THE WARNING: THE PUNISHMENT WILL BE THE LAST

The Punishment will be the last of the punishments before the Era of Peace. God's work to bring the world to Himself will be done. Before the Gospel could be "preached to all the nations" "wars and rumors of wars" had to come, and many other calamities take place. The Warning and The Miracle had to happen to show the whole world that Jesus is Lord, so that all would abandon the errors which up to now have kept so many from embracing the Gospel and the Church. Only by The Warning, The Miracle, and either the threat of, or actual infliction of, the Punishment, could the world, the whole world, be made ready for the acceptance of the Good News of Jesus and His Way. For one hundred and fifty years the Mother of God had shown us that our afflictions were connected with our sins; we were being "punished" for them, both in this life and the next. The Punishment, if it comes, will be the utterly convincing evidence that her words have been true all along. There will no longer be any need for further punishment from God. The Punishment will effect a transformation of the world that will forever alter history. It will no longer be the way it was. The whole world will worship God and His Son Jesus Christ, come into the Church, and live lives worthy of Him. An era, a "certain period" of peace, will be given to the world.

[To be continued . . .]

THE WARNING: THE PUNISHMENT WILL PURIFY THE EARTH

The Punishment will purify the earth. Whether or not The Punishment actually occurs, the "Triumph" of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will unfailingly emerge "in the end," and an "Era of Peace" will be given to the world. The "Triumph" means that hearts on earth will become like hers in heaven---free from sin. Peace in our hearts, like the peace in her Heart in heaven, will bring peace to the whole world. If The Punishment does not come, it will be because the world, through The Warning and The Miracle, will have repented, receiving contritely the gift of "The Triumph" in the forgiveness of Jesus. Thus "there will be peace," and the earth will be purified, without The Punishment.

But if we do not heed The Warning or let the lesson of The Miracle touch us deeply enough to give up our sin, then God's only and last recourse is The Punishment. He Himself will directly intervene, after a century and a half of tearful pleadings from Our Blessed Mother have failed to move us, and will remove sin from the face of the earth by removing sinners themselves from it. By His patient delay of the drastic surgery implied in The Punishment, He mercifully gives more time to those who are "on their way to perdition," but He cannot wait any longer, since it has become evident that their hearts are so hardened that the Holy Spirit will never be able to convert them. Since the danger is very great that if their course is not terminated they will "take many souls with them," then, "for the sake of the elect, the time will be shortened," and The Punishment will come to them to take them away.

God could have acted in such a manner at any time in history if He wished. There is even an Old Testament story describing how the world became so sinful that God "repented" that He had made men, and He sent a flood that drowned everyone except His faithful servant, Noe, and his family, and animals of every kind. It teaches the people of God that
there is a limit to the lawlessness and degradation that the Lord will permit. God is holy and He is sovereign ruler; all creation must acknowledge Him. We must live according to His commandments, otherwise we will destroy ourselves and encounter the mysterious
"wrath" of God.

Perhaps, with The Punishment, the story of Noe will acquire an apocalyptic significance that the author never envisioned, for The Punishment, like the Flood, may come upon an unheeding and scornful world to destroy its evil, while those who have cleansed their heart of sin and trusted in the Lord's mercy will be saved.

The survivors of The Punishment will be protected by the Lord for the Era of Peace, when the dove of the Holy Spirit will announce to us that the flood of wickedness has passed, and we can begin to live life anew, in the time of conversion when "all will love Our Hearts." In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, all men and women on earth will learn to be faithful, and they will fill the earth with love.

[To be continued . . .]

THE WARNING: THE PUNISHMENT: DIRECTLY FROM GOD

The Punishment will come directly from God. This is no doubt the most troublesome of all the prophecies of Garabandal, or for that matter, of all the Marian prophecies concerning the "punishment." It is easier to explain "punishment" if we construe it to be the result, even on the corporate or global level, of our loveless and selfish behavior. But if we believe in the all-merciful God who is Father, and that His love for us is unlimited and unconditional, then how could He directly punish the whole world in a dreadful way?

The answer to that question is really beyond us, yet somehow The Punishment is compatible with His mercy. What even the best of theologians cannot understand or explain, we cannot hope to elucidate with absolute clarity. Some will reject this part of the prophecies about The Punishment, seeing it as too harsh to blend with the image of a
merciful Father whom they know by personal experience. Yet The Warning we have just suffered has already accorded the Garabandal message irrefutable confirmation. The Warning itself was a direct intervention from God. We all felt it by immediate experience, and it was "like" a punishment. It was a momentary anticipation of The Punishment, and warns us what The Punishment will be like, if it comes, as a result of our sins. Because of our sin, we felt the searing pain of The Warning. The Punishment will be the full measure of The Warning. Both Warning and Punishment demonstrate that God acts to save the world, and that in this instance, He is intervening directly to tear us away from our sins. The Warning is the first world-wide intervention in history in which God directly warns each one of us of final and eternal punishment to come if we do not repent of our sin. The second world-wide intervention, The Punishment, flows from The Warning and is directly connected with it. Both come directly from God. So The Warning itself should convince us that God can, and does, and will directly punish the world for its sin if it does not change. The Punishment will mean change for us all, for it will be a catastrophe designed to change all of us. For some, it may mean eternal perdition, which they will freely choose in defiance of the Lord's insistence on repentance. Others will be saved "as if by fire." For the whole world, it will mean the end of and age, the "end of the times." The earth will never be the same again.

