A significant detail from the last part of the secret

Since the last part of the Fatima secret was published in the year 2000, one of the most interesting details of the vision has never ceased to fascinate me. In the center of the vast tableau, whose references to the history of the 20th century are intertwined with profound symbolic meanings, stands the Cross. Positioned on a mountain that dominates the entire view, it is the focal point of the group traversing the city in ruins. What caught my attention from the first reading is the way the cross was described:

“There was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark.”^[i]

I have wondered countless times why this cross is made of cork tree wood. Consulting a botanical atlas shows us that the cork tree grows most abundantly in Portugal – the place of the Fatima apparition. Nearly 50% of the global production comes from that country. However, in such a vision, I cannot think that it would be just about the local “color” that might have influenced the minds of the three little visionaries. If we continue our investigations, we discover other enlightening details.

The cork tree and its qualities

First of all, cork tree wood is impermeable. The difference between the wood of this tree and any other kind of wood is remarkable. Unlike ordinary wood, when kept submerged in water for long periods, cork wood absorbs no more than 3% of liquid. Therefore, its absorption rate is incredibly low. This is why it is used for life jackets.

Its most well-known quality to all of us is related to its ability to float. Used by fishing enthusiasts to make floats for their rods, cork wood can be found wherever floating objects are needed – especially in maritime buoys. When thrown into water, it practically never sinks.

Moreover, it has a specific, discreet aroma, which is sometimes transmitted to the liquid in the bottles it seals. And this quality is generally known to us.

Just think of the “ingredients,” wheat and grapes, used for the Holy Eucharist. And think of how they can be used: only after being “crushed” or “pressed” can they become Eucharistic bread and Eucharistic wine, which on the Holy altars are transubstantiated when the priest repeats the words of Jesus from the time of the Last Supper, into the most holy Body and Blood of our God.

One particularly interesting characteristic of cork wood is that it is extremely resistant to both heat transfer and fire. Specifically, it is fire retardant. This unexpected aspect, for me, adds to its significance. However, fire protection is not the only type of insulation it can provide: the fact that we find it among the most important materials ensuring the soundproofing of certain special rooms, being included in walls, floors, and ceilings, immediately tells us that it is also sound-absorbent. Thus, it protects against noise.

Lastly, cork wood also has remarkable elasticity. Every time we uncork a bottle of wine or champagne, we may be amazed at how the cork expands after it has been “extracted:” sometimes it can be much larger than when it tightly sealed the container.

Floating above the abyss

As I have often shown in other articles, the Savior Christ Himself used many references to plants in His teachings: wheat, tares, the mustard tree, the vine, the fig tree – all these plants and others have been endowed by Him with very important symbolic meanings.

Just think of the “ingredients,” wheat and grapes, used for the Holy Eucharist. And think of how they can be used: only after being “crushed” or “pressed” can they become Eucharistic bread and Eucharistic wine, which on the Holy altars are transformed (i.e., transubstantiated) when the priest repeats the words of Jesus from the time of the Last Supper, into the most holy Body and Blood of our God.

In the same interpretative “key,” we can think of the cork cross from the Fatima vision. Thus, first of all, it floats. This immediately brings to mind a multitude of details: the Savior Christ chooses fishermen as apostles – that is, people whose work is related to navigation. Then, in several extraordinary episodes, we see Him walking on water and wanting to teach us also to walk on water, showing us under what condition: Faith (when Peter doubted, he began to sink). At the same time, the significance of water has been revealed to us: it is “the world.” Christians, following the example of the divine teacher, must “float” above the world – because due to their supernaturally originated faith, they do not belong to it:

“If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19).

This “floating” is possible thanks to the Church, which, like Noah’s ark, carries us to the exit from history above the tumultuous waters of the world torn by passions and vices. Conceived as a vast symbol, churches built according to the canons of sacred architecture are “arks” (i.e., ships) that indicate the mystical Church, the body of the Savior Christ, which carries us above the fallen world. At the same time, however, churches have the shape of a Cross. The cork wood used for the magnificent Cross in the Fatima vision synthesizes, practically, both dimensions of sacred architecture: for the cross itself is the floating ship, which helps us to traverse the waters of this life, directing us towards eternal life.

It is our “ship,” it is the only protection against the abyss into which we would sink if the Savior Christ had not given His life for us. Moreover, it is our only connection to God, the only means by which we are bound to the Savior Christ. But what does the Cross mean concretely?

The work of Paul Claudel and the commentary of Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)

One of the most well-known French Catholic creators, the poet and writer Paul Claudel (1868–1955), used this image of the floating cross in a play published in 1929: Le Soulier de satin (The Satin Slipper). Here, right in the opening scene, we watch with awe a Jesuit monk who, after his ship was sunk by pirates, floats above the abyss tied to a piece of the mast. Impressed by this extraordinary image, Joseph Ratzinger will describe it in detail in one of his most famous books, Einführung in das Christentum (Introduction to Christianity), published in 1968. His commentary speaks for itself:

“Fastened to the Cross – with the cross fastened to nothing, drifting over the abyss. The situation of the contemporary believer could hardly be more accurately and impressively described. Only a loose plank bobbing over the void seems to hold him up, and it looks as if he must eventually sink. Only a loose plank connects him to God, though certainly it connects him inescapably, and in the last analysis he knows that this wood is stronger than the void that seethes beneath him and that remains nevertheless the really threatening force in his day-to-day life.”^[ii]

Both the image from Claudel’s play and Joseph Ratzinger’s commentary perfectly reveal the significance of the cork cross from the Fatima secret. It is our “ship,” it is the only protection against the abyss into which we would sink if the Savior Christ had not given His life for us. Moreover, it is our only connection to God, the only means by which we are bound to the Savior Christ. But what does the Cross mean concretely?

A commentary from that holy Pope who gave the name to the Liturgy of the Ages, Gregory the Great (c. 540–604), shows us that we bear our cross when we practice asceticism (abstinence) and when our hearts are “pained by compassion for another.” The main reference point of our lives, therefore, is the Cross. It is what helps us traverse the tumultuous ocean of the “world” like a lifeboat. It is what protects us from the fire of passions and vices through its fireproof qualities, similar to cork wood. At the same time, with the image of the monk tied to the mast floating at the mercy of the waves before our eyes, we understand that without it, we would sink immediately. Such things we must meditate on now, in Holy Week, uniting the biblical symbolism of the Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified, with the image of the giant cork cross from the Fatima vision, and the beauty of a literary creation born from the soul of a Catholic creator.

Oh, Adorable Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, You have suffered death on the Cross for our sins.

Oh, Holy Cross of Jesus, be my true light!

Oh, Holy Cross, fill my soul with good thoughts.

Oh, Holy Cross, ward off from me all things that are evil.

Oh, Holy Cross, ward off from me all dangers and deaths and give me life everlasting!

Oh, Crucified Jesus of Nazareth, have mercy on me now and forever. Amen!

Latest from RTV — NFL Player Scolds Cardinal Dolan, Irish PM Resigns in Disgrace, Congressman Exposes WHO Treaty’s Pro-abort Agenda

[i] I am quoting the text from the official website of the Vatican: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html [Accessed: 23 March 2024]

[ii] Joseph Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity, Ignatius Press, 2000, p. 44.