Editorial: So What

So What

T hat’s not an idle, much less a brazen question. Hundreds of Beatifications have taken place during the pontificate of John Paul II. Is the Church any better off because of it? We’d be hard put to name even a few of the throng whom the Holy Father has officially declared Blessed!  A Beatification is so common today that most Catholics, and even Catholic newspapers and periodicals, pay little if any attention to the ceremony. The relatively few who may have come across the names of those Beatified on May 16 of the year 1993, thirty years ago,  are likely to have some difficulty remembering Mother Marie Louise of Jesus.

Beatification: A Lengthily Process

The conclusion appears to be that a Beatification is a beautiful, legitimately proud celebration for a religious community, and/or diocese. Beautiful, since it is honoring one of its own. It gives some – though much less than we would like to believe – short-lived, church-wide not0riety to the new “Blessed”.  Not0riety to his/her community and diocese. These are hardly enough reasons to justify the years of painstaking and quite expensive research. The years of  investigations, publications, committee meetings, all needed for the process.

However, the primary purpose of a Beatification is not to splash the media with the name of the new Blessed. It is surely not to bloat a religious community with triumphalism, as it counts up the number of its members “raised to the altar”.  It is not to win vocations and much less to have a grandiose Roman celebration.

Beatification: A Change of Heart

If the Beatification of Mother Marie Louise does not bring about a true and profound conversion in the hearts of those who do know her and especially in her religious family – the Montfort community – it is no more than a flash in the pan, a waste of time and money.

Is it not possible that there are Beatifications which produce little positive effect, in spite of the understandably great expense and the many years of labor to achieve the goal?

Is this the case for the Beatification of Mother Marie Louise? For the most part, we are the only ones who will determine that. What change has her Beatification produced in our life? Take time to answer that question. Superficial answers like; “it made me so happy”;  “I’m glad for the Montfort community”;  “Now maybe she’ll be better known”, are far from the mark.

Have we entered into the spirit of the Church’s action? Has the life of Moher Marie Louise truly challenged us on a personal level? What practical effects has all this had on our Catholic life? A deeper appreciation for Montfortian Spirituality? A more profound and practical living of the baptismal consecration to the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom through Mary? A clearer recognition of Christ hidden in the faces of the poor, the prejudiced, the weak, the ill, those suffering from Cancer, etc.?

Are we and our families, parishes, religious communities, more than ever determined to drop all our idols – power, human respect, exaggerated fear of the future – and live boldly for God Alone? Is it possible that we are open to following Divine and Incarnate Wisdom – together with Our Lady of Wisdom –  even to the victorious folly of the Cross, there to be crucified with Him? Are we willing to put our life on the line to defend the rights of the poor and disadvantaged?

Beatification …

Some will say that a good retreat can achieve these results, and much more cheaply than a formal Beatification! Not so. A Beatification is a decisive moment in the life of the Blessed’s core group, imbuing it with Spirit-filled power to stir up a constantly more profound renewal among its members. For it is usually only from the radical changes it brings about in this group that the evangelical power of the new Blessed begins to extend throughout the Church. The Beatification of Mother Marie Louise is a significant, urgent word of the Holy Spirit breathed into the Church through the Montfort community. It is our joyful duty to hear this word of God and proclaim it to the world.

… Transform One Heart

The entire Montfort Family – and that includes all who subscribe to The Queen—is being called by the Beatification of Mother Marie Louise to a new depth of conversion. And this renewal is according to the spirit of Mother Marie Louise. She is the first and pre-eminent disciple of Saint Louis de Montfort.

If there is no conversion in each one of us and within our communities, of what use is the Beatification? It is time, now that the elaborate ceremonies are past, to let the transforming power of Mother Marie Louise influence us to become like Mary, faithful icons of Divine Wisdom, so that we may give ourselves to the service of the poor. The grace is being offered in an absolutely unique way through the Beatification. The offered grace empowers us to accept lt. The rest is up to us.