The SECRET of Fatima

There is much controversy regarding the secret of Fatima. Of course we must be interested in it.... the Blessed Mother has spoken! The Church has decreed that she has spoken indeed. We must find out what she said. It was addressed to mankind. How come few know about it? Even many priests and bishops are ignorant of it.

Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal, described it as nothing else than what is found in Scriptures. And he was right. Except few really understand Scriptures because its meaning is supernatural, unknown by the natural man but understood only by the spiritual man.

The Secret of Fatima was explained by Pope John Paul ll at Fatima, during the canonization of Jacinta and Francisco. But nobody understood it. And so it is not that the Church has not explained it publicly, but rather that nobody understood it.

There is nothing in private revelations that should not be already found in public or Divine revelation. And the secret of Fatima is found there.

It is found in the Apocalypse, the similitude used by Pope John Paul II in Fatima. But then the Apocalypse is the most difficult book to interpret. No wonder no one understands it. This same message is taught in the tradition of Benedictine monasticism. It was popularized by Joachim of Fiore and became part of the Franciscan tradition, too. St. Bonaventure was interested in it as noted by then Cardinal Ratzinger in his thesis the "Theology of History according to St. Bonaventure."

Countless saints have written on it, like St. Louis de Montfort. In fact it was on this Benedictine Tradition that he built his writings and founded his Congregations.

And so when Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger announced the message at Fatima they put their heads together. Cardinal Ratzinger was knowledgeable of Scriptures, the Benedictine Tradition as written in the Dialogues of St. Gregory describing the life of St. Benedict, and the Franciscan Tradition as compiled by St. Bonaventure. Pope John Paul II knew the writings of St. Louis de Montfort since he was a young priest, from where he got the motto of his coat of arms "Totus Tuus."

And what is the message of Fatima? "It has begun." As St. Thomas of Aquinas has said, for those with Faith no explanation is necessary. But for those without faith, any explanation is futile. (Painting is "The Immaculate Conception" by Giovanni Battista, 1714)

The DE-CHRISTIANIZATION of the CATHOLIC CHURCH

By default, the Catholic Church is undergoing a de-Christianization. Catholics and their descendants are no longer making their acts of faith.

The cause is the fact that an act of Faith is a purely supernatural act. And man today is so natural (and unnatural) that they are unable to climb up to the supernatural. Or, even though the act of Faith is purely an act of God, man is unable to dispose himself to deserve it. Unfortunately, our culture and our times, our system of Catholic education and our defective catechesis, and our parents all contribute to our present indisposition.

So what is happening is that Catholics with faith are losing their faith because of sins against faith and our young ones are unable to make their act of faith because of the bad examples around them. Blessed Alberione, in fact, put the blame on parents, particularly the mother. Our mothers are more like Eve than the Blessed Virgin Mary. Unlike Mary who brought Christ to the temple, mothers are bringing their children to the forbidden tree. Should we still wonder why we are killing one another as Cain killed his brother Abel?

And it is the children of Eve who are becoming priests and bishops, nuns and future mothers. Where are the true children of Mary? The book of the Apocalypse points at the desert where the woman fled to a special place prepared by God Himself. There, in that special place, is where the true children of Mary are to be found.

St. Louis de Montfort knew this and tried to establish a community that would truly become children of Mary, truly a community of Faith. St. Bonaventure knew about this, too, and was hoping that that community was that of St. Francis of Assisi. Pope Benedict knows about this "small Church" shining with true Catholic Faith, which, perhaps, explains his interest in new emerging small communities.

Christ has prophesied that "when the Son of man comes, will He find Faith on this earth?" Of course there will always be, for the Church will always exist. But He emphasizes its smallness.

Sion, and especially the temple of Jerusalem, pre-figured the Catholic Church. Because of the unbelief of the Jewish people the temple was destroyed, wherein "not one stone was left on top of another." Could this be the same vision at Fatima: the ruined Church wherein not one stone is left on top of another .... because of her de-Christianization, because of her absence of Faith?

Only those with Faith can transmit the faith, says Leo XIII addressing exegetes. We have had a crisis of faith since the middle ages. With faith practically dying with the Saints raised by God, the world would be devoid of it by now. Of course, God always raises up Saints and Popes to confirm us in the faith, but who gives their intellectual assent to their teachings as words of God? (Painting is "The Dream of Innocent III" from the Basilica of St. Francis.)

