the first two parts, is already history, contrary to the prophets that were the doomsday lovers of apocalypse and conspiracy theories, .
On the other hand, however, unlike the first two parts of the secret which targeted concrete things that cannot happen again, the third part of the secret is less precise and is fully achievable in time and space, and seems to appeal to an archetype that has been repeated, continuously repeats itself and can be repeated. The Angel with the flaming sword is still there; the human freedom exhorted to choose between the way of life and goodness, and of death and evil will always be there; an active and progressive Church in a hostile world and the martyrdom of some of her members is a reality that repeats itself in all times and places.
In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph…
I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world! (John 16:33)
A heart that is open to God, purified by penance and prayer, is stronger than any kind of weapons and armies. It was the heart of Mary, purified from original sin at the moment of her conception, and committed at the annunciation of the Angel to God’s plan of salvation of man, that brought the redeemer to mankind. The seed of this Kingdom is already present in the midst of us since the coming of Christ over two thousand years ago. When our hearts are purified like that of Mary's, we also give birth to Christ by the way we are, and our way of living and acting, and in so doing, we make him present in our time and place, with all his power of health, peace, and love among men.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
uwu
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