La Salette: an Apparition of Hope

Crucifixion by El Greco

In the Mass for the Feast of La Salette, the gospel contains the scene of Jesus, on the cross, speaking to his mother, Mary, and John, his disciple. Jesus says to his mother: “Woman, this is your son.” To the disciple he says: “This is your mother.”

Donald, This is Your Mother

We all know that Saint Ignatius of Loyola founded the Jesuits while fewer know that he remains a solid and sure guide in our spiritual life, in our quest to meet and experience God in everyday life. As a spiritual leader, St. Ignatius has much to say about the use of imagination in prayer and invites us not only to use our imagination but to really make a “composition of the event” using our imagination. What do I hear? What do I see? As I try to imagine that Calvary event as related by St. John, I try to experience what God is telling me and where God meets me in this Gospel event — how this event can transform, change my life.

Today we stand at the foot of the cross with Mary, the beloved disciple and a few other women. What do I hear? What do I see? “Donald this is your mother. And from that hour Donald took her into his home.” The question is: to what extent have I taken Mary into my home?

Many years ago, when the Liturgical Commission in Rome chose this Gospel for the feast of Our Lady of La Salette, it was evident that this Gospel was not only meant to lead us to the apparition but even more importantly, La Salette would illustrate and actualize – beautifully and forcefully — the mystery that is revealed to us in the simple words, “This is your mother.” If the beloved disciple is not named, perhaps it is because he represents all the countless generations of believers who would be disciples of Jesus. Perhaps they would not be afraid to stand at the foot of the cross and open their hearts and lives to that word. And so today we stand attentively at the foot of that cross. 

What do we see? What do we hear? At La Salette Mary appears truly in her role as mother. I don’t want to underestimate Mary’s role as Reconciler of Sinners yet I find that at La Salette Mary continues and reminds us of her role in Salvation History as Mother of Jesus and Mother of  the Church. She says, “How long a time I have suffered for you…I am obliged to plead with him constantly… you will never be able to recompense the pains I have taken for you.” These words remind us of Mary’s new mission as mother that was confided to her at Calvary. At Nazareth Mary answered the angel: “Let it happen to me as you have said.” We can believe that in her heart she silently repeated the same words as Jesus told her, “Woman, this is your son.”

Mary is Still Our Mother

Vatican II confirmed Mary’s mission in heaven when, after having given a summary of her role in salvation history during Jesus’ life, she continues to affirm her role today in the glory of heaven.

“This maternity will last without interruption until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. For taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving role, but by her manifold acts of intercession continues to win for us gifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, Mary cares for the brethren of her Son who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties. (Lumen Gentium, 62).

Long before Vatican II, Mary at La Salette had reminded her people of how her maternal heart is constantly interceding for us. She is intimately involved and very present to all that makes up our lives, even the most menial and insignificant events. Maximin had forgotten his visit to la Terre du Coin but Mary as Mother did not forget as she is present to all our joys, hopes, sufferings.

This year 2010 has seen more than its share of suffering, hardships and very painful disasters that have disrupted lives of millions of people: an earthquake in Haiti, a volcano in Iceland, floods in Pakistan to name but a few of the most notorious. Those were brutal natural disasters that brought not only great suffering but disrupted the lives of countless families.

Our God is a God of Love

Unfortunately these events also offered many people a pretext to lose their faith in God. Especially regarding Haiti, we heard just about every false interpretation possible. Some cried loud and clear that the Island was cursed. Others not only blamed it on God but claimed it was a punishment because Haiti was so evil. Still others were only too happy to proclaim the coming of the end of the world. They readily offered a picture of a “Punishing God” who would kill thousands of innocent children and babies. This is certainly not my God – even less the God that Mary revealed at La Salette, the Father of Jesus.

The suffering, Christ endured on the cross, was a stumbling block for the Jews and folly for the Greeks. For us today suffering is a mystery that can only find meaning in the Suffering Servant who revealed God’s love for us on the cross.

