Why Are There Visions and Apparitions?

Why Are There Visions and Apparitions?

Man’s intimate union with God and, at the same time, the center of mystical experience depend directly and strictly on contemplative experience. An essential constituent of the mystical fact is, therefore, the actuation of the gifts of the Spirit in a superhuman mode, which ordinarily produces the passive experience of God or the experience of His divine action in the subject. In this experience there are also entirely secondary elements, not constitutive of it, some of which are somatic in character (for example, ecstasies), others cognitive in nature (for example, visions, locutions, instinctive knowledge of the sacred, and private revelations).

Therefore visions, where their authenticity is verified, are secondary gratuitous graces. They are not even remotely comparable to infused contemplation, a most precious grace, received along the way of the theological virtues, the only way that, above every extraordinary phenomenon, whether cognitive or somatic, leads securely and directly to God, according to the constant teaching of the great mystics.

Instead, we find devout people who are so taken up with their visions that they have practically made them the foundation on which they end up resting their entire interior life. Moreover, many of them prove extremely imprudent in adhering too confidently to poorly established manifestations. And more than once directors come under the influence of their overconfident penitents.

That said, visions and apparitions have a value of their own in the development of the interior life, both of individuals and of the Church. They express their fittingness with the mystery of Christ, as an echo of the communication of Revelation to man, just as Christ did with His Church. Although they are neither obligatory nor foundational, they can become an aid to faith and, if authentic, constitute and manifest the inclination of divine goodness to draw near to men in a human way, thus helping them along the path of faith.

If, then, we consider these phenomena as manifestations of the mysteries of the faith, we can conclude that they appeal to the fundamental structure of man, who is made for the knowledge of the truth. It would be a lack of theological honesty to forget the phenomena of the beginning of the last century, which are still today an instrument by which God draws men to Himself. Let us think for a moment of those countless multitudes, insensitive to preaching, exhortation, and the ordinary means of religious activity, who, deeply moved by heavenly manifestations, abandon a life of indifference, impiety, or disorder and suddenly find themselves transformed and capable of the most meritorious efforts and the most heroic virtues.

The fittingness of visions lies precisely in their convergence with divine Providence regarding the mission of the Church, so that, when the faithful flock to the place where they occurred, one must read in this spontaneous movement a profound longing for God and a great love for Him, in the certainty of the encounter: “we want to see God.”

In the suitability of visions to God’s saving plan we can find their ultimate purpose: the Lord uses visions to draw men to Himself, so that, taking advantage of this divine attraction, they may be united and the faithful may commit themselves fully to the long path of the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, uniting themselves to God through the intra-Trinitarian life.

The theological reason for visions and Marian apparitions in the plan of salvation is explored in depth in John Paul II’s encyclical Redemptoris Mater, which presents Mary’s presence and action as a sign of God’s maternal solicitude for His people throughout history.

Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian apparitions, and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.

See the complete list of Marian apparitions recognized by the Church.