6th Week, Thursday, Feb 20th: Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto
Genesis 9:1-13 / Mark 8:27-33
God speaks to Noah and his sons; "1 will demand an accounting from you. "
Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle took sick on a plane and was rushed to a hospital when the plane landed. Later, Mantle told a newspaper reporter about a dream he had while in the hospital. "I dreamed I died and went to heaven. St. Peter greeted me. I said, 'I'm Mickey Mantle.' He said, 'Really? Come in, God wants to see you.' "I went in to see God, and he said, 'We can't keep you here because of the way you acted. But do me a favour and sign six dozen baseballs.' "
When the humour of Mantle's dream subsides, the truth emerges. No one will escape God's judgment, and no one will get VIP treatment then.
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What do we fear most about God's judgment? "Do you suppose . . . that you will escape the judgment of God?" Romans 2:3
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God makes a provisional covenant with people. Von Rad calls this the beginning of the patience of God. Life belongs to him too, for people can take the life of animals for their food provided the sign of life, blood, is drained from them, but the life of fellow human beings cannot be taken without punishment.
The Gospel tells us today that Jesus asked his disciples one day who they thought he was, and Peter said: You are the Christ, that is, the promised Savior. But when Jesus told them, he would save people by his suffering and death before his resurrection, Peter protested. He could not accept a suffering Lord. For us too, it is hard to accept pain and contradiction. We grumble and protest: “Why me?” But, we have to learn from Jesus that pain and hardship is part of life, and often the way to life and joy. People who have suffered for others understand what love means.
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The Church has issued several documents to emphasize its teaching on human life. Documents like Humane Vitae and Evangelium Vitae talk about the dignity and sacredness of human life. As a matter of fact, these teachings flow from the Scriptures.
In the 1st reading from Genesis, we hear this dignity and sacredness of human life emphasized once again. God will demand an account of every man's life from his fellow man. And he who shed man's blood shall have his blood shed by man, for in the image of God, the man was made. Those are powerful and authoritative words that do not need further elaboration. But on the other hand, what happens when man sheds God's blood?
What happens when man puts God to death? Jesus prophesied that He will be put to death by man. If God used the same command that He gave to man, then we will be doomed to the deepest and darkest depths. Because by our sins, we shed God's blood and we put Him to death. Yet strangely enough, it was by the shedding of the blood of Jesus that we are saved. Indeed, how strange God's love is for man.
The gospel of the dignity of life and the sacredness of life are one and the same gospel. Yet the gospel of God's unconditional and sacrificial love for man, even to the point of shedding His blood and dying for man, is the good news of our salvation.
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Prayer
Lord our God, to meet hardship and suffering caused by others or for the sake of others is often hard to take. We complain and it shakes our trust. Help us to accept suffering as a part of life and a way to grow and if we do not understand its mystery, help us to bear it for others, as Jesus did, your Son, who lives with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
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Saints Francisco and Jacinta Marto
Feast day February 20
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, May 13, 1917, three children were laughing and chatting as they kept watch over their families’ sheep. This afternoon they were building a playhouse out of brush and rocks. Suddenly a bright light flashed. They thought it was lightning. Then it flashed again. They saw a ball of light descend upon a little green evergreen tree. Within the light was a beautiful woman dressed in white.
The children were Lucia dos Santos, who was 10 years old, and her cousins Francisco Marto (9) and his sister Jacinta (7). These children lived in Portugal, in a small village near Fatima. The shining woman told them not to be afraid and that she was from heaven. She told them she would return on the 13th day of each month for 6 months, and she asked them to meet her at this place, Cova da Iria.
Many people including Lucia’s family did not believe the children. People laughed, ridiculed, harassed, threatened them and put them in jail for two days. But nothing could change the truth.
During the summer, on the 13th day of each month, the Blessed Mother Mary appeared to the children. More and more people accompanied to the Cova. Each time Mary told them to pray the Rosary for peace in the world and to sacrifice for sinners. On October 13, the last day of apparition, more than 70,000 were waiting. This time the Lady of the Rosary asked them to build a chapel on the rocky hillside. The entire crowd saw a remarkable sight. The sun seemed to dance in the sky. It was spinning like a top and shooting off brilliant colors of the rainbow. Suddenly the sun dropped treacherously close to earth. People dropped to their knees, and the sun just as quickly returned to its play in the sky.
You might think that if the Blessed Mother of God appears to you and speaks to you, you are a saint. But that is not necessarily true. What is true is that Mary chose to come to children who the year before had been visited by the Angel of Peace, children who had listened to the angel’s message and prayed the prayer the angel taught them. They responded to Mary in the same way and prayed the Rosary and offered sacrifices for sinners and for the conversion of the world. They were children who wanted to please God.
Francisco and Jacinta died within a short time, as the Lady had said they would. They were beatified on May 13, 2000. At that time Lucia dos Santos was a Carmelite nun in Portugal. Sister Lucia died February 13, 2005 at age 97. Pope Francis canonized Francisco and Jacinta during a May 13, 2017 Mass in Fatima.
