CHAPTER FIVE
JACINTA CAUSES TROUBLE
Ecstatically the three children smiled at each other.
"Oh, what a beautiful Lady!" Jacinta sighed, "How beautiful that Lady was!"
The others agreed enthusiastically. This time they were feeling quite different to the way they had felt after the Angel's visits. Then, although joyful, they had been reluctant to speak and incapable of any effort at all. But this time they were brimming over with excitement, joy and peace.
"What did the Lady say?" Francesco demanded eagerly.
The girls were astonished.
"Didn't you hear?" Lucia gasped.
"No."
"Oh! Well then, the Lady said to many things . . . Oh yes, she said that you're going to Heaven, but that you'll have to say many Rosaries first."
Overjoyed, Francesco clapped his hands.
"Oh beautiful, sweet Lady," he called out rapturously, "I'll pray as many Rosaries as you wish! What else did the Lady say?"
Lucia laughed merrily.
"Well, she said that Jacinta and I will also go to . . . Oh dear, where are the sheep?"
Horrified, the children ran to the neighbour's field and gathered their sheep. When, against all logic, they found that no damage had been done, they expressed no surprise, but merely smiled at one another. After all, hand't the Lady promised this?
But that evening, as they were driving their sheep homeward, Lucia felt her joy dim and fear stirred within her heart as she looked at Jacinta.
"Ai que Senhora tao bonita!" "Oh, how beautiful that Lady was!" her little cousin was exclaiming for the umpteenth time that day. Fear made Lucia's voice sound rough as she blurted out:
"It's obvious that you can't wait to tell everybody about it!"
Jacinta's eyes rested lovingly on her cousin. Tranquilly she replied:
"Don't worry, Lucia. I promise I'll say nothing."
Yet Lucia's fears had not been unfounded. No sooner did Jacinta spot her mother that evening than she ran, threw her arms around Olimpia's neck and breathed: "Mama, today I saw Our Lady in the Cova da Iria!"
Olimpia's eyes widened. Involuntarily her hand went to her heart. "Our Lady? You must be crazy! Only saints see Our Lady."
Sadly her daughter regarded her.
"But I did see her, Mama," she protested, "and so did Lucia and Francesco."
Incredulously her mother shook her head. Taking Jacinta by the hand, she went inside.
"Mam," Jacinta said urgently, "We must say the Rosary every day. Our Lady said so."
At this moment her father arrived with some of his friends. When everyone was seated around the table, Jacinta repeated her story.
"Francesco, is this true?" Olimpia asked.
Accusingly Francesco eyed his little sister, her sunny smile for once lacking the power to move him. How could Jacinta dishonour the promise so eloquently made?
"Francesco!" Olimpia insisted.
"Yes Mama, it's true," Francesco sighed.
Meeting Lucia at the Pool on the following morning, Francesco indignantly informed her of Jacinta's perfidy.
"You see - I knew it!" Lucia bitterly exclaimed.
Tears spilling from her eyes, Jacinta attempted to defend herself.
Touching her heart, she argued:
"Inside here something stopped me from hiding anything."
At the sight of her cousin's tears Lucia relented.
"Ah well, stop crying, and never tell a soul about the things the Lady told us."
"But I've spoken about them already."
"What did you say?"
"I said that the Lady had promised to bring us to Heaven."
"I must say you wasted no time," Lucia commented sarcastically.
"Forgive me!" Jacinta pleaded, "I'll never say a word to anyone else."
It was the pride of Maria Rosa dos Santos' heart that her children were extremely truthful. If a difficult life had rendered Lucia's mother somewhat firm, it had never damaged her sound moral principles. This is why, upon being told by Olimpia of the apparition, she was deeply upset. As Lucia did not refer to the matter at home, however, her mother managed to ignore it for a few days.
Finding that the story was spreading all over town, however, she one day confronted her daughter with it. Quietly Lucia admitted that what Jacinta had told Olimpia was true. Her mother tried to get her to retract the story but to no avail.
Weeping bitterly, Lucia herded her flock to the Pool. Some minutes after her arrival, Francesco and Jacinta appeared on the scene.
"What's wrong, Lucia?" they asked compassionately.
Lucia's tears flowed even more freely as she answered:
"Please tell me what to do! Mother insists I tell her that I was lying.
How can I possibly say so?"
Fiercely Francesco turned on his sister.
"You see, it's all your fault!" he accused. "Why did you have to go and talk about it?"
Jacinta burst into tears and threw herself on to the ground. Raising her hands towards them, she pleaded for forgiveness.
"I did wrong," she wept, "But I'll never tell anyone else."
One Sunday morning when Maria Rosa decided to take her to see the priest.
Frightened, Lucia ran to her uncle's house to ask advice from Jacinta. Her little cousin, who was still lying in bed, listened sympathetically to her problems and tried to encourage her, but it was an apprehensive Lucia who caught up with her mother on the way to Mass a little later.
After Mass Maria Rosa crossed the Church Square and ascended the steps of the Presbytery terrace
Resolutely knocking at the front door they were admitted by the priest's sister. With beating heart Lucia awaited the entrance of the priest. She need not have worried. Father Ferreira was a very kind person. Thoroughly he examined Lucia's story, at times testing her truthfulness by attempting to confuse her, but she answered all his questions openly and confidently. In the end he let her go with her mother, shrugging his shoulders in perplexity.
Papa Marto, Maria Rosa' brother-in-law by marriage, however made a wise observation:
"God is so great," he decided, "Who can fathom everything? Let's just wait and see. The truth will surely come out."
No comments:
Post a Comment