WIELGUS AFFAIR - a bishop treated unCHARITABLY

I am still struggling with two articles in my draft. One on the absence of faith and the second on the de-Christianization of the Catholic Church. Both articles show the absence of the theological virtue of Faith among many Catholics.

Living Faith, however, must be enlivened with Charity; otherwise it is dead. Then comes the sad Wielgus affair that fortifies the above thesis. His treatment by the people shows a great lack of Charity in them.

Our analysis has two parts. The first part, what Bishop Wielgus did and the second part, the reaction of people who urged the good bishop to resign before his installation. I am unqualified to handle the first part for the same reason that those who rejected him were not qualified to judge the Bishop.

The first part is between the Bishop and God. A moral analysis of the second part shows that the people who urged him to resign were unjust if not uncharitable and guilty of mortal sin commonly called rash judgment "Judge not that you may not be judged." The words of Christ were threatening, showing the seriousness of the sin. Our concern is not whether the bishop is guilty or not. But whether the unfavorable reaction was Christian or not.

Let us go to the second part. Judgment is an act of Justice, a decision of what is just and right. To judge rightly proceeds from a virtuous habit. A chaste person decides matters relating to chastity; to what is just belongs properly to Justice. We may judge but not rashly. We may judge as long as it is an act of Justice.

But Justice is a moral virtue that accompanies the theological virtue of Faith enlivened with Charity. Only one in the state of Sanctifying grace, practically a saint, can judge with wisdom and with prudence (both a supernatural state) comforming with the ruling of the Gospel.

St. Thomas of Aquinas gives 3 requirements for an Act of Justice. Firstly, it must come from the inclination of the moral virtue of Justice in assistance to the theological virtue of Faith. Secondly, the judgment must come from a person in authority. And thirdly, the judgment is pronounced according to the right ruling of prudence. In the absence of any one element, the judgment is unlawful.

The violation of the three requirements would go thus: firstly, if the judgment is made by one in (the state of) mortal sin and therefore devoid of Justice, the judgment would be perverted or unjust. Secondly, if the judgment does not come from his superior, it is judgment by usurpation. And thirdly, if the judgment is not guided by the moral virtue of prudence (a supernatural moral virtue) then it is a rash judgment.

The first requirement was stated by Christ, "He who has no sin may cast the first stone." No sin... refers to being in the state of grace. Where those who objected to the bishop's elevation without sin? The fact that they rash judged him shows they were in the state of mortal sin since he is a Bishop. Because the bishop's dealing with the communist is not clear and labeled 'under suspicion', St.Thomas of Aquinas would have stated that to judge him is a mortal sin.

The second requirement: those who judged him were not his superiors. The immediate superior of Bishop Wielgus is the Pope. So when inferiors judged the bishop, it was perverse and by usurpation.

Besides, his promotion is of a spiritul matter and should not be ruled by human consideration. The spiritual is superior to the natural. The spiritual can judge the natural in its spiritual aspect but not vice versa.

The third requirement is that the judgment must be inspired by the moral virtue of prudence which exist only in those with living Faith, i.e. in the state of grace (which unfortunately everybody thinks he is). But the fact that they have disobeyed the commands of Christ "Not to judge," "Not to look at the speck," "To love," shows that they were not in the state of grace, they were in the state of sin and had no right to cast the first stone.

The Pope and the Congregation for the Bishops acted rightly and charitably. They knew the bishop, his background and acted according to the 3 requirements of St. Thomas and recommended his elevation to the see of Warsaw. The Pope is guided by Christ's promise of a strong faith; he is the superior of the bishop; and because Christ prays that his faith may not waver, he has prudence. The Pope's choice was in accordance to the teachings of Christ and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, thus completely a supernatural act that surpasses all natural, judicial, political or experimental knowledge. Our shepherd has shown the way. If we have the Catholic Faith, we must be one heart and one mind with him and do likewise and agree to the installation of Bishop Wielgus to the See of Warsaw. (Painting by Tintoretto, 1519-94, "The Banquet in the House of Simeon.")

The Priest - Problem

I was amazed at the extent of the problem of many priests in the US: Sex. It is bad enough that seminary training since the past century is far from what the Holy Father would want it; they have been turning out priests who are not faithful to their vow of celibacy. But the problem has degraded even to unnatural sins: sex between two men or with minors.

