Tetelestai (τετέλεσται) is the Greek term used in ancient times. It means “it is finished,” “it is accomplished,” or “paid in full,” often denoting the successful completion of a task or debt. In ancient papyri, it was written across tax documents to mean “paid in full,” while priests used it to signify a perfect sacrifice. The three words were among the last ones of Jesus at Calvary (John 19:30). They brought Him back to God’s Kingdom.
“Mission accomplished.” It’s what we all need to seek in this place of testing called earth.
It’s also the message of a new book we’re carrying, Holy in a Hurry: Daily Meditations on the Prophecies and Wisdom of Saint Jacinta Marto of Fatima, that shows the extraordinary wisdom and holiness of this mere child, who died in 1920 at age nine.
Jacinta’s experiences had begun four years before, with a vision of the Angel of Peace at Fátima, followed a year later by the Blessed Mother, whom she and her brother Francisco and cousin Lucia saw in apparition in 1917.
Jacinta received additional if unofficial visits from the Blessed Mother periodically until her death, as is now the case in Medjugorje, Hercegovina, where a Vatican commission authenticated the first week of apparitions but thus far not ones since.
Talk about words of wisdom.
“Be very patient,” was one piece of advice little Jacinta gave before her death. “For patience brings us to Heaven. Mortifications and sacrifices please Our Lord and sacrifices please Our Lord a great deal.”
Jacinta’s favorite prayer was a simple one: “Sweet Heart of Mary be my salvation.”
The young seer’s messages were especially memorable when it came to what women wore. “Woe to women wanting in modesty!” she said. “Women are worse than men on account of the fashions.”
Her messages often focused on purity, as well as kindness. “Have charity even for bad people,” she said simply.
Listening to superiors? “Disobedience of priests and religious to their superiors displeases Our Lord very much,” she said.
Her life and that of the other seers demonstrated the importance of “littleness” and avoidance of overindulgence. “Luxurious living must be avoided; people must do penance and repent of their sins. Great penance is indispensable.”
Interesting was her comment as she suffered an illness that ended her life on the medical profession. “Doctors do not know how to cure people properly,” she said, “because they have not the love of God.”
We’ll leave it so as not to spoil the book, which comes along with those insightful meditations on each quote.
[resources: Holy in a Hurry]
[Footnote: Saint Jacinta died during the great and global “Spanish flu pandemic,” which infected about one-third of the world and killed at least fifty million people worldwide, including about 675,000 in the United States. A striking feature was its unusually high mortality among healthy adults roughly twenty to forty years old. In 1920 there were no antivirals, no antibiotics for secondary bacterial pneumonia, no ventilators, and no vaccines, although masks in public were mandated under threat of arrest in countries such as the U.S.]