Fatima
and Theology of the Body
by Christopher West
I have gained a great interest in Fatima because of my work
promoting John Paul II’s Theology of the Body (TOB). What’s the
connection?
As most Catholics know, between May 13 and October 13, 1917,
Mary appeared to three peasant children in Fatima, Portugal
delivering a three-part message – the "three secrets" of Fatima,
as they’ve come to be known. The first secret presented a
horrifying vision of hell. The second involved a prophecy of
World War II and the warning that "Russia would spread her
errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of
the Church." However, Mary assured the children, "In the end, my
Immaculate Heart will triumph."
Mary also told the children that "the Holy Father will have much
to suffer." This brings us to the "third secret" of Fatima,
which was not publicly revealed until the year 2000. In 1917,
the children saw a vision of bullets and arrows fired at "a
bishop dressed in white." Sixty-four years later, while driving
through the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, a "bishop dressed in
white" was gunned down by Turkish assassin Ali Agca ... on the
memorial of Our Lady of Fatima: May 13, 1981.
Many years later John Paul II reflected: "Agca knew how to
shoot, and he certainly shot to kill. Yet it was as if someone
was guiding and deflecting that bullet." That "someone," John
Paul believed, was the Woman of Fatima. "Could I forget that the
event in St. Peter’s Square took place on the day and at the
hour when the first appearance of the Mother of Christ ... has
been remembered ... at Fatima in Portugal? For in everything
that happened to me on that very day, I felt that extraordinary
motherly protection and care, which turned out to be stronger
than the deadly bullet" (Memory and Identity pp. 159, 163).
The fact that John Paul was shot on the memorial of Fatima is
well known. What few people know is that the Pope was planning
to announce the establishment of his Institute for Studies on
Marriage and Family on that fateful afternoon. This was to be
his main arm for disseminating his teaching on man, woman,
marriage, and sexual love around the globe. Could it be that
there were forces at work that didn’t want John Paul II’s
teaching to spread around the world? (In fact, by May 13, 1981,
John Paul II was only about half way through delivering the 129
addresses of his TOB. Had he died, obviously, the full teaching
never would have been presented.) And could it be that, by
saving his life, the Woman of Fatima was pointing to the
importance of his teaching reaching the world?
It would be over a year later that John Paul officially
established his Institute (of which I’m a proud graduate). On
that day, October 7, 1982 – not coincidentally the Feast of Our
Lady of the Rosary – John Paul II entrusted the Pontifical
Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family to the care and
protection of Our Lady of Fatima. By doing so, it seems he
himself was drawing a connection, at least indirectly, between
his miraculous survival and the importance of the Theology of
the Body.
Digging deeper, the precise link, I believe, between John Paul
II’s TOB and Fatima lies in Mary’s mysterious words about the
"errors of Russia" and the promised "triumph" of her Immaculate
Heart. John Paul II’s TOB is like weed-killer applied to the
deepest roots of the "errors of Russia" that have spread
throughout the world. As such, the spread of the TOB throughout
the world is a sign, I believe, that Mary is preparing us for
her triumph.
Part of Mary’s message in Fatima was that "Russia would spread
her errors throughout the world." However, "In the end," she
said, "my Immaculate Heart will triumph." When we hear of the
errors of Russia, we rightly think of the spread of communism.
But communism has roots that go deeper than Marxist economic
theory.
Marx considered class struggle to be the defining factor of
history. But digging deeper, Marx also believed that the
fundamental "class struggle" was found in monogamous marriage
and, indeed, in the sexual difference itself. "The first
division of labor," Marx co-wrote with Frederick Engels, "is
that between man and woman for the propagation of children." In
turn, Engels affirmed that Marxist theory "demands the abolition
of the monogamous family as the economic unit of society" (see
The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State).
It seems the deeper revolution – and, I would contend, the
deeper "error of Russia" – is the one aimed at destroying
marriage and the family. Indeed, those who seek to deconstruct
sexuality in the modern world often draw straight from Marx. As
feminist author Shulamith Firestone wrote in The Dialectic of
Sex: "[J]ust as the end goal of socialist revolution was ... the
elimination of the ... economic class distinction itself, so the
end goal of feminist revolution must be ... the elimination of
... the sex distinction itself [so that] genital differences
between human beings would no longer matter culturally." Welcome
to the deep-seated sexual confusion in which we’re now immersed.
But here’s the good news: Just as John Paul II’s vision of the
human person inaugurated a new kind of revolution that led to
the fall of communism, his TOB has also inaugurated a new kind
of revolution that will, I believe, lead to the collapse of the
dominant sexual ideology.
In his book The Last Secret of Fatima, Cardinal Bertone wrote:
"The Communist system seemed invincible, and it looked as if it
were going to endure for centuries. But then the whole thing
collapsed like a house of cards." Perhaps we can expect the same
with the deeper "error of Russia." Indeed, in the Book of
Revelation, the "whore of Babylon" – that mysterious feminine
figure who mocks the Bride of the Lamb – is brought to ruin in
"one hour." And as she collapses, all the merchants who "gained
their wealth from her" (think the porn industry, Planned
Parenthood, etc., etc.) "weep and mourn" (Rev 18).
And then comes the triumph of the New Jerusalem, the Bride who
has "made herself ready" for her Bridegroom. She is dressed in
"fine linen, bright and immaculate" (Rev 19:7-8). She is
"clothed with the sun" (Rev 12:1). This radiant Bride, of
course, is personified in Mary. "In the end, my Immaculate Heart
will triumph." What does this mean? In short, it means that
purity of heart will triumph. Somehow the pornographic lies will
be redeemed. All of "Babylon’s" distortions will be untwisted
and we will come to see the human body as it really is – as a
glorious sign of "the mystery hidden from eternity in God" (TOB
19:4).
By showing us the path to authentic purity (never to be confused
with puritanism or prudishness!), John Paul II’s TOB paves the
way for Mary’s triumph. Is it a coincidence that John Paul began
writing his TOB on the feast of the Immaculate Conception? Is it
a coincidence that he devoted the entire work to "Mary, all
beautiful"? Is it a coincidence that she saved his life on the
memorial of Fatima so that his teaching could reach the world?
Let us pray for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart. It may be
closer than we realize. Already in 1994, John Paul wrote that
Mary’s words spoken in Fatima "seem to be close to their
fulfillment" (Crossing the Threshold of Hope, p. 221). Let it
be, Lord, according to your word.
Republished
with permission from:
http://www.christopherwest.com
original article:
http://www.christopherwest.com/page.asp?ContentID=119
