A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mk 7:31-37
Jesus left the district of Tyreand went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,into the district of the Decapolis. And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impedimentand begged him to lay his hand on him.He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s earsand, spitting, touched his tongue;then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,“Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”)And immediately the man’s ears were opened,his speech impediment was removed,and he spoke plainly. He ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them not to,the more they proclaimed it. They were exceedingly astonished and they said,“He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
REFLECTION
"He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
In 1854 the Roman Catholic Church declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. It asserted that Mary was preserved free from the effects of original sin from the instant of her conception. This privilege was because of God's grace and not of any intrinsic merit on Mary's part.
On February 11, 1858, the Mother of God appeared to a 14 year old French peasant girl. The apparitions ended on July 16, 1858. There were a total of 18 visions.
Bernadette Soubirous was a young French girl who came from a very poor family. Her family lived in a cramped single room. On the day Our Lady of Lourdes appeared to her, Bernadette, her sister Toinette and a friend of theirs, Jeanne, went looking for wood in the meadows by the Grotto of Massabielle beside the River Gave.
Bernadette had asthma and therefore, lagged behind in crossing the icy waters and it was there, while alone, Our Lady of Lourdes appeared to her. There was a rustle. Raising her head, Bernadette saw, in a hollow of the rock a small young lady, who looked at her and who smiled at her. This was the first Apparition of the Virgin Mary on February 11, 1858.
By March 4, 1858 there were 200,000 people who accompanied Bernadette to the grotto. Our Lady instructed Bernadette to have a chapel built on the spot to which pilgrims could come in procession, and to wash in and to drink from, the spring which had gushed out at the foot of the rock when young Bernadette dug.
On March 25, 1858, the day of the sixteenth apparition, Bernadette went to the Grotto where, at the initiative of Abbot Peyramale, priest of Lourdes, she asked “the Lady” to tell her name. Three times Bernadette asked the question. At the fourth request, “the Lady” replied “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Bernadette did not immediately understand the meaning of these words. Bernadette went at once to the parish priest to tell him the name of “the Lady.” He understood that it was the Mother of God that appeared at the Grotto. Later, Tarbes Bishop Laurence, authenticated this revelation. July 16th was the last time she appeared, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Our Lady told Bernadette, "I do not promise to make you happy in this life but in the next." She asked for penance and prayer for the conversion of sinners.
On her deathbed at the age of 34, Bernadette suffered severe pain and, keeping with the Virgin Mary's admonition of "Penance, Penance, Penance," she proclaimed "all this is good for Heaven!" Bernadette's last words were, "Blessed Mary, Mother of God, pray for me.
In Lourdes, there have been 7000 miraculous recoveries but only 70 are recognized by the Church. People who dip into the bath at Lourdes, have seen such miracles as legs straightening, spinal/nervous medical problems relieved, to less monumental miracles such as relief of morning sickness, relief of joint pains, conversion of family, and spiritual growth to name a few. The incorruptible body of St Bernadette rests in a glass shrine in the chapel of the convent of Saint- Gildard in Nevers, France.
"Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners! was the message given to Mary to St Bernadette. And this is the message to us in 2022.
Thanking God for His eternal love. Thanking Our Lady of Lourdes who leads us to the Ultimate Physician, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
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