Blood Moons Over Fatima IV
THE WOMAN
Mary Most Holy
Let us start with some basic truths of our faith in the One, True, God of all creation. He absolutely is perfection personified, in fact, in three Persons but only one God; a mystery too big for our paltry intellects to comprehend, only acceptable through Faith. Do you suppose that a perfect God could be satisfied to create in His own Image and Likeness, a race of creatures giving them an environment that He, Himself could not feel comfortable and at home in? He is three Persons in one God, the Blessed Trinity. If He has perfect knowledge (and He does) then He would have to recognize that perfection in Himself and use that perfect knowledge in designing and creating those who will be His images. He would have to be true to Himself in every detail, or He wouldn't be God! He, God, is Father, Only Begotten Son, and Holy Spirit, three in One. His creature would be Adam, consisting of a man and a woman, having the same spirit of love of God, just like Himself, a trinity!
When we are first introduced to Adam, we can see only one person, just like God. Just like an amoeba which is a single-celled animal and reproduces asexually, the potential for reproduction is an existing faculty within this being. In the trinity that is man, this faculty is held by the part later to be called woman. The Holy Spirit of God is “The Lord and Giver of Life”. And she, the woman, represents the Holy Spirit of the Blessed Trinity and could possibly be more accurately called the “womb” man. Please take note of the common root of both persons of this trinity as being man. Unlike the Angels, this race of creatures will have the capability through the woman's body to directly participate in God's acts of creation by being the gestation place for future human beings. So this means that, like God, humans would have offspring “incarnated” by God, just as Joseph and Mary became Jesus' parents-through the workings of the Holy Spirit. (St. Luke 1:26~35) Imagine how this contributed to the Jealousy of Lucifer against Humans, he would never have children! Remember, that the man and the woman are of one substance as God is one, she, not being a separate creation, but Adam's rib completed by God on the 7th day after naming all of creation with the trinity that was Adam, which He had proclaimed as being “very good”. The offspring, the third person(s), then whom they are to nurture in their spirit of love for God are an integral part of both. In the argument between the Orthodox Catholics and the Roman Catholics over the “Filioque” in the Creed, the point of contention was over whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from just the Father, or from both the Father and the Son. Jesus resolved the argument by telling us that He and the Father are one, thus there could be no other way, but from both. Adam and Eve are one, and God nailed it as true when “He called their name Adam. (Gen. 5:2)
Let's take a quick look at the environment that God created for He and this 'Man' to live in. NOTE: The 'ecology' of man is God in His creation, as all was created as an I love you from God for man, we should see all things in the Light which is God and not each other. In the Memento for the Dead in the Tridentine Mass Heaven is described as a place of “refreshment, light and peace”. In the original creation of Heaven, God created 9 choirs of Angels, each led by an Archangel. The choirs are arranged from the smallest to the largest from the closest to the throne of God to the farthest away, all to experience to the best of their spiritual capacity, perfect happiness in this place of refreshment, light and peace. In the Mystical City of God, Our Lady describes in great detail the Wisdom of this arrangement, but not the why. We know from Saint Paul, that “He whom He foreknew, He predestinated” (Rom. 8:29) Notice, the word is not predestined, but predestinated. It seems that the scenario mentioned in “The Poem of The Man-God” given in vision to Maria Valtorta gives the best reason as to how and why this predistinating took place. God is not arbitrary or whimsical, and so He would have had a Divine reason and method. Jesus told Maria that when He creates a soul, for 1/1,000th of a second the soul knows that it is in it's ultimate home – Heaven, and therefore will intrinsically try to return because of that memory and the Love that he/she felt and received there. That would be the time for God to ask the two biggest questions of our existence; will you serve, and at what level? It is not difficult to imagine that Lucifer added to his non serviam that not only would he not serve, but would actually come against God's authority. In “Paradise Lost” Milton postulated that Lucifer claimed to have created himself and was just as much god as the Father was, and so owed Him no obedience or servitude!
