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Our Lady of Fatima
May 13
OUR SWEET MOTHER
By St John Paul II on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima 2
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Since the time when Jesus, dying on the cross, said to John: “Behold your
Mother”, since the time when “the disciple took her into his home”, the mystery
of Mary’s spiritual motherhood had its fulfillment in history with an amplitude
without boundaries. Motherhood means concern for her son’s life. Now, if Mary
is the mother of all people, her concern for human life is universal in scope…
The spiritual motherhood of Mary is therefore participation in the power of the
Holy Spirit, the One who “gives life.” It is with the humble service of the one
who says of herself: “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord”. In the light of the
mystery of Mary’s spiritual motherhood, let us understand the extraordinary
message, which began to resonate in the world by Fatima since May 13, 1917
and lasted for five months until October 13 of the same year. If the Church has
embraced the message of Fatima it is mainly because it contains a truth and a
call, which in their essential content is the truth and the call of the Gospel itself.
“Repent and believe in the Gospel”, these are the first words of the
Messiah addressed to humanity. The message of Fatima is in its core a call to
conversion and penance… The call to repentance is maternal and at the same
time, strong and determined. The love that “rejoices in the truth”, knows how
to be outspoken and determined… Can the Mother, who with all the power of
her love, which fosters in the Holy Spirit and desires the salvation of every
person, keep quiet about what undermines the very foundations of this
salvation? No, she cannot!
The Immaculate Heart of Mary, opened by the word: “Woman, behold
your son”, meets spiritually with the Heart of the Son opened by the soldier’s
lance. Mary’s Heart was opened by the same love for mortals and for the world,
with which Christ has loved humanity and the world, offering Himself on the
Cross for them. To consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother
means returning beneath the Cross of her Son. More it means consecrating this
world to the pierced Heart of the Savior, bringing the very source of his
redemption. Redemption is always greater than the sin of man and the “sin of
the world.”… The Heart of the Mother is aware of this, as no one else in the
whole universe, visible and invisible…
The Mother of Christ calls us and invites us to join the Church of the living
God in the consecration of the world, this reliance by which the world,
humanity, nations, all people are offered to the Eternal Father with the power
of Christ’s redemption. They are offered in the pierced Heart of the Redeemer
on the Cross… The appeal of the Lady of Fatima is so deeply rooted in the Gospel
and in the whole of tradition that the Church feels committed by this message.
Yes, we can truly say: “Blessed are you, daughter, in front of the Most High God
above all women on earth!”… Yes, here and throughout the Church, in the heart
of every man and in the whole world you are blessed Mary, our sweet Mother!
2 A Discourse of Pope John Paul II at Fatima.