This message was given at the second visit of the Angel of Peace, in the summer of that year.
What is a sacrifice? It is something a person gives up for the sake of a higher cause or the acceptance without protest of an unsought suffering.
Sacrifice isn't something that we talk about much anymore except in the context of elite athletes, memorial days to acknowledge those who died in the Defence Forces, ballet dancers and ambitious businessmen. Sometimes we mention it around Mother's Day, or at a eulogy for someone with strong family values. When Lent comes around we talk about what we might be giving up as a penance, but not specifically in the context of sacrifice.
But in God's economy, sacrifice must be important otherwise the Angel would not have encouraged it. We see it first in Cain and Abel offering to God the fruits of their labours. Genesis 4:3-4. We see it in the temple worship offerings of oil, bread, wine and livestock, Exodus 29. It reaches its pinnacle in Jesus, 'He is the sacrifice that takes our sins away, and not only ours, but the whole world's.' 1 John 2:2.
We also see in God's economy that sacrifices have an effect on sin. Some of the temple sacrifices were referred to as sin offerings, and there were whole lists of different sacrifices depending on the role a person played in the community, Leviticus 4 and 5. Priests offered a young bull, leaders offered he-goats and individuals offered she-goats. Each offering was a request for mercy and leniency.
The three children of Fatima really took this request of the angel to heart, and what they did can guide us in our own response. At times of family sorrow, they would offer God their tears. They would offer up the pains of being misunderstood and treated with contempt. They would forgo their lunches and give them to poor children. They would choose to go without drink and suffer thirst, and the consequent headaches. They would offer up any feeling of abandonment they felt. Often they needed the mutual encouragement of each other to keep going through the difficulties of each sacrifice.
Reparation isn't a word that gets used much these days either. It crops up sometimes in court cases that get a lot of media attention. Usually it is in a financial context, for example, payments to the children of the stolen generations, to victims of sexual abuse, to victims of severe injuries following a car accident. A few years ago there was a lot of debate about federal parliament saying an official 'sorry' to the children of the stolen generations because the lawyers were worried that saying 'sorry' would be an admission of guilt and open the way for appeals for monetary compensation.
In God's economy the concept of compensation is clearly set out, in order that there may be speedy resolution of situations between people and so that there are just limits to what is expected by way of compensation. Exodus 21 and 22 set out many of them. For example if two men quarrel and come to blows, if the blows incapacitate one of them from earning a living, the other must compensate the injured one and care for him until he is completely cured. A thief, if caught, is required to repay double what he stole. Other transgressions of the property of another require full restitution or double depending on circumstances.
But reparation is a term used in Leviticus 5 to fix transgressions against God. There are three categories. The first appears to be giving less to God than what is due to Him (tithes, ritual sacrifices). The second is when someone realizes after the fact that they transgressed against a commandment. The third is about sins of fraud through deception, perjury, or exploitation. In each case the reparation is in two parts. The first part requires a standard offering of an unblemished ram. The second part is determining the value of what was denied God or someone else, and paying back the whole sum plus 20 percent. Now we can understand better the promise of Zaccheaus to Jesus in Luke 19, 'Look, sir, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount.'
This teaches us that when we sin, we are expected to make reparation as well as seeking forgiveness. It indicates that we need to do something over and above to restore our relationship with God. For Catholics that is why the priest gives us a penance to do when we go to Confession to seek mercy and pardon for our sins. Giving us a penance trains us to take repairing our relationship with God seriously. Putting it another way, if you promised a dear friend that you would meet them for lunch and then you didn't show up, seeking forgiveness is the first obvious thing you should do. Even if your friend forgives you, your relationship has been damaged and needs a bit of a grand gesture (flowers, chocolates, movie tickets etc) to begin the restoration process.
All this begs the question, 'When was the last time I took any efforts towards a grand gesture for God?'
Scary isn't it? Especially when the next part of the Angel's message reminds us that God is offended by our sins. Each and every time I sin, I offend God, no matter how big or small that sin is.
Mostly we don't understand the full horror of our sins because we so easily forget how good, kind, beautiful, loving, provident and almighty God really is. It is a poor comparison, but maybe it will help. Think of a tender hearted mother and a child. When a mother discovers that her child has lied to her, she is sad because her child did not trust her with the truth, because her child has disappointed her by choosing the lesser path, and because it will be so much more difficult now to help her child on the path to truth, goodness and happiness. The better the mother, the more her heart will grieve. God grieves even more because sin closes the door to heaven for us. No one with unforgiven sin can be admitted into the fullness of the presence of God that heaven is. For sins that don't completely rupture our relationship with God, we thank Him for the merciful option of having our souls purified in purgatory.
The last part of the Angel's message invites us to offer up our sacrifices not just for ourselves but also for others so that they may be granted the gift of conversion. In the later messages of Our Lady at Fatima she often requested sacrifices for sinners.
This anecdote from 'Fatima in Lucia's own words' is instructive:
"One day, I was asked if Our Lady had told us to pray for sinners, and I said she had not. At the first opportunity, while the people were questioning Jacinta, Francisco called me aside and said: 'You lied just now! How could you say that Our Lady didn't tell us to pray for sinners? Didn't she ask us to pray for sinners then?' 'For sinners, no! She told us to pray for peace, for the war to end. But for sinners, she told us to make sacrifices.' 'Ah! That's true. I was beginning to think you had lied.' "
Such is the importance of sacrifices for sinners compared to prayer for sinners.
Let's do something today in response to the heavenly requests that have been given to us.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.
Blessed Francisco, Blessed Jacinta, holy Sr Lucia, pray for us.