We know that God gave both the Angels and the Humans a free will and an intellect to guide it, no doubt instilled from the moment of the creation of their souls. We also know that there is no past or future in eternity, only an ever present now, so that as the free will, soul and spirit and intellect (the higher faculties of both Angels and Humans) coalesce into a particular individual, their first duty is to inform their Creator, when asked, as to what their intentions are toward Him and their intended level of service. This, no doubt, was the first time that Lucifer announced his “non serviam”, I will not serve! It would also have been the time when Saint Michael was given his name which means “Who is like unto God”, in his God-like humility and meekness he was the Angel most like unto God. From this possible scenario we can understand that God did not create what He wanted (predestined creatures), but let them decide by their declarations of service or non service what in their free will they would do for Him and therefore where He could use them, and in fact, where He could afford to put them in Heaven (predestinating themselves by their free-will acts). Thus He predestinated them where they said they would serve and at what level. Their free wills and intellects to guide those free wills were activated and functional upon installation...no excuses!
We understand that the Powers and Principalities angelic choirs were the two largest choirs, and of the 1/3 of the angels that went to hell, they constituted the vast majority of the “fallen angels” as Saint Paul tells us. There are still 9 total choirs represented in Heaven, but now there are only 7 Spirits around the Throne of God where there were 9. Lucifer and Beelzebub are now the leaders of all of the choirs of Hell, again, mostly Powers and Principalities. This is why Saint Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:11,12...”Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in high places” In His infinite Wisdom, God no doubt set each of the “non serviam” Angels at the very outer limits of Heaven to curb their influence and to make the inevitable easier...their expulsion! After all, how could they ever be happy in Heaven?!
The Bible also tells us that the Human race was Gods remedy for all of the empty spaces in Heaven created by the fallen angels. Since 1/3 of the Angels were from the choirs furthest away from the Throne of God, that would indicate that that is where the most openings are and where most who die in the state of sanctifying grace find themselves for all eternity. This gives us a great understanding of what it takes to gain a front row seat in Heaven and why Jesus, Himself said in St. Matt. 7:13,14... ”Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!” Of the Human creatures, THE WOMAN, Our Lady as the Queen of Heaven and the Queen of the Angels and Saints must have the seat closest to the throne of God! We can therefore use Her and Her life to gage where we stand in getting to Heaven and/or where we will sit. Are we giving God our Fiat or our non serviam? Does He have to worry about our contaminating Heaven with our rebellious, obdurate attitude, or is He looking forward to saying “Come on in My good and faithful servant”. Are we a sheep or a goat? If we look at our physical surroundings, particularly our solar system, we have a constant reminder of the above. There are 9 planets, and the smaller ones are closest to the sun (Son, Throne of God) and the larger ones are the furthest away from the sun. No doubt Lucifer and his enormous pride had to be in an outer orbit, or the Son's gravity/ Justice would have burnt him up!
Again, Our Lady in “The Mystical City of God” tells us that Lucifer and his cohort begin to study us from the moment that we are born. She also tells us that Lucifer and all of the Angels were commanded to be present when God announced the human race and what their faculties and charism (particular grace in serving God and His Church) would be. When Lucifer heard and saw that She, Our Lady, would be the Mother of the Saviour of mankind and the future Queen of all of the Angels, She reports to us that his reaction was to vow “I will not bow down to ” THE WOMAN!” Can we now comprehend the words of Genesis 3;15”...I will put enmities between thee and THE WOMAN, and thy seed and Her seed: She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for Her heel. We are Her heel! We are, more to the point, Her Achilles heel with the devil, Her most vulnerable point. Jesus overcame the devil's hold on us by His sufferings and death on the cross and so the 'man-god's debt was satisfied with the Father and the way to our adoption by Him through baptism assured, but now man has to overcome Satan by his obedience to God with Our Lady as our primary example. If we correspond to these graces, we can become Her protection from the devil; Her strongest point in Her fulfilling Her mandate as our Mother. (See Apoc. 12:13~17) We can easily see from the foregoing, why Lucifer was waiting in the garden of Eden for Adam and Eve, thinking that she, Eve, was the Blessed Mother Who would have not only the child that he could never have, but the One that would save us from his wrath against God for kicking him out of Heaven and putting Jesus in his place as ruler of Heaven along withTHE WOMAN as His Queen. He, Lucifer, really had it in for Her, and Her Seed!! If he could get to Eve, he could then get to Adam, and foil God's plan to save mankind.
