Why did Mary come to La Salette?

It seems to be a simple question but there are actually many different reasons why Mary appeared to the two children on Saturday, September 19th, 1846 on that serene mountain in the French Alps.Phase One of the La Salette Apparition: the children see a Lady seatred, weeping

1) Our Lady came to express her specific concerns: The Name of her Son, the Lord’s Day, Penance and Prayer. These are not just injunctions and options or multiple choices, but especially the means of a relationship with God, and they all have to be practiced and lived, if they are to become part of our lives, and if we are to have relationships at all.

We learn from Mary that: Relationships are the stuff of today’s spiritual books and spirituality. Relationships with Christ, with others are the Promised Land of Bible study and retreats, seminars, workshops – you name it. But they have to be lived before they can be possessed. As the Beautiful Lady said:

• The “other” has to be respected (Name).
• We must spend precious, quality time with that person (Sunday worhsip and rest).
• We must appreciate and practice the qualities of self-denial, self-forgetfulness, life-long selflessness (Penance).
• And these qualities must become part of our inner selves, part of our very souls; the other’s concerns become ours, and the other’s suffering becomes part of our daily existence (Prayer).

Relationships are pleasing; that is, they are meant to please the other, and they often do. But the person working toward strengthening their relationship finds it pleasing and unpleasant as well – pleasing to receive, but not always easy to give. And this is all right, because this is the way our life should be. After all, Christ did suffer his passion and death with love, but he still did ask, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42).

2) Our Lady came to say how much she was interested in us by naming and pointing out specific issues: the Lord’s Name; the Lord’s Day; Penance and Prayer. And children; her own suffering, the Mass, even concerns as lowly as potatoes and raisins and walnuts.Phase Two of the La Salette Apparition: the Lady stands and speaks with them

We learn from Mary that: Now she mentions the practical pafrt of our the daily life. This is where the unclear perception of wondrous relationships are dispelled in order to embrace what actually makes them so splendid. We often think of relationships as relating to another, or to one another. A relationship is a matter of hospitality, of giving up space in our lives for another.

A relationship with God means making room for God in our life. It often means doing what we don’t want to do, and going where we don’t want to go. It means giving up things we don’t want to give up, and bringing into our lives things we don’t want or don’t even like. It means giving up things, but especially ourselves and allowing another to become the center of my life. We can expect to be disturbed, inconvenienced.

La Salette brings us a choice of strategies for doing all this. But what La Salette offers is a mere beginning, an introduction made up of some of Christianity’s essential practices, that place us on the road to holiness and to the most meaningful relationship in life – relating with her Son.

3) Our Lady came to tell us that she shares our concerns, human experiences; for example, that of suffering. It would be difficult to believe in a God who did not know what suffering was, and what jealousy, ridicule, and hatred were. It would be difficult to have a devotion to Mary if she had not gone through the crucible of suffering herself.

4) Our Lady came to show us about the true meaning of fidelity—that love never ceases or turns back. She reminds us about: “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.”

5) Our Lady came to tell us that her love – God’s love – for us was not a distant, theoretical one. Her love and God’s love arfe truly heartfelt —filled with tears and sadness. Even in heaven this love for us continues. And that by choosing young, simple children to be her witnesses, she tells us that she is the Lady of the Common Person, the Mother of these little ones as well as ourselves – the seeming nobodies of this world.

6) By simply appearing, Our Lady expressed a presence that was there all the time. Her apparition is something more than a visible marvel and miracle. It is an act of affectionate closeness that is the very substance of love. Jesus expressed the same thing in his “I am the bread of life,” (John 6:35a), and when the LORD told Moses, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14a). Presence to another is the fabric of affection and love.Phase Three of the La Salette Apparition: the Lady dissapears into the air

7) By her promises of abundance, she came to allay our fears: “If they are converted, rocks and stones will turn into heaps of wheat, and potatoes will be self-sown in the fields.” Our Lady reveals her inner wishes for humanity; namely, that God wants us to be well, and wishes us well-being and happiness – and that in wonderful excess. In the New Testament, heavenly happiness is portrayed as an abundance of food — banquets, wedding feasts, as well as overwhelming harvests. At La Salette, the discourse is about stones turning into mounds of wheat, and potatoes being self-sown in the land.

8) At La Salette, the purpose of her visit is a permanent rapprochement, a reconciliation between her people and her Son. The most beneficent grace she could wish for us is a foretaste of heavenly life by drawing us closer, even now, into God’s presence. The two children are allowed to penetrate the bright globe of light in which she stands, and always lives — the radiant light of bliss and of the victorious Resurrection of Christ, her Beloved Son.

9) La Salette gives us an idea of the destructiveness of sin as well as the depth of God’s forgiveness. Sin is never just about me. I’m not the only one who is injured when I offend God. Yet God’s desire for our reconciliation with him is reflected well in the parable of the Prodigal Son (or the Merciful Father). First, the returning Prodigal Son said: “‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son’” (Luke 15:21b). With his appearance, his father warmly welcomes him and says to his servants, “‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him . . . Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast . . .” (Luke 15:22b-23). The father’s joy is palpable and so are Mary’s words, promising an abundance of blessings if we are converted and draw closer to her Son. Forgivenss changes eveything!

10) Our Lady came to La Salette to express the love of God and her own as well. Hers is a love-expressing strategy. Behind the warnings, the reproaches, there is personal affection. Behind the tears and the saddening first encounter of the children with the weeping Virgin, there is her love. She came to remind us by her words and actions that God is love.

To me, Our Lady was sent to express God’s love for his people. Any Christian knows the existence of this love, but God also wants to show us directly and clearly. The Lord showed his love in the New Testament; all else is a reminder and a remembrance of wondrous things that were done two thousand years ago, and that remain today, present in the Lord’s love ,and in the Lord’s Eucharist.

We learn from Mary that: We also have to express this love to others. It is the essence of sadness that many of us have never told anyone, in plain language, that we love them – at least once in their lifetime. It is also a pity that many of us have never heard anyone say they love us, in plain language. The Beautiful Lady of La Salette came to teach us this spiritual strategy, taking a page out of the New Testament.

Her tears can be seen as icons of love, streaming down her face, during her entire her discourse. The Lady said to her two young unexpected witnesses and us, “Well, my children you will make this [message] known to all my people.” She wanted us to share her message with everyone we meet.