Those who drive carts cannot speak without putting the name of my Son in the middle. – Blessed Mother to the children at La Salette
In Part I of this article, we discussed the Blessed Mother’s tearful appearance at La Salette in 1846. In it, she cautions two shepherd children (and the rest of the world) against breaking the first three of the Ten Commandments. Yesterday we explored the great significance of the third commandment; in this article, we seek to understand the weight that the second and first carry, so that we might allow Our Lady to convict our hearts and reshape our lives in the way that the Lord commands.
Honoring the Lord’s Name
It is increasingly rare to encounter people who do not swear or who do not casually or emphatically use our Lord’s name in vain. Most people think nothing of it. But committing this mortal sin, and the venial sins of cursing without the Lord’s name, do the opposite of what God’s gift of language is intended to do. Instead of elevating our hearts and minds, and the hearts and minds of others, we degrade ourselves, those we speak to, and those we speak about.
In the pledge of the Holy Name Societies, each member makes a promise, “against perjury, blasphemy, profanity, and obscene speech.” They do this because they understand that where our voices lead, our minds and hearts follow. When we use God’s wisdom and guard our speech, we honor Him as we should. As with all of God’s laws, honoring the Lord’s name protects us from evil and opens us up to good. The Holy Name Societies seem quaint in our day and time, but nothing could be less quaint or antiquated than pledging to keep ourselves on the road to holiness, which is also the road to God’s peace.
Mary wept because her Son’s name was being used as a curse, because God’s name was dishonored. She also wept because she knew that in doing so people were (and are) distorting their own image and likeness of God, falling further from their resemblance of Him, one curse at a time.
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. This ought not be so, my brothers. (James 3:10)
James spoke of our mouths as founts, founts which should usher forth fresh water, not salt. Salt water corrodes; fresh water gives life. May we choose life with each word we speak, most especially when we use the name of our Lord.
Honoring the Lord’s Gift of Relationship to Him
You must be sure to say [your prayers] well morning and evening. When you cannot do better, say at least an Our Father and a Hail Mary; but when you have time, say more. – Blessed Mother to the children at La Salette
Here Mary was speaking to simple shepherd children who had next to no education or instruction in the faith—yet she did not let them off the hook for neglecting prayer. We say we love God…does our use of our time reflect this? If I say I love my family, but never spend any time with them, how loved would they feel?
Love requires time and effort. We spend much time and effort on many interests, hobbies, and relationships. Yet God asks for and deserves first place in our hearts. The way that we show this first place, the way that we grow in our loving relationship with Him, is through prayer. As children, this means learning our prayers and reciting them. As we grow, we learn more about our faith, about living life as God intended (with peace, joy, love, and all manner of life-affirming virtue), and about growing in deeper relationship with Him.
We do not place anything before this relationship, not making a living, serving our country, taking care of our family, nothing. This does not mean that we all become hermits, eschew our responsibilities, and head for a cave. It means we all strive in differing ways to become contemplatives within the scope of our everyday lives.
Our Catholic faith has a veritable garden full of varieties of faithful spiritualities. Take a stroll through the garden. Sniff the Carmelite roses, pick a Dominican lily, gather up a bunch of Ignatian lilacs. There is no need to go elsewhere. In the past two thousand years God has been tending this spiritual garden and has cultivated a variety just perfect for you. He does this because He loves us and wishes to draw us into relationship with Him, a relationship which will feed our souls and help us to live life to the full, as He created it to be lived.
We will have to leave our idols behind, but they are false and cannot provide the residing joy that a prayerful life in deep relationship with God can.
Our Lady of Reconciliation
The Missionaries of La Salette were formed in 1852, just a few years after our Lady’s apparition to Melanie and Maximin, with the ministry of reconciliation being the major focus of their work. In the Jubilee Year 2000, Pope John Paul II wrote to the missionaries:
As I wrote on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady: “La Salette is a message of hope, for our hope is nourished by the intercession of her who is the Mother of mankind.” May the proclamation of this hope always be at the heart of your encounter with the men and women of today! Through it our contemporaries can be assured that divisions are not irreparable and that it is always possible to repent of one’s infidelities, in order to build a reconciled humanity and to follow the Lord, for nothing is beyond God’s reach.
Twenty-four years later, the world stands on the brink of another year of Jubilee. The gift of this year of reconciliation can indeed repair divisions and infidelities if we enter into it prayerfully. Let us not miss the opportunity to increase peace in our world so in need of it by responding to Our Lady’s words nearly 200 years ago to two shepherd children. Let us revisit those first three commandments and examine how we might better follow them for God’s glory and honor, for the good of all of humanity, and for the great blessing of our own souls.
People of faith and people without faith are coming to the realization that our world cannot go on in its present trajectory. Things are going from bad to worse in nearly every aspect of life. In many of her approved apparitions, Our Lady gives us a warning and a remedy: repent, live the Gospel, and chastisements will be avoided.
We are living in an era of chastisements right now. Who can look at the world around us and fail to see the unprecedented levels of suffering and sin of every kind? We rejected God in a thousand different ways. He does not force Himself on us, so we are living in the chastisement of God giving us what we have asked for.
However, as always, our God offers us a remedy. The remedy is not bitter. The remedy leads all to sweetness. The God who loves us longs to receive us back into His precepts to enjoy lives of peace that surpass all understanding. It’s up to each of us and all of us.
Will we choose life and peace?
Prayer to Our Lady of La Salette
Our Lady of La Salette, please help us to dry your tears with our acts of love and reparation to God the Father, to your Son, Jesus Christ, and to your Spouse, the Holy Spirit. May we do this by deepening our life of prayer and giving up our false idols, by speaking only words of honor, and by receiving fully the gift of the Lord’s Day. To a world gone seriously off course, these seem minor issues. But your tears tell us they are not. Help us each to right our courses, and that of humanity, by loving God as He asks in the gift of the Commandments. Amen.
Photo from iStock