From all eternity, God had a purpose for the human race in general, and for each individual in particular. To the question: “Why did God make me? The Baltimore Catechism answers: To get to know Him, love Him, and to serve Him in this world so that I can be with Him in the next.” Without the 'original sin' putting a wall between us and our Creator, we would have had perfect knowledge of God's intent, and the 'heart' to want to fulfill it to the max. There never was any such thing as going overboard in our love or service to God; this was/is a contrivance of Lucifer. Thus, instead of us having a naturally warm and loving relationship with our God and Creator, we have an adversarial relationship as pointed up in St. Matt 5:25-6 where Jesus tells us...”Be at agreement with thy adversary (Jesus) betimes, whilst thou art in the way with Him: lest perhaps the adversary deliver thee to the Judge, (God the Father) and the Judge deliver thee to the officer (Lucifer) and thou be cast into prison....” The 'original' sin also therefore made it necessary for God to 'command' us to love and obey Him, and thus also, the necessity of the Holy Bible, and the Precepts of the Church etc. Our Heavenly Mother and Queen, having been born without the 'original' sin, has no barriers to Her Immaculate Heart in loving Her God; quite the opposite, you couldn't stop Her if you tried. Her role in Her Son's Passion in spite of the danger it put Her in,is truly a testimony to that love.
So, what is this 'original' sin and how is it that God imposes it's consequences on all who come into the world? We weren't there! We didn't commit that sin, whatever it is. How is it that the Blessed Virgin got to be without it and WHY?
“Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise? And the woman answered him saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it lest perhaps we die....” (Gen. 3:1~3)
“And she cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb”. (St. Luke 1:42)
...”And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, that it may be for a sign of the covenant between Me and you. An infant of eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations: he that is born in the house, as well as the bought servant shall be circumcised, and whosoever is not of your stock: And My covenant shall be in your flesh for a perpetual covenant. The male , whose flesh of his foreskin shall not be circumcised, that soul shall be destroyed out of his people: because he has broken my covenant” (Genesis 17:11~14)
...”But she shall remain three and thirty days in the blood of her purification. She shall touch no Holy thing, neither shall she enter into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification be fulfilled. But if she bear a maid child, she shall be unclean two weeks, according to the custom of her monthly courses, and she shall remain in the blood of her purification sixty-six days. And when the days of her purification are expired, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, a lamb of a year old for a holocaust, and a young pigeon or a turtle for sin, and shall deliver them to the priest...” (Leviticus 12:4~6)
...”And Mary said to the Angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called Son of God.” (St. Luke 1:34,35)
Can you see the connection between these foregoing quotes? Each has something to do with conceiving and bearing a child. Can you see how the Church got Her teachings on sexual morality? (see also Tobias 6:16~18 and 8:9) God made a new covenant with Abraham to replace the one that Adam and Eve had broken. Read Genesis chapter 4 and see what fruit Adam and Eve bore from their womb by coupling like animals. Adam and Eve were made in the Image and Likeness of God, Genesis 5:3 says that their children were in Adam's own image and likeness...the sinful fallen creature. How did this occur? We can easily tell when we read in Gen. 2:25 that Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed. Then we can read in Gen. 3:7 that, after they committed the original sin: “And the eyes of them both were opened: and when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons.” What areas of the naked body does an apron cover?! Why did they then hide from God? What were they ashamed of? Why did God have Abraham circumcise himself and all of the males, perpetually...for its “sign” value? Why did the woman have to suffer the monthly “curse” and have to be purified and offer a sacrifice for sin because she had a baby? She could not touch anything holy lest she cause it to be “unclean”. Anything that she touched while she was “in her flowers was “unclean” and so was any Levite who came in contact with what she touched! Why was the woman commanded to offer a sacrifice for SIN when the days of her purification were over? Our faith teaches us that Jesus didn't need to be circumcised, and Mary didn't need to be purified because they didn't have 'original' sin, but were simply fulfilling the law so as to give the example of obedience to the law and so as not to bring unwanted attention to themselves or Jesus by scandal. Do we need any more evidence as to what the 'original' sin was? Mary conceived by the Holy Ghost and therefore still did not know man! Jesus was incarnated by the Holy Ghost, and not by animal coupling.
