Section 11: "Those Who Embrace
[Devotion To My Immaculate Heart] Will
Be Loved By God"
The Word Of God Vs. The Lady Of Fatima's Words
Section 11: "Those Who Embrace
[Devotion To My Immaculate Heart] Will
Be Loved By God"
The Word Of God Vs. The Lady Of Fatima's Words
The world must know that God loved us unconditionally before He sent His Son:
"It is precisely in this that God proves His love for us: that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8,
NAB).
God did not have to make the original Edenic promise to send a Savior (Genesis 3:15). There was no need in God that had to be filled. Yet the Father had a plan, and according to that plan, Jesus came and died and rose again, bringing mankind the revelation of God's love. Why?
"Love, then, consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He has loved us and has sent His Son as an offering for our sins" (1 John 4:10, NAB).
The love of God has been proven; we have only to go to Jesus directly and receive it. He doesn't change, and His love doesn't change, for "God is love" (John 12:32), but the Lady of Fatima has put a condition on God's love:
". . . . those who embrace [devotion to my Immaculate Heart] . . . will be loved by God, like flowers placed by me to adorn His throne"(1; June 13, 1917).
Yet Scripture tells us God loves us first as sinners, then as sons, and never as an offering from Mary. The flesh and the devil and the world put restrictions on God's love, but God doesn't. He is love. He became man and bled to death because of His love for us. Long before this promise of the Lady, the writer to the Hebrews said, "we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, . . let us draw near to God" (Hebrews 10:19-22). And Jesus said, "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven" (Matthew 10:32, NIV). This is much more desirable than being a flower placed before God's throne by "Mary."
The Lady of Fatima promised God's love to those who embrace devotion to her, but Jesus promised: "He who obeys the commandments he has from me is the man who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father. I too will love him and reveal myself to him" (John 14:21, NAB).
As God's own love walking this earth, Jesus gave us God's whole truth concerning that love. He didn't leave a door open to a future condition for attaining divine love, because He was the fulfillment of all the conditions. At the expense of His own shed blood, He showed us the love of God in all of its perfection and glory: "There is no greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you" (John 15:13-14, NAB).
At Pentecost, the Church experienced that same love in a deep, personal way. God poured His love into us in the Person of the Spirit. This outpouring signified that God still loved the world even though we crucified His Son. Now Christians "have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us" (1 John 4:16, NAB).
The power to proclaim God's message of love lies in the reality of knowing Jesus Christ. We in the Church must hear His words to see if it is God's love we are walking in. We must hear Jesus' rebuke and apply it to our own lives to see where we stand in this crucial hour:
"I hold this against you: you have turned aside from your early [first] love. Keep firmly in mind the heights from which you have fallen. Repent, and return to your former deeds. If you do not repent I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place" (Revelation 2:4-5, NAB).
(1) Kondor, Appendix 1, p. 191.
