The enduring miracle of Lourdes

One hundred and fifty years ago this month, on February 11, 1858, a 14-year old French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, saw another girl about her own age smiling at her. She was surrounded by a bright light and was “beautiful”.

At first, Bernadette did not know who the smiling young lady could be, but within a few years she and everybody knew that it was Mary the Mother of God.

It is a telling point in Bernadette’s favour that after one and a half centuries, clergy and faithful increasingly and persistently are still assembling at Lourdes in their millions every year, praying for graces, spiritual and material. They are persuaded that it is there that Christ has again shown his miraculous powers through the prayers of his Mother.

Cynics and scoffers may smile benignly and turn away, but Catholics must view Lourdes and its message more soberly and in the context of the Gospel. Mary instructed Bernadette to pray for sinners and called for penance for sin. This is exactly the call made by Jesus: “The Kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent and believe the Good News” (Mk1:15).

Jesus appealed to the miracles that he performed as a sign that God was active in the world through him. Likewise, Lourdes stands or falls by the claims that miracles, inexplicable to modern medicine, have been occurring there from the very beginning. In our sober assessment of whether God’s hand is active in Lourdes or whether the miracles there are a gigantic hoax, we have to look to the hard facts.

In January, 1862, nearly four years after the first apparition to Bernadette, the local bishop issued a pastoral letter. He adjudged that Mary, Mother of God, had really appeared to Bernadette and that the apparitions had all the marks of truth and the faithful would be justified in believing them to be certain.

This view cut no ice with the medical profession which remained aloof from what it considered to be hysteria and ignorance, particularly in regard to the alleged miracle cures. However, more and more evidence of stupendous physical and psychological healing began to build up. To the credit of the ecclesiastical authorities, each and every inexplicable event was rigorously recorded and open to the supervision of the medical profession, not only among believers but of all faiths or none.

Then an American Protestant, Ruth Cranston, published a remarkable book in 1956 titled The Mystery of Lourdes. She wrote that it was the scientific machinery behind Lourdes that appealed to her. She was intrigued that every suggestion of a miraculous nature was immediately analysed methodically by international teams of independent medical practitioners. The Church authorities claimed no competence over such things and left them entirely to the scientists.

Ruth Cranston recounted details of numerous cures that would sound like fairy tales if they had not been authenticated by competent medical opinion.

Since her time, the wonder of Lourdes has not lost its reputation and attraction to the faithful. It is a place of prayer, a place of astounding cooperation and fellow-feeling, where the sense of unity in Christ is extraordinary on so vast a scale.

The Church has dedicated an annual feast to Our Lady of Lourdes, signalling its acceptance of Bernadette’s visions and Christ’s assurance of his healing work in the world through the prayers of Mary.

Whether we are convinced or not, we cannot deny that we need one another’s prayers to remain strong in the faith together. We could hardly do better than ask the Mother of God, Our Lady of Lourdes, to add her special prayers at this time.