OUR LADY:

Raise all your objects; all will be blessed for the poor dying people…

I bless you, my children, as the Father blesses you, through the Son and with the Holy Spirit.

COMMENTARY UPON MESSAGES

March 7th 1983

"My child, my child, I keep on saying: make sacrifices and pray, pray for poor sinners, receive the Eucharist. So many of my children are falling into the bottom of the abyss because they did not fulfil the Commandments! Don't be cowards; fulfil the Eternal Father's Laws. All those who don't fulfil the Commandments will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Go to the sacrament of Confession because God's trial can come off at any time. If you have already done it, go to the Eucharist. My Son is very sad, waiting; He is a crucified victim expiating the sins of Humankind." ( Our Lady)

There is hardly a message at Prado Nuevo not talking about penance and sacrifice, or penances and sacrifices, in plural. It is not easy to distinguish between these two terms for sometimes one action can include some of them, which leads us to identify them as the same concepts. "Penance" as virtue is different from doing "penances" as "sacrifices".

On the one hand, the term "sacrifice" in singular means the offering of a sense-perceptible gift to God as an external manifestation of his supremacy over us and our submission to Him; this manifestation implies renouncing something that belongs to us: money, real estates or movables, a candle for an offering, etc. Undoubtedly, this should lead us to deny ourselves, as the Lord asks us in the Gospel," Then Jesus said to his disciples," if you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. For whoever chooses to save his life will lose it, but the one who loses his life for my sake will find it"(1). The greatest sacrifice is the Holy Mass, where the sacrifice of the Cross is brought up to date.

On the other hand, penance is a special virtue not merely because it sorrows for evil done (since charity would suffice for that), but also because the penitent grieves for the sin he has committed, inasmuch as it is an offense against God, and purposes to amend (2) .

Anyway, we can offer the Mass as a sacrifice and, at the same time, as penance to expiate our sins.

The Mosaic Law prescribed three kinds of sacrifices: the holocaust, the sacrifice for the sin and the peaceful host.

Firstly, the sacrifice of holocaust is a manifestation of the supreme dominion of God over his creatures; the victim was completely consumed by fire as a present to the Divine Majesty. Therefore, we can say that death accepted and wished as an offer to God must please Him so much!

Secondly, we can offer the sacrifice or four sins with our death; according to John, all the sins we have committed are caused by "the craving of the flesh, the greed of eyes and people boasting of their superiority" (1Jn 2, 16). These disappear with death, which puts in order with the penalty what the guilt had disordered.

Thirdly, the peaceful host was offered as an act of gratitude for all the gifts God had already given or was going to give. Since each of us has received so many gifts from God along our lives, consequently, the offer of our life and the acceptance of death are an excellent way to express our gratitude to our Creator and Redeemer.

The importance of the Commandments of God's Law is shown by the consequences of not fulfilling them, as Our Lady says in this message: So many of my children are falling into the bottom of the abyss because they did not fulfil the Commandments! The answer to the question of the importance the Church gives to the Decalogue is given by The Compendium of the catechism of the Catholic Church:"The Church, in fidelity to Scripture and to the example of Christ, acknowledges the primordial importance and significance of the Decalogue. Christians are obliged to keep it." (438).Besides, it explains why the Decalogue enjoins serious obligations in number 440: "It does so because the Decalogue expresses the fundamental duties of man towards God and towards his neighbor." Fulfilling the Decalogue in our current world is the only way to solve the appalling problems affecting Humankind; it is like the arches of a bridge through which we get to the other side: the eternal life. Indeed, the Catechism teaches us: "The precepts of the Decalogue lay the foundations for the vocation of man fashioned in the image of God; they prohibit what is contrary to the love of God and neighbor and prescribe what is essential to it. The Decalogue is a light offered to the conscience of every man to make God's call and ways known to him and to protect him against evil" ( 1962)

When the Virgin says" God's trial can come off at any time" She is reminding us of the personal trial, which was taught among the eternal truths: Death, Trial, Hell and Glory. "Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of Heaven through a purification or immediate and everlasting damnation."(3)

Saint Paul explains it clearly: "Anyway, we all have to appear before the tribunal of Christ for each one to receive what he deserves for his good or evil deeds in the present life"(4). Cardinal Newman's words are frightful but true, and they may awake some drowsy souls: "Each of us must come to that quiet, awful time, when we appear before the Lord of the Vineyard, and answer for the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or bad. That, my dear brethren, you will have to undergo. Every one of you must undergo the particular judgment, and it will be the stillest, awfullest time which you ever can experience. It will be the dread moment of expectation, when your fate for eternity is in the balance, and when you are about to be sent forth the companion of saints or devils without possibility of change. There can be no change, there can be no reversal"

At that moment, we should not be afraid if we have been friends of " the friend that never fails", Jesus' Heart; besides, we count on the mediation of The Blessed Virgin, Mother of God and Our Mother, who will also be there as Advocate, as we say in the "Hail, Holy Queen ":"Turn then most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us"

(2) Saint Thomas , Summa Theological III, q. 85, a .1, ad 3