Editor’s Note: In the most recent Issue of The Fatima Crusader (#135), several writers explored how Catholics can best live the Fatima Message. Al Smith authored the article, “Making Reparation to the Holy Face,” and the article below provides further insight into that theme.
Reparation: Love’s Response
Love, when it sees that it has wounded the Beloved, seeks to make amends. This is the essence of reparation. It is not a cold duty or grim obligation, but the spontaneous movement of a heart pierced by love. When we realize that our sins have struck the Face of Christ, bruised and spat upon, we cannot remain indifferent. Love compels us to console Him.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen often reminded us that sin is not merely the breaking of a law, but the wounding of a Person. Every sin is a turning away from the Face of Christ. Yet every act of reparation is a turning back, a way of saying, “Lord, I am sorry. I love Thee. Let me share in Thy sorrow so that I may share in Thy joy.”
The saints understood this. St. Veronica, on the road to Calvary, braved the jeers of the crowd to press her veil to His blood-stained Face. St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who united her Little Way to the devotion of the Holy Face, longed to wipe away the tears of Jesus with her small sacrifices. Each act of reparation, great or small, becomes a caress upon the wounds of Christ.
The Little Way of Reparation
St. Thérèse once wrote, “I have always wanted to be a saint… but I have always felt that I was incapable of great deeds.” It was this very awareness – her littleness – that led her to discover the path now known around the world as the Little Way.
The Little Way is not about doing less. It is about doing with greater love. It is about doing the unnoticed, the uncelebrated, the mundane – with the heart of one who knows Christ is watching.
For Thérèse, the Little Way became a school of reparation. She embraced daily annoyances, hidden sufferings, and acts of obedience as offerings to the Holy Face. Each small surrender became a kiss upon the bruises of Christ’s love.
She understood that she could not ascend the mountain of perfection by her own strength. Instead, she would let Jesus lift her, like a child reaching upward with empty hands. Her smallness became her strength. Her weakness, her offering.
In a world obsessed with results, Thérèse teaches us that love does not measure itself by success. It measures itself by surrender. It is not how much we do, but how much we yield – how much we allow ourselves to be poured out in silence, for love alone.
The Little Way is not an escape from the cross; it is a hidden path into its heart. It is there, on the narrow road of daily sacrifice, that the Holy Face shines – not in majesty, but in mercy. Let us walk this way. Let us make our lives a mosaic of hidden offerings. Let us become saints – not by great deeds, but by great love.
The Necessity of Daily Reparation
Why is reparation needed? Because love demands it, and because souls depend on it. Archbishop Sheen often compared reparation to standing in the breach: when sin threatens to overwhelm the world, the reparative soul intercedes, offering love where hatred abounds, light where darkness spreads. Reparation is participation in the very mission of Christ, Who offered Himself as the ultimate act of love to heal the broken bond between God and man.
Reparation is not confined to heroic deeds; it can be woven into the fabric of daily life. A hidden prayer offered for those who blaspheme, an act of patience in the face of provocation, an hour of adoration before the Eucharist – all these are ways of repairing for the coldness and ingratitude that Our Lord suffers. Every act of love is like a drop of balm upon His wounds.
Reparation Is a Powerful Witness the World Needs
Archbishop Sheen often reminded us that the greatest scandal in the Church is not her weakness but her failure to reflect Christ. When Christians become disfigured by pride, division, or sin, the world turns away in disappointment, for it does not see the Face it longs to see. But when Christians live with humility, charity, and joy, even the most skeptical hearts can be won.
This is why every believer shares responsibility for the Church’s witness. We are each called to be the “face” of Christ in our homes, our parishes, our workplaces. In our patience, people must see His patience; in our forgiveness, His mercy; in our love, His love. As St. Teresa of Avila once wrote: “Christ has no body now but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours.” In the same way, we might say: Christ has no visible Face now but yours.
The Face of Christ, once disfigured by sin, now shines with the glory of forgiveness. To console Him in His suffering is to share in His triumph. And as we make reparation, we ourselves are transformed. Our hearts grow tender, our love more selfless, our gaze more fixed on His.
Let us then embrace reparation, not with fear, but with joy. For in repairing the wounds of Christ, we learn the deepest secret of love: that when we give Him our little acts of sorrow, He returns to us the radiance of His smile.