For instance, the children spoke of sins making God and Our Lady sad, and wanted to console them for their sadness. But in reality sadness is absolutely impossible for God, who is always infinitely happy, regardless of what happens in the world. Nor can Jesus any longer suffer in his human nature, nor can Mary suffer now. All that is so, but divine truths have always been presented with the use of imagery and expressions which are not meant in their literal material sense. Scripture furnishes numerous instances, as when God is said to be angry, or to regret what he has done, or when he is represented as a venerable man sitting on a throne.
Imagery is especially apt, of course, when a message is being given to children.
But adults too are helped by imaginative representations of spiritual things which, correctly understood, deepen our understanding and intensify our love. Jacinta and Francisco as models . They died when ten years old. In that short time they became saints. They are models for all in their charity, absorbed as they were in the love of God and Our Lady, a love shown in the charity they exercised through all the harassment and persecution they endured.