2 Kings 5:14-17/ 2 Timothy 2:8-13/ Luke 17:11-19
The year 1917 sounds like it is a long time ago. In fact, it is about a hundred years ago.
Most of us have not come into existence yet, and maybe it was a good thing that we didn’t live during that time.
Because the world was torn apart with WW I, and when it ended, the Great Depression followed, and not long after that, nations were fighting with each other in WW II.
Certainly, it was a terrible time to live in and it would seemed to be like end times.
Yet, on this very day, 13th October back in year 1917, something spectacular, astonishing and beautiful happened in a small village called Fatima in Portugal.
It was an event which was called “The Miracle of the Sun”.
In a spectacle witnessed by 70,000 to 100,000 people, the dark rain clouds opened up, revealing the sun as an immense silver disk.
It shone with an intensity never seen before, but was not blinding.
Then that immense silver disk (or the sun) began to dance. It began to spin rapidly like a gigantic circle of fire.
It even became scarlet and scattered red flames across the sky. All that lasted for about 10 minutes and then the sun returned to its original place, and once again became still and brilliant and shining brightly as before. Thus the miracle of the sun ended.
But it was not just some kind of miracle or phenomenon. Rather it was a sign that was promised by Mary on her last apparition to the three shepherd children Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia.
It all began during WWI when the then Pope Benedict XV made repeated but unheeded pleas for peace.
Finally, and desperately, at the beginning of May 1917, he made a direct plea to Mary, to intercede for peace in the world.
And Mary responded (as she always did), just after a week, with her first apparition at Fatima on the 13th May to the three children.
She made six more apparitions, all on the 13th of each month, and she told the children to pray the Rosary, and do penance for the sins of the world.
There were other revelations, including the famous Fatima secrets, but we must not miss the message of the apparitions.
On the last apparition on the 13th October, Mary revealed to the children (and to the world), that she is the Lady of the Rosary and she asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart so that Russia will be converted and there will be peace.
If not, evil will continue to spread and the Church will face persecutions and undergo trials.
Almost a hundred years later, on this very same day, 13th October 2013, Pope Francis is calling upon the Church to remember the message of Fatima.
Today, Pope Francis is calling the Church to prayer and to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the New Evangelization.
Like what Pope Benedict XV did in 1917, Pope Francis is making a direct appeal to Mary for the Church and for the world.
The Church had undergone, and is still undergoing, turmoil and distress.
Even though the Church had divine origins and apostolic foundations, she has also been afflicted with spiritual leprosy.
We have heard about all the bad news and the scandals that have rocked the Church.
We are left bewildered and disappointed with the clergy as well as with the people serving in Church ministry, and our faith begin to become lukewarm and slowly drain away.
Hence the New Evangelization is first and foremost for the Church.
Like the ten lepers in the gospel who daringly approached Jesus for a cure, we must turn to Mary and consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart.
To consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart means that we want to have a heart like Mary’s, a heart that is pure and holy, a heart that is thankful and joyful.
To have a pure and holy heart, to have a thankful and joyful heart already means that we are proclaiming the Good News, because to evangelize means to proclaim the Good News of salvation.
Just like that one leper in the gospel, who was cured and who turned back praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked Him.
Jesus had this to say to him : Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.
So, that man was not just cured; he was saved. And that’s the difference.
The other nine were cured, certainly! Did they think of thanking Jesus? Maybe they did, but maybe they said “later” and that later became never.
On the 7th September (that was just a month back, and which was the eve of our Lady’s birthday), Pope Francis called on the Church to offer a day of prayer and fasting for the volatile situation in the Middle East, and particularly for Syria.
About 100,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square (and many more others around the world) joined the Pope in prayer and fasting.
There was no apparition, no dancing or spinning sun. But a quiet miracle did happen.
Did we notice that soon after the worldwide vigil of prayer and fasting for peace in Syria, more opportunities for nonviolent solutions were considered and taken up?
Yes, a quiet miracle happened.
The New Evangelization is for us the Church to have faith in the power of prayer and to give thinks with joyful hearts for what wonders the Lord has done for us and for the marvels that He will do for us.
The New Evangelization is also for the world, that as we proclaim the Good News of salvation to the world, we pray with Mary, the Lady of the Rosary, that the world will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to the gods of money, sex and power.
Rather, may the world come to acknowledge the one true God, and that Jesus is the Saviour.
That may sound like a miracle (maybe even impossible!) but with faith and with prayer, nothing is impossible.
Because with God, there can be miracles.