Homily at the Pilgrimage Mass
at the Lourdes Grotto
by Bishop John Fleming,
Bishop of Killala

24th August 2009

Mass at the Grotto in Lourdes has been the goal and highlight of pilgrims to this place for the past century and a half. On this morning, therefore, we gather to form yet another link in the long chain which binds pilgrims from all over the world to this special place. This chain links countries and continents. It forms bonds between the past, the present and the future and it unites all of us, the children of God, in a hallowed space as we honour Mary and invoke her protection. This Grotto is a place of reverence and respect. It is a quiet corner where prayers can be said, hopes expressed and acceptance of life as it is, achieved. In a real sense, it is a magnet which draws the young and the old, the infirm and the strong, faith filled followers and soul searchers. In short all human life comes here.

In reality, it was not always so. As the New Year of 1858 dawned, it was a neglected space, the place where the canal of the town of Lourdes met the river Gave. This nook in the rock of Massabielle was dark, damp, dirty and hidden. It was known locally as the pig’s shelter. On that day no one could have predicted that by the end of that year pilgrims from all over the world would be drawn to it for centuries to come; pilgrims as important as Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, pilgrims as treasured in God’s eyes as you and I.

God’s choice of this place as the setting for the Apparitions which would transform the spirituality of the Christian world forces us to reflect. The questions that it raises are legion. The why of his choice incomprehensible. Why France. Why a hamlet in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Why a damp, dark, corner of a field where only the pigs found shelter from the heat and the rain. The ‘why’ of God’s choice has become the catalyst for the questions which flow through the minds of all who have visited this place; the space where the ‘why me’ of every pilgrim can be raised and even if no answer is to be found at least a certain resignation is secured.

Why me? Why him or her? Why does God allow evil to flourish in the world. Why does he allow so many human being, his creatures, part of his creation, to suffer ill health, to be born with special needs or to meet with misfortune which is not of their making.? Why, why, why.

While we may not be able to provide the answers to these questions, at least we have the consolation of knowing that St Bernadette faced most of them in her life and confronted them in her person. She was slight in build, suffered from asthma, found difficulty with study, lived through the rapid decline in her family’s fortunes but also eventually found her niche in life, the place where God wanted her to be his witness and give Him her service.

From being the daughter of a miller with a stable job and home to being fostered out because of financial insecurity and unemployment, Bernadette has much in common with many nowadays who suffer from the economic crisis in which the so called western world finds itself. Having known ill health for a lifetime she has much to offer in terms of insight for those who suffer and for those who share the lives of those who suffer ill health. Having lived through all the turmoil of those eighteen apparitions, between February 11th and July 16th 1858, she has much to say to those who find themselves in the eye of the storm of unwanted publicity. And probably most importantly of all, having been chosen by God to meet with Our Lady in this place, she has much to say to those who today search for meaning in life. The Apparitions ended on July 16th 1858 but it is important for us to remember that it took her eight years to discover they ‘why’ of it all and the place where she was to find her true vocation in life; which was, as we know, as a religious sister in the convent at Nevers.

Somewhere, in the contrast between the damp, dark, pig’s shelter and the revelation of the Lady dressed in white who declared her Immaculate Conception, lies the answer to the why which so many people bring to this sacred space. On the surface, it is unfathomable; deep down it is rooted in the Gospel. The answer must lie in the mysterious assurance of God that in the depths of human poverty the wealth of God’s grace is to be found. It forces us to recognise that in the suffering of Christ eternal redemption was achieved. It causes us to accept that in the apparent contradiction of service that leadership is given and in the recognition that it is only through the Cross that we can find life. In a real sense it is here at the Grotto that we recognise the wisdom of those who accept that life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived.

Here, at the Grotto in Lourdes, the ‘why’, which everyone of us brings with us or is forced to face by the extent of the suffering which we see all around us, fades into the mystery which is Christ and, in particular, his Cross, which is the great sign of contradiction. It is here that we realise that there is no answer to the why posed by us, just as there is no answer to the why posed by the death of Christ on a Cross. It is here that the why fades, the mystery becomes more obvious and somewhere in it all acceptance grows, peace awakens and hope emerges. May the peace, which Christ alone can give, grow in all our hearts as we offer our sacrifice of thanksgiving to God at this Grotto in Lourdes.