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A very early version of Our Lady of la SaletteThe title of this article allows us to appreciate two realities:
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the profound continuity between the Prophets in the Bible and the “Beautiful Lady of La Salette”, and
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the strong biblical foundation of a genuine La Salette spirituality.
It is no coincidence that the late Cardinal of Milan, Carlo Maria Martini, S.J., maintained that among the major Marian apparitions, the Apparition of La Salette is the one that best reveals features and characteristics which are typically biblical.
In order to illustrate this continuity, I would like to approach the apparition of Our Lady of La Salette from the ‘prophetic’ model developed by the Jewish philosopher and theologian, Abraham Joshua Heschel. When we interpret the apparition of the “Beautiful Lady” at La Salette based on the book by Joshua A. Heschel, The Prophets, we can observe the following points”
First: like the Prophets in the Bible, “the Beautiful Lady” calls to conversion.
Mary’s words which open the message, as well as her admonitions introduced by words “If my people will not submit […]” and “If they are converted […]”, resonate with us as an invitation to return to the Lord. In the Bible, conversion does not only mean to stop doing evil in order to embrace the good, but also to turn more towards the Lord. According to this meaning, conversion, rather than being a single act, is configured as a gradual process of transformation that aims to conform us to the Son, to live as he lived, to make his choices our own.
Second: the various references to the concrete historical situation contained in the message emphasize Mary’s “prophetic” presence at La Salette.
Like the Prophets in the Bible, “The Beautiful Lady of La Salette” embodies a spirituality deeply rooted in history, but with her gaze turned to the heavens. Within the historical context, the words of the “Beautiful Lady”, like those of the Prophets in the Bible, are a heartfelt appeal that aims to change, from within, the lives of the people she is addressing and history itself. Such a change is possible through ‘just’ relationships between us and the Lord, us and creation, and each other.
At La Salette, the “Beautiful Lady” reminds us that the connection between human responsibility, justice and history is so strong as to determine success as much as failure, both social and individual.
Third: like the Prophets in the Bible, Mary, at La Salette, teaches us to interpret the course of history with the eyes of faith.
Mary teaches us to intus-legere (meaning, “to read into”), in history, the voice of God; she teaches us to discern what leads to the Lord and what distances us from him.
The La Salette Cross atop Mount Planeau looks down on the nearby Apparition site
Fourth: like the Prophets in the Bible, Mary, at La Salette, became the voice of a God.
Mary at La Salette was one who, as Joshua A. Heschel liked to say, is in search of humanity, of each one of us. At La Salette, Mary awakens in us this awareness that God is a pilgrim God, engaged in a “divine exodus” because he is in search of his children.
Fifth: Mary reminds us at La Salette that the God of the Bible is a “pathetic” God, filled with pathos.
Mary, like the Prophets in the Bible, “the Beautiful Lady of La Salette” appears not to convey to us abstract truths about God or to give us religious norms to follow carefully, but rather to remind us, through her tears, that the God of the Bible is a “pathetic” God, filled with pathos, in the primitive sense of the Greek root of the term meaning ‘emotion’, ‘sentiment’, ‘passion’, or ‘suffering’. God suffers for us. The Son suffered for us. And the “Beautiful Lady of La Salette” suffers for her children.
This is another trait that characterizes the Prophets in the Bible: in fact, the entire biblical prophecy is a constant cry that God is not indifferent to evil.
The words of Mary at La Salette, like the words of the Prophets of Ancient Israel, do not predict any future. Rather, they are words that show how God works within our history, and what our role and responsibility is in this divine-human interaction.