EXPRESSIONS
OF CHARITY
Reprinted with permission from GARABANDAL JOURNAL
March-Arpil
2003
By Barry Hanratty
Of the many teachings Our Lady
gave at Garabandal to the visionaries and all of us, were lessons in charity.
As St. Paul tells us, of the three theological virtues of faith, hope and
charity, the greatest is charity. It only stands to reason then that Our
Lady would place great emphasis on this virtue during Her appearances.
On one occasion, the Blessed
Virgin gave a very pointed lesson on charity that would not be easily forgotten
by those in the village. Father Valentin Marichalar, the pastor, made the
following entry in his journal for September 16, 1962, a Sunday:
There is a man in the village who is half crazy
and does stupid things that could be very wrongly interpreted by the visitors
who don't know his mental condition. He had been in an insane asylum for
a year and now has decided to stay here. This is causing trouble and annoyance,
and he will have to be sent away.
During the ecstasy on this day,
Loli and Conchita went to the house where this disturbed man, Alfonso,
was staying and, with a crucifix, they made the sign of the cross there
on the pillow of his bed. And while passing by him, they gave him the crucifix
to kiss several times. The disturbed man froze on his knees. That night
Father Anzizu commented: "What a lesson in charity the girls have given
us." Everyone who had been talking about the necessity of throwing the
insane man out of the village was touched—above all, the Cardinal's secretary,
Father Guillermo Hausschildt,[Both he and Father Anzizu were from Argentina
and made a detour to visit Garabandal while on their way, with Cardinal
Caggiano, Archbishop of Rosario, to the Second Vatican Council.] who had
thought of refusing him Communion. He said: "It is clear the Virgin wanted
to give us a lesson."
Conchita was asked why she had
gone to the place where the deranged man was and had repeatedly given him
the crucifix to kiss. She answered, "The Virgin told us: 'You despise him,
but I love him.'" A response like this put us down, making us see our great
lack of charity.
PHOTO:
Alfonso. They wanted to throw him out of the village.
In his book She Went in Haste to the Mountain,
Fr.
Eusebio Garcia de Pesquera commenting on the above incident had this to
say: "Perhaps the question that Conchita was heard to ask of Our Lady during
an ecstasy ("When you come down here to earth, why do you come, to save
the world?") had some relation to this unforgettable lesson from the Mother
of God: Surely the mentally retarded are neither the ones nor the only
ones who are most in need of salvation.
TOUGH LOVE
Sometimes acts of charity come in the form of correction,
which can be painful not only for the one who receives the correction but
for the one who is required to give it. This was especially true for the
young seers of Garabandal who as shy, backward, mountain children, were
trained to show deference toward adults and would never think of correcting
them, especially total strangers.
But on at least one occasion,
the Blessed Virgin Mary asked Conchita to do exactly that as the visionary
explained to Mother Maria Garcia Nieves, Superior of the school Conchita
attended in 1966-67: "One day when I had finished speaking to Her [in ecstasy],
the Virgin told me to turn toward a couple behind me and tell them, 'You
aren't living right.' I did this, although it was very hard for me. I know
they were moved, since they began to cry and went to confession on that
same day."
Reprinted with permission from GARABANDAL
JOURNAL • March-April 2003
To read more about Garabandal, click Garabandal
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