J.M.J.
Our Newest Saints
The announcement that this year’s Centenary of the
Apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima would include the Canonization of Blesseds Francisco
Marto and Jacinta Marto on May 13th by Pope Francis has intrigued and
uplifted the Catholic faithful.
One saw the visible interest on the faces of so many as
they heard the long-awaited news: the Bishop of Rome would travel to the Cova da
Iria to raise this venerable duo to the glories of the Altar on the very Feast
of Our Lady of Fatima.
The exemplary charity, patience and perseverance of Francisco
and Jacinta along with their older cousin Lucia continue to awaken deep within
the friends of Jesus the desire to love God more and to serve Him better as
Mary pleaded one hundred years ago.
These children are holy. And they remain a template for our own
efforts to be good before Our Lord.
From the ample testimony given by their contemporaries,
Francisco and Jacinta frequently received the Sacraments, particularly
Confession and Holy Communion, with profound fervor, daily recited the Holy
Rosary with sincere devotion and routinely commended the sick, the suffering and
the wayward to Almighty God with remarkable trust.
Although privileged with three appearances of the Angel of
Peace in 1916 and six visits from Our Lady during 1917, Francisco and Jacinta
did not haughtily exempt themselves from obedience to their parents and their
local pastor. They humbly submitted themselves even to misguided civil
authority but without retreating an inch from their divinely-inspired
convictions.
Mary’s summons to make reparation for sin found a permanent home
in these children. As they fasted from their lunch and gave it instead to the
sheep they were tending, tied a coarse rope around their tiny waists to mirror
the sacrifice of their Savior, bore without complaint the scorching Portugal
sun and endured the angry glances and snide remarks from querulous relatives and strangers alike, Francisco and Jacinta embraced
mortification not as a means to attract attention but rather to invoke the abiding
mercy of God upon themselves and sinners everywhere.
The children acknowledged their nothingness in the sight of
their Creator while simultaneously they treasured His tender love. They were
well aware of what He required of them, and they sought to perform their daily
duty with exactitude and promptness.
In her gentle, forthright manner, Our Lady presented
difficult and frightening realities to the children—the horror of sin, the
annihilation of nations, the promotion of error, the deliberate attempt to
thwart the plan of God, the awfulness of Hell. Far from refusing to accept all that
she shared, Francisco and Jacinta recognized Divine Providence. They confided
in this kind Mother and welcomed her care for them. Had she not promised that
they and Lucia would one day go to Heaven and that, in the end, her Immaculate
Heart would triumph?
The parlous state of our era induces us to look again to
those who preceded us, certain that we can learn something about how to
navigate our treacherous age. Unlettered, poor children from a backwater
village as mentors for us and our advanced society? We should take the
opportunity to learn from the virtuous Francisco and Jacinta. Their proximity
to Jesus and Mary transcends time and place and provides us with a salutary
influence as we confront the perennial hazards lurking around us.
These earnest youth experienced what Pope Francis, just hours
before he left for Fatima, prayed that Our Lady would do for all Portuguese
believers: to “whisper into the ears of each one of them, and assure them that
her Immaculate Heart is a refuge and a path leading them to God.”
Conveyed by the Ever-Virgin, the Fatima message of prayer,
reparation and the fulfillment of one’s daily duty was observed to an
extraordinary degree in the lives of the little shepherds. What great things
are accomplished when the counsel of the Mother of God, which, of course, is identical
to that of her Divine Son, resonates and is enthroned in the hearts of her sons
and daughters!
Saints Francisco and
Jacinta are proof that lasting conversion and purity of soul are both possible
and necessary. No matter where we have been or who we have been, Our Lady is
here for us.
We rejoice with these children—indeed, the entire Mystical
Body of Christ—who once were physically small but for a century have been veritable spiritual giants, these whose names are now enrolled in the catalog of the canonized.