We all come into this world by way of the act that was the 'original' sin, it is not imposed on us by God. In this we can see how heinous this offense was to our all loving God (they ate the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden!) and how profound it's effect was for man. It took man from being just a little bit less than the angels, (they have no sluggish, sensual body to drag around) to being only slightly higher than the animals; they could no longer have God's children through the Holy Ghost, or travel with the speed of thought in their spirits, now they were earthbound and subject to their own passions and concupiscences. How profoundly sad! Even sadder, is the fact that we haven't learned our lesson! We continue to commit the 'original' sin for recreation, in unbridled passion, to release tension, spilling the 'seed of life' on the ground, using birth control methods, with people of our same sex, and with ourselves. Instead of repenting, reforming, or at least using the act as the animals do...just for procreation, and only when the biology is right, we use it as though it was just a light dessert with some calories to burn off. And that does not begin to address the heinous way that we treat the 'unwanted' children that are generated in this now mostly indiscriminate act. It's a wonder that we are even here to talk/read about it, both from the preservation of the species and the Wrath of God perspectives! There are very, very few post-pubescent people in this world who can say that they have not stolen at least some part of the sensual pleasure of this act without the benefit of marriage, or if they are married, have misused and abused the marriage act in one way or another.
“...Beware lest any man cheat you by philosophy, and vain deceit; according to the tradition of men, according to Christ: FOR IN HIM DWELLETH ALL THE FULNESS OF THE GODHEAD CORPOREALLY; And you are filled in Him, Who is the Head of all principality and power: In Whom also you are circumcised with circumcision not made by hand, in despoiling of the body of the flesh, but in the circumcision of Christ: Buried with Him in baptism, in Whom also you are risen again by the faith of the operation of God, Who has raised Him up from the dead. And you, when you were dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh; He hath quickened together with Him, forgiving you all offenses: BLOTTING OUT THE HANDWRITING OF THE DECREE THAT WAS AGAINST US, WHICH WAS CONTRARY TO US. And HE HATH TAKEN THE SAME OUT OF THE WAY, FASTENING IT TO THE CROSS: And despoiling the principalities and powers, He hath exposed them confidently in open shew, triumphing over them in Himself.” (Colossians 2:8~15)
As we type this, it is the feast of the Immaculate Conception, a most fitting day to talk about Our Lady and Her escape from the original sin. We have already covered the fact that God is the “Great I AM”. That He exists in Eternity in which there is no past or future, only an ever present NOW. So, everything for Him is happening now, in the present. His Divine Son, Jesus, is therefore currently dieing on the Cross for our sins as He surely was even as Adam and Eve were committing that original sin. Since the Angels had also committed sin, He was no doubt doing likewise while that battle was going on in Heaven; dieing for all rational creatures past, present, and future in time. This means that His merits were also being applied to them for their repentance, confession and amendment. In order to prepare the world for the event of His sufferings and death, the one who would give Him that body had to be brought into time, into this world. For Him to become the God-man, everything had to be as Adam, the original god-man, totally and perfectly in the image and likeness of God. He had to be totally sinless! He had to be totally without blemish, as the lamb of sacrifice that would be the foreshadowing of His coming. Therefore, He had to take His body from a sinless, blemish-less source. This would be the same body that He, as the propitiatory, would allow to be nailed to the Cross; the same flesh that we would receive in Communion, the same flesh that He would offer to God the father to redeem Adam and Eve and all rational creatures from sin. Nothing less would pay the price!
If God could create Adam without sin and in His own image and likeness so that when He manifested Eve by taking that rib from Adam and building it up with flesh she, likewise being bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, “He called their name Adam” (Gen. 5:1,2), was sinless and in God's image and likeness, why could He not keep the New Eve from having original sin by pre-applying the merits from the Cross to Her? Simple enough for an Almighty, Omniscient God of all creation, don't you think? After all, it was She who was going to supply the body and blood that would be nailed to the Cross; that would be offered to God Our Father in reparation for our sins, that would be the very substance that would be trans-substantiated into Christ's Body and Blood for our communion. It would become the bread of Angels and what we absolutely must have in us to have Life within us, so that we could be raised up on the last day! (John 6:54,55) Throughout human history it has become patently obvious that God decided, even before He gave His omnipotent FIAT! to put creation into motion, that He would always work through his creatures to effect Good. In fact, He even holds Satan and his works to the same rule in their tempting us to sin, fortunately for us! God gave each of us a free will. He, Himself will not do anything to take it away from us, and since even the lowest level demon has an intellect superior to ours and powers of persuasion beyond our comprehension, He will not allow him to overwhelm or abrogate our free wills in any way. Was it fair for Jesus to use Saint Joseph to fake out Satan by disguising Mary as a married woman? Was it fair of Satan to disguise himself as a four-footed animal, the snake, to fake out Eve?!
