Less than a century after the French Revolution, when Reason was proclaimed the ultimate authority and deemed god; and liberty, equality and fraternity were to be the standards of morality, as opposed to the oppression of kings and the corruption of clergy, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a girl in the French countryside to re-teach France and the world that all virtue comes from heaven, declaring "I am the Immaculate Conception." Mary is the enlightened one because she is the only human being that never had any stain of sin. She is perfectly united to God by this superlative purity of divine love in her. And that union with God is the only source of real fraternity.
God is the original society: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons with perfect equality, freedom and cooperation. This heavenly messenger of consolation, mercy and healing for the sick and the sinner is just what the enlightened world needs. There was never a sadder world than this world of ours which has declared it's radical autonomy from it's Father. The enlightenment rejection of Jesus Christ and His Church is an attack on the very values it claims to champion: liberty, equality and fraternity. For Christ is the eternal Son Who makes all men brothers, He is the source of equality, for He and the Father are One, and He is the only source of perfect liberty because "the truth will set you free."
On this day in 1958 the Mother of Christ came to a little girl to teach us that God is still with us and cares for us and that He has given us a Mother so that we might all feel our common sonship and in gratitude show our fraternity, our openness and generosity to those around us. We owe mercy to our neighbor because God, the one true God, Jesus Christ our Lord, has loved us and given His life for us, and He is alive and cares for each one even now, from heaven and through the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints and through the ministry of His holy priests on the earth, until the end of time.
May our heavenly Mother make all men true and holy brothers of Christ our Lord.
Happy Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes!
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