We Would Love
to Keep in Touch!
Some short phrases in the Bible have vastly more importance than the space they occupy. In the Ash Wednesday selection from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them." Even praying, and giving and fasting can be done with a dash of élan.
Fr. Marie Joseph Lagrange (1855-1938), the great biblical scholar, said that, "the synagogue was the stage where reputations for sanctity were made." In this passage Jesus prefaces his remarks with the admonition not to seek the applause and approval of people when one gives alms, prays or begins fasting.
There is a very short preface to what we are about to read. It is a sharp warning about the way of practicing religion. It comes early in the gospel of Matthew and it is included prominently in the Sermon on the Mount. The Christian must "beware of practicing piety before others in order to be seen by them." The consequence of this kind of behavior is radical in the extreme: "for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven."
We say that Christ is the center of our life. There is even a song so entitled. It is true, of course. Our religion bears the title of Christian, and if Christ is not its center, who would be?
At La Salette it is clear that the Lady sees her Son as the center of her life. In a discourse of about six hundred words, there are five direct references to "my Son" and many implied allusions to him.
What is La Salette? It is an apparition and shrine, but it is more than that.
It is this solemn procession of mountains, splendorous, mile-high rock, skies and clouds and horizons that overwhelm the eye, the heart and the soul like a piece of heaven fallen to earth. This is where the Beautiful Lady chose to appear to the world. But is more than that.
La Salette is people gathered together in community, professing a vowed life and ministering reconciliation to the Church. And, yes, it is more than that, too.
It is a tourist attraction, drawing hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and sightseers every year. But, it is more, far more, than that.
La Salette is Jesus-Christ, speaking to his people through his Weeping Mother. No, Christ did not appear at La Salette. His mother wept his message to us, but the message was clearly his.
If you go to La Salette you will see nothing but a shrine and the buildings needed to accommodate pilgrims.
La Salette is not famous for its basilica, its church organ or its choir. It provides prayerful liturgies and endless opportunities to pray, but it is, above all the Virgin pointing to her Son, speaking, threatening, promising, consoling, weeping in the name of her Son.
It is the Virgin establishing loving bonds with two children, two "little pebbles of the road", showing us all what it means to be loved by God. Everything at La Salette points to Christ.
As we journey through Lent, Easter and beyond, La Salette reminds us all to keep Christ at the center of lives.