Be Not Afraid

Details: Written by John E. Welch, M.S.

Our Lady of La Salette speaks
with the two children
(window: St. Joseph’s
Church, Waipahu, Oahu, Hawaii)

It was September 19, 1846. High up in the stillness of a mountain, a little boy and a little girl spotted a whirling globe of dazzling light. A woman was seated on a stone, her face buried in her hands, and her elbows resting on her knees. She was crying.

The two children looked at each other and then at the Beautiful Lady. At first, they thought that she might be a mother who had been beaten by someone and that had come up to the mountain to weep alone. It turned out that she was a mother and while she had not been beaten physically by anyone, she was deeply hurt by the sins and offenses heaped upon her Son by her earthly children.

Suddenly, the Beautiful Lady arose. The two small children startled, began to move away. But the Lady beckoned them with tender and powerful words, “Come near my children, do not be afraid.”

Learning to Trust

Some time ago, I found a wonderful story in Cardinal Suenens’ book, “Christian Life Day by Day.” This was the story of a roaring fire that started very quietly one night in a house. The moment the flames broke out, the mother, father and children came rushing out and stood gazing in despair at the sight of their home engulfed in flames.

Suddenly, they noticed that the youngest child, a little boy of five, was missing. He had been frightened by the smoke and flames, and just as they were leaving the house he had turned back and run upstairs again. They all looked at each other. There was no possibility of venturing into what was already beginning to be a blazing inferno. Then upstairs a window opened. The little boy was calling for help.

Annunciation (window: Our
Lady of Sorrows
Church, Hartford, CT)

His father saw him and cried out to him: “Jump!” The child could see nothing but the smoke and the flames, but he heard his father’s voice and answered, “Daddy, I can't see you.” “But I can see you,” his father called back, “and that's all that matters: jump!” And finally, after a moment’s hesitation, the little boy jumped. He was caught as he fell, and found himself safe in his father’s arms.

Doesn't this remind us of some of our Catholic people today? Standing in the windows of their own tiny

world, they gaze apprehensively heavenward, standing there with fearful hearts. Through the dense smoke and fiery flames of distraction, tension and personal problems, they cannot seem to see Jesus, waiting to welcome them into the safety of his arms.

And so they question and cry out desperately, “But, I can't see the solution to this problem; I cannot see the answer to my prayers. I cannot see you.” And our Lord responds with sadness, “Why don't you trust me? I can see you, and that's all that matters.”

I Will Trust God

Blessed John Henry Cardinal
Newman by John Everett Millais

In his “Meditations on Christian Doctrine,” Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman once wrote: “God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission – I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for his purposes… If, indeed, I fail, God can raise another, as he could make the stones children of Abraham.”

“Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. God has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do his work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep
his commandments and serve him in my calling.”

Pietà (window: Our Lady of
Sorrows Church, Hartford, CT)

“Therefore I will trust him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. God does nothing in vain… He knows what he is about…”

From the very first moment the angel appeared to Mary until the moment when she cradled the lifeless body of her Son in her arms, she knew what sorrow and heartache meant. She realized only too well how her heart would be torn at times and yet she trusted that God would help her. She understood on earth what so many people will only understand in heaven – that sometimes life is so very challenging but, as Jesus said, “with God all things are possible. (Matt 19:26)”

When Our Lady of La Salette appeared to the two small children on the Holy Mountain in Dauphiny, France, the first words she uttered were, “Come near my children, do not be afraid.” How much emphasis she placed on these words! And she says these same words again to us, “Come near, why be afraid?” She’s reminding us of the truth that God sees us clearly – our life and the lives of those we love. God loves us all… and that's all that matters!