Thoughts on Our Lady of Lourdes

                While a priest may choose special readings for certain memorials and feasts, the readings that fall on today’s Feast are so Marian as to provide substance for reflection upon the meaning of this day.

                The first reading relates Solomon’s prayer after building the Temple.  Once they had completed the dedication, the Lord filled the Temple with the Cloud of His Presence, the “Shekinah”, the sign of God amidst His people.  Solomon cries out, ““Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?
If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this temple which I have built!”  Solomon knew God was greater and beyond the confines of the heavens and the earth, and knew his efforts at providing a house for God was merely symbolic.  And yet he is struck with awe that God still makes His presence known here on earth. 

What Solomon could not even begin to grasp was the idea that God would indeed build His own house on earth, and that that house, that Temple, would be the body of the Virgin Mary.  Catholic Marian spirituality and theology has often used the Hebrew writings about the glory and stature of the Temple as references to the Virgin Mary.  What man could not establish or build in any permanent or fitting way as a place for God to live among us, even with God’s instruction and command, He Himself would do when He fashioned the body and soul of the Virgin Mary, Immaculate from the first moment of her conception.  This is the title that she gave herself when she finally told Saint Bernadette who she was.  Until this revelation, she only let Bernadette surmise who she was. 

Mysteriously, she did not say, “I was conceived Immaculate”; she said, “I am the Immaculate Conception”.  St. Maximillian Kolbe wrote extensively on this title found in the apparition. He notes that she calls herself this as a proper name.  Conception is usually considered a moment in time, the exact moment when a human being comes to be through the instrumentality of father and mother.  But Our Lady refers to herself as The Immaculate Conception, a continuing existence as it were of stainlessness and being.  Her being is derived, of course, from God the source of Being, yet she is a living being of holiness not just in one moment, but ongoing.  

And the psalm response today at Mass was also most fitting: “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Mighty God.” (Ps. 84:2)  As appropriate this is for the Temple of Solomon, how much more does it apply to the Virgin Mother of God.  The psalmist yearns to dwell in the House of the Lord; how much more should we hope to dwell in the love and protection of Virgin Mother of God.  Being with her for one day, one moment is worth more than all time spent in the tents of the wicked. 

Finally, in today’s Gospel reading, when Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for their legalism, He notes that they keep mere human traditions instead of fulfilling the Law of God. The one precept He notes is the fourth commandment, “Honor your father and mother.”  The Pharisees would allow someone who had dedicated their goods to God not to have to care for their parents.  Here it is noteworthy to state that the fourth commandment is not primarily for little kids, but for adults, and the respect and honor they should have for their parents who were older.  Does one think for a moment that Jesus would violate the one commandment that He uses to show true obedience to God? He prepared a place for His mother before all others. He honored her in the best way possible by granting her the greatest status in His Kingdom.

And this brings us to the Church, for what can be said about the Blessed Mother individually is also true of the Church universally.  The Virgin Mary is certainly the Mother of the Church, since she gave birth to the Church’s Head; but she is also, as Vatican 2 notes, a member of the Church, a pre-eminent member, but still a member.  It is a mysterious relationship that defies ordinary human categories, yet still expresses profound truths accessible to our minds by faith. 

The Church was conceived immaculately for she came to be via the perfect and holy sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  She maintains that status, which is renewed constantly especially in the sacraments and the Mass most of all.  And where does the Mass take place? Within the church buildings constructed to symbolize the Universal Church, the Body of Christ.

As a final note, it is well known that Lourdes is a place of healing, with millions going there over the past 150 plus years seeking health both physical and spiritual.  Most think that the waters of the spring are where most cures take place.  In fact, most cures happen when the daily Eucharistic procession occurs.  Mary is the Immaculate Conception for sure; she, as always, points the way to her Son, Who is the source of all that is Holy and the Fount of Mercy for the afflicted.