A WOMAN CLOTHED IN THE SUN

A MESSAGE FOR THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BVM

Today is the 13th of the month, and thus should be the 100th anniversary of the fourth apparition of Fatima.  However, it is not.  In August of 1917, the civil authorities, in an effort to put a stop to the growing devotion surrounding the apparitions, arrested the three children and preventing them from going to the Cova da Iria.  Some kind of phenomenon seems to have occurred there that day anyway, but it was without the presence of Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, and our Lady expressed her disappointment at a later apparition.

It was as though Goodness was overshadowed by evil that day.  The Woman clothed in the Sun was eclipsed by the blackness of the Moon Shadow, and the light of the world was temporarily stifled by the powers of darkness.

A hundred years later, and the warnings of our Lady have mostly come to pass.  The dire predictions of a third war, worse than the first two world wars, have not yet been fulfilled, but the perilous political situation in the Far East make our Lady's prophecy seem all the more imminent.  A week from tomorrow, the shadow of the moon will eclipse the light of the sun in a total solar eclipse.  For a couple of hours, even here in Ohio, we should experience a significant dimming of the light, reflecting the darkening of the world by sin.  It will be a good time to ponder on our own frailty and relative insignificance in the great universe of space and time.

It would not be a good time, however, to abandon all hope for the return of light, or goodness, to the world.  Light will always triumph over darkness, goodness over evil, and just as the moon runs its course across the heavens, blotting out the power of the sun for a short time, so it will continue on its way, and the light will return.  And if we pray our Rosary as our Lady instructed us at Fatima, we may hope that she will continue to hold back a little longer the righteous hand of her Son, and that some sparks of goodness will return to our poor world.  It is surely not a coincidence that the day following the eclipse is the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that most pure Heart that our Lady declared will ultimately triumph.

For the time being, make sure to come to Mass this Tuesday and celebrate the day on which the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, was taken up body and soul into those very heavens we shall be watching a week later.  The octave that follows this year's Feast of the Assumption is certainly a God-given opportunity for us to contemplate the glories of his blessed Mother, and the growing urgency of her plea at Fatima for mankind to devote itself to prayer and penance.