“It is precisely through the sacrifice of [Pope John Paul II] this, the first of my beloved sons, that divine justice will be espoused to a great mercy. After the time of the trial, which will be one of purification for all the earth, there will spring up upon the world the New Era foretold and announced by him; and thus, in these final times, he invites you all to cross the bright thresholds of hope.” (Our Lady to Father Stefano Gobbi of the Marian Movement of Priests, May 13, 1995).
Using almost the same exact language several years later, Pope John Paul II wrote, “Now is the time of the New Evangelization to lead the People of God in America to cross the threshold of the third millennium with renewed hope.” (Apostolic Exhortation, The Church in America).
Later he announced the New Era that Our Lady prophesied would be announced by him. He wrote:
At the dawn of the new Millennium, we wish to propose once more the message of hope which comes from the stable of Bethlehem: God loves all men and women on earth and gives them the hope of a new era, an era of peace. His love, fully revealed in the Incarnate Son, is the foundation of universal peace. When welcomed in the depths of the human heart, this love reconciles people with God and with themselves, renews human relationships and stirs that desire for brotherhood capable of banishing the temptation of violence and war. (Message of Pope John Paul II for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace, January 1,2000).
This New Era of Peace was prophesied by Isaiah and Our Lady of Fatima. Isaiah said:
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; . . . and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their children with them. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the LORD. (Is. 65: 17-25).
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Is. 11:6-9)
Our Lady of Fatima said, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and the earth shall enjoy an era of peace.”
On May 13, 2010, in his homily at Fatima Pope Benedict XVI said, “We would be mistaken to think that Fatima’s prophetic message is complete.” He went on to look forward to the 2017 centenary of Fatima, expressing his hope that “the seven years which separate us from the centenary of the apparitions” may “hasten the fulfillment of the prophecy of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart, to the glory of the Blessed Trinity.”
Pope John Paul II explained that Christ opened the era of peace. He spoke of this era “of peace with God and among men,” brought by Christ at a General Audience on February 14, 2001.
In the era brought by Christ, the Pope explained, “God and man, man and woman, humanity and nature are in harmony, in dialogue, in communion.” He said:
Christ is the new Adam, namely, the first born of faithful humanity, Who accepts with love and obedience the plan of Redemption that God has designed as the soul and goal of history. Christ must, therefore, cancel the work of devastation, the horrible idolatry, violence and every sin that the rebellious Adam has spread in the secular affairs of humanity and on the horizon of creation. With His complete obedience to the Father, Christ opens the era of peace with God and among men, reconciling in Himself scattered humanity (see Ephesians 2:16). He “recapitulates” Adam in Himself, in whom the whole of humanity recognizes itself; He transfigures Him into son of God, He brings Him to full communion with the Father. Precisely through His fraternity with us in the flesh and blood, in life and death, Christ becomes “the Head” of saved humanity. . . .
Nature itself, in fact, subjected as it is to lack of meaning, degradation and devastation caused by sin, thus participates in the joy of the deliverance brought about by Christ in the Holy Spirit. …
Thus is the full action of the original plan of the Creator delineated: a creation in which God and man, man and woman, humanity and nature are in harmony, in dialogue, in communion. This plan, upset by sin, was taken up in a more wondrous way by Christ, Who is carrying it out mysteriously but effectively in the present reality, in the expectation of bringing it to fulfillment. . . .
This work will reach completion in the fulfillment of history when — as Paul, again, reminds us — “God may be everything to every one” (1 Corinthians 15:28). The last page of the Apocalypse — which was proclaimed at the opening of our meeting — describes in bright colors this goal. The Church and the Spirit await and invoke that moment when Christ “delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. … The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under the feet of His Son” (1 Corinthians 15:24,26).
At the end of this battle — sung in wonderful pages of the Apocalypse — Christ will fulfill the “recapitulation” and those who will be united to Him will form the community of the redeemed, which “will not be wounded any longer by sin, stains, self-love, that destroy or wound the earthly community. The beatific vision, in which God opens Himself in an inexhaustible way to the elect, will be the ever-flowing well-spring of happiness, peace, and mutual communion” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1045).
