The summer before I started fourth grade, I won twenty-five dollars playing Bars and Bells at the St. Luke Parish pig roast. I was thrilled. The money lasted three whole days. It would be nearly two decades before I won anything so exciting again. But the wait was worth it. My next stroke of luck brought a reward that just might last all the way through eternity.
Sixteen years had passed since the day I stood on top of that white sea of losing tickets with a winner in my hand. The phone rang. A voice announced that I had won a scholarship to go to Fatima, Portugal. I expressed my gratitude, hung up, and then jumped around my apartment for at least ten minutes. I had submitted an essay to win the trip. I was a bit skeptical about Marian apparitions, but I figured I’d be happy to go if I was going for free. At that point, I thought my big prize was the trip to Europe. But as it turned out, the trip itself was only the beginning.
Without much thought about it, I packed my bags to travel to a place where Mary had supposedly appeared to three shepherd children. Two days later, I was standing in Fatima. I didn’t experience any miraculous impression of the after-effects of Mary’s presence but, over the next few days, my skepticism began to fade nonetheless. The element that impressed me most was the courage of the little children to whom Mary had first appeared on May 13, 1917: Lucia, Jacinta and Francesco.
Authorities had threatened the youngsters with such tortures as being boiled in oil if they didn’t say it was all a lie. And still, they wouldn’t change their story. I can’t imagine a seven-year-old child being willing to be boiled in oil in order to protect a lie. And I can’t imagine a seven-year-old child who wouldn’t just lie and say it was all a game, even if it wasn’t, in order to avoid the oil-boil. Something had given these children supernatural courage.
The other virtues of the three young visionaries also impressed me. Clearly, their devotion to God and their desire for holiness was radically superior to my own. But for all this, I had to honestly admit that people who are successful, beautiful and popular in the eyes of the world captivated me more than Blessed Jacinta, Blessed Francesco and Sister Lucia did. I was more interested in worldly glamour than in holiness. Sanctity didn’t excite me.
As I sat in a chapel at Fatima praying about this fact, a thought crossed my mind. I realized that Mary was as successful, beautiful and popular as they come. She’s the Mother of God and the Queen of Heaven for starters. Not many of us can compete with credentials like that. Her beauty has captured the imagination of artists, poets, writers and musicians for nearly two thousand years. And there is no woman in history who more people have wanted to imitate or to whom more people have been devoted. And it was all because of her immaculate heart.
Until that day, I never understood devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I always dismissed it as something too pious for my taste. But suddenly I realized what it really meant. Mary was pure, inside and out. Nothing tainted her, nothing got in the way. She had no spots, no blotches, no blemishes. No obstacles kept her from flourishing. She was like a flawless diamond, reflecting the Light of Christ which radiated straight through her. She was, and is, perfectly “successful,” beautiful, and popular because she was, and is, perfectly holy!
My real prize, as it turned out, was more than a vacation, it was a realization. I had learned that the secret to success is sanctity. The more immaculate we become, the more perfect our lives will be.
Now, whenever the feast of Our Lady of Fatima rolls around on May 13th, I offer a special prayer of thanks for that stroke of “good fortune” which took me to Portugal. Ever since that trip, I have begun actually to desire to grow in holiness. That authentic desire puts us in the running for the greatest prize of all, the Beatific Vision, eternal bliss, the pinnacle of true success: heaven.
© Copyright 2006 Catholic Exchange
Gina Giambrone is a freelance writer and speaker based in Cincinnati, Ohio. She holds an M.A. in Theology and Christian Ministry from the Franciscan University of Steubenville and is currently awaiting the publication of her first book.
