The Son-like Face of God…

“If my people refuse to submit, I will be forced to let go the arm of my Son.”

Selected portion of The Sermon on the Mount by Carl Bloch (1834-1890)The starting point of everything is that first “yes” that Mary gives to the bearer of the divine message, the Angel Gabriel. Since then, Mary has made herself available to God as clay in the potter’s hand. But rather than clay, Mary consciously participates in this mission in her condition of the one “full of grace.”

For Mary, God, the very Self-One, sets out on the path of encounter with humanity, contrary to the figure of the repentant younger son of the gospel who returns embarrassed to his father’s house. To go to this encounter of humanity, that means to come to the meeting with us is precisely the identifying character of the act of God, through the help of his mediators. The prophets zealously have been fulfilling the mission of making God present within the human community.

At this point, Our Lady, in her apparitions, does nothing else but share the greatness of the divine heart which, at all costs, calls humanity to discover that feeling of God who is happy to have humans with him.

The Mountain of God

La Salette reflects, in splendor, the face of God. Not so much with regard to the Holy Mountain, although many of the great events of salvation, carried by our Lord Jesus Christ, have much to do with the mountains. The message of La Salette raises in us the decision to return to this friendship with God often broken because of the mentality of the today’s human beings who boast themselves as Christians and in fact are deprived of Christ and his gospel.

At La Salette Mary is the spokesperson for a wonderful Gospel-focused message; that is, the Beautiful Lady does not proclaim herself, before taking as her own the words that her lips transmit. Just look at this part of the message:

 

“If my people refuse to submit, I will be forced to let go the arm of my Son. It is so strong and so heavy, I can no longer hold it back. 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. And as for you, you pay no heed! However much you pray, however much you do, you will never be able to recompense the pains I have taken for you.”

Mary reveals the maternal face of God

Our Lady of La Salette with her eyes looking upwardNevertheless, the entire message is full of divine tenderness; it is a message transmitted by a person who can communicate with another human being, as it similarly happened with those present at the wedding in Cana, “do whatever he tells you” (cf. John 2:5b). It is good to know that in the message of the Lady in tears is well-clarified to us the face of God who lovingly “follows” his creatures created in “his image and likeness” (Genesis 1:26).

Rather than helping us to contemplate the face of God, the message gives us the opportunity to look at the mother of Jesus, always present in the life of the Church as the maternal face of God, because “it makes us feel better and better the tenderness of the Lord.” (1) In fact, in agreement with Isaiah 49:15, God proclaims that his love for his people is maternal and greater than that of any mother for her child; on the other hand, this category adapts to the needs of the present times when Mary responds by revealing the maternal face of God.

It is God’s absolute will to send Mary into our human history as a messenger of prayer, conversion and spirituality: “The Mariophanies (appearances of Mary) know certain escalation in this regard, because in them the Virgin passes from words to tears and probably to bleeding. It is a cry from the Mother who takes on the shape of the prophecy and the apocalypse to stop the unreasonable steps of so vast a part of the world and to show in her presence the merciful face of God who is Love.” (2)

The glory of God shines forth for all to see...

During the first stage of the La Salette Apparition, Mary covers her face with her hands, in a gesture that hides her tears. During the apparition the face of the Beautiful Lady is barely visible to Melanie and totally imperceptible to Maximin because of the strong light that emanated from Mary’s face. Talking to the children, she continued shedding her tears and was very sad. This impression takes hold of both witnesses who listened to her message.

The glorious Face of God shown in Transfiguration of Jesus by Carl Bloch (1834-1890)The Mother of the Lord who appears at La Salette, represents Heaven, our final destination. She is afflicted by the fact that we abandon God and do not accept what His Son, Jesus, has done for us. She also grieves that we do not accept, as she did, the grace of God that can make each one of us also such a person for whom “the Almighty has done great things.”

At La Salette Mary reminds us of the fact that her being with soul and body in Heaven is also the result of God’s great mercy towards his people. She, Immaculate in her Conception, had experienced mercy in advance, because by virtue of the fullness of grace she was preserved from the original sin, keeping within her that divine reflection of holiness, of which she has not been deprived since her conception.

We, on the other hand, can again receive this divine reflection in us also by virtue of the grace we have received. As a reminder, it happened because Adam and Eve have deprived us of this divine reflection in punishment for their disobedience. At this point it is worth mentioning that each one of us always receives the fullness of grace necessary to be able, in obedience to God, to benefit from the freedom of not sinning and keeping our souls pure until God’s judgment.

Mary shows us our possible future, our destiny

Mary is for every one of us the example of a full correspondence to the grace of God, to such an extent that she can call herself the very Immaculate Conception. This means that she is a constant reminder for us of our destination, to which each of us has been called. And if each of us were obedient to God and did not waste any grace that God generously and abundantly gives us, we would have been like her, like Mary, without sin, because we are inhabited by grace.

Mary’s sadness is, then, the sadness of God whose appeals, that his people may choose God and his will in a free and sincere way, are ignored, and in fact our condition is getting worse. This is because we do not go to the source of grace, that is, to Jesus in the Eucharist, but we always prefer water from the limited resources of our own efforts and desires.

The Face of Our Lady is that of a representative of the Family of God, to whom each of us is invited as a brother or sister in Jesus. Despite this great honor, which we all received by a personal decision for God, we do not act like members of that Divine Family, but rather like black sheep some of us reject our heavenly dignity by living far away from God. Some of us “pay no heed” to Mary’s words and example.

For your reflection:

Is it not worthy of reflection over the Hail Mary prayer from time to time, beginning with the words: “Hail to you [woman/man], full of grace, the Lord is with you”? You cannot, in fact, accuse God of not giving you a sufficient grace!

Pray, therefore, that you will not waste anymore the grace given you, precisely because, thanks to it, you are becoming more and more God-like, similar to Jesus. And if you realize that you have wasted any grace, humbly admit it before the Lord and be more careful the next time!

Endnote:

(1) Maria, rosto materno de Deus!, (2020.08.11).
(2) S. De Fiores, « Apparizioni », in Maria. Nuovissimo Dizionario, EDB, Bologna, 2008, I, p. 59.