Section 20: "The Great Sign In The Heavens"
The Word Of God Vs. The Lady Of Fatima's Words
Section 20: "The Great Sign In The Heavens"
The Word Of God Vs. The Lady Of Fatima's Words
In his book, This Apocalyptic Age, Robert Bergin discusses the "miracle of the sun," calling this supernatural occurrence "A great sign . . . in the heavens' and "a great sign to the world"(1).
Bishop Rudolph Graber enthuses, "we greet Mary as the great sign in the heavens which precedes the coming of her Son, because the mother always preceded the son"(2). But God has given Jesus Himself as His only sign. Before His birth, Simeon called Jesus "a sign that will be opposed" (Luke 2:34,NAB), and the angels announced the Incarnation to the shepherds in these words: "Let this be a sign to you: in a manger you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes" (Luke 2:12, NAB). Jesus, God's sign to the people of His time, came for many reasons, two of which are given in Romans 15: "For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. As it is written, 'Therefore I will praise thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name'" (Romans 15:8-9, RSV). Jesus Himself was the promised sign of confirmation to the Jews; to the Gentiles, He was a light. In Jesus, the Gentiles would come to know the mercy of God and the salvation offered through His Son. But did Jesus continue to be God's sign, confirming once and for all the messages and promises of God, or were there to be more signs? According to Bergin,
"The miracles of Lourdes and Fatima in this age point unerringly in the direction which theology is to take."'But they going forth preached everywhere, the Lord working withal and confirming the word with signs that followed.' (Mark XVI.20).
"Miracles were called signs in the Scriptures and they were plainly used to confirm doctrine. . . .
"The great public miracle at Fatima, the sign in the Heavens, was meant to confirm the message and we can well ponder upon the importance of that message when a public miracle unprecedented in the annals of religious history was worked 'that all might believe'"(3).
It appears that Bergin believes that theology should follow after messages, scriptural or not, which are confirmed by supernatural signs. But the one verse of Scripture he quotes to confirm his own message is misapplied, for three reasons.
First, the "word" confirmed by the signs refers to the "good news" of verse 15, the gospel of Jesus' blood sacrifice in Atonement for the sins of men, and His resurrection from the dead. The only words God continues to confirm are those which witness to Jesus, as seen in that gospel.
Second, the kind of signs that Jesus promised are 'signs like these . . : they will use my name to expel demons, they will speak entirely new languages, they will be able to handle serpents, they will be able to drink deadly poison without harm, and the sick upon whom they lay their hands will recover" (Mark 16:17-18, NAB). Signs like these are loving manifestations of God's care for the individual: protection from spiritual and physical dangers, healing of sickness, and the gift of a prayer language. They are gifts given directly by the Holy Spirit to the individual and manifest Christ as alive in and through His body (1 Corinthians 12). Although God does work spectacular displays of power, this was not the sort of sign Jesus was referring to in Mark 16.
The third reason verse 20 is inappropriate to "the miracle of the sun" is this: Jesus said these signs would follow "those who have professed their faith" (Mark 16:17, NAB). In other words, those individuals who confessed their faith in the risen Christ and proclaimed His message of salvation would find their ministry confirmed by signs. Spirits appearing in the sky accompanied by supernatural wonders based on an unscriptural message don't fit into this category.
The Lady of Fatima promised a miracle "that everyone will have to believe." But Jesus Himself continues to be God's sign. Men have always requested signs, and the Jews of Jesus' time were no different. Matthew recorded this incident in his gospel:
"The Pharisees and Sadducees came along, and as a test asked him to show them some sign in the sky He gave them this reply: . . . can you not read the signs of the times? 'An evil, faithless age is eager for a sign, but no sign will be given it except that of Jonah'" (Matthew 16:1-4, NAB).
Again, in Mark, we see
"The Pharisees. . . . were looking for some heavenly sign from him as a test. with a sigh from the depths of his spirit he said, 'Why does this age seek a sign? I assure you, no such sign will be given it!'" (Mark 8:11-12, NAB).
Emphasizing the point with the words, "I assure you," Jesus clearly denies that any sign in the skies or the heavens would be given TO THIS AGE, referring to the entire age which will culminate in His return.
But what were the signs of the times He pointed to? What did they have to do with Jonah? Was Jesus still the sign He was declared to be at His birth? Luke's gospel gives more of Jesus' words about Jonah:
"Just as Jonah was a sign for the Ninevites. So will the Son of Man be a sign for the present age" (Luke 11:30, NAB).
