Items filtered by date: April 2025

What’s in Your Heart?

(8^th Ordinary Sunday: Sirach 27:4-7; 1 Corinthians 15:54-58; Luke 6:39-45)

There is an ad for a credit card that ends with the question, “What’s in your wallet?” Sirach, in today’s first reading, and Jesus in the Gospel, both ask, in effect, “What’s in your heart?” and they look for the answer in how we speak.

Sirach compares speech to the sifting of grain, revealing how much, or how little, substance there is in our mind and heart. At La Salette, Mary uses an even stronger image. “If you have wheat, you must not sow it. Anything you sow the vermin will eat, and whatever does grow will fall into dust when you thresh it.”

This is, first, a warning of the famine that lies ahead; but it is also an apt symbol of the state of her people’s faith, which has fallen into dust, blighted by indifference. This is a great tragedy.

The Gospel, too, reminds us of our faults. Jesus says, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?” It can be easy to criticize others, as if our personal behavior and opinions were normative for everyone else. This attitude, and perhaps many others, are not easy to overcome.

But all is not lost. Otherwise, the Beautiful Lady would never have come.

St. Paul, at the end of the long chapter on the resurrection, cries out: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? ... Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

Yes, we need to labor, to strive to live our faith with integrity. The victory is not ours to win, however. It is beyond our strength—but not beyond our reach. At La Salette Mary reminds us of the means placed at our disposal in the Church and in our personal lives, making it possible for us to share Christ’s triumph over sin and death.

Hope of victory is more than wishing for it. It is based on promises like that of today’s psalm: “They that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of the house of our God.” Is that in your heart?

Wayne Vanasse, and Fr. René Butler, M.S.

What a Challenge!

(7^th Ordinary Sunday: 1 Samuel 26:2-23; 1 Corinthians 15:45-49; Luke 6:27-38)

At La Salette, Mary reminded us of our obligation to honor the Lord’s Name and the Lord’s Day (Mass and rest), to respect the discipline of Lent, and to pray. These are all included in her call to submit.

There is ample material here for an examination of conscience. But today’s Gospel helps us to understand that doing what the Beautiful Lady asks is just the beginning.

Jesus makes it clear that he expects much more of his disciples than the observance of the Law. The commandments are the foundation, not the whole structure. Some of his listeners must have thought he was going too far in requiring a peaceful, even submissive attitude, towards their enemies. In our time, too, it is not easy to accept such demands.

Does our faith make us better persons? In the first reading we find an excellent model in David. His faith in the God of Israel never wavered. So, when he had the opportunity to destroy his mortal enemy, King Saul, he showed him mercy instead, rather than strike the Lord’s anointed.

This is what the world needs today. It’s what the world has always needed, and will always need. There never was and can never be an excess of charity, that love which is poured into our hearts by God. It will never be perfect or complete, because, as St. Paul says in the second reading, we bear the earthly image of the earthly man, Adam.

We need not be discouraged, however. We are never beyond God’s power to forgive. We can, by God’s grace, bear the image of the heavenly man, Jesus Christ.

At the same time, we must not be complacent, as though our thoughts and words and actions really do not matter to God. The Lord knows what we think and say and do, but he also knows our hearts. For example, when we carry out Jesus’ command, “Give to everyone who asks of you,” is our motive pure?

Oh, the challenge of being faithful and faith-filled! With all our heart, let us pray the words of today’s opening prayer: “Grant that we may carry out in both word and deed that which is pleasing to you.”

Wayne Vanasse, and Fr. René Butler, M.S.

India – Provincial Chapter

New Provincial Council:

Fr. Jenson J. Chenthrappinny, provincial superior (center)

Fr. Bino Poovannikunnel, provincial vicar (left)

Fr. Anoop Manchirayil, second assistant (right)

May the Holy Spirit enlighten the new Council in the service to the Province.

Like a Tree

(6^th Ordinary Sunday: Jeremiah 17:5-8; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17, 20-26)

Twice today we encounter the image of a fruit tree planted by a source of water. Jeremiah uses it to describe those who trust in the Lord; the Psalm applies it to those who delight in meditating on God’s law. Both paint a painful image of those who place their trust and delight elsewhere.

At first glance, Jesus seems to use the same language, but it is clear that “woe to you” is very different from a curse. It is a warning. We find a similar concern at times in the context of La Salette. What some people read as Mary’s threats are more correctly understood as warnings.

The theme of the tree can be applied to all of today’s readings, and to La Salette as well. The point of Jesus’ beatitudes and woes, and of Mary’s promises and warnings, is to invite us to place our trust in God and not in ourselves.

Even the second reading, in which Paul insists on the truth of the resurrection of the body, connects to the same theme. As Greeks, the Corinthians prided themselves on their philosophy, which had no concept of bodily life after death. Paul expresses a sort of woe when he writes, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.”

Returning to the idea of the tree planted by water, remember that water is a strong symbol at La Salette. Mary came to help her people have deep roots and unfading green leaves and abundant fruit.

Besides the physical stream, the Beautiful Lady reminds us of another stream that is always a source of life. “Do you say your prayers well, my children?... You should say them well, at night and in the morning.” If she had been thinking of Psalm 1, she might have asked, “Do you delight in the law of the Lord?... You should meditate on his law day and night.”

As you know, plants need not only water but light as well. Prayer can be likened also to photosynthesis, enabling us to take in the light of Christ, which will work together with the water so that we may be strong in our faith and live in abiding hope.

For storms will surely come, dark and difficult days, but blessed are we if we remain united to our Risen Lord and to his Blessed Mother.

Wayne Vanasse, and Fr. René Butler, M.S.

Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette died in 2021

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,

et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Requiescant in pace. Amen.

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Deeper Waters

(5^th Ordinary Sunday: Isaiah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11)

There are many similarities in today’s three readings. For example, an extraordinary encounter with the Lord caused Isaiah, Paul, and Simon to be keenly aware of their sinfulness. This may be part of our own experience, too.

Another comparison is less obvious, but equally important. Jesus tells Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch” and, a few verses later, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” Isaiah and Paul were likewise admitted to the depths of God’s mystery, and given a mission.

At La Salette, the image is again different, but the reality is the same. We are drawn upward, to a mountain height but, with Mélanie and Maximin, we receive a mission, to make an important message known by our words and by our life.

Isaiah was especially troubled, but received a sign of God’s forgiveness when the burning ember touched his lips. Mary identified some of the sins by which her people were offending the Lord; and she reminded us of the importance of practicing our Catholic faith, especially the Eucharist which Jesus instituted “for the forgiveness of sins.” Remember this the next time the consecrated host passes your lips.

The Church also provides the sign of absolution in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which every La Salette priest treasures in his heart. The beautiful stories we could tell!

We come once again to three key “La Salette words:” reconciliation (acknowledging and accepting our unworthiness); conversion (turning back to God and accepting his forgiveness]; and making the message known (evangelizing).

In Simon’s case, this began with his allowing Jesus to use his boat as a stage from which to teach the crowds. Little did he know where this simple act of welcome would lead.

The clear message which the Beautiful Lady proclaimed at La Salette is one which the world still greatly needs. If in our hearts and actions we let Jesus into the humble boat of our lives and go deeper at his command, who knows what good we might do?

Wayne Vanasse, and Fr. René Butler, M.S.