Reflections/Scripture Social Teaching

What to Wear?

(The Holy Family: Genesis 15:1-6 & 21:1-3; Colossians 3:12-21; Luke 2:22-40)

Pilgrims to La Salette often ask about the meaning of the roses, chains, crucifix and, especially, the hammer and pincers which the Beautiful Lady added to the otherwise simple costume of the women from around Corps. Since she herself offered no explanation, and even though there exists a certain tradition concerning these details, any reasonable interpretation is possible.

These elements, however, do not concern the essence of the Apparition. Let us take a closer look at this woman, dressed in “heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Yes, this is Our Lady and our Mother, in whom we find the virtues recommended by St. Paul to the Colossians.

The gentleness of her voice reassured Maximin and Mélanie and calmed their fears. Her kindness is evident in all she does and says – even changing from French to the local dialect when she observed that the children didn’t understand. Her message, even in its more demanding parts, is imbued with the compassion that moved her to come to us, to reconcile us with her Son. In all humility, Mary wept in the presence of two young strangers. “And you yourself a sword will pierce,” as Simeon had told her. 

These are also the qualities of the Christian family, in both senses of the term: the Christian home, and the universal Church. St. Paul further writes: “…bearing with one another and forgiving one another… And over all these put on love.”

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Brazilian Laity – Actors in an Outgoing Church

Brasilia: "We know there is a great participation, activity and presence of lay people in the Church, but sometimes this is forgotten and little appreciated, so this is why we, as Episcopal Commission, want to have a period of one year dedicated to our laity", says His Excellency Mgr. Severino Clasen, Bishop of Caçador and President of the Episcopal Commission for the Laity of the Brazilian Bishops' Conference (CNBB).

In fact, from 26 November 2017, Solemnity of Christ the King, to 25 November 2018, the Church in Brazil will celebrate the “Year of the Laity”, according to information sent to Agenzia Fides by CNBB.

The cause for reflection is offered by the thirty years of the Ordinary Synod of Bishops on the vocation and mission of the laity, celebrated in Rome in 1987, and the 30 years of Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation, “Christifideles Laici” in 1988, as well as resuming and implementing the most recent documents of the Magisterium, especially of Pope Francis’, on the laity.

The theme chosen to promote this Year of the Laity is “Lay men and women, actors to the ‘Outgoing Church,’ for the service of the Kingdom,” and its motto is “Salt of Earth and Light of the World”.

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Our True Identity

In her Magnificat (today’s Responsorial Psalm), Mary joyfully identified herself as God’s servant. This means she understood her role in God’s plan. John the Baptist identified himself as a Voice. He, too, knew his role, his place.

The Beautiful Lady of La Salette did not identify herself in this way, but she did indicate her role: “I am here to tell you great news.” She identified herself, therefore, as God’s Messenger.
Isaiah describes himself in similar terms. He is sent by God to bring tidings, to proclaim, to announce.

What we do, however, does not define us completely.  When St. Paul encourages the Thessalonians to rejoice, to pray, to refrain from evil, there is an underlying reality that explains the doing, the role, the behavior. They are disciples of Jesus Christ, and therefore they live in a certain way.

That is Mary’s message at La Salette. The difference is that St. Paul was encouraging Christians who were aware of their identity, while Our Lady was speaking to those who had lost that sense of Christian identity, whose behavior contradicted it in many ways.

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Christ, Our King

Last month I watched a news story, which most people probably paid little attention to. It was the funeral of the King of Thailand, who incidentally was born in Massachusetts.

A Beloved King

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Mary Reaches Out to Us

The last verses of the Book of Proverbs are in praise of the “worthy wife.” Among other things, “She reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to the needy.” 

This image reminds me of a bronze statue of Our Lady of La Salette, sculpted by Brother Juan Magro Andrés, M.S., depicting the precise moment when the Weeping Mother lifts her head from her hands, looks up at the two startled children on the hillside, and holds out her hands to them, saying, “Come closer, children, don’t be afraid.”

Mary reached out to them in their poverty and ignorance and, through them, to her People, also materially poor, and seemingly ignorant of the depths of their spiritual poverty. 

