As many of you know, I am blest to have lived at Lourdes in France for three years serving in our Family Rosary mission there. I’m looking forward to returning for a month in September, Lord willing. I have seen the place up close, so I can say that there have been thousands of physical healings – cures! It’s the real deal. Yet one could counter: there have been millions of sick people who have visited Lourdes. What about the rest of them?
Millions of people are touched by the grace of God at Lourdes, healed in ways the Lord knows they need. That is the truth. I have seen that too. It’s not a cop out. Rather Lourdes and other Marian shrines, now and throughout Christian History, have served to continue to show the meaning of what the Lord wants to teach us in this healing of the paralytic. The physical cures that have taken place there are signs so that we understand and receive the spiritual healing which He wants to bestow on us all which is in fact more important than a physical healing!
The Lord says to the paralytic: “Your sins are forgiven.” The scribes accuse Him of blasphemy – yet he wants them and us to understand that yes, this forgiveness of sins is the great miracle: coming back to life and then entering powerfully on the way to eternal life that starts to transform us, filling us with real joy and enduring love. Hearing confessions in Lourdes for so many hours I have been a witness over and over again of this rebirth in grace!
Take this way that opens toward real life! The Lord calls us on it! Our Lady leads us to Him. It would be great if you could visit Lourdes sometime but that’s not required. Simply hearing the story, let it be another of the many signs that the Lord gives us for our journey together. Don’t be discouraged. Be strong and steadfast. Let each challenge be an opportunity to grow in Christ!
Do not let yourself be distracted! With all the daily commotion and drama on the world stage, be awake to witness and be a part of the signs and wonders the Lord wants to work in your home and your community each day, as each child born is meant to be nurtured and loved, to be raised in faith so he or she may become truly the Child of God he was meant to become and humanity become the great family of God.