In his first encyclical Benedict XVI told us that we can find the true definition of Love by contemplating the pierced heart of Jesus. These natural disasters are signs, calls to conversion as Christ Himself taught us: “[Concerning] those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!” (Luke 13:4)

Mary takes up the same theme when she tells us: “I gave you a sign, I warned you last year with the potatoes. You paid no heed. Instead when you found the potatoes spoiled, you swore and threw in my Son’s name.” How often we remain blind to these signs that call us to conversion.

We are Constantly Called to Conversion

We haPope Benedict visiting Auschwitzve seen intense and despairing suffering caused by natural disasters that are beyond our control. These can be and should be great signs and calls to conversion. There is also an international response of solidarity and charity to support and help victims who have lost homes and belongings – not to mention lives of their loved ones. Disasters therefore are always the occasion for a generous outpouring of love and compassion.

No doubt we have had calls to conversion this year but then there is a suffering that is much more difficult to understand and to accept. This is suffering caused by hatred, evil in the hearts of people, suffering that comes from social injustice and structures that oppress people. Why is there so much hatred in our world, a hatred that motivates people to kill and spread fear and terror?

After the last World War and the abomination of Aushwitz, we thought that humanity, having gone to the extremes of evil and beastlike behavior, would find ways to assure peace and harmony among nations. Today we are being reminded of the evil and hatred that disrupts and brings suffering to countless innocent people. Natural disasters are often beyond our control. Yet how we yearn to bring love where there is hatred – how we want to heal these hearts.

Jesus and Mary Suffer With Their People

We can understand why confronted by such suffering some people may experience a crisis of faith. During the darkest most tragic hours of the Holocaust, people would cry out, “Where is God?” Although some answered that God was dead, it was many years after the Holocaust that theologians dared to address the issue and give the answer: God was there, suffering with his people!

A visual of Our Lady of La Salette, distributed by our Brazilian La SalettesWhen Mary appeared at La Salette, she was weeping as a sign of her sorrow, telling the children: “How long a time I have suffered for you…if I want my Son not to abandon you I am obliged to plead with him constantly.” Some theologians were shocked by the tears and these words saying Mary could not suffer in heaven and this was not Mary speaking and therefore the apparition was not authentic.

Fortunately the Bishop of Grenoble knew that Mary as Mother of Christ’s body, the Church, suffers with and for her people. Yes, don’t be shocked that our infinite, eternal God suffers. St. John tells us that God is love and, if he is Love, then he suffers. There is no love without suffering.

God’s suffering is one of compassion and we must believe that God was very present when the Son cried out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In that cry of despair, God the Father was there and he remains very present to all our sufferings because, as Love, he is Compassion.

True Compassion is suffering. That is why the French writer Pascal was right when he wrote: “Christ will be in agony until the end of the world.” Our God is a God of Compassion as he shares and is in communion with our sufferings. Mary, who accepted to be our Mother on Calvary at the foot of the cross, also suffers with and for us through her Maternal Compassion.

An Apparition of Hope

La Salette is not as popular an apparition and does not draw the crowds we see at Lourdes or Fatima. Too many people consider La Salette as an apparition whose message is too austere and negative – speaking as it does of of famine and rotten crops – while others are turned off by her tears and chains and even the surrounding isolation of that distant mountaintop.

Yet, if we look closely, La Salette is a sign of great hope, a light that shines ever more brightly as we find ourselves dealing with more and more suffering in our world and our lives. Too many people have been led to believe that sufferings are punishment from God for the evil we have done. Yet in the Old Testament, the book of Job has clearly negated that explanation because Job was an honest man. There has to be meaning to all the suffering in our world and in our own personal lives. Suffering has to be more than folly or a scandal and certainly not punishment.

Calvary finds Jesus giving us his Mother, not only entrusting us to Mary’s maternal care but asking us to respond to her maternal love and compassion. At La Salette, through her message and many signs, Mary invites us to enter more fully into that great mystery – a mother of love and compassionate suffering that wants to lead us to Jesus and to eternal life.

As children, sons and daughters, disciples of Our Lady of La Salette, let us be signs, instruments of compassionate love for all those who suffer. Thus we will make known her compassionate love to all her people. Our Lady of La Salette, Mother of the Church, pray for us.