I always feel a profound sadness when I think of the damage that feminism has done not only within the human race, but more importantly in the relationship that women have to God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit of God. They have a strong tendency to contempt Them and their representatives in the Church and in the family for their seemingly lowly status with an all-male God and an all-male Church hierarchy. What about THE WOMAN'S role in salvation history?! She was chosen from all eternity to be the bearer of God's children, and of God's Only Begotten: The one who would be restored first to God's good graces; the one who who gave up Her life to give life to Him and to us, the one who formed a trinity with the Holy Spirit-Her Spouse-to bring about our salvation; the one whom Jesus gave to us to be our Mother at the foot of the Cross! What human male has such credentials? It all reaches the level of the ludicrous when we realize that, as the 'womb-man', integral to the single creation which is 'man', she is contempting herself! Just as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are One with the same substance and same Will that would not be the Godhead if any one of the Persons were missing, the trinity which is man, has the same integrity. Just as the Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit and so on, it takes all three to function as Almighty God – it is His, God's Nature, the same applies to the trinity that is man.
Is it something shameful to be in the image and likeness of God Almighty? Is it contemptible to have a different temperament and function from another member of the trinity of man? Can a head function without a heart to pump it the blood without which it cannot survive? Even in the celibate life, Holy Mother Church provides the missing pieces, She, Herself is the Woman, and the centerpiece of the rite of Ordination, or taking on the Habit is the 'calling in' of the Holy Spirit, so that we can be useful to both God and His Church. All of the members of the human trinity have value that is not only intrinsic, but also absolutely vital to the whole. It was not a strictly human male who was 'elevated' to being a God-man, but it was a strictly human woman, “who was in the transgression” who was used to restore motherhood back to it's original place of honor. Remember, not even any of the Angels can have a child! So where is the justification for the contempt? What is the driving force for a woman to want to leave her exalted status as mother to be a man and to become a man? “And to Adam He said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee not to eat, cursed is the earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return. And Adam called the name of his wife Eve: because she was the mother of all the living.” (Gen. 3:17~20) We can see the beginning of that contempt of Eve for Adam in verse one of the very next chapter: And Adam knew Eve his wife: who conceived and brought forth Cain, saying: I have gotten a man through God.” She left him, Adam her spouse, completely out of the picture. She took his place with God as head. She made herself a man! Super woman was born, she didn't even need him to get pregnant?
Adam and Eve were created as one circle with a point of conjunction with Almighty God. They were of the same substance in likeness to God. Initially they had the very same will, just like God. Their purpose and harmony was in pleasing and adoring their creator in the capacity that they were created , man and womb- man. Only when Eve thought of herself as separate from Adam and began her own outside relationship with Satan did things get out of kilter. God called them Adam, a head and a heart bound by love just as He was. Her relationship to God was through the head, Adam, just as the relationship in the Trinity was through the Father from the Son by way of the love that they had in common, the Holy Spirit. If there was to be another relationship started by Eve, it should have been in conjunction with her head, Adam, not to spite Adam by leaving him out. Again, she left a part of herself out, her head! Just as the head needs the blood that the heart pumps to it with the life giving oxygen, so too the heart needs the impulse to beat from the head or they will both be dead! Just like Siamese twins, the chances of survival when they share vital organs such as the brain or the heart, they have no chance of survival when parted. Didn't Jesus say in St. Matt. 19:6, “...Therefore now they are not two but one flesh. (Just as Adam and Eve were until God took the rib from Adam and built it up with flesh) What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.” Did Eve not put the relationship with Adam asunder, in complete disobedience? Did she not put herself outside of the protective circle that God had put her in with and as part of Adam? Was she not now also outside of being in conjunction with the Circle of the Divinity?
