A few years ago a survey revealed which emotion people experienced most often. A large number mentioned fear and anxiety. There is a lot of fear in the world and much of that fear is fear of God. Fear comes from the unknown and God is the Great Unknown. God is mysterious. People think of God as all-powerful and judge: an awesome combination. There is a just fear of God which is not abject cowering. The fear of God spoken of in the Scriptures is, for the most part respect, honor, reverence, deference.

People cannot “come closer”, cannot be reconciled in fear. Fear must go and it won’t go easily. Many were born and raised in a straightjacket of fear about religion: a punishing God (“God will get you for this, you wait and see!”), events, natural phenomena, diseases, accidents became deeds right from the avenging hand of God. There is nothing quite like fear to alienate and persuade someone to keep a safe (!) distance from all that is “God.”

The reconciler’s first task is to break fear. Manner, style, respectful familiarity with God and the things of God, reassurance about the certainty of reconciliation from a loving Father can do wonders to dispel apprehension.

La Salette is not a new revelation. Revelation ended with St. John the Evangelist. This in no way prevents an apparition like La Salette to reveal thoughts of God. The God shown to us here is One who is concerned about people’s fruit and harvests and dislikes famine. This is a God who weeps and gets angry when people blow their chances for happiness.

We can only imagine what Maximin and Melanie felt when they saw that fiery globe of light in the ravine.

“They could hardly believe their eyes, so bright was she: her body, her hands so drenched in light. ‘O moun Diou!’ screamed Melanie in her native dialect. The warnings of grandmother Caron rushed to her mind in a flash: ‘Little one, you laugh at those who pray, do you? Well, some day you’ll see something!’ Frightened, she let her stick fall to the ground. No less frightened, Maximin still found the courage to reassure her. ‘Keep your stick Melanie, I’m keeping mine. If it harms you, I’ll give it a good whack!’ Still dazed, Melanie picked up her stick.”

“Together, they stared transfixed as the Lady stood erect in the oval light, her face visible now, her hands in her long sleeves crossed in front of her. Immediately, they heard a voice as of a mother calling ‘Come near, my children. Do not be afraid I am here to tell you great news.’

“Their fear vanished then and there. That voice penetrated them like music. They ran to the bottom of the ravine, crossing the brook. With sovereign grace the Lady made a few steps toward them. The boy at her left, the girl at her right, they were so close that they almost touched. A person could not have passed between them and the Lady.” (A Grace Called La Salette, Jean Jaouen, M.S., 1964)

As they told the story of the apparition, the children were quick to boast that they had come so

close to the Lady that no one could have passed between them and her. The Lady told them to come

close.

Ministers of the Gospel also tell people to come close. They hope for it not only in the solitude of room or chapel, but let it be known that the Church does want them closer. The Lady wanted Maximin and Melanie as they were and where they were.

She came to meet them in the very fabric of their lives. She came to the mountain to find them. She spoke to them in their language. She did not speak to them in abstract puffs of rhetoric. She spoke of rotting walnuts and potatoes and grapes, of spoiling wheat and cursing cart drivers, of a boy and his father strolling on a friend’s farmland watching wheat turn to dust in their hands.

Some say that La Salette is as outdated as the “plug and plow.” But didn’t Jesus speak of fig trees and mustard seeds and houses built on sand, of lost sheep and lost sons and signs in the seasons announcing times for sowing and harvesting? The Lord is always close to people.

The very first purpose of the Lady’s words is to put the children at ease in the presence of the stunning scene before their eyes. They were small, young, vulnerable and helpless. And they were alone. The Virgin’s first concern was to dispel their fear and induce a mood conducive to absorbing calmly what they were about to see and hear.

But we may easily see in these words an allusion to people’s fear of the divine. From time immemorial, people have been trying to appease the gods as well as God. They have been attempting to placate a highly whimsical, moody and often cruel Fate. These people are firmly convinced that everything that happens to them comes from God and is wanted by God. Burnt offerings, sacrifices, even human ones, are offered to wheedle some favor from a pitiless god. The Christian God has inherited that terrified worship. “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” is not meant to terrorize.

Fear of God, an abject fear of God, is never an appropriate approach to him. If we believe that “God is love” we will have the very best impression of God and religion that it is possible to have on this earth. St. John wrote to his church at Ephesus and said: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love” (1 John 4:18).

The ministry of La Salettes, lay and religious, has a definite purpose, to invite people to come to God and to the Church, out of love and trust, not out of fear. Their ministry is to cast out fear. They do this by showing people that they themselves are not serving out of fear but out of love-love for God and a deep-seated affection for people. They do this by taking the same tactic the Lady used: a warm, oft-repeated invitation. We underestimate the power of open entreaty. We assume that people know they are invited, know they are welcome and wanted. They do not always know. There is positively nothing in the world quite like being invited, being wanted. All this is part of being loved. The Lady could have gone no further if she had not charmed away the children’s fear.

After the example of Mary, Reconciler of Sinners, the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette consider it their duty to enter more deeply into the mystery of reconciliation. They do this through prayer, meditation, study and ministry (La Salette Rule, Capitular Norm #1).

(from Face of a Reconciler: Bringing the La Salette Charism to Life