Recently, I was deeply moved by a story that Sr. Lucia, one of the three children Our Lady appeared to in Fatima, recounts in one of her letters.
On one of the walls in Lucia’s childhood home there hung a crucifix. In her letter, she shares how one day, while she and her little cousin Jacinta were playing in the home, Jacinta “ran to get the crucifix. She kissed it and hugged it with such devotion that I have never forgotten it. Then, looking attentively at the figure of Our Lord, she asked: ‘Why is Our Lord nailed to a cross like that?’” When Lucia answered that it was because He died for us, Jacinta replied, “Tell me how it happened...”
I am struck by the beauty and simplicity of this request. I imagine Jacinta’s eager and attentive eyes gazing upon Our Lord’s cruciform body and the desire and longing that must have begun to stir in her heart. It was a longing and desire that would grow. In that single moment spent gazing upon the crucifix, Our Lord was already beginning to draw the heart of this future saint to a greater knowledge of the depth of His love and of His desire for souls.
Lucia goes on to share how in the evenings, her mother used to tell them the story of Our Lord’s Passion. She writes: “That is how I came to know the story of Our Lord’s Passion. As it was enough for me to have heard a story once, to be able to repeat it in all its details, I began to tell my companions, word for word, what I used to call Our Lord’s Story.” Our Lord’s story, first shared by Lucia’s mother in the evenings as the children gathered around her, captured the minds and hearts of these children, eventually leading them to take their own place in Love’s ever-unfolding story of sacrifice and salvation.
As we begin our Advent journey, I am encouraged to draw near the feet of my Mother, of Love’s Mother, and make of her this same simple request: “Mary, tell me how it happened…” How did your heart respond when the angel Gabriel shared with you God the Father’s request? What was transpiring in your heart as you shared this mystery and joy with your cousin Elizabeth? And what did you feel when you first looked upon Love’s infant face? When you heard his first cry and pressed his small hands in yours? Mary, tell me how it happened so that my heart too may be drawn to take its place with Him and with you, so that Love may continue the unfolding of His story in me.
Sr. Philomena, CFR