Tomorrow we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Have you ever noticed that it is usually children to whom Mary appears? At Lourdes, for instance, it was to Bernadette Soubirous, a fourteen-year-old miller’s daughter, that Mary appeared and revealed herself as, “the Immaculate Conception.”
Shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes in Lourdes, France
Why to children? Mary is first and foremost a mother who loves children. She must have passed her love for children onto her only son, Jesus, for he once famously said - against the opposition of his disciples: “Let the children come to me, for to these little ones belong the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Further, children, especially young children, haven’t yet blocked the possibility of wonder, surprise, and awe in everyday experience. They are, therefore, more likely to be receptive to hearing and seeing and believing what adults too often simply preclude as impossible. Why not the possibility of a lovely lady from heaven bringing to a young teenage girl the message and promise of healing and then go on to reveal a title that, although unintelligible to the girl, is confirmation of a declared doctrine to the Church?
Finally, God loves his wounded, hurting, and sinful world. And because he loves such a world, he wants it --and each of us-- to be healed, both physically and especially spiritually. Through his paschal mystery, Jesus had long ago enabled that healing, but the world has tended all too often to forget it. Thus, the Mother of God comes, again and again, to remind the world of that good news, usually doing so through the witness of “little ones” in whom there is neither guile nor deceit.
On this Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, let the child in you hear, believe, and be healed!
Rev. Lewis S. Fiorelli, OSFS
Provincial
Wilmington-Philadelphia Province
