RE the response to the Weeping Madonna statue in Western Australia (CL 21/9/02).
In all such phenomena, the immediate question for believers is: Is this a miracle of divine communication, or is it a hoax? Unbelievers will respond, especially when scientific examination fails to fault it: There is definitely a logical explanation. I wonder how they have done it.
I do not know what further, reasonable, scientific testing needs to be done, if any, but by what has been done, the pendulum for believers must be well on the side of its authenticity. While not forgetting the joy and wonder of it, convinced people must meditate on the message it communicates.
A weeping image unavoidably implies we have a serious, not to say sombre, sign from heaven, concern
ing our world’s future. Bearing in mind that the phenomenon has clearly passed, at least its prima facie testing, and given its serious implications, the Church must follow up with alacrity, any further, reasonable investigation that needs attending to.
This would get us past the ‘if’ question, allowing us to give our full attention to what heaven specifically requires of us at this stage in our history. We should keep in mind the warning messages at Fatima, which told us we needed to get back to God or suffer grievously.
The Second World War certainly provided such suffering. Those already convinced should make a prayerful, but peaceful effort to avoid future catastrophe (implied by the statue’s weeping) for our world, remembering always there is no real calamity for people who walk in Jesus (Rm 8:35).
Unfortunately prophetic communication often gets cold reception from the structural Church and ‘testing’ becomes distancing, slowing down, avoiding. ‘If this is of God let it prove itself’, becomes the modus operandi, which is in similar vein to Gamaliel’s advice to the Sanhedrin. (Acts 5:38-39).
But a weeping statue is already a sign from God, and in looking for a further sign we display the avoidance mentality of the pharisees and sadducees (Lk 16:1-4). Jesus was the sign, and from him signs regularly flowed. Jesus’ response to them is to tell them to read the signs that have been given in the ordinary, honest way that weather signs are normally read (ibid).
J.K. CREEVEY
West End, Qld