As the head, and the one therefore through whom the Creator communicates to His Man, Adam /Eve, did Adam not also leave the Circle of his Creator? Did he not feel the void when Eve slipped away from him to speak to Satan? Was it not the job of the head to regulate the functions of the rest of the body? Was he not there when God said ”...Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall CLEAVE to his wife: and they shall be two in ONE flesh.” No one goes from near perfection to perdition in one instant. The change is gradual, just as the change in the opposite direction is also gradual. Adam had to have ignored the telltale signs of Eve's malcontent. He must also have been derelict in his duty to God as he obviously did not talk the matter over with Him. Then it all blew up like Humpty Dumpty when Eve came from Satan and offered Adam her fruit which God had forbidden, and he didn't seek out God for strength or deliverance from the temptation. Then there really was a void as the 'Man' circle broke completely loose from God's Circle and plunged to the earth. It was a breach that couldn't be ignored by God and would take Jesus' atoning death on the Cross to mend. We re-create the breach whenever we commit mortal sin, and at the same time risk crashing and burning ...forever in hell. “For if we sin willfully after having the knowledge of the truth, there is now left no sacrifice for sins, But a certain dreadful expectation of judgment, and the rage of a fire which shall consume the adversaries. A man making void the law of Moses, dieth without any mercy under two or three witnesses: How much more, do you think he deserves worse punishments, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath esteemed the blood of the testament unclean, by which he was sanctified, and hath offered an affront to the Spirit of Grace?” (Hebrews 10:26~29) Fortunately for Adam/Eve, God had already planned Jesus' death and merits thereof and the Graces of repentance were applied to them and they did repent and come back to their creator. Just as fortunate for them, they did not try to lie their way out, piling sin on top of sin and blocking out God's merciful forgiveness.
We are currently in the season of Advent, and it is appropriate that we stand back and take stock of our own attitude towards and estimation of the 'Little Babe' growing in the Blessed mother's womb. He would come into time and this world as a defenseless, unpretentious baby. Is that really how we should see Him, Our Saviour, Jesus? After all, what does the Scripture say about the son of Mary: “And the Angel said to Her: Fear not, Mary, for Thou hast found Grace with God. Behold Thou shalt conceive in Thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and Thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God shall give onto Him the throne of David His father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom there shall be no end.” (Luke 1:30~33) Does this sound like someone that should be taken lightly, someone whom history can and should easily and without consequence ignore. Does this sound like someone that, to receive Him, you can unceremoniously and without proper preparation stand up instead of kneel before and receive in your hand and dust His particles off your hands into the carpet, or wipe his blood off on your shirt/blouse?!
Here is what an esteemed and published pre-Vatican II theologian, Mons. Romano Guardini in his book “The Lord” (Regenry Press, Chicago, 1954, pages 519,20- see Amazon used books) has to say about Divine Power:
“Divine Truth is the foundation of existence and the bread of the spirit, yet in the realm of human history it is separated from power. Truth counts,but power forces. What Truth lacks-and the nobler it is the greater the lack-is immediate power. The lesser truths retain some measure of power because instinct and necessity confirm them; we have only to think of those ethical truths which apply to our own direct, activating force, the less need for the spirit to surrender itself easily to that force voluntarily, in freedom. The nobler the truth, the more easily it can be shoved aside or ridiculed; the more dependent it is upon spiritual chivalry. This applies to all truth; particularly, however, to sacred truth, which stands in constant danger of “scandal”. The moment it enters the world, it lays down its omnipotence, entering in the apparel of a helpless slave. Not only because sacred truth ranks highest in the scale of veracity (and is therefore, according to the law just mentioned, lowest in power) but also because it comes from the Grace of Divine Love, which calls sinful man to conversion, it irritates him to revolt. Only for this reason was the phenomenon described in St. John's Gospel possible: In Him was Life, and the Life was the light of men. And the Light shines in the darkness; and the darkness grasped it not”. (1:4,5) Once though (at a point in the future) Truth and power will be inseparable. Then Truth will have as much power as it has validity and value, and the higher It stands, the greater will be It's force. Stupendous event – fulfillment of all spiritual longing! The immeasurable truth of God: immeasurable power, the Holy Truth of God: Holy, destructive, revolutionary, reconstructive power that will dominate all things!
How will this come about? Through the Word of Christ. Through His word spoken in history's last hour and valid for all eternity: the law, space, light and air of ultimate existence. Truth's first word was weak – weak and defenseless as Jesus Himself, the self appointed slave of mankind. Thus the powers of darkness could easily reject it. Truth's second word will be as forceful as its sense, which is OMNIPOTENT. Dreadful hour for its enemies! Everything in us that shrinks from the light will have to go, for there will be no more shade. Now untruth can exist because truth is feeble, just as sin can exist because God allows our free will room (incomprehensible “space”!) in which it is able to decide against Him. Now for yet a little while” - as little as that indicated by the “soon” of the Second Coming – it is possible to to err and lie. However, once Truth comes into power, untruth will no longer be able to exist, because all existence will brim with Truth and Light. Deception will be crowded out of the universe, subsisting only in expressible form: DAMNATION. For those who long for truth, for that in us which loves It, what liberation! It will be an experience similar to that of a suffocating man suddenly lifted into pure, clean air. All existence will flower into freedom and beauty, for as St. Thomas Aquinas says, beauty is the splendor of truth become reality. Such realization is the victory for which Christ contends with the “two-edged sword” of His mouth.”
