Items filtered by date: Monday, 10 April 2017

(Third Sunday of Easter: Acts 2:14,22-33; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35)
If the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus had owned cell phones, they might never have engaged in conversation with the mysterious traveler who joined them. In their world, however, it was normal to welcome him as a companion along the way. They talked with him, listened to him and invited him to supper. And then, suddenly, he was gone.

On a mountain, far away from any road, two children encountered a mysterious and beautiful lady. She calmed their fears, spoke to them, encouraged them to pass on her words. And then she was gone.
The disciples recognized Jesus in the breaking of bread. The children at first thought that the lady was a battered wife or mother; after she disappeared, they guessed that she might be a great saint, but it was an elderly woman of the locality who recognized that it must have been the Blessed Virgin.

The most significant element these two stories have in common is what happened to the disciples and the children. They were changed, transformed.
Despite the lateness of the hour, the disciples ran back to Jerusalem to share their experience. They had changed from “downcast” to men on fire. “Were not our hearts burning within us?”
From all accounts, Mélanie and Maximin both had burning hearts as well but, tending eight cows, they couldn’t hurry back down the mountain. When they did return to the tiny hamlet called Les Ablandens, the girl had her chores to do, and said nothing. The boy, on the other hand, on being asked by his employer about his day, eagerly told him and others what had happened.

But not only the children, nor only the disciples on the Road to Emmaus, were transformed. The fire that burned in their hearts spread well beyond them.
Others “caught fire,” so to speak, among them the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, the Sisters of Our Lady of La Salette, and large numbers of laity around the world, all eager to spread that same fire, to share the Good News of the Risen Christ, echoed by the “Great News” of the Beautiful Lady.

Faith
(Second Sunday of Easter: Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31)
We tend to think of faith as a matter of the mind, like the knowledge or awareness of any truth. But we see in today’s readings that faith is much more.
The first community of believers was led by faith to share with one another everything they had. The believers to whom St. Peter wrote were willing to prove their faith through trials. And Thomas the Apostle, once overwhelmed by faith in the Risen Christ, cried out from the depth of his being: “My Lord and my God!”

In the case of the Apparition of Our Lady of La Salette, the response of those who came to believe took primarily two forms.
First was a return to the practice of their faith. Maximin’s father, Mr. Giraud, like Thomas in the Gospel, did not come to this belief easily. But once he did become a believer, the first thing he did was to go to confession. After that, he went to Mass every day for the rest of his life. (He died nearly two and a half years later.)

A second response was a deeper understanding of Mary’s role in our life. It was ordinary believers, not the official Church, that gave Our Lady of La Salette her title, Reconciler of Sinners.
Yes, reconciliation with God, reconciliation with the Church—Mr. Giraud is a good example—these are the natural and spontaneous effects of faith in the Beautiful Lady. And, like the faith shown in today’s readings, it leads us to “rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,” “with exultation and sincerity of heart,” just as “the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.”

Perhaps we ourselves have experienced periods of doubt. We all know people who have little or no faith. This is distressing to anyone who understands the real difference between ordinary knowledge and faith.
Knowledge has to do with content, with facts that can be useful, fascinating, even beautiful. But ultimately they don’t really matter. St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians in history, realized one day that all he had written was just so much straw.
Faith affects us in so many important ways, and provides a solid foundation for our lives. Faith matters.