On May 13, 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three children, ages seven to ten, near an out-of-the-way place in Portugal.  She gave them an important message for the world.   This is God’s usual way.  He chooses the most unlikely people and places.  In the prophet Isaiah we read: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55: 8-9).

Remember: the Son of God was born in a tiny town in a remote part of the Roman Empire. He became a refugee in Africa and then was in Nazareth, about which the apostle Nathaniel said “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1: 46).

In 1917 people probably thought, “Can anything good come out of Fatima? Why would Our Blessed Mother entrust such an important message for humanity to three underage peasants?  Remember: God’s ways are not our ways.  As St. Paul wrote: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1: 27-29).

What was Our Lady’s message?  One of the children, Sister Lucia, who lived to be ninety-seven, quoting Mary’s words, said: “Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners. Many souls go to hell because there is none to make sacrifices and to pray for them.  Hence, by our union with Christ and with His Church, we must offer ourselves for the conversion of our brothers and sisters.”

According to St. Paul, God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 1: 4).  This is so important to Jesus that periodically He sends His own Mother to remind us to pray for the conversion of sinners.

Today we celebrate a feast in honor of Our Lady of Fatima.  She invites us to join her in praying and making sacrifices for the salvation of souls.

Who me?!  I’m so weak and insignificant.  I, too, am a sinner.  Yes, and that’s why God chooses you and me.  We are “earthen vessels to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4: 7).  Today, and one day at a time, let us say “yes” to Our Blessed Mother’s call that came to us through three children who said “yes” to her.

Mary, Our Lady of Fatima and Refuge of Sinners, pray for us now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.