Gathering Mass - Mass of ‘Our Lady, Queen and Mother’

(Readings: Isaiah 9:1-6; Luke 2:41-52)

At Saint Bernadette's Church
Saturday, 22nd August 2009 - 3:30 pm

Homily by Bishop Patrick Lynch sscc

As we begin our pilgrimage and call to mind Bernadette’s spiritual journey, it is helpful to remember the background from which she came and the context in which she lived. In the late 1850’s Lourdes was a small town in a poor and isolated part of France - so isolated in fact that people spoke their own particular dialect. For Bernadette’s family life was indeed a struggle - food was scarce, the tiny and humble living quarters were usually cold and damp during the winter and illness (including on occasions cholera) a constant threat. The Grotto itself wasn’t the peaceful and picturesque place we now see. It too was a cold, hidden and damp place. Nevertheless, it was here in the midst of struggle, suffering and sickness that Mary appeared to Bernadette opening her heart through the gift of prayer, healing her heart through the gift of peace and freeing her heart through the spirit of penance.

Our readings today and the theme of our mass remind us that Mary is both our Mother who leads us to Jesus and our model who inspires us to follow Jesus.

In the first reading the prophet Isaiah preaches a message of hope to the people of Israel at a time when they have suffered under oppression and bad leadership. He consoles them by prophesying that a child will be born who will eventually free them from oppression. Years later the Gospel writers will use this passage to show how, through Mary, God is faithful to His promises.

In the Gospel Luke describes the scene we traditionally call ‘the Finding in the Temple’. When Mary and Joseph finally find Jesus in the Temple, sitting among the doctors listening to them and asking them questions, a tense conversation ensues. “Why have you done this to us?” asks Mary. To which Jesus replies “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s affairs?” Through Mary and Joseph’s parental anxiety Luke helps us discover that Jesus’ mission is first and foremost to carry out His Father’s will – to help others know God’s love and to help others give witness to God’s love.

Today we too, like Bernadette, need Mary’s guidance and help if we are to know God’s love and give witness to God’s love. Through Mary we ask Jesus
- to open our hearts to the gift of God’s presence in prayer,
- to heal our hearts with the gift of God’s peace and
- to free our hearts through the spirit and practice of penance.

A pilgrimage to Lourdes is always a time of prayer and for prayer. Over the next few days all of us will spend a lot of time in prayer - in personal prayer, in communal prayer, in sacramental prayer. One of the lessons Bernadette teaches us is that prayer is a gift and that prayer is first and foremost about how God is present to us and what God does to us and through us and secondly about what we do and how we respond. So let us ask the Lord to help us and let us ask Mary to teach us to experience that gift of God’s presence in prayer in a special way this week:
- in the silence and stillness of our own hearts,
- in the sacraments and ceremonies we celebrate,
- in the people we pray for and pray with – in their faith, in their stories, in their worries and in their sickness.

A pilgrimage to Lourdes is also a time for healing the heart. Like Bernadette, we too come to the Grotto with our worries and weakness, with our sickness and selfishness. We may be worried about our job or someone else’s job: we may be worried about our health or someone else’s health: we may be worried about our family or friends. When things go wrong it usually affects everything in our lives - the way we feel, the way we behave, the way we think, the way we relate to others and the way we pray. One of the temptations always is to take things out on others or even ourselves. So let us ask the Lord to bless us like Bernadette with the gift of God’s healing peace - a peace that heals our hearts from being discouraged and downhearted. That was the peace Bernadette received and that is the peace we too need.

Lastly, a pilgrimage to Lourdes is a time for penance. Inbuilt in each and every one of us is a desire to know, love and serve the Lord. As the psalmist puts it “our souls are happy when they rest in the Lord”. Our difficulty, however, is that too often, because of our human frailty, we look for happiness and fulfilment in the wrong things and in the wrong places and this causes untold damage to ourselves and others. The practice of penance isn’t therefore just about punishing ourselves it is about asking God to help us to say ‘no’ to our selfishness and about allowing God to free our hearts from selfishness and asking God to heal the damage caused by our selfishness. Mary’s message to Bernadette reminds us that sacrifice and penance are important because they help us to realise that ‘it is in giving that we receive and it is in dying to ourselves that we receive eternal life’.

In conclusion, we begin this special journey asking God to help us to be open to the grace of this pilgrimage so that, like Bernadette, we too will allow God to open our hearts to His presence, heal our hearts through his peace and free our hearts through the spirit of penance.