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MONDAY-SUNDAY
November 26-December 2, 2001
volume 12, no. 158
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Mary is the portal for Moslems to accept Christ
"Missionaries in the future will, more and more, see that their
apostolate among the Moslems will be successful in the measure that
they preach Our Lady of Fatima. Mary is the advent of Christ, bringing
Christ to the people before Christ Himself is born. In an apologetic
endeavor, it is always best to start with that which people already
accept. Because the Moslems have a devotion to Mary, our missionaries
should be satisfied merely to expand and to develop that devotion,
with the full realization that Our Blessed Lady will carry the Moslems
the rest of the way to her divine Son. She is forever a traitor, in
the sense that she will not accept any devotion for herself, but will
always bring anyone who is devoted to her to her divine Son. As those
who lose devotion to her lose belief in the divinity of Christ, so
those who intensify devotion to her gradually acquire that belief.
Many of our great missionaries in Africa have already broken down the
bitter hatred and prejudices of the Moslems against the Christians
through their acts of charity, their schools and hospitals. It now
remains to use another approach, namely, that of taking the 41st
chapter of the Koran and showing them that it was taken out of the
Gospel of Luke, that Mary could not be, even in their own eyes, the
most blessed of all the women of Heaven if she had not also borne the
Savior of the world. If Judith and Esther of the Old Testament were
pre-figures of Mary, then it may very well be that Fatima herself was
a post-figure of Mary! The Moslems should be prepared to acknowledge
that, if Fatima must give way in honor to the Blessed Mother, it is
because she is different from all the other mothers of the world and
that without Christ she would be nothing."
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