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In the message of the Beautiful Lady at La Salette, the references to the Old Testament are numerous and have struck everyone who has studied it. Léon Bloy already wrote:
“The event at La Salette has a strangely and splendidly biblical character. The symbolism that I could only touch upon is deep and grandiose, like that of the Pentateuch. The message has the formidable majesty of the promulgations of the Exodus or of the (members of the tribe of) Leviti” (Le Symbolism du l’Apparition, 4th ed., pp. 286-287).
Old Testament religious themes connect to La Salette
Apparition of Our Lady of La Salette, a very large painting in our La Salette House in La Tronche, bordering Grenoble, FranceElsewhere, he speaks of La Salette as a new Sinai (ibidem, p. 23). But all this is still fairly general. More recently, it was noted with justice that "the message of La Salette does not get along well until after reading the three first precepts of the Decalogue which summarize all religious duty. The profanation of Sunday is the transgression of the third positive precept: “…the LORD has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy (Exodus 20:11b); blasphemy is the transgression of the second precept: “You shall not swear falsely by my name, thus profaning the name of your God. I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:12) which condemns all irreverence. But how can we not immediately evoke the very first precept which affirms the monotheism of Israel and rejects idolatry: "… I am the LORD your God… You shall not have other gods beside me"? (J.-A. Robillard, in Rev. Des Sc. Philo. et Théol., 1956. p. 675), emphasis added.
We could also draw attention to the first words of the Virgin: “If my people refuse to submit, I will be forced to let go the arm of my Son.” These words which introduce the speech spontaneously recall the repeated warnings which, in the Old Testament, God addresses to his people through the intermediary of his servants the prophets: if the people of Yahweh do not observe the Covenant concluded in the Sinai, he will certainly perish (cf. Deuteronomy 4:6ff; 6:3ff; 8:11ff, etc.). It is precisely the violation of the central precepts of the Decalogue, charter of the Alliance of Sinai, that the Virgin will reproach her people above all, in the remainder of the speech.
Mary spoke again the words of the Prophets
But at La Salette, it is above all the threats and promises of the Virgin, which, in their direct and concrete style, recall the pedagogy of the prophets of Israel. “If the harvest is ruined, it is only on account of yourselves. I warned you last year with the potatoes... They are going to continue to spoil…. If you have wheat, you must not sow it. Anything you sow the vermin will eat…"
The Prophet Hosea, by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1319), in the Siena Cathedral; photo: The Yorck Project (2002) One could multiply the prophetic texts which, in analogous terms threaten the people of Israel because of their infidelities to the Covenant, or on the contrary announce the favor of Yahweh, if he is converted. We only mention a few.
In the ninth century BC, the prophet Hosea, after recalling the harlotry of Israel to the idols of Canaan, and interprets the response of the Lord in front of his people:
“Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season; I will snatch away my wool and my flax… I will lay waste her vines and fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are the fees my lovers have given me’; I will turn them into rank growth and wild animals shall devour them” (Hosea 2:11,14).
In the same era, Amos declares to the inhabitants of the northern kingdom that the misfortunes they have just suffered are punishments sent by Yahweh, to punish them for their prevarications:
“Though I made your teeth clean of food in all your cities, and made bread scarce in all your dwellings… I struck you with blight and mildew; locusts devoured your gardens and vineyards… Yet you did not return to me” (Amos 4:6a,9).
But if Israel recognizes itself in these misfortunes as the just chastisements of Yahweh, if it is converted, if it returns to its God in all sincerity and uprightness of heart, then God will again have mercy on his people, and will give the goods of the earth as a sign of its avowal:
“On that day I will respond — oracle of the LORD — I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth; The earth will respond to the grain, and wine, and oil, …and he will say, ‘My God!’” (Hosea 2:23-24, 25b).
Let us end with a text from Deuteronomy which, in a more prosaic style, takes up exactly the theme of the prophets:
“If, then, you truly listen to my commandments which I give you today, loving and serving the LORD, your God, with your whole heart and your whole being, I will give the seasonal rain to your land, the early rain and the late rain, that you may have your grain, wine and oil to gather in; and I will bring forth grass in your fields for your animals. Thus you may eat and be satisfied” (Deuteronomy 11:13-15).
These texts should be a warning to those who are led to a certain skeptical astonishment, when the Virgin at La Salette speaks of rotten potatoes, spoiled wheat, worm-eaten nuts, etc. .... We are exactly in the climate of prophetic preaching. We have also seen the many references in the speech of the Virgin to religious themes very characteristic of the Old Testament. This means that La Salette refers us directly to Revelation itself.
(Second 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.)