What I saw at Knock

Find today’s readings here.

Who gets to see God?

These past two weeks I have been traveling in Ireland on one of our America pilgrimages. I have been to this beautiful country before, but since this trip was less of a tour and more of a spiritual experience, we saw sites I never made it to on previous visits. One of the most moving and surprising was the shrine at Knock, where 15 witnesses reported seeing an apparition of the Blessed Mother alongside St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist in the summer of 1879.

While the hymn “Lady of Knock” was a staple of my upbringing in a Boston Irish Catholic family, I admit that I didn’t come into our visit with a particular devotion to Knock. In fact, when it comes to Marian apparitions, I struggle with a bit of intellectual skepticism. But my fondness for Irish Catholic culture and my conversations with other pilgrims encouraged me to open my mind ever so slightly and try, like those initial witnesses, to see something.

As our guide told us the story of the pilgrimage site, I was struck by one fact in particular: The apparition was silent. While reports of apparitions at sites like Fatima, Lourdes and Guadalupe recount that Mary spoke a clear message to the witnesses, at Knock the witnesses reported watching the Blessed Mother (and the divine family that surrounded her) for hours in the rain without hearing her speak a word. The guide who showed our group around the site suggested that this has been an essential part of why Knock has captured the imagination of so many pilgrims for almost 150 years: Mary’s silence allows people of faith to interpret her message with some degree of freedom. What people respond to is not a command or decree but the simple fact of her presence.

In addition to the Blessed Mother and the saints with her, the witnesses at Knock reported seeing a lamb surrounded by angels. Our guide charmingly noted that this meant Mary chose to appear to the people of this small Irish village alongside her family: her husband Joseph, the apostle John who cared for her after the crucifixion and her son in the form of the lamb. 

While the apparition’s silence sets it apart from other well-known examples of Mary’s appearance, there is one way in which Knock is quite like other sites of Marian devotion, and that lies in the witnesses themselves. They were humble and ordinary people, their home was facing a time of great turmoil, and they held fast to their faith against all odds. 

I think in my apparition skepticism, I sound something like the disciples in today’s Gospel. Sure, that’s great. If you could just show me, though, then that would be enough for me to believe.

Jesus’ response in the Gospel contains a note of incredulity. When Phillip suggests that he should just “show us the Father,” Jesus wonders why his disciples haven’t already seen enough to feel convinced of the Father’s presence. After all, haven’t they known him, known Jesus? Haven’t they heard the words he speaks, and doesn’t he speak them through the Father? Jesus says to Phillip, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.” Do I need God to knock on my door and deliver me a personal message in order to have faith, or can I look out my window, observe my neighbors and readily find evidence of those divine works Jesus mentions?

Other than in the beautiful statue of Mary crowned in the apparition chapel, I didn’t see the Blessed Mother during my day at Knock. But I saw a model of what the poor village would have looked like on the night of the apparition. I saw a re-creation of the thatched roof homes where the townsfolk would have left their tea on the stove and their quilt hanging off the bed when they ran out to lay eyes on Mary. I heard the story of how the first witnesses banged on doors and called out to friends and family to make sure their community could share in their awe at what they were seeing. I saw the faces of my fellow pilgrims and heard their voices raised in song as we celebrated Mass together in the chapel built on the very spot where the apparitions were reported.

In other words, I saw enough. I saw plenty.

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