Why can Mary’s message at La Salette be puzzling for us?

The apparition of the Virgin in La Salette, on September 19, 1846, is undoubtedly that of the Marian apparitions which encountered the most opposition before imposing itself on the conscience of the Christian people. When we review the different causes that have aroused or fueled this opposition, we note with a certain surprise that, quite often, it is the very words of the Virgin which have caused difficulty in certain minds.

Initially Mary’s words were quite puzzling to many

We found that the speech attributed to the Beautiful Lady smelled too much of soil, of humus. These reproaches against the carters who swear in driving their carts; these threats and these promises riveted to the goods of the earth: the potatoes which will continue to rot, the worm-eaten nuts, the seeds eaten by the animals, or on the contrary, if her people are converted, the stones and the rocks which will become heaps of wheat, etc. ... all this would be quite petty, and therefore quite strange on the lips of the Queen of Heaven.

We have sometimes been tempted to attribute these rather poor and surprising details to the account of the two little shepherds, it is said; they would reflect their concerns of little country people and the capacities of their brains, which were not very great.

But this position seems absolutely untenable for several reasons. Without going so far as to claim that the shepherds reported “word for word” the words of the Virgin Mary, we must not forget, on the one hand, that the words heard on the mountain were written down in writing barely twenty-four hours after the event, and, on the other hand, that all these concrete details, so-called strange, form part of the rest of the Message; they absolutely do not give the impression of overloading, of added parts.

Before becoming suspicious, let's try to understand her message...

Let us add that we should not be in too much of a hurry to declare unworthy the Virgin’s words which, at first glance, may offend our sensitivity. Good minds have rightly pointed out, with regard to the Bible, that it was not for humans to hold a certain fixed opinion about what God could and could not say through the writers God chose. Although some passages may appear rough to us, it might be that we have not yet discovered its full religious significance: that alone should not be enough to make some of God’s words suspect to us. It would be better to scrutinize the words with patience and sympathy; perhaps then, they can reveal God’s hidden meaning to us.

All things considered, one could make the same remarks about the passages in message of La Salette, which sometimes appeared unworthy of the Merciful Virgin. But that would not be enough. It is still necessary to try to show why these parts of the message of the Beautiful Lady do not deserve this minimizing interpretation; in other words, show that this language, a little confusing at first glance, introduces us to authentic religious values which must be assumed in a Christian life, let we no longer live the message according to all its dimensions and requirements.

The prophetic roots of Mary’s message at La Salette

This is the point of the following reflections. In a more precise way, we would first like to show that the threats and the promises of the Virgin at La Salette recall, lest we be mistaken, certain very frequent themes in the Bible, and more especially under the pen of the prophets...

This first observation will already invite us to think that the message of La Salette, since it is so close to the Bible, even in its external presentation, is not unworthy of the Virgin. We will then ask ourselves what is the meaning of this very definite connection between the La Salette message and the Old Testament; this will lead us to clarify the deep and permanent religious significance of the threats and promises of the Virgin Mary at La Salette.

The message of the Virgin and the Two Covenants

Noah's Thanks offering by Joseph Anton Koch (1788-1838).
Noah builds an altar to the Lord after being delivered from the great Flood; God sends the rainbow as a sign of his covenant.What cannot fail to strike an attentive reader of the message of La Salette is that, on the one hand, it is fundamentally centered on Christ and his redemptive work, and on the other hand, it reminds us of a set of values, themes and religious attitudes which, without being foreign to the New Testament, have a striking kinship with the Old Testament.

It is as if the Virgin, addressing the modern world in 1846, seemed to say to her people: in order to gain access to the redemptive work of my Son and to the religious message which specifies its scope, we must first find the meaning of God; remember – not only in your mind but also concretely, in your daily life – that God is the Lord of the world.

Also, it is only by opening yourself to God, by recognizing him as Lord that you will give your existence its true meaning. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). Actually, this is an essential theme of the religious message of the Old Testament.

Let's take a closer look at each of these two aspects. I here is no doubt that we cannot discover the fundamental meaning of the message of La Salette, if an account were not taken of the redemptive work of Christ. Ultimately, it is as a messenger of reconciliation that Mary appears at La Salette; she comes to invite God’s people to convert, to change their hearts, to respond to the love that God has shown them in his Son. Radically reconciled with God by the redemptive act of his Son, we must still respond personally to this divine initiative, under penalty of making it useless for us.

You are reconciled in Christ ... so realize and act as a person who is reconciled! It is a paradoxical expression, but it has the merit of highlighting that the salvation which is acquired to us in Christ is not given to us as an external thing, but rather as a living force or presence to be made to grow within us.

Mary’s fundamental reference to Christ, her Son

Fr. Jean Jaouen, M.S. (1898-1975), noted La Salette author, theologian and historianAt least two features indicate this fundamental orientation of the La Salette message. First of all, Our Lady speaks to us as her Son's messenger: "I will be forced to let go the arm of my Son… If I want my Son not to abandon you.” Then, by her words and by her tears, she reminds us of the atrocious hours that she lived with her Son tied to the Cross. “How long a time I have suffered for you! ...” Mysterious words but heavy with meaning! “Reason gets lost,” admits Léon Bloy. It isn’t the Beatitude (or Heavenly Visitor) who “suffers” but more exactly, these Tears which part of her being present to us.”(Fr. Jean Jaouen, La Grâce de La Salette, 1946, p. 340).

However clear this fundamental orientation towards the mystery of our redemption may be, it is all the more remarkable that it is inscribed in a set of themes, of developments which are much more reminiscent of the Old Testament than the preaching of Christ or the apostles in what is more characteristic.

Undoubtedly, it is a question of penance, of prayer: themes which come up often in the Gospel and the Epistles, but which one also finds in the Old Testament... On the other hand, one would seek there in vain something which responds to the message of the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor, the meek, those who cry ..., or to the Pauline doctrine of the freedom of the Christian freed from the Law by the redemptive work of Christ.

We only mention these two aspects of the New Testament message, because they summarize all that the New Testament brings that is new to the Old Covenant regime. The previous one founded by the Law, then the one founded on liberating Grace. “From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:16-17).

(First in a series of three parts: Republished with permission of the La Salette Publication, Les Annales, October-November, 1957, pgs. 133-137 and December 1957-January 1958, pgs. 166-170; translated from the French and edited by Fr. Ron Gagne, M.S.)