Feast of our Lady of Lourdes
Recently I was looking at the readings for the feast day our Lady of Lourdes and the gospel Reading is the Wedding Feast at Cana, So let us reflect on the wedding at Cana for a moment. The bride and groom whose wedding was being celebrated were in the background because at the heart of this story we see Mary and Jesus. Mary, who asks for help when she tells Jesus “they have no wine”, And Jesus who replied why ask me my time has not come. Of course Jesus did the miracle of changing the water into wine because Jesus like so many other children he could not refuse his mother’s request. Mary the faith filled disciple, had trust in God and in divine providence and knew what Jesus would do. The care, concern and affection of God are manifest in Jesus and it is the same care and affection that is reflected through Mary his mother. In her response at the wedding at Cana Mary shows herself a model disciple who trusts in God. She shows that trust with the words that are meant for all of us even now as we read them again “Do whatever he tells you.”
As all of us who travel to Lourdes know In the Rosary Basilica there is an icon over the main altar with the words To Jesus through Mary and that is another aspect of this story, Mary always points away from herself to Jesus. Mary is giving us the direction to do what Jesus asks us to do. She is not saying that we should do what she wants us to do instead she is showing us the way to Jesus the son of God. She is mother to us all and also the first disciple of her son. She knows the way to live because she learned it by listening to her son and pondering in her heart what he did and said. We should listen closely to what she says as Mary is the one who “keeps all these things in her heart,.” Do whatever he tells you is Mary’s message for us today because God never gives up on us and calls us to a better way of life a life of love and service for others where ever we are. This past year has been a hard one for all of us wherever we are in the world with the COVID19. As a result of the pandemic many of us have not travelled to Lourdes in 2020 and again in 2021 many of us will not be able to get our annual pilgrim visits due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.
So with Mary we stop and ponder in our hearts all the things Lourdes means to all of us individuals who go there as Pilgrims, as Hospitalite members or as pilgrimage helpers of one sort or another or priests or pilgrimage leaders. We also remember all the Sanctuary Staff the hoteliers and their hotel staffs with the travel agents who enable us to do all we do in Lourdes. We say a prayer for all of the Pilgrims known to us who have died remembering all the Lourdes pilgrims and helpers who have lost their lives because of COVID19. In Lourdes we see a reflection of God’s care in the commitment of all the people who tend to the suffering of others. They are God’s compassion in flesh, God’s care in motion. We pray on this feast day that we may continue to be the compassionate face of god wherever we are called to be in the world as members of the international Lourdes pilgrim family.
Fullerton T 