Spiritual writers, like St. Thomas of Aquinas, have stated that in the spiritual life, one must progress every minute. St. Benedict described this as conversion of life. We must be converted continuously towards the perfection of Charity. They describe this as the three stages of conversions which we must undergo in the spiritual life. He who does not progress, deteriorates, St. Thomas of Aquinas states.

Let us look at the normal pace and direction of the Spiritual life towards the perfection of Charity. Let us start with children. They are born with a tendency to choose evil, the original sin we inherited from our first parents. But this tendency matures only at the age of reason. So before they lose their initial innocence, parents, god-parents and the Church should raise them to the supernatural level through Baptism and an act of faith, just as the parents of St. Therese did. From then on, the child grows in nature. But he should also grow in grace; this way he will not have much problem with regard to the devil, the world and the flesh. But if he does not grow in grace, these three enemies of the soul will bother him and cause him to sin. In which case he would need the sacraments of Penance, and perhaps of Matrimony. If he continues to grow in grace after Matrimony his journey will be smooth. If he does not grow in grace, he could commit adultery. Many remain in that sinful state. If they get worse, they could easily enter into other vices like avarice, gluttony, etc.

Now, let us go back to the seminarians. Like all children, after baptism, they had within themselves the spiritual tools to progress in the life of grace up to the perfection of Charity. But if their parents had neglected their growth in grace they could be unprepared for seminary life. If within the seminary, their life in grace is neglected, their concupiscence could start to act up. They would be attracted to girls. But since there are no girls in the seminary they could begin with self-inflicted impure acts. If they do not overcome this by ascetical exercises, they could tend to desire these impure pleasures from others. And since they are surrounded only by men, they could be attracted to each other. But because of "whistle - blowers" they could prey on children, instead. This is just the application of the above principle of spiritual life, "He who does not progress will regress." While great efforts are needed to progress, no effort is needed to regress.

Ignorance of the workings of grace and the spiritual life while living in the purely human level (in short, the absence of growing up in true Faith) is the cause such a problem.

Catholicism is the answer and solution to all problems from drug addiction to adultery; more precisely, monasticism. Didn't monasticism solve all the problems of Europe, transforming that pagan continent into a Christian one? And wasn't the neglect of monasticism that caused the return to paganism? Didn't Pope Benedict hint a return to St. Benedict's monasticism?

The "gay" problem had been tackled even as early as the time of St. Basil. He had such problems with his first followers who were new converts from paganism and who could still easily regress. St. Peter Damian discussed this problem lengthily and his solution was the monastic life.The Gregorian reform initiated by Pope Gregory VII was an attempt to stem this scourge among others. It is a problem that cannot be solved unless the individuals concerned take the initiative to grow in the spiritual life. Peter Damian, also a Benedictine monk, imposed both the rule of St. Benedict and St.Romuald in order to show the greater need to lead a stricter than the ordinary monastic life. (Painting is "Basil and Emperor Valens" 1st half of the 18th century by Pierre Hubert Subleyras.)

OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

Here in our monastic community we had been busy preparing for the celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the principal Patroness of the Philippines. A Solemn Pontifical Mass was concelebrated by two bishops and five priests, the choir singing the Gregorian Chant and Renaissance acapellas. After, the faithful partook a repast in the Oratory grounds.

The Church was to be described in three stages: first, in the old Testament Church, wherewith the people of God were set aside away from the rest of the people. The second, during the public life of Christ wherewith they were for a while in the world to listen to the Word of God. And thirdly, after Pentecost, when the Church returned to the desert.

These three stages are represented by the feasts during the Advent season. The first Sunday of Advent showed who were to receive God's favorable judgment; this is followed by the feast of the Immaculate Conception; and in preparation for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the feast of Juan Diego.

These stages describes the three degrees of Humility which is the breeding ground of the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. So we see the humility of Christ who was God but humbled himself to be a servant "I came to serve and not to be served." Then we see the humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary who was, though not a god, was somebody; but she humbled herself to be a handmaid of the Lord. And then, Juan Diego who was a "nobody" and called himself a nobody.

Evidently it would be difficult to copy the humility of a God who became man. It is easier to copy the humility of a human, though chosen to be the mother of God, who remained a human. But it is easier to copy the humility of a "nobody" Aztec who remained a nobody.