[To be continued . . .]

THE WARNING: THE PUNISHMENT AFTER THE MIRACLE

The Punishment, if it comes, will take place after The Miracle. Unlike the time-span between The Warning and The Miracle (these will occur less than a year apart), there is no indication given of how long the period will be after The Miracle occurs until the time of The Punishment, if the latter does come. Punishment will not happen if people do as Mary asks, amending their lives. Punishment can be delayed and moderated by good deeds and prayer. But it will ultimately descend upon us if there is no sincere amendment on our part. God, in His compassion, realizes we need time for the message to reach us. Even after we have heard, it takes time for us to comprehend and respond. So He gives us more time --- centuries if necessary --- to make up our minds. After all, the last choice we make is irrevocable: heaven or hell. Our Father will give us time to listen and to heed, to decide and to act. The time of delay will end only when it is no longer a mercy to hold off punishment. As a consequence, we will have time between The Miracle and The Punishment, just as He has given us time between The Warning and The Miracle. If we use the interval well that He is offering us, and accept the mercy of God calling us to repentance, The Punishment will never come. It will, however, arrive swiftly, if the world, having felt The Warning and seen The Miracle, decides not to change at all. It will then become unthinkable for Him not to intervene, in order to prevent that "even the elect" not be saved.

[To be continued . . .]

THE WARNING: THE PUNISHMENT

Chapter Four

The Punishment

As the second year of the apparitions at Garabandal began, on June 19th and 20th, 1962, while a novena in preparation for the Feast of Corpus Christi was in progress, the four children were led alone into the darkness outside the village. They instructed the people not to follow them. Shortly thereafter the townspeople heard them screaming with terror, pleading in prayer for God to spare the people, especially the children. Whenever the
people prayed, led by the priest conducting the novena, the wailing diminished, but it resumed when they ceased. The girls informed everyone later that they had witnessed "The Punishment" that would come if people, in the end, would refuse to amend their lives. Many years later, Mari Loli, one of the girls, elaborated somewhat on what she
knew of this mysterious calamity, saying that it would be like fire all over the world. Even the seas would be on fire, so that people would have nowhere to flee. The visionaries are still afraid today when they think of what they have seen in this vision. They fear for themselves, for all of us, and especially for their own children, for they are all mothers of their own families now. They are forbidden by the Blessed Virgin, however, to say anything more about it.

[To be continued . . .]

THE WARNING: THE MIRACLE WILL BE FOR THE GLORY OF GOD

The Miracle will be for glory of God. God's glory is in our knowing Him as He is, and in our turning to Him in love. We will experience His glory in The Miracle, for we will know His mercy, His unmeasured love for us, His goodness. He who did not spare His only Son for us will let us understand His tender and most merciful love, through The Miracle. It will remind us of all His promises to forgive, to heal, to raise from the dead and to glorify us with His glory. We will also see how wonderful a Mother we have in Mary, and behold how marvelously the glory of God shines in her Assumption. We will comprehend the glory of God in the Church, signified in the people gathered around the mountain in Garabandal. When we return from the mountain, we shall have seen the glory of the Lord, and be eager to sound His glory to all the others. The glory of Sion, the glory of the New Pentecost prayed for by Pope John XXIII as he opened the Second Vatican Council and again by Pope Paul VI when he drew it to a close, will flow over the whole Church and the entire world. "And thus," as Jesus revealed to Conchita, "all will love our hearts."

[To be continued . . .]

THE WARNING: THE MIRACLE WILL BE A WARNING

The Miracle will be a warning. Once The Miracle happens, the human race must change, or face the most terrible catastrophe the world has ever seen: The Punishment. Blessing as The Miracle will be, it will make evident, even if only by the fact that it will be so stupendous, that this is our last chance. There will not be another miracle like this one. It will be very great because of the great needs of the world. But this time, unless the people heed the message, The Punishment will surely come. Even though an "Era of Peace" finally awaits us, unless the people amend their lives now, The Punishment will come. There will be no escape from it. The Miracle will have set the fuse. Unless we extinguish its burning by repentance, The Punishment will come.

[To be continued . . .]