The Gathering Storm
Fr. Campbell
St.
Paul says the days are evil, and they are indeed. In fact, we are
living in hell, because earth, without God, is hell. And earth is today
without God. It has rejected Christ the King and ignored His
Commandments, as the persecution of true Christians increases. Because
of the traitorous and scandalous behavior of the false clergy of the
false church, the Catholic Church is hated, and Catholic priests,
whether good or bad, will be hunted down and executed. Soon there will
be no place for Jesus Christ and His Church.
To
say that the earth is hell is hardly an exaggeration. The fallen earth
is the domain of the devil, whom Christ several times called “the prince
of this world”. The world is good in itself, but it was handed over to
the devil when sin entered the world. But Jesus Christ will soon come to
claim His rightful inheritance, and will make “all things new”
(Apoc.21:5).
The
only way to escape “hell on earth” is to avoid its snares and to live
an intense Christian life. God has provided us with the means. Our Lord
Himself comes to us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Holy
Communion. We also have the other Sacraments, together with a wealth of
sacramentals and pious devotions. But what do we do if and when we are
no longer able to receive the Sacraments and attend the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass? We need not fear. Our Lord will not abandon us, because He
gave us His own Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, to guide us in these
evil times, when He spoke from the Cross: “Behold, your Mother”
(Jn.19:27).
The 13th of the month of October marks the 99th anniversary of the Great Miracle of the sun at the Cova da Iria in Fatima, Portugal. Why the 13th
of the month? The answer is that the intercessory role of the Blessed
Virgin Mary and the events at Fatima were foreshadowed in the Bible by
the story of Queen Esther, who entered unbidden into the presence of
King Ahasuerus, risking her life to save her people from destruction at
the hands of the wicked Haman. Haman had obtained a decree from the king
on the 13th of the month Nisan, that the Jews in exile in Persia were to be executed on the 13th
of the month, Adar. The Fathers of the Church saw in Esther a figure of
the Blessed Virgin, and in her uncle, Mardochai, a figure of St.
Joseph, with the king representing God, and Haman the devil. Esther’s
bold intercession saved her people.
To highlight her intercessory role in the light of the story of Esther, Mary chose to appear at Fatima on the 13th
of the month from May to October. Mary was seen by the children at
Fatima wearing a star at the hem of her brilliant white garment. Why the
star? The name Esther means ‘Star’.
Mary
is the only human person allowed to enter, body and soul, into the
presence of the King of Heaven, where she intercedes for us with her
Son, Jesus Christ, Who sits at the right hand of the Father. Mary is our
Morning Star, our Queen Esther, pleading our cause with God, that we
might be delivered from destruction at the hands of the devil.
The
Great Miracle of Fatima took place before the eyes of 70,000 people who
waited soaked by the rain in the mud of the Cova da Iria under a sky
heavy with dark clouds. Suddenly at noon the clouds parted and the sun
appeared. To their astonishment, the people could look directly at it
without hurting their eyes. For some time the sun seemed to revolve on
its axis, dancing and sending off waves of multicolored light. Then it
began a terrifying descent towards the earth, so that the people fell on
their knees screaming for mercy, thinking that it must be the end of
the world. The sun then receded and assumed its normal position. The
spectacle had lasted about a quarter of an hour. The newspapers in
Lisbon, which until then had been entirely skeptical of the Fatima
apparitions, and expected to give a report of the non-occurrence of the
promised miracle, gave a detailed account of it the following day.
Mary’s
reason for appearing at Fatima was to give the Church a simple solution
for the terrible persecutions it would experience from its enemies in
these times. Just as Queen Esther commanded the Jews to fast and pray as
she prepared to enter into the presence of the King, Mary asked for
penance and prayers, especially the Rosary, to prevent Russia from
spreading her errors throughout the world. She asked for the special
observance of the First Saturdays, and that Russia be consecrated to her
Immaculate Heart by the pope in union with all the bishops of the
world.
These
requests were taken very seriously by Pope Pius XII, who in
consideration of the dangers the Church would face in the coming years,
considered the Fatima devotions next in importance to the Mass itself.
He had written prophetically:
“I
am worried by the Blessed Virgin's messages to Lucy of Fatima. This
persistence of Mary about the dangers which menace the Church is a
divine warning against the suicide of altering the Faith, in Her liturgy
... A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when
the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe
that man has become God ... In our churches, Christians will search in
vain for the red lamp where God awaits them, like Mary Magdalene weeping
before the empty tomb, they will ask, 'Where have they taken Him?’ ... I
hear all around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel,
destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject her ornaments and make
her feel remorse for her historical past” (Msgr. Georges Roche, Pie XII Devant L'Histoire, p. 52-53).
Say
your Rosary every day. Eventually it may be all we have left. The
Rosary is a vehicle for pondering and understanding the mysteries of the
life of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Keeping company with
Mary as you recite the daily Rosary, you will be able to discern the
evil seductions that creep into our lives, and you will be able to free
yourself from them. And you will save your soul.
