b'MARIAN WISDOMThe healing at LOURDESIn her apparitions to Saint Bernadette, the Blessed Mother created a place of pilgrimageBy Father James Heft, SMMarianist Father James Heft shares a reflection for ALIVE to service regardless of whether we are cured or not.readers about his pilgrimages to Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto Jesus came so that we might have life and have it inin Lourdes, France, as well as his homily from a Mass at abundance (John 10:10). Redemptive suffering, thethe Grotto on April 30, 2022. suffering of Jesus, graces all of our lives in ways thatthe head cannot explain and the gut cannot understand.The Heart of Lourdes In short, Lourdes opens and strengthens hearts. Over the last 10 years, I have been privileged to serveas a chaplain eight times for a week-long pilgrimage Homily: Water into Wineto our Lady of Lourdes. When people ask me what I My dear friends, we are on sacred ground. All groundfound so meaningful in ministering at Lourdes, my is sacred, for all of the earth is a gift from God. Butanswer is always the same: People who are suffering, this place, especially this Grotto, is especially sacredsick, sometimes very sick, enter the ground. In 1858, Mary, the Mother graced space with faith and courage.IN SHORT, of Jesus, appeared right here to Father James Heft, SM What is it about Lourdes? LetSaint Bernadette. me use the image of the heart, a LOURDES And who was Bernadette? Mostwonderful Biblical image. SomeOPENS AND people at that time would have saidrabbis explained that its location in Bernadette was a nobody, just the body is important: beneath the STRENGTHENS a poor, sickly peasant with no future.head and above the gut. The heart HEARTS. That is what most people would havebrings them together; if they are not said. Most people are usually wrong.brought together, problems follow. Most people dont think like God. The head, by itself, is abstract, cool, critical, andGod treasured Bernadette, just as he treasures everydetached. Alone, the gut is passionate, intense,one of us here this morning, present here on sacredinstinctive, and unfiltered. By itself, the head has ground. So much did God treasure Bernadette thattrouble loving, just as the gut has trouble reflecting. His Son, Jesus, sent His Mother to Bernadette. Today,Wise people who learn to integrate through lovewe are in this place made especially sacred by Marystheir heartsare never distant or cold on the one apparition here. Mary called Bernadette to a life ofhand, nor blind or thoughtless on the other. penance and holiness, so that more people mightThere is no shortcut to the Resurrection. At Lourdes, live lives that are holy and selfless.we confront and embrace both the cross and theLike Bernadette, all of us face a stark choice aboutResurrection. Our journey of faith passes through the lives we will live. If we are honest, we realize thatthe same experience of the cross that Jesus did. He if we do not love, we will die; we also realize that ifboth suffered and rose from the dead. we do love, we will also die. If we do not love, ourPerhaps the greatest grace of Lourdes is thehearts will harden and our ability to love will wither.realization that sufferingaccepted and embraced If we do love, we will learn to lay down our lives for liberates us from self-absorption and compels us others and be hurt in the process, just as Mary did4Call 1.800.348.4732'