In these words, Jesus reaffirmed the prophecies of His birth, saying in effect, "I alone am still the one sign to this age. There is no need to look for another." As to the connection between the signs of the times and the sign of Jonah, Jesus referred to His time as an evil, faithless age. an age which desperately needed to turn to God (Matthew 3). Ninevah was in just such circumstances when God sent Jonah to preach repentance. In comparing Himself to Jonah, Jesus pointed to His coming death and resurrection as the fulfillment of God's promises. Just as Jonah was swallowed up by a whale and spent three days in its belly, Jesus would be swallowed up by the grave for three days. And just as Jonah was miraculously removed from the belly of the whale, so Jesus would be raised from the dead as God's sign to this entire age. Soon the Jews, who sought after signs, would have put faith in His resurrection or face being cut off. But Jesus, foreseeing their rejection, termed them "faithless" along with the Gentiles.
Jesus' resurrection was the greatest miracle God could perform for man, for it encompassed the salvation and reconciliation for which man yearned ever since the fall. In raising Jesus, God fractured Satan's hold on all men from every age, and assured the downfall of his power and kingdom. The Resurrection was the one sign that would be given to the Jews, to the Gentiles, to the age. This, the central sign of God, was confirmation of His central work: "And by being raised from the dead He was proved to be the mighty Son of God, with the holy nature of God Himself" (Romans 1:4, LNT). When we come to a true appreciation of this magnificent work of God, the showy "miracle of the sun" at Fatima is seen for what it is - merely a display of power by the god of this world.
But the Lady of Fatima continues to be seen by some as the Woman of the Apocalypse, the "great sign in the heaven." In a special issue of Immaculate magazine entitled "Fatima - Hope of the World," Bishop Graber writes:
"The end, above all, is suggested by the miracle of the sun of October 13, 1917, where the words of Christ are confirmed: 'But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and powers of heaven will be shaken' (Mt. 24,29). When, on one occasion, someone wanted to dismiss this dance of the sun merely as childish absurdity, his companion briefly remarked, 'Think of the Apocalypse 12.1' There we read of a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head. Naturally, these thoughts are not binding declarations of faith, but if our Lord at one time rebuked the Pharisees, saying, 'You hypocrites! You know how to judge the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it that you do not judge this time?' (Lk. 12,56), then this admonition also applies to us. . . ."Thus, in conclusion, we greet Mary as the great sign in the heavens which precedes the coming of her Son, because the mother always precedes the son. We greet her as the one who at Fatima wanted to bring peace to the world if we fulfilled the demands of her maternal heart. . . . We greet her as the Victor in all the battles of God, and as the Mother of the Church who will bring the Good Friday of the Church to an end and give it a new Easter"(4).
It is important to us in the Church to ask some vital questions, because the answers will affect our lives as Christians. Is Mary the great sign which announces the end of the age by preceding the "sign of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:30, NAB)? Is the Woman of the Apocalypse Mary? Does this idea conform tot he gospel? This last question is especially necessary in light of this statement by Reverend Andre Richard:
". . . as a theologian, what impresses me about Fatima is its reaffirmation of the entire Gospel and its emphasis on the source of mortal evil: offenses against God. . . . The unbelievable dimension and radical depth of this ultimate offense were underlined at Fatima on October 13, 1917, by the great sign of the miracle of the sun. How can any of us fail to be conscious of Our Lady appearing in the sky, reminding us of the great sign of Chapters 11 and 12 of Revelations? How can any on us consider Fatima to be less than the presentation of that Apocalyptic message of the Lady dressed with the sun, and announcing the triumph over the dragon?"(5).
Rev. Richard and Bishop Graber support their interpretation of the miracle of the sun and the appearances of the Lady by scriptural references to end-time signs in the skies and the Woman of the Apocalypse. But even end-time Scripture must be examined within its own context, especially when it's used to confirm supernatural signs. Jesus warned that one of the indications of the last days would be false wonders, and that these miraculous counterfeits would "deceive. . . . if possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24, AMP). In order to attempt to deceive the elect, the members of the Church, the Deceiver would presumably produce signs which Are religious in appearance and similar to real events or symbolic images found in the Bible.
(1) Bergin,pp. 40-41.
(2) Bishop Rudolph Graber, 'Fatima Advancing Rapidly Towards Final Fulfillment: 'The Three Dimensions of Fatima,'" trans., Marie Agnes Matt, Immaculata, rev. ed. of Vol. 18, No. 3 (Dec 1977), p. 6.
(3) Bergin, p. 40.
(4) Graber, pp. 5-6. The belief that the "mother always precedes the son" can be traced back to the writings of St. Bridget. In his 22 volume work, The Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus de Liguori (1750) quotes St. Bridget as calling Mary the "'Star preceding the sun,' giving thereby to understand that when devotion towards the divine Mother begins to manifest itself in a soul that is in a state of sin, it is a certain mark that before long God will enrich it with his grace." De Liguori, pp. 121-122.
(5) Rev. Andre Richard, D.D., "Fatima Now!" Soul, January-February 1976, p. 20.
