"I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next." (The Blessed Virgin to St. Bernadette at Lourdes, 18 February, 1858).
Our Lady appeared at
The Blessed Virgin repeated to St. Bernadette what the Church had recently (1854) defined as Dogma: "I Am the Immaculate Conception".
De Chardin, infatuated with his evolutionary views, would later implicitly deny the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, because of his rejection of the notion of sin and of the need for a Redemption by Christ.
But his opinions are meaningless. He is one of those thieves and robbers who, according to Our Lord, try to force another way; a way that leads only to destruction.
The Immaculate Virgin, on the other hand, is co-Redemptrix. God, of course, had no need of any help from His creatures, but He nevertheless chose Mary to be a partner for Christ, a New Eve for the New Adam.
And how fortunate for us that He designed salvific history in this way! We thus have a spiritual Mother to help us along the painful and difficult road to salvation. Even to make it relatively easy, as the Popes and Saints down through the ages have taught us. For they, whilst not denying the Cross - far from it! - have made it abundantly clear that to walk life's way of the Cross with the Virgin Mary is to have chosen at once the shortest, easiest, safest, most secure and most meritorious path to salvation.
Whilst there are no short cuts along this way - with every single step having to be traced out - still, for those accompanied by Mary, the road seems short because they walk it more quickly and more surely, without having to re-trace their steps. Whilst one still will have to carry the Cross - and perhaps a very heavy one at times - with Mary the Cross will seem far lighter and more sweet, because She helps her friends to carry it and She even communicates to them some of Her own ardent love for the Cross.
We may thus appropriately conclude our article with these consoling words of St. Bernard:
When you follow Mary, you will not go astray; when you pray to her, you will not despair; when you think of her, you will not err; when she sustains you, you will not fall; when she protects you, you will not fear; when she leads you, you will not become tired; when she favours you, you will arrive safely" ["Inter flores", cap.135, De Maria Virgine].
