Tuesday, February 11, 2025

(Optional) Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes

(Genesis 1:20-2:4a; Mark 7:1-13.  Alternate readings for Our Lady of Lourdes: Isaiah 66:10-14c; John 2:1-11)

The gospels are clear: Jesus cured people of illnesses.  However, he probably did not heal all the sick people who searched for him as some accounts indicate.  Nor did he spend all his time healing but preached and taught as well.  It seems important to say this lest people think that curing physical disease is what the Kingdom of God is all about.

Although most pilgrims go to Lourdes looking for physical healing, only a small are granted this desire.   Yet nearly everyone, it seems, returns home satisfied.  They experience in the confluence of people from around the world in this village of southern France a unity of faith and goodwill that uplifts the soul.  One mother explained after taking her son with cancer there, that he was healed in the sense that he could now accept death with peace.

 There is nothing wrong with praying for healing.  Such prayer demonstrates a faith in God’s domination of the power of evil.  At the same time, we should realize that God heals in different ways.  To some He will grant the grace of reconciliation with foes so that they may live in greater, life-giving love.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Tuesday of the fourth Week of Lent

(Ezekiel 47:1-9.12; John 5:1-16)

Pilgrims to Lourdes should not hesitate to have a bath in the holy waters.  Winter or summer, the baths are administered with care and devotion which uplift one’s faith.  The waters are charged with the aspirations of millions seeking health of soul and body.  They carry the same freshness as the waters of the Temple featured in today’s readings.

The first reading calls attention to the water trickling at first but soon becoming a torrent.  The water soon gives life to abundant flora that in turn revives believers.  In the gospel Jesus himself becomes the life-giving water of the Temple.  He heals the sick man who did not have the wherewithal to enter the Temple pool.

Water symbolizes our coming to new life at Easter.  At the vigil service the water is blessed with due reference to its saving roll throughout the Old Testament.  During the Easter season it is continually used to remind us of the blessings that Jesus’ resurrection bestows.  We can look forward to being touched with that water so that Jesus’ life may flow within us.

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Lent

(Ezekiel 47:1-9.12; John 5:1-16)

Anyone can have a bath at the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes.  There is no cost.  Assistants will help the aged and sick as well as the healthy prepare themselves.  Privacy is paramount.  Photos, even while waiting in line outside the baths, are prohibited.  The experience will heal the soul if not the body.   Pilgrims witness the faith of the people and the service of volunteer assistants.  God feels as close to them as ever.   Today’s gospel speaks of an even greater closeness to God.

The paralytic is waiting for someone to assist him enter the healing pool of Bethesda.  Jesus offers his services.  Since he is the source of “living water,” he does not carry him into the pool.  He only tells the paralytic to get up and walk, and the man miraculously does so.  Jesus’ miracle does not require faith on the part of its beneficiary.  Rather his sovereign authority works wonders as he wills.

We should take another look at Jesus. He is not only a healer and a teacher, but also the Lord who can work wonders for us.  We want to submit to his will.  It is not only that he requires it of us.  But also in doing his will we find our truest happiness. 

Monday, February 11, 2019

Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes

(Genesis 1:1-19; Mark 6:53-56)

Every year eight million people visit the town of Lourdes in southern France.  Most go to be healed of some malady or to pray for another who is sick.  The water from the spring at the site of Our Lady’s appearance to St. Bernadette has shown to be especially curative.  Pilgrims drink the water and fill bottles with it to be taken home.  Many take baths in the pools.  They are immersed a few seconds and emerge healed either spiritually or physically.  The custom can be compared with one noted in today’s gospel.

The reading tells how the sick beg Jesus to touch one of his tassels.  The practice sounds superstitious but actually expresses great faith.  Jews are required by the Law to wear tassels.  Jesus, known as a holy man, keeps that precept and the whole Law in both spirit and letter.  By touching one of his tassels, a person manifests her own acceptance of God’s will.  This in turn puts the person in God’s favor.  If she is sick, she can expect some kind of healing.

Tassels serve Jews in a way not at all unlike how the sacraments serve us.  They put us in touch with the Holy One whose power created the universe.  Submitting our will to His, we too will be healed of our ailments.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Monday of the First Week of Advent

(Isaiah 4:2-6; Matthew 8:5-11)

Why is a gospel passage glorifying faith used on the first weekday of Advent, the season of hope?  Perhaps it is to show the intimate relationship between the two virtues.  The centurion comes to Jesus believing that God has given him the power to heal his sick servant.  He does not even insist that Jesus see the sick one but only to pronounce a word of life.  Of course, he is not disappointed.

Many pilgrims come to Lourdes almost desperate – that is, almost giving up hope – but with a faith that approximates that of the centurion.  The experience of common need which the pilgrims share often transforms them.  It confirms their faith and lifts their hope to a higher level.  Being cured is no longer of paramount importance.  What they now desire is to accompany the Lord.

Faith and hope would be illusions without love.  Love for his servant brings the centurion to Jesus, the incarnation of love.  Both ask nothing for themselves but only to assist others.  We believe in Jesus because he has demonstrated his love for us.  And because we hope to encounter him, we demonstrate the same love for others. 

Homilette for thursday, March 1, 2007

Thursday, I Lent

(Matthew 7)

A man commented last week that it is useless to pray that God end a war. He thinks that war involves so many people that God could not have much say regarding its outcome. The man did not say that God couldn’t answer prayers of personal needs, but many believe that is so. In fact, a whole theological movement known as “process theology” believes that God is powerless over events in people’s lives. Then why pray at all, we might ask?

Process theology adherents might answer that prayer at least lifts a person’s thought from worrying about a problem to imagining a solution. Psychologically, prayer facilitates positive thinking. Such reasoning, however, hardly convinces us. If we needed to think about solutions, we could do that without directing our hearts to God in prayer. In the gospel, of course, Jesus does not seem to doubt that prayers will be answered. “Ask and it will be given to you,” he says confidently.

Those who doubt the value of prayer to achieve its purpose have an inadequate conception of God. God knows what we need before we express our need, even before we exist. He wants us to pray, however, so that our relationship of faith may strengthen. He will respond to our prayer by providing for our need. His answer may not conform exactly to what we ask for, but it will see us through the difficulty. Once a mother brought her son who was dying of a brain tumor to Lourdes for healing. Shortly after their return, the boy died shortly. When the mother was asked if she felt God had let her down, she said, no, the experience of praying with so many faith-filled people at Lourdes strengthened her to accept her son’s death. The boy died in God’s grace and the family lives in assurance of God’s love for them.