Our Lady of Lourdes

February 11,2004

by Rev. Herbert Nichols

Many Christians and even some Catholics have difficulty with the apparitions of Mary. I don’t plan to get into a theological or physiological discussion; but would simply seek to change the term: visitation, for that of apparition.

Just as she did for Elizabeth, our Lady seeks with heart felt love to visit her children in their times of troubles. On many occasions she comes with a message.

If we use the Greek word angelos, the Old Testament reminds us of a quasi-bodied spirit bearing the name Raphael, the healer of God. In due time God sent his own incarnate son as divine physician to bring healing of body, mind, and soul.

Over the last few hundred years, the mother of Christ, and mother of all the faithful, has visited her children in various countries around the world. Millions make pilgrimages in hope of healing and recovery.

In some of those shrines as in the one we honor today, the sanctuary has been marked by the emergence of a flowing spring, itself symbolic of recovery and new life.

The river of healing, flowing through the arid landscape, as prophesied by Ezekiel symbolizes God’s restoration of what humanity had destroyed by its foolish choices. Yet each of us, by our own foolish choices, devastates God’s perfect plan; God’s plan for consummate "I Am-ness."

When Bernadette asked Our Lady, What is your name? Mary answered: "I AM the Immaculate Conception." A theological term only recently dogmatized; yet spoken in native dialect, not in French. It was not the term that was important; but the relationship.

Mary was the first since Eve, to begin her life in total integration with I AM. For Mary that integrity never came unraveled. Mary’s messages are both of consolation and of confrontation.

Her Magnificat presents God’s priorities in stark contrast to our own values before espousing recovery. When life seems unfair and does not turn out the way we might have chosen; it is important to realize that God’s ways are not our ways.

Mary understood and lived the first three steps: I can’t, I don’t understand, but God can, so I let Him.

Personal fulfillment and genuine recovery do not come through human greatness and success; but through surrender, sincere humility and re-integration with our "I AM-ness."