IT is a relief that the Fatima secret has at last been given to us.
Predictably, the reality is of superior quality to the various writings that have purported to be it. The most potent weapon Satan has against genuine prophecy, is to surround it with spurious prophecy. This misleads, in many cases, good people who lack discernment. They confuse the Lord’s communication with falsehood, and set about disseminating the latter. Intellectual listeners, also lacking in sensitivity to the Lord’s messages, then deem all current prophecy of light value or spurious. The prime question about a prophetic event is: “Is it of God or not?” It is God’s authorship that gives the event its value, not the approval of the Church, which merely affirms the fact. If a person is a recipient of such a message, clearly they must respond positively to it and embrace its requirement with energy and enthusiasm.
With all due respect, I have problems with Cardinal Ratzinger’s and Pope Benedict XIV’s rationale for correlating, what is termed “private” and “public” revelations. Let me say at the outset that these terms are misnomers and essentially misleading. A revelation given in the mode of Fatima for example, in the general context of revelations is anything but private. There were three seers and over 60,000 co-seers who witnessed the marvellous solar sign. In the great and intriguing theophany of Isaiah (6:1- ) the prophet is apparently alone in the temple. Yet, detrimental to an extant prophecy, the Fatima case is termed “private” and the latter “public”. If the nomenclature does not reflect the subject then the theology is suspect, because it is a practice of healthy science to choose terms that are satisfyingly accurate.
In his infinite wisdom and perfect knowledge, God chooses to warn Israel and Judah through the prophets, about impending disaster due to their failings. This literature is part of God’s word which we accept as part of our faith. Over two millennia later this very same all wise and all knowing God delivers, through the medium of his tender mother the most exalted of the creatures, warnings of disaster of a vastly wider scope, for the body of Christ – and the entire world. These warnings were supported by the most powerful signs which converted many people. Yet the people to whom these messages and signs are directed, are taught that an assent of their faith is not due to them, but it is due to the former! One inescapable message of the ancient prophets and of Jesus, for the faithful of all times, is that we should heed prophecy when it is given us.
The way the terms “private” and “public”, are used in this matter, tell us there is a difference between the ancient and modern prophetic events, but they do not inherently reflect the nature of that difference. They therefore leave room for their manufacturers to impose their own meanings and interpretations. This does not mean that they are deceitfully designed. It is more the case that they are selected because they give psychic comfort. Biblical scholars, like all scholars, are people who seek, and need, compatibility and integration of their ideas. They weave together the different parts of the Bible, along with faith and data of the observed world, to the edification of all. The Bible, God’s word, is the centre of their construction of things. It qualifies other literature, and gives them demarcation of God’s word. They resist anything that would tend, by its nature, to insert itself into the same categories as the biblical elements. A better description of the prophetic events taken in relation to each other is simply “scriptural” and “post-scriptural”. Using these terms tells us that God is still focused on his people, and is still as interested and powerfully involved as he always was. The Scripture events qualify subsequent events, but once those events are accepted they are not necessarily lesser in quality or importance than the scriptural events.
J.K. CREEVEY West End, Qld
