Saturday, March 15, 1997

An unusual sightings increase, here's a vision worth following

By TOM SCHAEFER

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

"What's going to happen? What should I do?" a frightened 8-year-old boy asked a reporter last week.

He was reacting to reports that a woman in western Kansas, Margarita Holguin, claims to have been hearing messages from the Virgin Mary, one of which told people to stay indoors last Saturday and pray from 3-5:30 p.m. Don't look up in the sky, she reportedly implored, because "horrible phenomena" could occur.

Thousands of people were paying attention to this 30-year-old deeply religious woman because of stories about a 6-inch plaster statue of the Virgin Mary that she keeps in her home. Reportedly, the statue has cried tears of blood since December, and Holguin herself is said to have had small puncture wounds around her head and to have cried blood herself. Those religious signs, reported in news accounts, were too powerful for some people in Kansas and across the country to ignore.

Reactions to the story have elicited a range of emotions, as such stories always do - from reverent awe to anxiety or fear to outright derision.

Among the reverent, thousands have traveled to the town of Lewis (population 400) to knock gently on Holguin's door, walk inside, view the statue and pray. They believe in the apparition and the accompanying signs.

The fearful or anxious believed that Holguin was predicting a cataclysmic event for last Saturday afternoon and took what they felt was appropriate action. Some parents canceled activities for their children, keeping them indoors. Several Catholic churches reportedly had an unusually high number of people at the sacrament of penance. They also received numerous calls like the 8-year-old's.

(Members of Holguin's family said her words in Spanish were incorrectly translated. She was not predicting any cataclysm; people were simply being urged to stay indoors and pray during that time.)

Others either ignored the visionary altogether or laughed at what they believe is superstitious nonsense: "This is 1997, not 997, for goodness sake!"

And then there are those who believe in the providential hand of God in human affairs but are uncomfortable with reactions one and two. I include myself in this category. We prefer to check the box that says "None of the above." We're not willing to reject the possibility of supernatural behavior in history - Is every act of grace mere chance or luck? - but we're cautious when it comes to labeling every extraordinary occurrence as spiritually significant.

Instead, we live as Martin Luther, the 16th-century reformer, who according to legend said that if he knew the next day was Judgment Day, he would live it by going out and planting an apple tree.

The fact is, unusual sightings and other phenomena will increase as we approach the millennium. (Shortly before the year 1000, many people in Europe were said to be quaking at the prospect that the "nightfall of the universe was at hand.") Already, more than 300 apparitions similar to the one in Lewis are said to be taking place worldwide, according to a magazine that tracks them. And we still have three years or four, depending on how you count till the start of the next millennium.

What are we to do in the meantime for ourselves as well as for 8-year-olds who can be terrified and adults who can be anxious?

Many simply will ignore such accounts or ridicule them. It's the stuff of tooth fairies, they say, and things that go bump in the night.

Others will look to such occurrences to bolster their faith. Perhaps, they murmur, this is it: the end of history, the day of doom. They will pray more fervently, keeping a heavenly watch.

Still others will trust that, despite the loss of reverent awe and the increase of scientific knowledge in this age that discounts the supernatural, there is a divine calling to heed. And it goes like this:

In the simplest task or the weightiest decision, think first about others, not yourself.

Whatever you do every day - work at a job, attend school, care for others, visit with friends or neighbors - show kindness, promote fairness and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).

At the end of each day, think about whom you have hurt and how you will, on the next day, seek their forgiveness. Reflect on the graces you have - not just the pains you endure - and give thanks.

Then, whether death comes suddenly - or the end is truly imminent - you can confidently say, along with the Psalmist, "My times are in your hand" (Psalm 31:15).

That's a calling - and a vision of faith - worth following.

In the meantime, you may want to plant an apple tree.