To be humble like Juan Diego consist in living the life of Repentance preached by John the Baptist and perfected by Christ. To be humble like Mary is slightly more difficult and consist in living the life of Repentance and having devotion to Mary. But to imitate the humility of Christ we must live the life of Repentance, be devoted to Mary and have her mediation to raise us up to be Christ-like.

In Scriptures, the first state is described in the old Testament and the beginnings of the New Testament. The second state is described in the public life of Christ. And the third state is taught to us after Pentecost. Thus in the second state Mary was Mother of Christ. And in the third she was the personification of the Church.

Thus Scriptures describe the Church of the Old Testament as Sion. In the New Testament the Church was described as the daughter of Sion or the New Jerusalem or the woman in the world. And the third was described in the Apocalypse as the Woman in the Desert...which resembles the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Since the first and second stages are over, the Church has been focusing on the third stage wherein the Church, though primarily Christocentric, will take a Marian character. So the first Christians returned to the desert to learn the Christocentric aspect of the spiritual life. Attaining this, the fathers of the Church began adding devotion to Mary by honouring her with the title of the second Eve.

This Marianization of the Catholic Church gained ground in the times of St. Dominic and Bernard of Clairvaux. It disappeared for a while under the onslaught of the serpent but continued in the era of the renewal in France with Berulle, Olier and Louis de Montfort, who was so convinced of the Marian character of the Church (the Woman of the Apocalypse) that he established an order that would correspond to its description.

The 1400s and 1500s were years when Mary seemed to fortify this tendency by her numerous apparitions, with Our Lady of Guadalupe, being the most impressive of them all.

The three important truths that are the objects of Faith are: that there is a God; the second person became man; and that He redeemed mankind. In the act of Redemption, begun in the Old Testament, Mary plays an important part in the Incarnation (in which the description on how the Spirit overshadowed her and came upon her is replica of Pentecost) and in the end of our journey which is to be with God the Father in Heaven.

The Inter-religious Dialogue in Assisi

The inter-religious dialogue in Assisi and the Ecumenical movement are the Church's sincere attempt to bring all religions into, at least, mutual tolerance, with its proximate goal to be an occassion for the working of Actual grace. Their ultimate end: openness and surrender to the truth. No, there is no ambition to unite, to borrow, or share teachings and practices, no attempts at a common denominator.

Cardinal Newman, Gilbert Chesterton, Baring, Ratisbonne and Edith Stein were converts to the Catholic faith and became great assets to the Church at the time when inter-religious dialogues were not popular.

We believe that there is a God, and that He spoke; and what He said is Divine Revelation. This Divine Revelation is impossible to mix, or to find a common ground, with other religions. To attempt to do so would be like mixing oil and water. A general tendency has been noticed since the start of the misinterpretation of Vatican ll: some have tried applying bodily postures with attempts to reach Christian contemplation. Contemplation is a Divine activity. There is nothing outside Christianity that one can mix with it in order to attain or enhance it, nor can Christianity benefit other religions unless it is taken in its purity, without additives. And so, if, as many think, the aim of the inter-religious dialogue in Assisi is to mix the varied beliefs into a cocktail acceptable to all, or come to a common denominator, they are wrong. This is not the goal of the Assisi meeting, but that is the impression many are getting.

But if we let the inter-religious dialogue work on the concept of Actual Grace, it has a great chance to succeed according to the purpose for which it was conceived by Pope John Paul ll. And it can only succeed because of Actual Grace. Of course we know that anybody can welcome or reject this grace. But Actual Grace is a movement from God that invites a soul to repentance and conversion. It begins with repentance wherein a soul realizes his sinfulness and can go further into the soul desiring the forgiveness of his sins through conversion. Then God shows the next step after conversion, which is the way to the true Church. And the usual instrument used by God to bestow this grace is through the preaching of one sent by Him.

Only through such preachers, those sent by God like the Pope, the successor of Peter who was an apostle and therefore sent by God, or at least someone like St. Francis de Sales, or St. John Vianney, will God give Actual Grace to the listeners. Though the hearers are free to reject or harden their hearts against this grace, yet this is the only hope for any good to come out of the inter-religious dialogues. Without this, everything is futile.

