“AKITA!” The Living Will Envy the Dead – Fr. Mark Goring

Beginning in 1973, in Akita in Japan, the Virgin Mary appeared to Sister Agnes Sasagawa and along with the Madonna’s appearances she gave Sister Sasagawa  messages to share with the world.

To this day, the messages from the Virgin Mary”s apparitions at Akita, approved by the Catholic Church as authentic,  are viewed by many as containing some of the most ominous prophecies of a future chastisement against all humanity. There are many Catholic who think Akita’s prophecies are in fact the so-called “Hidden Forth Secrets” of Fatima. Akita and Fatima are considered the most prophetic apparitions in Catholic Church history. It is interesting to note that they sit on almost the exact latitude.

THE MESSAGE:

 “As I told you, if men 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, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests. The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, and bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their Confreres. The Church and altars will be vandalized. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres (other priests); churches and altars will be sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

A less well-known fact associated with the visions of Akita, however, is the mention of a mysterious numerical sign of hope, the number 101, a numerical sign of victory of good over evil. The symbolic number sign 101 was given to Sister Sasagawa at the end of her visions.  The Apparitions of Akita are the last apparitions that contain messages from Our Lady that have been officially approved by the Catholic Church

In 1973 Sister Agnes Sasagawa reported visions of the Virgin Mary, as well as stigmata and a weeping statue of the Virgin Mary which, it is said, continued to weep over the next 6 years on 101 occasions. The nuns at Yuzawadai also reported stigmata on the statue, as well as on the hands of Sister Agnes. The stigmata on the statue is said to have appeared before the tears started, and disappeared after the tears.

One day, according to authenticated reports, her “guardian angel” appeared to her inside the convent with a Bible. The Guardian angel opened the Bible and pointed to a specific verse which Sister Agnes Sasagawa recognized immediately as the passage of chapter 3, verse 15 of the book of the Genesis

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman,  and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

The angel explained to her: “There is a meaning to the number 101. It means that the sin has entered in the world by a woman and it is by a woman that will come the salvation. The zero between the two 1, represents the God eternal, being of all eternity until the eternity. The first 1 represents Eve and the second, the Virgin Mary.”

The Father Yasuda, the spiritual director of Sister Agnes, commented that this passage of the Genesis is considered as the first gleam of the salvation, the first promise of a Saviour, made by God. It is also the first verse of the Bible referring to the Immaculate Conception of Mary, who never was under the domination of Satan.

In June 1988 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave definitive judgement on Our Lady of Akita events and messages as reliable and worthy of belief.

Will you ever look at the number 101 the same again?  We’re not sure, but to MinistryValues.com  the number certainly has new meaning. The number 101 no longer conjers up  the idea of intro courses to a college curriculum, i.e. Econ 101.   To us now, the number 101, is forever a number of hope.