Healing the family | Holy lives of inspiration
What if the way of healing of humanity at the crossroads we find ourselves now were right before our very eyes, waiting only for us to see it and follow it?
So many pundits have their proposals: how many include what happened in a little town in the French Pyrenees within their wisdom? Probably even the majority of “educated” Catholics today might pass over a Marian apparition as merely sweet comfort for children and sentimental older women, missing the “folly of God” that is wiser and stronger than men (1 Cor 1:25). People may know of Lourdes as a place of some sort of healing waters where a lot of sick people go to get comfort. What of the full story?
In fact, at Lourdes, on the margins of Europe, the Virgin Mary, by God’s design, inserted herself into the center of our contemporary history. Self-absorbed as we are today with our various crises, we may lose historical perspectives that would help us understand “now”. In fact, 19th century Europe was a very complicated and conflictual stage. The waves of upheaval we continue to feel took shape then. It was particularly challenging for faith and for the Church. Anti-clerical and atheist forces were on the offensive in many places. Some held in their sights the hammering of the last nail into the coffin of Christianity, when undeniably extraordinary events erupted as a mysterious young woman appeared to the poorest and least educated girl in a cave that was the dumping grounds of the village of Lourdes.
Our Lady came with a message for our times. Certainly, centuries of significant expansion in knowledge and technology and what we now call globalization have required major cultural and political shifts. Would these shifts be guided by grace or be driven by pleasure, power, and money? What has been our response? With more technological “progress” especially for citizens of the richest countries, indices of anxiety and unhappiness are higher than ever. We see that all around us.
Our Lady came for truth and healing, not for polemics and division. At the foot of the Cross she was made the Mother of Church who has always journeyed with her Children. At Lourdes she came to make a home now from where she can guide the healing of humanity.
On a cold, damp winter day, February 11, 1858, young Bernadette was scavenging firewood by the side of a cave when out of a brilliant, beautiful light a young lady emerged. Bernadette’s fear disappeared when the lady took the Rosary draped on her arm, inviting Bernadette to pray with her. Eighteen times the lady appeared, always beginning by praying the Rosary. The lady made bold calls for repentance, but then followed by opening a spring of water. Astounding cures began for many who washed in it. She called for a church to be built on the site, and requested that people come in prayer and procession. Strangely, she would not reveal her name till finally she said, “I am the Immaculate Conception”.
Conceived without sin, she is the image and the mother of restored humanity, of a New Creation to which she has come to invite all of humanity. As in the Gospels, the miraculous healings are proof of Christ’s authority and power – and a sign of hope and promise for all who believe and follow Him. Since the changing of water into wine at the Wedding Feast in Cana, Mary has been the Mother leading us on the Way of Discipleship.
She does not come with a political program. Rather she comes to show the Way upon which we can be healed of the deepest wounds, those within us. Honesty about our propensity to sin, whose root is pride, is essential then to be open to receive the unfathomable love of God, grace which heals.
This stage of our existence we call life on earth is for us to believe and trust in God and so to learn to make good choices. Our journey is at once personal and communal. The Family of which Our Lady is the Mother includes faces of many colors and communities of diverse and beautiful shapes.
The Father sent Our Lady to Lourdes with a clear message for this diverse world that the Gospel must be our way forward. It is not a fixed program. However, its principles must guide all decision making if humanity is to flourish. Discernment day to day often doesn’t seem simple. Yet believing and keeping its fundamental simplicity in mind helps enormously.
At Lourdes Our Lady holds up the fundamentals as a lamp for our feet in the world of today. At Lourdes she proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God is the Father who is prodigal in His healing love for us if we will only accept it and be converted. To this day, millions each year come together at Lourdes, and while there they are part of a family gathered in community, in prayer, in peace, and in service of those in need. She holds up for us a simple way forward for the healing of humanity.
Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us. Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Father James Phalan, C.S.C., is a Catholic priest, member of the Congregation of Holy Cross and the National Director of Family Rosary. He served as a missionary for many years travelling the globe to help people come to Jesus through Mary as part of the Family Rosary team. Now he is happy to be serving back at home in the USA!
