By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY
On June 13, 1917, the Feast of St. Anthony, the Fatima children were assembled with about fifty other persons at the Cova da Iria. In her memoirs, Sr. Lucia described how, around noon, as soon as they finished praying the rosary, and as our Lady approached, they once again saw the flash of what they called lightning; the next moment, she was on the little holmoak before them.
Lucia asked what she wanted of her, and was told, “I wish you to come here on the 13th of next month, to pray the rosary every day, and to learn to read. Later, I will tell you what I want.” In reply, Lucia asked for the cure of a sick person, to which the Blessed Virgin said, “lf he is converted, he will be cured during the year.”
Then Lucia asked her to take them to Heaven. The reply was: “Yes. I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon. But you are to stay here some time longer. Jesus wishes to make use of you to make me known and loved. He wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.”
Rather sadly, Sr. Lucia asked if she was to stay here alone, to which our Lady said, “No, my daughter. Are you suffering a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.”
There is a wealth of instruction in that short dialogue, but this article will focus more on what happened next, since, as Lucia tells us:
“As our Lady spoke these last words, she opened her hands and for the second time, she communicated to us the rays of that same immense light. We saw ourselves in this light, as it were, immersed in God. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in that part of the light which rose toward Heaven, and I in that which was poured out on the Earth. In front of the palm of our Lady’s right hand was a heart encircled by thorns which pierced it. We understood that this was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity, and seeking reparation.”
This experience was a repetition of what had happened the previous month, when our Lady had opened her hands and communicated to the children a light so intense that, as it streamed from her hands, its rays penetrated their hearts and the innermost depths of their souls, making them see themselves in God, who was that light, more clearly than they might see ourselves in the best of mirrors.
This time, though, there were two aspects to this experience: Firstly, that the light was indicating that Jacinta and Francisco would soon be going to Heaven; and secondly, it was also giving them a deeper understanding of our Lady’s Immaculate Heart and her desire for reparation.
Commenting about this latter aspect, Sr. Lucia later wrote, “I think that, on that day, the main purpose of this light was to infuse within us a special knowledge and love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
She also made this comment: “From that day onwards, our hearts were filled with a more ardent love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary. From time to time, Jacinta said to me: ‘The Lady said that her Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God. Don’t you love that? Her Heart is so good! How I love it!’”
But apart from Jacinta’s deep devotion to our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, clearly what the children had when they were, as it were, immersed in God, was a real experience of God, of Heaven.
The reality of Heaven is something which, broadly speaking, most Catholics probably don’t focus a great deal on. We have perhaps some vague idea of what Heaven will be like, but for most people, until they start to get older, and begin to realize that they are mortal after all, it is not something which impinges too much on their thinking.
This is obviously a mistake since we are inevitably destined for eternity, and it matters a great deal whether it is a blissful or a grievously painful one. In that sense, we need to imitate the Fatima children for whom Heaven and Hell became the great realities of their young lives. Clearly, since they had experienced both — with their vision of Hell coming the next month, in July 1917 — it was easier for them to grasp these great realities, but we, too, have to make some effort to do so.
One day, Lucia asked Jacinta, during the course of the long illness that eventually led to her death, what she was going to do in Heaven. She replied, “I’m going to love Jesus very much, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, too. I’m going to pray a lot for you, for sinners, for the Holy Father, for my parents and my brothers and sisters, and for all the people who have asked me to pray for them.”
We do get some idea of what Heaven will be like in the New Testament. At the Last Supper, after He had washed their feet, Jesus said to His disciples, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3).
St. Paul, based on his experience of being raised up to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12: 2-4) and of hearing things “which could not be told, which man may not utter,” also spoke of Heaven as being: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, [all that] God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2: 9).
Beyond Imagining
So Heaven, which is being in the presence of God, is something so wonderful and exalted, that it is utterly beyond our imagination, or our capability of grasping. In fact, according to Catholic theology, we will need to be raised up by God so we can see Him via the beatific vision, in which we will behold Him face to face and thus achieve a perfect and ecstatic happiness.
We get a further idea of what Heaven will be like in the Book of Revelation, in which St. John the Evangelist recounts the great vision he had of the new Heaven and the new Earth, during which he heard a loud voice saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:1-4).
The children of Fatima in some way glimpsed that wonderful reality, and so we, too, should think more about Heaven, in the hope that we will some day get there.
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(Donal Anthony Foley is the author of a number of books on Marian Apparitions, and maintains a related web site at www.theotokos.org.uk. He has also a written a time-travel/adventure book for young people — details at: http://glaston-chronicles.co.uk/.)
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