"Souls are falling into Hell like leaves off of trees because of the sins of impurity."
Here's something that needs to be remembered in our modern-day world that glorifies sex and violence. And yes that includes myself as well for I have sinned against God with lust in my heart.
I've heard examples like this. Fr. Gruner said he was having a lot of trouble getting
through to politicians regarding the pro-abortion laws and pro-ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ "marriage"
laws, then one day he came up with an idea. He wrote them letters telling them
that if they do not promote pro-life legislation and honor the law of God, they are
going to go to hell. He said that got their attention.
It was the vision of hell that clinched the focus of the world's Catholics, it seems
to me, more than the miracle of the sun. For the 70,000 witnesses who were there,
certainly the latter had a most powerful effect, but keep in mind that they were
mulling about and talking to each other, and not a small part of what they had to
say was recollections of the description of the previous visions and the effects
they had had on the shepherd children, such as that they were to never waver in
their devotion and in their daily penances.
Remember also, it was not as though these pilgrims were told the whole story up
to that point. The story of how the Message of Fatima was made known over the
years and the decades is instructive in itself. It might be well worth keeping these
things in mind in deciding how best to introduce someone who is new to the whole
thing.
What the children saw and heard is one thing, and what the local witnesses saw
and heard is something else. The visions and words of Our Lady as they took
place in time are one thing and public awareness of those facts is another thing.
We should be careful not to get these things confused. In those days, news traveled
rather slowly. It's hard for us to comprehend this today, when we have the Internet
and cell phones. My mother was born during these visions but her family did not
become aware that they had taken place until my mother was a teenager. Even
then, the story came in bits and pieces. The great miracle on October 13th is an
attention-getter, but all by itself it hardly makes much sense, and to today's mind,
the first thing a newcomer thinks is that perhaps 70,000 eye-witnessed had some
kind of collective illusion, for it's impossible to imagine that the sun could lose its
place in the sky and actually "fall towards earth." It is inconsistent with the "laws"
of gravity and planetary motion. Remember these are people who have been
led to believe that the Bible is not historically true, and so, when the sun and
moon "stood still" in the sky for the time of one whole day as a certain battle
raged on earth, modern man says, "it must have been some kind of collective
illusion at the time."
We live in the age of subjectivism, and
reality is thought to be entirely
"in the
mind," forgetting that objective reality has its own, independent existence. This
is why the vision of hell holds such power in the face of modern thinking, because
then the objective reality of hell can cross over from its state of being "out of
mind" to becoming "center stage" in our perception. This gives modern man a
whole new way of perceiving reality, a way he is not accustomed to, and a way
that can only be for his edification and benefit.
The vision of hell demands our
attention, while the story of the Miracle of the sun gets immediately tucked away
into that special category of "
things I don't need to think about because they are
not real to me."
I believe we should not promote the habit of putting the Message of Fatima into
the doldrums of modern man's subjectivism for it is a "deep well of unknowing,"
out of which there is no escape: a kind of temporal "hell of its own making," out
of which ideas and clear thinking cannot emerge.For the three children were not wont to explain everything as it took place. They
were not looking for attention. Lucia was severely punished because adults in the
village, especially her own mother, thought she was making up stories. It wasn't
until years later that she recounted many of the missing details, and it was not
until 1942, under direct order from her superior that she finally put the famous
Third Secret down to written record, under obedience. She had been burdened
with that text for 25 years by then, the only person in the world to know of its
contents, after her two cousins had died.
So, some of the Message of Fatima has been made public rather gradually over
time. And even today, 95 years after the fact, we still do not have the words of
Our Lady in the Third Secret! The enemies of the Church know Her words, and are
dead set against making them public knowledge.
Would one have to believe that Our Lady is the [Mediatrix] of all graces won for us by her Divine Son, etc., just to begin to see that the events that took place at Fatima on October 13, 1917, cannot be explained by natural occurrences?
It seems to me that subjective recognition of the truth of objective reality is at
the foundation of clear thinking, in general, and that believing the truth of Our Lady
as Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix is at the foundation of the one, true Church
outside of which there is no salvation, in particular. Both of these things might be
too much for a "non-believer" to deal with all at once. He needs a halfway point
of reference, a guiding star, a point of safe return, that can help him have the
confidence to set foot into that vast beyond where he has no experience in his
erstwhile thinking and daily awareness.
Because that's basically what I'm looking for. I'm looking for something that a non-believer, more specifically a non-Catholic, is not immediately going to put down because it uses too much 'flowery' religious language.
With all due respect, it is more than "flowery language" that is the problem. It is
the bent of the modern mind that is the problem. Modern man can't cope with the
"flowery language" because of his subjectivism, which is his comfort zone. And he
is not going to easily step out of that manner of perception without some serious
help, without some grave cause, without some overwhelming incentive. The
thought of GOING TO HELL is just such an incentive. The thought of a bunch of
ancient peasants gawking at a free light show in the sky is
not such an incentive.
It needs to start off with the basic facts about Fatima, together with docuмentary evidence proving the events as miraculous. Then it can get into the message of Fatima, what it means and why it's important for us to follow.
This is a great question! Something a non-believer would find convincing: I think it
would be impressive
for them to consider the reality of the danger that hell is to
each one of us. Hell is a show stopper.
The vision of hell and its description are most powerful. They occurred on July 13th,
1917, at the third appearance of Our Lady, and after the children had been
prepared by the Angel of Portugal for about 18 months previous, by that time.
Recall that the two girls said later that if the Lady had not already told them that
they would go to heaven, this vision of Hell would have caused them to die of
fright. Therefore, the knowledge that we have the possibility to be saved, provided
that we cooperate with God's grace, is the thing that must be communicated at
least in seed form, before the vision of Hell is explained in all its detail.
When approaching someone who may already have a lot of erroneous indoctrination
in their past, we should be sensitive to that, and give them what they need to hear,
which seems to me to be the danger of hell, basically, but in its proper context.
...Question: If you could give a non-believer one book, video, etc. in order to convince them of the truth of Fatima and why they need to heed Our Lady's warnings today, what would it be? Thanks!
I have seen a wide variety of books on Fatima. The most impressive have always
been the very old ones. I found one at a church rummage sale some months ago
that is very good. I'm sure it's out of print. It is a pamphlet form, paperback,
stapled binding, about 35 pages. I'll go see if I can find it. I would recommend the
various special Fatima editions that the Fatima Crusader (the Fatima Center) has
put out over the years. Some of them are so popular they keep running out of
stock on them. The cover pages are no thicker than the body on those, so they
tend to wear out quickly. If you have a person who might like to carry it around, I
suggest you use simple, clear package tape and lay down one continuous layer of
it on the cover. It takes about 10 minutes, and the result will hold up for many
years.
One key point to look for in such a book is that you should avoid any book that
says that the Consecration of Russia "has been done" or "has been accepted by
heaven," or such things. A typical example of that is any of the Fatima Family
Apostolate publications, or Immaculate Heart Messenger from Fr. Robert J. Fox
(RIP), who spread such errors far and wide. Our Lady promised "the conversion of
Russia" and a consequent "period of peace," neither one of which has occurred, so
therefore, the Consecration has not been done as Our Lady had requested that it
should be.
This is a very holy activity, and you may well find your efforts are blessed through
Our Lady's intercession along the way.