We Would Love
to Keep in Touch!
After the general theme of submission to the will of God in her appearance at La Salette, her reprimand concerning the “seventh day” is the first specific reproach the Lady addresses to her people.
Right away, we can think of other sins she might have placed on the table: greed in high places, sins of the flesh, social injustice, war and all the rest. But no. It would seem that God’s friendship with the human race is first in God’s priorities. There is a desire for closeness and intimacy in this Sunday prescription.
“I gave you six days to work,” she says. “I kept the seventh for myself.” She doesn’t say that the seventh day should be reserved for rest, for prayer, for family, for contemplation, although all of these are understood in her words.
God gives us an invitation
Pilgrims at Sunday Mass in the La Salette Basilica
on the Holy Mountain in FranceWhat is primary in this command is myself... “and no one will give it to me.” Her words are a reminder of a long-forgotten commandment, but, more than this, they show God’s mysterious yearning for the company of humans now expressed in begging terms. Speaking as a prophet, her words actually mean “on that day, God has reserved you for God’s-self, and you refuse to give yourselves to him.” She is not speaking in her name here, but saying, as it were, the words God would say were God there with her at La Salette. We note those words: “I kept the seventh for myself,” that is, this is time I want you to spend with me.
The words mean that God retains humanity exclusively for God that day, that God wants “all my people” to turn toward God on that day, to pray, to play in God’s exclusive presence on that day. We are always in his presence, always within the radius of God’s care and creative activity. This special call to a relationship with God highlights the need friends have for special time – dedicated, set aside, apportioned – to express care and affection one for the other. This is the meaning of “I kept the seventh for myself.”
The element of time is at the core of the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday. We are to love and serve the Lord every day of the week, but there is a special moment pledged and hallowed for the Beloved. During this time, the Christian recalls the Resurrection of the Lord and our new life in him. Love and mystery, or the mystery of love, needs time to grow within and put its seal on the person.
Golden moments spent with the Lord
Concelebrants at Sunday Mass in the Sanctuary of the La Salette Basilica in FranceWe remember golden moments spent with a friend, a special time away from the daily madness, a day, a whole day, with the friend, and these hours become the salt and light of life. God saw the beauty of this leisure and set aside one day in the week, freeing humankind for special moments, golden times with God.
When the Beautiful Lady says "the seventh I have reserved for myself," she reveals the deep-seated reason for this special day of the week. All days belong to God and there is no real need for God to reserve any one day. The Lord is reserving one of “our” days, reserving humankind in a special way on this special day. In Genesis, the law of the Sabbath comes only after the creation of humankind. The Sabbath is a reminder that love and dedicated time go together.
The day reserved for God is also a day reserved for relationships with other people. There is more than “rest” involved in this accusation. For Catholics there is the Sacrifice of the Mass and the affection associated with the Eucharist, and the resurrection of the Lord. Friendship with God (“I have called you friends”), calls for a living relationships with the neighbor. This experience is one of life’s priceless attainments. What other reason could God have for reserving a day for God if it were not for the benefit of “all my people”? Sunday means that God loves us not because we are doers, or pray-ers, or good workers, but because we are God’s people.
La Salette Crucifix in the Basilica
of the La Salette Basilica in France