Today is Feb 11, the optional memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes.
We read at today’s Mass, “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27).
I love Lourdes. Situated in the mountains of southern France, a visit to this miraculous shrine guarantees a moment of intimacy with God. The grotto, where the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Bernadette, is carved into the mountain itself. Pilgrims can hear the sound of water constantly flowing from the nearby river. There is no moment of prayer in the entire Christian world quite like the candle-lit Rosary procession which happens at the shrine every evening.
But it’s not only the picturesque setting and incomparable liturgy that make Lourdes so extraordinary. At Lourdes, we get a glimpse of the world as the Lord saw it, or perhaps, more accurately, as it should be.
Everywhere else in the world, the sick and disabled are scorned. The elderly and the infirm are seen as a burden, and often the modern medical community can only think of alleviating pain or eliminating it by suggesting people should simply end their lives.
A place in which the world is reversed
But at Lourdes, that world is reversed. In the sanctuary’s inversion, everything is done for those who are sick. They ride hand-wheeled chariots; they are moved to the front of lines and processions. Lourdes is for them, for them more than anyone else. It is the one place where they are not looked down upon. It is the one place where the infirm and disabled are placed ahead of everyone else. It is the one place where the image of God is seen and cherished by every person.
Isn’t that how Jesus saw the world? With eyes of mercy, he was drawn to the sick, drawn to have compassion for those who were suffering. Today, through our prayers and acts of charity, may the world look a little more like Lourdes.
Let us pray,
Grant us, O merciful God, protection in our weakness, that we, who keep the Memorial of the Immaculate Mother of God, may with the help of her intercession, rise up from our iniquities. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