In today’s parable we have a record of success and failure. Two servants are promoted for their successful investments. The third tries to justify himself, laying the blame on his master’s severity; but he is rightly fired for incompetence.

We are quite willing to take credit for our well-being when all is well. But when life fails to meet our expectations, we are prone to blame. It’s someone else’s fault, even God’s.

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Mother, Ambassador, Sign

Three very different images appear in today’s readings: the rainbow, the role of ambassador, and Mary at the foot of the cross.

The same Mary who stood at the foot of her Son’s cross received from him another son, the Beloved Disciple and, along with him, all of us as her children. When she appeared at La Salette and spoke to two of her “children,” Maximin and Mélanie, she called them “my children,” not just “children” as a stranger might do. Through them she spoke to us, to all her Calvary-born children.

The same Mary who came to La Salette as an ambassador from heaven, speaks in her own words the word of St. Paul: “Be reconciled to God!” And she chose for herself the two most unlikely ambassadors imaginable, the same two ignorant children to whom she appeared, telling them to “make this known to all my people.”

Today the La Salette Missionaries, the La Salette Sisters, the La Salette Associates, La Salette Laity and other lay groups have taken on that role, in the same spirit of humility, fully aware of our own inadequacies.

The same Mary who wept over our sins and the consequences thereof, reminds us at La Salette of the covenant between God and his people – her people, too – which has been neglected and even ridiculed by those to whom it should be so precious. In the light that surrounds her, in the cross she bears, she becomes, like the rainbow, a bright “sign of the covenant.” God has always been faithful. By being faithful, in our turn, we can also become signs of the covenant.

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Jeremiah, Maximin, and You

(Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time: Jeremiah 20:7-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-17)

The prophet, Jeremiah, as depicted in the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, by MichelangeloThere are indications in the story of Maximin Giraud and Mélanie Calvat that they sometimes wearied of the position that their encounter with the Beautiful Lady had put them in. Uneducated as they were, they were opposed and contradicted, by local government representatives and even in Church circles. Some called them liars; other said they were innocent dupes. They were hounded by the curious; a few persons even tried to involve them in political controversies of the day.

There came a terrible moment in Maximin’s life when, in 1850, 15 years old, he was brought to the famous Curé of Ars, St. John Vianney. After their encounter, the saint regretfully announced he no longer believed in the Apparition of La Salette. It was not until eight years later that he regained his faith in it.

We know that Maximin’s teens were a troubled period. He lost his father when he was 13. The Bishop of Grenoble was often annoyed with him for failing to take his schooling seriously.

His later years were no easier for him. On one occasion, when he was 26, having the story of the Apparition, he concluded by saying that when the Lady disappeared, “She left me with all my faults.”

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The Gift

(Scripture Readings for Pentecost: Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:3-13; John 20:19-23)

Jesus had told his disciples to “stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49) This is why they were “all in one place together,” but they cannot have known what to expect. Then, suddenly, many things happened all at once – wind! fire! the ability to speak in new tongues!

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Seeing And Believing

(Easter Sunday readings: Acts 4:37-43; Col. 3:1-4 OR 1 Cor. 5:1-8; John 20:1-9)

In many languages we say, “Seeing is believing.”

When the Beloved Disciple entered the tomb of Jesus, “He saw and believed.” This is not a case of “seeing is believing.” What did he see? The emptiness of the tomb. In other words: nothing. And he believed. The tomb had become, as it were, a portal to the deepest conviction of faith.

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Becoming Light

If you have ever been questioned by people who don’t want to believe you, you have a good idea of what the man born blind went through. And so you also know what the two children who saw Our Lady of La Salette experienced.

They were first subjected to interrogation by the mayor, who did not want his town associated with anything like an apparition, and was by no means disposed to believe in it himself. He even tried to bribe Mélanie, whose family was desperately poor, to deny what she had seen and heard.

After all, who could reasonably be expected to believe that the Blessed Virgin could come to this remote place, and to such persons as these? But, as we read in the first reading, “Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.”

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