Actual Grace is given to all in order to find the truth. But when it is rejected it is withdrawn. Only a true repentance will make God restore it. Many don't even notice when they reject it. Grace is withdrawn and unless God restore it, there is no possibility of conversion, unless - - some contemplative souls earnestly beg God, as St. Therese begged for the grace of repentance for the criminal Franzini. The criminal did nothing to deserve the grace. He was blaspheming. He deserved perdition, but it was the prayers of St. Therese who pitied that soul that made God restore to him Actual Grace. Actual Grace became Efficacious Grace, as shown by the instant conversion of the criminal, just as we have seen happen to Demas the good thief hanging on the cross beside Christ. They did something that transformed Actual into Efficacious Grace; something we, and all participants in the inter-faith dialogues in Assisi, must do, too.

If Pope Benedict is continuing what seems to be futile at first sight, it is because of his belief in the theology of grace. After all, a million Aztecs were converted to Christianity without much help from preachers: God used a picture of our Lady as His intrument to bestow Actual Graces. Most of the great converts to the Catholic faith never attended any inter-religious gatherings.

The first visible movement towards conversion is tolerance, when we find the other religions tolerable. Tolerance directs us to the true religion. This is followed by the fear that the attraction to it is too strong and, finally, the fear of finding the need to enter into that true faith. All these steps are choreographed by Actual Graces or Sufficient Graces. Nothing is human or psychological in the process.

If this is the case, then the Pope speaking on Vatican radio or on TV, or writing an encyclical would be sufficient. Actual Graces will take over. Everything else is pure courtesy.

(Painting is "St. Francis with the stigmata raising his right hand in sign of welcome and laying his left hand on friend and sister death from whom no living man can flee, by Giotto.)

THE MOVEMENT TOWARDS CHARITY.

Everything is grace from the first movement of the free will towards Faith through Hope, and towards Charity. When God grants a soul the grace towards conversion, that first movement, or stirring, which is the seed of Charity Itself, moves the soul towards the theological virtue of Faith:"If you love Me keep My commandments." Since the first act of conversion towards faith is obedience to the commands of Christ, then it is an act of Charity, though not perfect Charity, but the beginnings of Charity.

The beginning of faith is a gift of God. It contains the infused knowledge of what the world is, how useless it is, how one has wasted so much time indulging in it, and as a consequence, how far one is away from God.

Then fear enters the soul. Suddenly the person sees the need to hurry up lest he be caught unprepared for death. This fear is the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of the virtue of Charity.

He briefly reasons out how fleeting are the transitory things of the world and then chooses to abandon the worldly life. Suddenly, he receives the initial stages of knowledge. He begins to see that all worldly things are vanity and wonders how come people are running after them. The gift and grace from God makes him certain that he is looking at the right direction.

This is followed by amazement at one’s stupidity. This discovery inspires the first degrees of humility mentioned by St. Thomas of Aquinas quoting St. Gregory and St. Benedict. St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Bernard also enumerate these same degrees of humility.

Infused knowledge and understanding, which is the approach towards wisdom, are further given because the soul has become humble. Since all graces lead to union with God, the soul begins to be conscious of God’s presence as the only one that can satisfy the yearnings of the soul.

But the idea of God still surpasses the capability of the human soul, even the soul endowed with the first stirrings of grace. The soul finds itself stupefied and silent in His presence. Its prayer is reduced to silence. Admitting that it is in a completely unknown realm, the soul prays that God be his truth, way and life. God obliges in different ways. Sometimes to invite the soul to greater humility and deeper prayer He demands that the soul consult other wayfarers like himself. Maybe St. Thomas of Aquinas, St. Francis de Sales, St. Teresa of Avila or St. John of the Cross or Ven. Luis de Granada.

At this point, sins loses all attraction. The soul finds great joy in doing God’s will all the time and as long as he keeps to this direction he will be very well on the way to perfect Charity. He becomes more convinced that God is his only source of happiness and is experiencing the Joy that is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

Having experienced the happiness of loving God, the soul would now want to share this with others. So he begins to express this Charity within his soul by teaching others how to acquire this same Charity. He loves God by having reached Charity. Now he loves his neighbor by teaching them how to reach Charity. This, in brief, is the journey from sinfulness to Charity. (Painting is "St. Anthony Abbot during his Temptation by Annibale Carracci, 1598.)