Here is what victim soul and Servant of God, Luisa Piccaretta received from our loving Saviour in that which she entitled “Novena of Holy Christmas” In it she purposed to meditate on the sufferings that Jesus went through while He spent 9 months inside His Mother's womb. Jesus came to her and gave her this commentary as to what it was like; it hasn't changed, and won't change until the event written of by Monsignore Guardini in the previous section. The meditation was broken into 9 parts and we will pick it up in the seventh part, each part called by Jesus an “Excess of His Love”:
“Therefore He added, My daughter, do not want to leave Me alone in so much solitude and in so much obscurity. Do not want to go out of the womb of my Mama in order to consider well the seventh excess of My Love. Listen to Me. In the Bosom of My Heavenly Father I was fully happy; there was no Good which I did not possess. Joy, happiness, all was at My disposition. The Angels reverently gave cult of highest adoration and all felt beckoned at My every nod, but the excess of My Love for the human race, I could say, made Me exchange My good fortune. I stripped Myself of all My joys and happiness. I divested Myself of all My goods and every Heavenly commodity to dress Myself with all the infirmities of the creatures, to the end of procuring for them My eternal happiness, My eternal joys and My contentment. This exchange, though, would have been very slight for Me if I would not have found in them the most monstrous ingratitude and obstinate perfidy (treachery, duplicity). Oh how My eternal Love was always surprised before so much ingratitude! Oh, how much pain the obstinance and perfidy of man gives Me, which for Me are more than thorns, the most piercing to My Heart, which had to suffer from My conception untold punctures and will continue unto the last moment of My life. Look, look well at My little Heart; in how many thorns does It find Itself. Observe the wounds that they give It and the blood which gushes out of It in streams! Oh, what pain and how many sorrows do I not feel! My daughter, do not still be ungrateful to Me, since ingratitude is more than closing the door of your heart in My face and making Me stay outside, all benumbed by your cold heart. And yet, My Love, in the face of so much perversity of the human heart, does not stop; on the contrary, It takes on another more elevated Love, which makes Me become supplicating, moaning and pleading for them, and this My daughter is the eighth excess of My most profound Love.
My daughter, do not leave Me alone. Continue to rest your head upon the womb of My Mama so also, outside, you will hear My moans, My supplications; but you will see that neither My moans nor My supplications will move the ungrateful creature to compassion for My Love, and you will see Me, then, still a little one, extend My hand as the poorest of beggars and ask for pity's sake their souls, at least as an alms. I hope that in this way I will be able to attract their affections and their hearts benumbed by egoism, to Me. My Love, My daughter, wants to win at whatever cost the heart of man, and it is for this, that seeing that these after having used the seventh excess of My Love, are still reluctant, playing deaf by not caring either for Me or for My goods, I have decided to push Myself farther. My Love should have stopped before so much ingratitude; but no! It wants to come out of It's confines, and even from the maternal womb It makes My supplicating voice reach each heart. I use the most insinuating means; the sweetest and most moving prayers in order to touch the fibers of the human heart and in order to obtain, do you know what? The heart of the creature, for which I say, My daughter, give Me your heart, for it is Mine: and I will give you all that you want, and even Myself, provided that you give Me your heart in exchange. Although cold in love, I will warm it by the touch of My Heart and I will make it burst into flames, into such flames as to destroy in you every affection that is not of Heaven. If I have descended from Heaven in order to incarnate Myself in the maternal womb, know that I did it precisely in order to make you enter into the bosom of My heavenly Father. For pity's sake, do not deny Me it. Do not render My hopes disappointed, because for you they will be the assurance of infinite goods.
Nevertheless, seeing the creature still reluctant towards My Love, that moreover he turned his back and went away from Me I tried to stop him; and with the most tender and supplicative moans and joining My little hands I tried beseeching him, saying to him with voice suffocated by sobbings: For pity's sake, see My soul, that I am a none other than the little Beggar, Who asks nothing else for alms than only your heart? My daughter, is it possible that you do not want to understand that this way of acting of Mine is none other than the greatest excess of My uncorresponded to Love? That the Creator in order to attract the creature to His Love takes the form of a little baby in order to not overpower and that He reduces Himself to asking as alms its deformed heart, and seeing it recalcitrant and restive, not wanting to give it to him, that He beg it, supplicate it, moan and cry. Does this not move you to compassion? Does this not melt your heart?
