Keyword: Sacrifice

Sacrifice

In the context of the Message of Fatima, sacrifice is the expression of the love of God and of neighbour, according to the Gospel, where the ultimate expression of love of God translates into the sacrifice of Christ. As Sister Lucia acknowledges, “over the course of all the message, starting by the apparitions of the Angel, we come across a call to prayer and to sacrifice offered to God for love and for the conversions of sinners”. Love is the only reason of sacrifice. The message of Fatima recognises, pragmatically, that sacrifice is a condition of love, which the lover cannot ignore.

If, on the one hand, sacrifice is the process of truly accepting everything that creates my life – and for that reason, the Angel asked the little shepherds to accept, above all “the suffering which the Lord will send you” – on the other hand, it’s also the participation in the redeeming mystery of Christ, in His mission to gather everyone in the Father’s Sheepfold and not abandoning the other in the loneliness of guilt – Therefore, Mary asks the little shepherds to sacrifice themselves for the conversion of sinners.