When the priest described Jesus and his life, the thing that most caught her attention was Christ’s kindness to who she called “the two Marys.” The story continues: “Fatima was moved to see how Jesus deeply loved Mary, his mother, who was sinless, but also how Jesus deeply loved Mary Magdalene, who was ‘a great sinner.’ As these discussions continued, Fatima reached a point where she said to [the priest], ‘I want to become a Christian.’”
When her relatives discovered her impending baptism, they threatened to disown her. The chaplain, fearing for her life, advised her to think carefully before entering the Church.
Her response: “Do you give up so easily on Jesus?”
The chaplain reported feeling chagrined that this brand new Christian had to teach him the importance of his own faith!
Reflecting on these things, I began to see it’s not right to think about martyrdom from the perspective of how much torture you think you might be able to endure.
In the first place, Jesus advises us in the Gospels to pray such trials don’t come. If they do, he will give us the grace we need at the moment we need it, and not before – much as I didn’t give my littlest kids the tickets for those expensive theme park attractions until just before entry.
More importantly, though, what Fatima, Nurta and the thousands like them who are just meeting Jesus for the first time are discovering is his great goodness and beauty –and discovering it, they can’t help but love Him. How can you turn your back on someone you love?
In the West we have the luxury of lingering cultural Christianity. That makes the faith easier to practice (no one tries to blow us up on the way to Mass), but it also makes it easier to reduce to a set of rules and practices, forgetting that Catholicism is the call to an intimate relationship with the One who is all good and all beautiful.
