Am I not your Mother?

Carlos Caso-Rosendi

Our mothers are our first teachers as we shall see. While I was working this morning I had the distinct feeling that I should call someone in Mexico. Since I do not have the phone number of anyone in that country I thought that may be I should not have had that second cup of coffee … Then an unusual number of visitors from Mexico hit the Spanish version of my article about Cultural Marxism. Early in the afternoon I also received a friendship request on my Facebook account from a Catholic lady in Hermosillo in Sonora, Mexico. Towards the end of the day I got a very interesting addition and a correction to Water of life for Free posted a few days ago. The observation came from  a friend in Mexico City! During the exchange of emails I felt again that I should call him. I did not have his phone number but we connected through Skype and talked about the project for viral evangelization. He is a young Catholic engineer, it was not hard at all for him to understand the project. And here the story ends of my strange urge to talk to someone in Mexico. It took all day but I finally connected with someone there.

Of course the project is about a massive counter attack on the culture of death using the latest in information dispersion technology. We have publishing and communication tools that would have made the Twelve Apostles drool but we are using them in limited ways. In my opinion we can get a lot more from modern media tools.

Not long ago I was reading with interest some musings by Mr Antonio Yagüe (pronounced YAH-GOO-EH) a Spanish geologist who has produced a series of videos on prophetic themes. Those videos are followed by some and detested by others, I frankly prefer not to take sides but I find his theories daring and interesting. Mr Yagüe visits Mexico frequently to give conferences and such. In one of his videos he touches on the eschatological theme of the last battle between good and evil, if I remember correctly Yagüe concludes that it is very likely that Mexico is going to be the battleground, suggesting that the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe points at that. Well … I don’t think so but who knows! It may come to pass. There was a battle between Hernando de Cortés and Montezuma early in the 1500’s and the demonic religion of the Aztecs was defeated. Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to San Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin during December 1531 while at the same time in the distant Peru, Francisco Pizarro was just beginning the conquest of the Inca empire. That is quite a coincidence indeed. Another consequence of Our Blessed Mother visiting Mexico that year was the conversion of nearly nine million native Mexicans that happened also “coincidentally” at the same time that nine million Catholics left the Church during the Reformation in Europe.

The conversion of the nine million indigenous Mexicans must have been a challenge for the diocesan catechists I must say but they got it done. In fact it was so brilliantly executed that once I heard a rather modernist Catholic priest in Ohio complain about having to deal with this “Mexicans frozen in sixteenth century Franciscan spirituality” (imagine a smiley face here, gnuck-gnuck…)

Thinking about that distant massive conversion I remembered the events of October 13, 1917 in Fatima, Portugal. The Virgin Mary announced the three little seers that a big miracle was going to happen on October 13. During the month preceding the event all kinds of people converged into the little town of Fatima. Among them there were many Anarchists, Communists, Free Masons, Carbonari, and what have you, ready to have a laugh at the expense of the Church. Cameras were ready to register the event, reporters were there en masse.   The crowd was estimated to be about 70,000 at the time, it may have reached about 100,000. Here is an account of the witnesses as quoted in Wikipedia:

“The sun, at one moment surrounded with scarlet flame, at another aureoled in yellow and deep purple, seemed to be in an exceedingly swift and whirling movement, at times appearing to be loosened from the sky and to be approaching the earth, strongly radiating heat.”? — Dr. Domingos Pinto Coelho, writing for the Catholic newspaper Ordem.
“… The silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds … 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 … people wept and prayed with uncovered heads, in the presence of a miracle they had awaited. The seconds seemed like hours, so vivid were they.”? — Reporter for the Lisbon newspaper O Dia.
“The sun’s disc did not remain immobile. This was not the sparkling of a heavenly body, for it spun round on itself in a mad whirl, when suddenly a clamor was heard from all the people. The sun, whirling, seemed to loosen itself from the firmament and advance threateningly upon the earth as if to crush us with its huge fiery weight. The sensation during those moments was terrible.” — Dr. Almeida Garrett, Professor of Natural Sciences at Coimbra University.
“As if like a bolt from the blue, the clouds were wrenched apart, and the sun at its zenith appeared in all its splendor. It began to revolve vertiginously on its axis, like the most magnificent fire wheel that could be imagined, taking on all the colors of the rainbow and sending forth multicolored flashes of light, producing the most astounding effect. This sublime and incomparable spectacle, which was repeated three distinct times, lasted for about ten minutes. The immense multitude, overcome by the evidence of such a tremendous prodigy, threw themselves on their knees.”? — Dr. Manuel Formigão, a professor at the seminary at Santarém, and a priest.
“I feel incapable of describing what I saw. I looked fixedly at the sun, which seemed pale and did not hurt my eyes. Looking like a ball of snow, revolving on itself, it suddenly seemed to come down in a zigzag, menacing the earth. Terrified, I ran and hid myself among the people, who were weeping and expecting the end of the world at any moment.” — Rev. Joaquim Lourenço, describing his boyhood experience in Alburitel, eighteen kilometers from Fatima.
“On that day of October 13, 1917, without remembering the predictions of the children, I was enchanted by a remarkable spectacle in the sky of a kind I had never seen before. I saw it from this veranda …” — Portuguese poet Alfonso Lopes Vieira.
De Marchi also drew on the newspaper account written by Avelino de Almeida, a journalist sent by the newspaper O Século (The Century, a leftist newspaper at the time), who described in detail the reactions of the crowd.
According to De Marchi, “Engineers that have studied the case reckoned that an incredible amount of energy would have been necessary to dry up those pools of water that had formed on the field in a few minutes as it was reported by witnesses

There were miraculous cures, blind people recovered their eyesight, many who arrived in wheelchairs left walking, etc. and there were many conversions.

Both apparitions of Our Blessed Mother in Fatima, Portugal and Tepeyac Hill, Mexico resulted in numerous conversions. I am almost convinced that those conversions pointed at some future event. May be Fatima was a reminder — among other things —  of the conversions of 1531 in México. Both apparitions came in the wake of wars: the conquest of Mexico, and the Great War of 1914-1918.

If a great miracle of global proportions happens to kick this planet out of its sinful complacency, what are we to do if one third of humanity (or more)  suddenly converts like Nineveh in the times of Jonah?

Matthew 12: 38-42 —   Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.  The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here!

Our Lady of Guadalupe is ready to help us out: “Am I not here? Am I not your Mother?”