Lourdes, Gift of Salvation

All of us have dear ones who may be sick or far from God. Pray for them on Wednesday, February 11, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of Prayer for the Sick. It was on a Thursday, February 11^th in 1858, that fourteen year old Bernadette Soubirous saw a beautiful young girl in a niche at a rocky outcrop called Massabielle, about a half mile outside the town. She was near a wild rose bush and surrounded by a brilliant light and a golden cloud, smiling, with her arms extended towards Bernadette, who took out her rosary beads. This was the beginning of a whole sequence of apparitions, eighteen in all, which occurred during the spring and early summer of 1858.

The words of our Lady were few during these appearances. The most important "I do not promise you happiness in this world, but in the next; pray for sinners; go drink of the spring and wash yourself in it; Penance! Penance! Penance! Kiss the ground as a penance for sinners.” And when Bernadette asked her name she said “I am the Immaculate Conception." It was only four years after the Church had proclaimed this dogma and Our Lady herself had come to affirm this teaching and give us a concrete example of its meaning.

Mary was kept free of original sin from the first moment of her conception because of her role in the whole plan of salvation. What God had done for Mary at her conception He does for everyone who comes to Him seeking salvation. In the waters of Baptism we are freed, as Mary was, of original sin. That is why water is central to the shrine at Lourdes. Mary’s role in salvation is to lead us and conform us to Jesus. She is the spiritual Godmother at every Baptism. In Portugal at one time they would put her name on the baptismal certificate. She was privileged in the Immaculate Conception because her very body would house the Son of God. Once we are washed in the waters of baptism we are privileged to receive within our own bodies, the Eucharist, the Body of Christ.

Anyone who visits the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, among other impressions, comes away with three vivid images: 1) the sick who come in wheelchairs and even on cots, by train; 2) the candlelight procession at night with the Blessed Sacrament, during which healings may occur, and 3) the people lining up to be immersed in the miraculous waters of Lourdes, another site where healings may happen.

People go to Lourdes seeking salvation, seeking healing, not just of the body but of the soul. Symbols of light and water are part of the ritual as they are at Baptism, the Sacrament of salvation. Central to the healing is the Eucharist, God with us until the end of time.

This Lenten season renew your baptismal vows and follow Mary’s directions: Do “Penance, pray for sinners; go and wash.” We are always in need of salvation and the Sacraments, especially confession and Holy Communion, are the ways in which God gives us His saving grace.