This summer I visited my nephew and his family, partly to help with childcare for their 5 year-old-son and 3 year-old-daughter. I quickly learnt that the school summer holidays can be something of a marathon for many parents!
I visited just a few days after the partial solar eclipse seen in the skies over Britain on 12th August. My nephew’s son had obviously been wonder-struck by this experience and so most of the games he invented for us to play were all about the eclipse (or the ‘calypso’ as he called it!). For example, we set out all his toys on the carpet – a surreal selection of plastic dinosaurs, rubber snakes and cuddly toys – so that they were all facing the same direction, with me sat in the middle. Then the toys were all given imaginary protective glasses (I got the real ones) and my nephew’s son turned on his big torch shining into all of our eyes, before he moved an orange slowly across the beam thus creating his own ‘calypso’ in his living room. It was quite a sophisticated scientific experiment for a 5-year-old!
I thought of this little boy’s awe and wonder, when I sat down to write this article. The extraordinary phenomenon of the solar eclipse had awakened in him a whole new imaginative universe, transporting him out of the everyday and the familiar. How much more so the 70,000 plus people who witnessed the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima on 13th October 1917! So powerful and life-changing was their shared experience, that many present that day immediately saw the need to record the testimonies of different eye-witnesses, so that their vivid accounts could convey to others something of what they had all witnessed. Over a century later, their words bring alive for us the miracle they experienced.
Firstly, the words of one who already had faith in the truth of the 3 shepherd children’s stories of the apparitions of the beautiful Lady – Ti Marto, father of Jacinta and Francisco and often called “the first believer” of Fatima:
“At one o’clock in the afternoon, midday by the sun, the rain stopped. The sky, pearly grey, illuminated the vast arid landscape with a strange light. The sun had a transparent gauzy veil so that the eyes could easily be fixed upon it. The grey mother-of-pearl tone turned into a sheet of silver which broke up as the clouds were torn apart and the silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds. A cry went up from every mouth and people fell on their knees on the muddy ground… The light turned a beautiful blue, as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral, and spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands. The blue faded slowly, and then the light seemed to pass through yellow glass. Yellow stains fell against white handkerchiefs, against the dark skirts of the women. They were repeated on the trees, on the stones and on the serra. People wept and prayed with uncovered heads, in the presence of the miracle they had awaited. The seconds seemed like hours, so vivid were they.”
What a stunning description this is! A total conversion of heart from mockery to awe-struck faith.
The October 13th Miracle of the Sun at Fatima has been described as “the greatest public miracle since the time of the Gospels” and “the most astounding event of the 20th century”. And yet it is hardly known outside the Church, and not well enough known within it. It is a miracle worth sharing with all those we know!
I experienced this recently when I visited a family in our parish of Our Lady of Fatima in White City, West London. They were hosting the Home Visitation statue of Our Lady for a week and I went to pray with them. As the mother, father and their three daughters (aged from 7-9) sat around the statue, I told them a simple version of the story of the 1917 apparitions, culminating in the October miracle. I could immediately sense that, from the youngest to the oldest, it was the experience of Miracle of the Sun that captivated them most. Like my nephew’s son, their imagination and fascination were lit up and the room was filled with a real sense of awe and wonder at God’s power and majesty, his love and concern for us, his children.
And what struck me afterwards as I walked home is that this is a family who have been very present and active in the parish for the last decade or so. And yet it was like they were hearing about the Miracle of the Sun for the first time… Maybe that’s a comment as much on my failure as their parish priest to tell the story in ways that my parishioners can never forget!
Finally, we need to reflect on what God is saying to us all through the Miracle of the Sun. We can definitely say that this is not the way that God usually works – a spectacular public miracle that was announced ahead of time. God is all powerful – the artist of every sunset, the author of history – he does not need to put on a dazzling display to prove himself. But sometimes he does anyway!
We believe in a God of surprises, who can communicate with us in any way he chooses. The Miracle of the Sun shows so powerfully that God is greater than everything we know, or think we know. He is not just greater than the sun, but greater than the laws which govern the sun. He can cause the total eclipse which plunges Calvary into darkness during the Crucifixion that we read about in the Gospels, and the Miracle of the Sun as reported in the newspapers… In our human society which seems to be increasingly gripped by the power and potential of Artificial Intelligence (for both good and evil), we need to remind ourselves of that supreme power of God. Our lives are in his hands.
Secondly the Miracle shows God’s concern and love for us, his children. The dancing and spinning of the sun with all its myriad of colours inspires awe and wonder in the crowds, but then this is dramatically followed by their fervent contrition and conversion as the sun plunges towards them.
The last words spoken by Our Lady to Lucia before the Miracle were: “Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because he is already so much offended.” God sees how humanity is becoming increasingly lost and blinded to his presence, and so he dramatically opens our eyes and hearts to his power and mercy. It is the love of an anxious parent who seeks to protect his children from the darkness of danger and lead them back into life and light.
Finally, the Miracle teaches us that we can always trust Mary – she is a faithful and loving Mother to us all, who always keeps her promises. And this includes her promise that “in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
So, perhaps our October challenge could be firstly to remind ourselves of all that happened at Fatima on October 13th 1917, and then to pass on the story to
at least one other person this month. And in as imaginative and creative a way as possible, like my nephew’s young son with his torch and orange!
Fr. Richard Nesbitt
A priest for the Westminster diocese since 2007. After serving as the Vocations Director for the diocese for a number of years, he has been parish priest of Our Lady of Fatima in White City West London since 2013. Following the death of Canon Jason Jones earlier this year, Fr Richard has been appointed as the new National Spiritual Director for WAF England and Wales, and he continues to serve as the WAF Spiritual Director for the Diocese of Westminster. He asks for your prayers for the journey ahead.
