Province of Mary, Mother of the Americas

Mosaic of Our Lady of La Salette, previously in Ipswich, MA, Shrine Chapel.

As we approach the Feast of Our Lady of La Salette of September 19th, when we celebrate Mary, the Reconciler of Sinners, we may benefit from a closer look at the “Jesus – Image of the Reconciler.” The image of the reconciler has many faces, just as Christ is to be seen in the many faces of his people. It is among such people as ourselves that we recognize the need for forgiveness, peace and reconciliation.

 

Our world is a fragmented puzzle of broken relationships between people: individuals and families, nations and continents. That broken puzzle – caused by war, hatred, jealousy, separation, prejudice, injustice and fear – must be pieced together by us who have been empowered to live together the life of Christ our Peace. I hope to piece together some of the many faces of the “Image of the Reconciler” that we can be, so that Christ's reconciling, forgiving and peace-making reflection may be seen anew in us.

 

A Mosaic of Images

 

The images we reflect on are pieces of a mosaic, each a unique shape, color and facet. My hope is that these ten images or pieces of the mosaic can be joined to form a picture of The Reconciler, who was broken for us and yet became victorious over death itself.

Christ Pantocrator (All-Powerful) Mosaic, National Shrine of Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC

1) Designers of Peace: St. Paul calls Christ's people the Temple of God to be built by their love and unity. We are to become the Designers of Peace (1 Cor 3:10-17). Knowing that disunity and separation cause the destruction of God's Temple, we are to be architects, planners, visionaries, builders and re-structurers of this Temple. Unity is to be achieved by respect and mutual cooperation, by removing dividing walls and by fashioning a fitting dwelling in our lives for God, with Christ as our cornerstone.

 

2) Community Builders: We are called to be Community Builders (Eph 2:11-22). Divisions are the mothers of ghettoes. They bring alienation, fear and mistrust to separate us. In Christ, our Model, we are to break down the walls of division, prejudice and institutional injustice, and so announce to the world – by lives seeking unity and greater communication – that we seek all called to live as “fellow citizens of the Saints, and members of the household of God.”

 

Mosaic of La Salette Crucifix, St. Peter’s Church, Dagenham, England

3) Builders of the Body and Unifiers: We are Christ's Body (1 Cor 12:12 ff.) and in our unity and deep concern for all the members – weak and strong, outstanding and quite ordinary – lies the food of reconciliation, where a “single perfect person is formed” (Eph 2:15). Christ is the head of his body; in his love and selflessness, he is our guiding principle of life, unity and growth. Using our unique gifts, and calling others to do the same, builds up Christ's body and gives it health and growth and strength to become one in heart and mind (Eph 4:12, 16).

 

4) Cross-Bearers: We are called to clothe ourselves in the garments of Christ (Gal 3:12-17). Humility, mercy, kindness, gentleness, patience, gratitude and love are to be our apparel. Like Mary at La Salette, we are also to be cross-bearers. She wore a cross which bore two images – a hammer (reminding us of the pain and hurts which have been caused by our selfishness and sin) and pincers, which challenge us to remove the obstacles, the pains, the fears and the alienation which makes peace difficult to achieve. For reconciliation to come about, we are to become pincers of peace.

 

5) Ambassadors of Christ: As one body clothed in Christ-like qualities which give substance and meaning to our Lady's image of the pincers of peace, we are sent out as "Ambassadors of Christ" (1 Cor 5:16-21). Ambassadors are a nation's public relations people. In their dealings with others, they act as spokespersons of a nation's head and heart. United together, with Christ as our head, and both aware and grateful for his 

unbiased gift of peace, as Christ's reconcilers we are to make it clear in our lives and words that “God is appealing through (us).” To appeal is not only to make a plea for peace, but to be attractive and deeply motivated. If we are joyless people, then our message will not attract. If we are cliquish, our message will not find willing ears.

 

6) Explorers of Peace: Earlier searchers first learned to explore and then to exploit. As Christian peace explorers, we must recognize others' gifts through dialogue; learn the language of pain that others speak and respond with a concern that translates into love. As we offer our own unique gifts, we must do so without force or pressure, contrite for the our or other’s past which has sought to change others to our liking, rather than appreciate them as they have been created. In us, two alienated spirits, two worlds, must become one.

 

7) Reconciled Friends of Jesus: This exploration for peace seeks to call us all to a new image – to be reconciled friends of Jesus (Col 1:19-22). Christ, by sharing our pains and joys, our hopes and fears, and by his willingness to sacrifice himself at all costs, has 

made us once again intimates with God, who seeks us in a renewed friendship. Christ now calls us to a deep intimacy with one another. As we were estranged, we must now, by self-sacrifice and by a sharing of the same caliber as Christ, join hands in friendship, seeking the ways of peace together.

 

8) Hosts of a Banquet of Peace: Friends argue, but forgive; they share intimacies in gratitude and concern, and together they enjoy fellowship and food. This is so evident in the table fellowship of Jesus with God's renewed friends. Thus, a new image bursts forth as we learn to become Hosts of a Banquet of Peace (Lk 14:13-14). We must learn to model ourselves on Jesus, whose friends included the outcast, the sick, the sinner, the misunderstood and the unappreciated. We must break the bread of our lives with those whom others so easily reject and push aside. Our inspiration in spreading this love feast must be that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

 

9) Penitential Persons: We must be penitential persons, contrite for the contribution we have made to the pain, hurt and separation which others experience, and yet ready to perform the difficult penance of bringing two separated people together again. We are also called to be wounded healers, who are able to heal because of our own painful experiences and separations, and who free others because we know the burden of chains.

10) Instruments of Peace: This kind of a reconciler has at his or her disposal the means to bring about a needed peace; for we have also been called to be the “Instruments of Peace.” St. Francis expanded this image in all its richness in his well-known Peace Prayer: 

 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. 

Where there is hatred, let me sow love; 

where there is injury, pardon;  where there is doubt, faith; 

where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; 

where there is sadness, joy. 

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. . . ."

 

Mosaic of Weeping Mother, Mary Keane Chapel, Enfield, NH

We have within our hearts the means to bring about healing and reconciliation to an ailing world. When all these images are pieced together, they begin to form a picture of the reconciling minister which Mary spoke of at La Salette, and which we are called to reflect. St. Paul beautifully describes what we should look like, sound like, and act like:

 

"We prove we are God's ministers by our purity, knowledge, patience and kindness; by a spirit of holiness; by a love free from affectation; by the word of truth and by the power of God. By being armed with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and the left, prepared for honor or disgrace, for praise or for blame; taken for impostors when we are genuine; obscure yet famous; said to be dying yet here we are alive; rumored to be executed before we are sentenced; thought to be miserable and yet here we are always rejoicing; taken for paupers though we make others rich; for people having nothing though we have everything” (2 Cor 6:6-10).