And yet, My daughter, the reasoning creature seems to have completely lost the use of reason, because while he should be drowned in the flames of My Divine Love, he tries rather to get rid of It in order to go in search of the most beastly loves, for which he will wind up in the infernal chaos, hell, in which a thousand times as much... he will cry eternally.
At these words of Jesus, I felt myself all moved to pity and at the same time horrified and I shivered thinking about the human ingratitude and then on the most sad, eternal and irreparable consequences. While I was immersed in this double consideration, the voice of my Jesus interiorly made itself heard in my heart. And you, my daughter, would you not want to give Me your Heart? Would you perhaps want Me to cry and dissolve into moans and supplications also for you for the purpose of obtaining the possession of your heart?...
Even in His Mother's womb, Jesus is not what we humans make Him out to be, because we continuously make the mistake, despite the evidence, of thinking Him to be just another gestating baby with no ability to think outside the human box. If we can't do it, He can't do it. We make Him our equal instead of humbling ourselves in the awe of knowing that we are nothing, if not totally insignificant in the Light that is God. We make the same mistake that the apostles made in totally thinking of Him in human terms until the Holy Spirit came. The Scriptures record the profound change in their thought and speech when they truly realized the Master was truly God and man. And yet, He dared not disobey the Father, while we think nothing of it! Why did Our Lady of Fatima talk of another war and a worse war. The better question is did we forget who we are dealing with, or did we simply never learn the lesson? At any rate, there has not only been one war, but several. Did these come about because mankind improved, or because we got worse? If we were to describe Jesus in one word, it would have to be obedience. As Christians, that is, followers of Christ, should not our middle name be obedience? After WWI, one would have thought that mankind would have reconsidered it's position as regards it's Creator and it's attitude toward Him and His messenger – THE WOMAN! One should have been able to predict that there would be a mad scramble to consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, to set up devotion to Her Immaculate Heart, even make First Saturdays holy days of obligation. To express to our God a gigantic and heartfelt OOOOPS!
Instead, as it is expressed in 2Peter 3:3,4...”Knowing this first, that in the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers walking after their own lusts, saying: Where is His promise or His coming? For since the time that the fathers slept, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation”. Verse 10 tells us...”But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the earth and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up. Is God going to sneak up on us? Does He need to? He sent the Blessed Virgin Mary to Fatima 6 times and produced a miracle that was witnessed by at least 70,000 people to warn us and we simply carried on as though nothing had happened!! In the Old Testament, the reputation of the Hebrew people was renowned. If they were in good with their/our God, no one could defeat them, but if their/our God was displeased with them, they could be taken 'without so much as a dog barking' to give them away, because God wouldn't lift a finger to help them. After all, God Himself had brought the enemy against them to chasten them into repentance. In the third Secret published by Emmett Culligan in 1967 (see BMOF I) Our Heavenly Queen actually threatened to let fall Her Sons arm and petition the Eternal Father to bring His wrath down here to the earth if we didn't straighten out! Our Lady didn't stutter, She very plainly told the children that God was not at all pleased with mankind, and in spite of this dire warning, the Church which calls Our Blessed Lady 'Holy Mother of God' went to sleep as Peter, James and John did in the Garden of Gethsemane while Jesus prayed, sweat blood and drank the chalice of the bitterness of our sins. Yes, we haven't changed at all since that night, how many centuries ago?
The following is a small pamphlet published in 1957 out of the Our Lady of Fatima Shrine on Swan Road, Youngstown, NY. Please read it with a strong light of Truth and a magnifying glass to your heart. HOW DO YOU STACK UP?
DO YOU KNOW... There is a secret to be opened in 1960? The last secret of Fatima! Sister Lucy, to whom the Secret was given by Our Lady of Fatima some 40 years ago, said: “When the Secret is revealed in 1960 – some will be glad, but many will be sad.”
Will you be glad that you have fulfilled Our Lady's requests? Are you doing what Our Lady of Fatima asked you to do while there is still time? (the last blood moon is only 9 mos. away!)
REMEMBER
Our Lady of Fatima said: