May 13, 2019

Still within Marian Year, we continue our reflection on the Message of Our Lady, which she gave to the whole world, through the three shepherd children: Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta,            during her apparitions at Fatima in Portugal. It was the same message she repeated during her apparitions that took place monthly for six consecutive months, from May 13 to October 13, 1917. The message can be summarized in two points, namely Prayer and Penance.  In the June Edition, our focus was on Prayer. In this Edition, our reflection is centered on Penance.

 

What is penance?  In ordinary parlance, penance is punishment on oneself as an outward expression of repentance for wrongdoing. In religious terms, penance is a sacrament in which a member of the Church confesses sins to a Priest and is given absolution.  Indeed, Penance is the fourth of the seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church instituted by Christ himself.

 

The Catholic Encyclopedia defines penance as a sacrament of the New Law instituted by Christ in which forgiveness of sin is granted through the Priest’s absolution to those who with true sorrow confess their sins and promise to satisfy for the same.  It is called a “sacrament” not simply a function or ceremony, because it is an outward sign instituted by Christ to impart grace to the soul. As an outward sign it comprises the actions of the penitents in presenting himself to the Priest and accusing himself of his sins, and the actions of the Priest in pronouncing absolution and imposing satisfaction. Sin injures and weakens the sinner as well as his relationships with God and neighbour. Absolution takes away the sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders that the sin has caused. Consequently, the sinner, having been absolved, must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin.  This is technically referred to as satisfaction. A typical example is to make restitution, that is, to return stolen goods.

Our Lady’s requests are five.  They are (1) Reparation on the First Saturday of five consecutive months; (2) Monthly confession; (3) Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays (4) Recitation of the Rosary; and (5) The Fifteen Minute Meditation on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary. Out of these requests, the first and third requests which talk about Reparation are pertinent to the subject matter—Penance.  In putting forward Reparation as solution to the problem of sins committed, we shall emphasize the Intention of Making Reparation. In fact, it is this intention that permeates and connects the five requests mentioned above.

 

We shall now enumerate those sins human beings have committed and are still committing against Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary for which we must make reparations. The question might then be asked, “In What Ways Do People Offend Our Lord and Our Lady, for which they are to do penance and make reparations?”

 

In the United States, for instance, while those on the side of the Almighty God and the Blessed Virgin Mary try to spread her “Peace Plan from Heaven,” the forces of evil are meeting with even greater success in their efforts to draw men into sin. Our Lady said at Fatima that “Wars are a punishment from God to sin.” Everywhere in this country, there has been a tremendous increase in abortions, divorce, birth control, immorality, paganism, materialism and secularism.  Pope Pius XII once said, and later corroborated by Pope St. John Paul II that “The greatest sin of our generation is that it has lost all sense of sin.”

 

How true these words are becomes apparent when the statements of Jacinta concerning immorality are recalled, and we see that in the United States.  Now, reflect critically on the following points:

• At least, 1.5 Million surgical abortions are performed every year in the United States, one out of every four pregnancies. Remember that abortion is murder, and murder is one of the “Four Sins Crying to Heaven for Vengeance.” Mathematically, it is calculated that in every five hours and fifteen minutes, there are 900 abortions in the United States.  Surgical abortion is the most common operation performed in the United States today. Furthermore, there are millions of silent abortions caused by the most commonly used contraceptives and abortifacients.

Contraception is the attempt to prevent conception by periodic continence, or by

mechanical, chemical or physiological means.  Contraceptives are, therefore, devices or drugs employed to prevent pregnancy.  They include coitus interruptus, coitus reservatus, spermicides, condom, the Diaphragm, the Intra-Uterine Device (IUD), the Pills, Injectable Hormones or Depo Provera, etc.

 

“Abortifacients” refers to all those agents that promote the abortion or the expulsion of the unborn child from the womb.  Abortifacients actually kill the unborn child and eject it from the womb.  They are categorized into two, namely “silent abortifacients” and “direct abortifacients”.

Silent abortifacients  include the IUD and sometimes the injectable hormones like the pills, which could prevent implantation of the fertilized ovum, when administered post-coitally.

According to Dr. T.C.E. Mbanefo, the side effects of these are heavy periods, the control of which may require a complete removal of the womb (hysterectomy); pelvic infection; if this is serious, it can lead to death.  Then the life and health of the child may be at risk.

 

Direct Abortion techniques:  Direct abortion is that which is willingly brought about by the couple. It is the direct killing and expulsion of the foetus (unborn child) from the womb by using hard instruments like forceps, spatula, etc. God is not happy with all this.

• Advocates of birth control, insisting that children are a burden and not a blessing, are successfully inducing millions of young couples to use contraceptives. They say that God can create life but cannot provide for it. Thus, it is estimated that 1/3 of couples married 10 years or more have been voluntarily sterilized.
• In addition, homosexuality or sodomy is being recognized more and more as a “legitimate lifestyle”, even by many who call themselves Catholics. It is also one of the “Four Sins Crying to Heaven for Vengeance”.  San Francisco, one of our greatest cities, is now considered by many as the capital of homosexuality in the US; “gay” organizations operate openly there and often brazenly stage public rallies in the city streets.
• Prostitution, juvenile delinquencies, sex crimes and immorality in general have increased to an alarming degree since World War II. Much of this has been caused by the indecent fashions worn by modern women today, and much by the filthy propaganda reaching Americans through overwhelming torrent of indecent literature which has deluged us the past several years.¹¹
• Other sexual crimes and sex-related crimes committed elsewhere include fornication, adultery, rape, incest, masturbation, pedophilia, pederasty, lesbianism or sapphism, masochism, sadism, exhibitionism, narcissism, bestiality, transformism, etc.
• Worst of all, there is an organized attempt, which is coming out into the open, to deny the existence of God (Atheism), and to destroy Him in the minds of the youth of our country.

In our country, Nigeria, our offences include bribery and corruption, embezzlement, greed, inhumanity, injustice, cheating, various forms of killing through boko haram insurgency, kidnapping, hired assassination, rape, incest, armed robbery, poison, sorcery,  witchcraft and wizardry, lightning and thunder (shango), etc.

 

All these and many other crimes will combine to bring down upon us the wrath (anger) of God in forms of suffering, persecution and even atomic war that may well be the end of our civilization.

 

When Our Lady of Fatima asks us to do penance, in addition to making sacramental confession of sins, she wants us to make reparation. Actually, penance will not be complete without sincere reparation. Her first request says, “Reparation on the First Saturdays of five consecutive months” and the third request: “Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays”.

 

What is reparation? Simply put, reparation means the action of repairing something; it is the action of making amends for a wrong one has done, by providing payment or other assistance to those who have been wronged. It is a practical way to pay back for the harm caused by the offence, either by directly repairing the harm or through some constructive work to help the local community. If this harm is caused by one person to another, the victim is usually consulted about what should be done.  This may take the form of an oral or written apology or even financial reparation to the victim, etc.

 

For the sins committed against Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary enumerated above, our Lady wants this present generation to make reparations.  In other words, she wants this generation, first and foremost, to stop committing these sins, and to repair the injuries caused by such grievous offences.

 

Sincere reparation must be accompanied with good intention.  Thus, the intention of making reparation must be seriously considered here. Our Lady said at Fatima that anyone who had a good and sincere intention of making reparation would console her by so doing. “Without this general intention, without this will of love which desires to make Reparation to Our Lady to console Her, all these external practices are by themselves not enough to obtain the magnificent promise” (The Fatima Herald: A Publication of the World Apostolate of Fatima, Nigeria, vol. 9, August 2014, p. 8). On October 13, 1917, “Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows” appeared in the sky to the three shepherd-children, namely Lucy, Francisco and Jacinta. The exact meaning of the reparation requested here does not so much consist in meditation on the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary as in considering the offences which the Immaculate Heart of Mary now receives from ungrateful people who reject her maternal mediation and scorn her Divine Prerrogatives as the Mother of God and the Queen of Heaven. Some Christians refer to her as an ordinary envelope, which should be dispensed with.  Some Christians, majority of who are non-Catholics, refer to Our Lady as an “envelope,” Jesus being the “letter”. When you receive a parcel, you remove the letter, and throw away the envelope. Analogically, they explain that, having removed the letter, that is Jesus, from the womb of Mary, we should discard the Blessed Virgin Mary, the envelope, so to speak. Are they really right? Certainly not! During his pontificate, His Holiness, Pope St. John Paul II, explained the close relationship between Our Lady and her son, Jesus Christ by saying that “the blood of the Blessed Virgin Mary and that of Jesus mixed”.  This kind of relationship is so intimate and intertwined that it would be unfortunate comparing it to that of an envelope and its content.  This is just one of the several thorns which must be removed from Her Heart by loving practices of Reparation to console her as well as to obtain pardon for the souls who have been so bold to offend her so gravely. Let us resolve today, especially in this Marian Year, to obey her command to pray and do sincere penance.

BY REV. FR. MARK AJIGA