AN AUTUMN EVENING IN FATIMA Dr C.V ANANDA BOSE

 

12. AN AUTUMN EVENING IN FATIMA

That day a miracle happened in that pastoral village. Blessed Virgin Mary appeared before three shepherd children.

The event tok place some time between May 13 and October 13 in 1917. As it was a matter of faith, it had to be experienced if it were to be believed. This was the feeling that took me and my wife to Fatima. Travelling 90 miles from the Portuguese capital Lisbon, we reached not another tourist spot but a place in the middle of a rainbow that linked human hearts with the holy heart of god.

That is what Fatima is today. The flow of tens of thousands of devotees to Fatima is not to see sights but to install the essence of the holy chants given by Fatima in one’s heart and to feel the ecstasy of that experience.

That holy chant was received directly from the heavenly Mother. And those selected to receive it were three innocent shepherd children, Lucia, Francisco, Jacinta.

One afternoon, after prayer, the children were about to begin to play. They collected pebbles to make a play house. All of a sudden they saw a circle of light of uncanny radiance. Mistaking it to be lighting, they started to run towards their house. Then they saw another circle of light. Looking at it they saw a woman brighter than the sun. There was a white rosary hanging from her hand. The apparition told the children: Pray the rosary.

They were also asked to come to the same place every 13^th during the next five months. They did so and the Holy Mother appeared before them on all those days. This expereince roused the entire country and the children were questioned. Also, believers and non-believers alike descended on the village to see the children who became veritable exhibits.

And for those who demand evidence for each and everything, the Holy Mother herself came with evidence one day.

An elderly priest at Fatima explained that experience to us with conviction. He had only heard about it, not seen it. Even then this hearsay evidence had the authority of faith. On October 13, 1917 when a crowd of 70,000 people stood watching Fatima had evidence of the divine apparition. When the chiuldren had the visitation they were told what sight they were going to see. The sun would be seen like a disc of silver. Then it would spin like a fiery ball. It would go on spinning till giving the impression that it was going to fall on earth. What the people of Fatima saw on October 13 was exactly the same.

What is important here is not the magic of the miracle. What is relevant is the awareness of what is the essence of the apparitions. What the apparitions conveyed were pronouncements for peace and harmony in the world. They were lessons in faith and prayer. The Holy Mother taught the children that when man’s sins increased, god’s punishment came in the form of wars and poverty and distress. One thing was made very clear to the children. It was Russia that god has chosen to teach the sinful world a lesson. Through them the message of materialism and atheism will extend to the whole world. Many countries will be destroyed. Wars will flare up. Believers will be persecuted. Good men will turn martyrs. These have to be countered with penance, prayers and expiation.

The message revealed to Lucia, Jacinta and Freancisco have been codified as three ‘ secrets. ’ Of them, two secrets have been divulged. The first was a revelation to the children about the sufferings one had to undergo in hell. After showing the pain and suffering that the souls had to undergo, the apparition told the children that prayer and sacrifice were essential for the salvation of these souls.

The second secret later became a reality. The secret was that a world war would break out for the second time. The third secret still remains in mystery. But Lucia (who subsequently became Sister Lucia) had written it down and handed over to the Pope. The world is waiting to know its contents.

In my boyhood, I used to walk to the school at Mannanam crossing the grotto of Our Lady of Fatima. The belief in my youth was that if we lighted a candle before the idol of Our Lady of Fatima anything that we embark on would become successful. My doubt then was how Virgin Mary could get such a name as Our Lady of Fatima.

No one could give me the answer to my question. That I was made to travel all the way to Fatima to seek an answer may be the handiwork of the invisible powers above. When Arab legions overran Europe in the past, one Arab soldier went on a tour along with some members of his harem. But he was subdued in a skirmish by Christian soldiers in hiding. There was one very beautiful woman in the company of the Arab soldier. Fatima. A Christian soldier married her. After her death, the people named her village after her. That was how the present Fatima came into being.

Is there not something beyond coincidence for a Christian holy land getting a Muslim name as Fatima? All faiths are divine. So what is in a name?