Summary
Sin expelled us from Paradise, but Jesus won salvation for all and showed that, by taking up our crosses, we can follow Him to our new home in Heaven.In 1917, the Blessed Mother of God appeared to three young children in Fatima, Portugal. Known as Our Lady of Fatima, she gave the three seers a vision of Hell.
She opened her hands, and rays of light appeared to penetrate the earth, revealing a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and the souls of the damned. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms.
She told the children to “Sacrifice yourselves for sinners and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice: Jesus, it is for Your love, for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
“You saw hell,” she said, “where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If they do what I will tell you, many souls will be saved, and there will be peace.”
Her main requests during the Fatima apparitions were for prayer, the Rosary, and voluntary sacrifice.
The Perfect Victim Souls
There are people who have voluntarily become “victim souls” who sacrifice their very beings to save souls. The two most important victim souls were Jesus and Mary.
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and accepting the state of a man.” He left Heaven to become a Man so that He could sacrifice and suffer, and offer His sufferings of infinite merit for the salvation of souls, for all mankind.
As the Son of God, the Father in Heaven, He could not suffer. As a Man, he could suffer. Jesus allowed Himself to be arrested, insulted, dragged through the streets, put on trial, scourged, crowned with thorns, forced to carry a heavy cross upon which he was nailed hand and foot, and to die in excruciating agony. He did this to save souls.
His Blessed Mother stood at the foot of the cross, and allowed her mother’s empathy to accept a sword of sorrow to pierce her own soul and heart to save souls.
Our Call to Sacrifice
We are all called to follow the examples of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in our own ways, to offer up sacrifices and prayers throughout our lives, especially during Lent.
In Lent, we go through the special spiritual season of sacrifice that should exemplify our efforts for the whole year, to prepare for the salvation of mankind, which was gloriously granted at Easter.
We go through sacrifice with the intentions of uniting our little sacrifices with the great sacrifice of Mary and the infinite sacrifice of Jesus. We offer these merits to grow in holiness ourselves, and to help poor sinners as Mary requested at Fatima.
From Cross to Glory
On Easter Sunday, Our Lord rose from the dead, as He had foretold, and in this fullness of time, ended the curse of death imposed by the fall of Adam and Eve.
We celebrate with great joy the salvation won by Our Lord and the possibility of following Him into Heaven. Until His Passion and Resurrection, the gates of Heaven were closed, and there was no possibility of eternal happiness for anyone.
At the moment of creation, God created mankind to live in a Garden of Paradise, but sin expelled us. The gate to Paradise was closed and guarded by an angel.
No one could enter there. Then Jesus came and won salvation for all. He made laws for us that require us to take up our crosses and follow Him. We need to follow His example of prayer and sacrifice, to then follow Him to the end, our new home in Heaven.
