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Theology of Apparitions
The appearances of God, the angels and
the saints to human beings on the earth fall into two general
categories, apparitions and mysticism.
A mystic is a person who having
persevered in the Christian spiritual life, usually a notable length
of time, receives by God's free choice the infused supernatural grace
of contemplative prayer. Through this grace they are granted a deeper
knowledge and experience of God, beyond that which the ordinary ways
of prayer and Christian life can give. This grace is usually granted
after they have been faithful in avoiding sin, conquered themselves
through mortification, and meditated faithfully on Christ and the
truths of the faith taught by the Church. Passing through a profound
trial known as the Dark Night of the
Senses they enter upon the Illuminative Way, in which they make very
notable progress in sanctity, as well as receive divine
communications, whether of interior words (locutions) or interior
(intellectual) or exterior visions. They may also experience
ecstasies, levitations, the stigmata, and other signs of their growing
intimacy with God and the supernatural. If they persevere on this path
they will pass through another Dark
Night, of the Spirit, in which their purification is completed.
Entering upon the Unitive Way, their union with God is secured by a
Mystical Marriage, prefiguring their union with God at death and the
consummation of the union of Christ and His Bride at the end of time.
 An apparition, however, is a charismatic
gift granted by God for some greater
purpose of His than the benefit of the one receiving it. It says
nothing necessary about the sanctity of the recipient(s); although God
usually chooses simple and good Christians,
often children, who will readily accept
and do His Will. Generally, it can be understood
as an external vision, created by some means of God, to represent the
holy person depicted. It would not necessarily have to be the person
him or herself. Only Christ and Our Lady (possibly St. Joseph,
according to St. Francis de Sales and others who hold
that he was taken to heaven body and soul), could actually
appear in their bodies. All others, and even they, could appear by
some representation accessible to the human senses. In such a way
God appeared by means of angels to Abraham and to Moses. According to
St. Thomas Aquinas, this manner is the ordinary cause of mysticism and
apparitions.
In the case of Fátima it is clear that
something more than an intellectual vision took place, an external
apparition accompanied by indications of the actual presence of Our
Lady. This latter cannot be conclusively determined. However, it
reasonably follows from the descriptions of the events and especially
from the sense of Her Presence continued to be felt there to this day.
As a fruit of the events, and of the
fidelity of the three children to the message of Fátima, Lucia,
Francisco and Jacinta grew in holiness and became mystics in the
proper sense. It is for their heroic virtue in the pursuit of God that
the two youngest are being raised to the honor of the altar, not for
being the recipients of an apparition. This fact, more even than the
miracle of the Sun, authenticates the message of Fátima.
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