Cervantes: In Garabandal, the Blessed Mother laughed over funny stories

PROPHECIES say we are now being tried as never before, that we are in the era wherein we have to choose between good and evil. Something like being given the final choice between the belief that "life is short" and what we often absentmindedly pronounce as "life everlasting" whenever we recite the Credo. The option to pick Heaven or hell.

In this conflict between the worlds of the material and the spirit, there is a need to give more information about "life everlasting," because in this world, new smartphones, along with Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok attract better. Attractions of the here and now detaches us from the world of spirits, and therefore away from an amorphous God.

The lack of information on the afterlife even from the Sunday pulpit has led people feeling a Heaven that is boring, a vision of one playing a harp over clouds devoid of anything as delightful as Netflix.

But really, Catholic mystic events have been giving us enough information on how the afterlife can be exciting, way above the universal concept of dreadful ghosts.

There's much to look forward to in the afterlife, particularly Heaven. Already, this piece has dwelt on revelations from the other side, although mostly about the "middle terrain," quoting the Unpublished Manuscript on Purgatory and the experiences of Austria's Maria Simma whose visitors in her small home were often souls from Purgatory. But the horizon to look forward to is really Heaven where harps could indeed exist, but certainly much, much more.

Yes, for those who would not like to leave the little delights of being alive on earth, Heaven is not just sitting on endless clouds and signing praise songs nonstop.

Visionaries from Garabandal, Spain where the Blessed Mother had appeared about 2,000 times from 1961 to 1965, are not short of telling us about their playful experienced with St. Michael the Archangel and the Blessed Mother herself.

Remember that St. Michael was first to appear to them in their forsaken hamlet of 700 people who had neither electricity nor running water. In one of his apparitions, he commented how beautiful were the teeths of the visionary-children. Then he smiled to show that he, too, had wonderful set of teeth. Of course, St. Michael need not have teeth as he is spirit, but he has the power to assume physical form and, yes, delight us humans with what, uh, delights us on earth.

During her apparitions, the Blessed Mother also manifested what I would call little acts of humanity. She would listen to the children telling her about the little things they did during the day, and really laughing over funny things told her.

Recalled visionary Conchita wrote in her diary, "We told her that everyone was behind with the hay-making, and still had the grass piled waiting to be spread dry. And she laughed at the things we told her." The visionaries also said the Blessed Mother once played hide-and-seek with them.

One time, the Blessed Mother agreed to their request to examine the crown with stars that she wore. Witnessed saw the girls passing on to each other something they, the witnesses, could not see. The visionaries later said they indeed examined the crown which they passed to one another, but that they could not hold the stars adorning it.

There have been privileged people to see Heaven even before their physical deaths, such as some of the visionaries of Medjugorje. This I intend to tackle in this space some other time.

All these information from various mystical experiences tell us how Heaven can be a superior version of the delights most people do not like to leave on earth.

There are also enough wise men of our age who haven't seen Heaven yet, but have come out with exciting theories on how it will be in that place of unending bliss where, they insist, there are the most delicious fruits without the need for toilets and where there will be a reunion not only with loved departed humans with spiritual bodies, but also with pets gone.

Of course, the ultimate object, as St. Thomas and other theologians would boringly insist, is the Beatific Vision, a union with God. But this we will fully understand once we get to Heaven or when given as grace in the course of deeply desiring Heaven. Meanwhile, in our times of worldliness, the lure of Heaven with its delicious fruits and reunions with loved ones, can suffice for many to opt for goodness and more spirituality.

And now, to go on with not-so-delightful prophecies pertaining to our days. Last Sunday, Garabandal visionary Conchita marked her 72nd birthday. Remember that she was tasked by the Blessed Mother to announce eight days in advance, through a priest of her choice, the promised Great Miracle to happen after the Warning. These two events are to occur within a year and are meant to be the ultimate means to convert sinners amid prospects of unprecedented chastisement. The implication is that, with Conchita already of advanced age, we are to expect the Warning and the Miracle in our times.

Again, let us recall what could happen if not enough are converted by the Warning and the Great Miracle.

In 1917 in Fatima, the Blessed Mother warned of future disasters "If people do not repent and better themselves." On October 13, 1973, in the approved Marian apparitions in Akita, Japan, the Blessed Mother also gave this dire message to Sister Agnes Sasagawa: "If people do not repent and better themselves the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge (the flood involving the prophet Noah that the Bible describes), such as has never been seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out nearly all of humanity -- the good and the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The devil will rage especially against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will no longer be pardon for them."

As recently as October 6, 2019, Sister Agnes was visited by an angel and given this message. "Put on ashes and pray a repentant Rosary every day. You must become like a child and make sacrifices every day."

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