La Salette and the Modern World

A version of the La Salette Apparition from our La Salettes in Angola, AfricaMany ago, as we mortals measure time, Heaven came to earth...

September nineteenth, of the year eighteen hundred and forty-six is no unusual day in our history books; people the world over rose, ate, worked, and perhaps, prayed, much as they did every other day of their lives; and for them, the day was merely one more link in the lengthy chain that is life.

But for Maximin Giraud and Melanie Mathieu, two youthful French cowherds, that September nineteenth was destined to become the day of their hitherto singularly uneventful lives — for on that day Our Blessed Lady spoke to them. The mere recital of this noteworthy incident in God's plan would appear commonplace for its brevity.

A Woman of a Few Words

The facts as they stand are few indeed, but their import is far-reaching. Her words, as the children recorded them, spoken amid the scenic splendor of the mountain slopes of La Salette, are neither lengthy nor are they difficult to understand. In all, the “Beautiful Lady” spoke a little more than six hundred words, but the pertinent message these conveyed has given the inspiration to volumes. Like her Divine Son, who spoke little and yet said so very much, our Blessed Lady in this heavenly appearance expressed thoughts that are all the more wonderful for the few words in which they are couched.

The World has Called Her

Our Blessed Lady came to earth, not for any further personal glorification, nor did she come to address herself merely to the people of France in particular. Our Blessed Lady came to earth because the whole world had called her. And how had the world called her? Not by its prayers in her honor, not by its united offerings of praise but rather by its outrageous blasphemy of these holy things! In truth, Mary was forced to come down to earth by the sins of her willful children — sins which, as she said, “made the arm of her Son so strong, so heavy, that she could no longer withhold it!”

Voltaire and His Intellectual Pride

François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778), known as Voltaire, French Enlightenment writer and philosopherIt is interesting to take a quick glance at the religious attitude of people who lived in the middle of the nineteenth century, to ascertain, if possible, what was the cause of the sins of that day. It is clear in the bright light of history that the world at that time, and especially France, was plunged deep in the murky abyss of skepticism — the mental hypnotic that could mesmerize an intellectual pygmy into the belief that he was a Colossus, merely because he doubted the validity of all things.

Voltaire and his fellow Encyclopedists had made the intellectual circles of the world hold their collective sides almost a century previous, with their witticisms on things sacred, and now the sayings of Voltaire, “the Great Wag” had filtered down through the classes so that every local magistrate and his comrades could speak learnedly, and of course disparagingly, of the “Old Religion.” The simple peasants, too, so long the phalanx of God's army, were not left unsullied by this “New Learning.”

In general it could well be said that irreverence and raillery were the twin corrosives eating into the very heart of Catholic worship. Small wonder, indeed, that Our Blessed Lady's message dwelt chiefly on the sins of blasphemy and irreverence. Listen to her own words in her discourse to the children: “There are none who go to Mass but a few aged women; the rest work on a Sunday all the summer; and in the winter, when they know not what to do, they go to Mass only to mock at religion!”

Note well the words “when they know not what to do,” for therein is found the primary reason for Mary's descent. People had fallen to that lowest level of irreverence, where it becomes fashionable to make sport of religion. When all other means of amusement had been exhausted, one could always turn to the Church, and there fun a-plenty would be had, in mockery and raillery.

Mary’s warnings about the ills of all times

But Mary's message was not all pleading. There were warnings, and ominous ones, too, of the dire calamities that were to come as the reward of men's blindness. Much like the prophets of old, Mary speaks of famines, wars, and rumors of wars, that will leave none untouched in the course of their fulfillment.

In the very beginning of this article we mentioned that Mary spoke her message many years ago, and we added the dire words, “as we mortals measure time.” This was no mere rhetorical interpolation but rather an effort to make the fact clear that if ever Mary's message is relegated to the nineteenth century alone it is our fault, not God's. For God speaks not in time but in the eternal now. And God's message through Mary at La Salette is applicable not only to the needs of those particular times but to the ills of all times. And we might add, it is applicable even more so to those of our own time.

Sadly for some, faith makes no difference

Bishop Donald Pelletier, M.S. with children in Ambodimanga, MadagascarSkepticism may have breathed its last with the coming of the modern era, but its final gaspings were not of death alone. They were rather the labored breathings of a dying mother, giving birth to an equally diabolic offspring — Indifferentism. The average person today, and more particularly the average American, no longer goes to the trouble of doubting or even bantering about things sacred; Sunday worship, regard for the Holy Name of God, and the like, no longer merit his attention. Such things simply make no difference!

The skeptic of a century ago may have scoffed at Sunday Mass, but at least he recognized it as an event worthy of ridicule. The modern Indifferentist deals a much more insidious blow, for by his very indifference he is guilty of an even greater insult. The person who casually substitutes a game of golf for Church on Sunday, or who misuses Christ's Holy Name as a forceful, if not too original, figure of speech, may not fully realize it, but for him things sacred have ceased to exist. Reverence and piety are not only flagrantly violated, they are reduced to the degraded state of mere bywords.

Is there a present-day spiritual famine?

Toward the close of her discourse, Our Blessed Lady, in reference to the heavy punishments that were to follow as a result of humanity's divorce from God, spoke solemnly of a famine as among the foremost. As we gaze out upon the tragedy of the world today, we see her words verified everywhere, not only in the famine of physical hunger, but also — and more's the pity — in the spiritual famine that grips the hearts of men.

Some of the membership of the La Salette Matha Region of India in 2005Once more, hearts are hungering for God's nourishment, crying out for the only food that fills to overflowing. The numbers of false prophets, eager to ensnare the gullible are legion — people will cry to them for bread and will receive a stone for their efforts.

Amid all of these, however, elevated head and shoulders above the insidious horde, is Mary, Our Lady of La Salette. Hers is the bitter remedy of penance and prayer, but it is the only remedy that can heal without a scar. No longer does Mary come in person to La Salette to announce her solacing message, but through her chosen emissaries, the Missionaries of La Salette, her words are still being proclaimed.

These zealous young men and women have dedicated their lives to the cause of their Beloved Mother — the return of her people to God through prayer and reparation. Theirs is a privileged vocation. It is up to all of us to see to it that they do not labor in vain!