Our Lady of Fatima and my existence
Question from Michael on 6/24/2008:
I just got taken aback by something in the last few days. I've long been in favour of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and I don't propose to change my mind about it.
Our Lady asked for this devotion at Fatima. She said that if her requests were listened to many souls would be saved and there would be peace.
But if people continued to offend God another war, the Second World War, would break out during the reign of Pope Pius XI.
What takes me aback is this. My parents met and married in Scotland, the war having displaced them from far different places in eastern Europe. If the war had never happened they would never have met, they would have married differently or not at all, and I would never have been born!
So it seems I owe my very existence to a war Our Lady came to stop!
Could someone please help me work this one out?
Answer by David Gregson on 8/7/2008:
There's an old saying (not in the Bible), "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good." Even though World War II was a judgment on the world, producing much evil, it was also the occasion of some good. For example, anti-semitism was permanently discredited among European peoples.
God always brings good out of evil, even though it may not be evident to us. Consider the story of Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. God was able to turn that grave sin into a great good. He provided for the survival of Joseph's family during a serious famine, and hence the coming to be of Israel, which descended from Joseph's family. As Joseph said, "As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive..." (Gen 50:20) So you could say, Hitler, Hirohito, etc., meant it for evil, that the world should be subjected to war, but God meant it for good. On a smaller scale, that would include the marriage of your mother and father, that you might exist.
Question from Michael on 6/24/2008:
I just got taken aback by something in the last few days. I've long been in favour of the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and I don't propose to change my mind about it.
Our Lady asked for this devotion at Fatima. She said that if her requests were listened to many souls would be saved and there would be peace.
But if people continued to offend God another war, the Second World War, would break out during the reign of Pope Pius XI.
What takes me aback is this. My parents met and married in Scotland, the war having displaced them from far different places in eastern Europe. If the war had never happened they would never have met, they would have married differently or not at all, and I would never have been born!
So it seems I owe my very existence to a war Our Lady came to stop!
Could someone please help me work this one out?
Answer by David Gregson on 8/7/2008:
There's an old saying (not in the Bible), "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good." Even though World War II was a judgment on the world, producing much evil, it was also the occasion of some good. For example, anti-semitism was permanently discredited among European peoples.
God always brings good out of evil, even though it may not be evident to us. Consider the story of Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. God was able to turn that grave sin into a great good. He provided for the survival of Joseph's family during a serious famine, and hence the coming to be of Israel, which descended from Joseph's family. As Joseph said, "As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive..." (Gen 50:20) So you could say, Hitler, Hirohito, etc., meant it for evil, that the world should be subjected to war, but God meant it for good. On a smaller scale, that would include the marriage of your mother and father, that you might exist.
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