February 16, 2003

The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes was celebrated this past Tuesday as an annual thanksgiving for the eighteen apparitions of the Blessed Mother to Saint Bernadette Soubirous in France in 1858. The first physical cure considered miraculous was that of the paralytic Catherine Latapie-Chouat in the year of the apparitions, officially recognized in 1862. Nearly 70 miracles have been recognized as such since then, including the cure of Jean-Pierre Bely from multiple sclerosis in 1987, recognized in 1999 after the regular process of medical examinations.

There is no counting the number of unrecognized physical cures that have taken place in that remote and beautiful town in the south of France. Nor can there be even an approximate estimate of the number of infirm people who have received the grace of consolation which enables them to bear their illnesses as a share in the suffering of Christ. Saint Bernadette is one of the remarkable figures in modern history, inexplicable without reference to supernatural grace, and canonized a saint not because she was privileged to receive the visitation of Our Lady but because of the heroic virtue with which she lived out her short life on earth after those particular favors were granted to her.

February 11 is designated each year as the Day of the Sick. It is a time, in the winter doldrums, to focus on the needs of physically and mentally afflicted. As symbolized by the many hospitals in Lourdes itself, the Catholic Church provides the largest system of health care in the world, with thousands of hospitals and medical centers and entire religious orders consecrated to the care of the sick, in addition to the laymen and laywomen who serve as surgeons, physicians, nurses, and health-care givers. The Archdiocese of New York has an immense obligation in providing health services, and much of our annual parish stewardship goes to their support. Many of our parishioners are involved in this great work, and all of us are accountable for visiting and helping the sick as one of the “corporal works of mercy.” The sick do an even more important work in offering their burden of suffering for the intentions of the Church. The clergy and home visitors never cease to be inspired by the edifying way patients in our hospitals and those who are not able to leave their homes practice the Christian virtues. Their prayers certainly are sources of power in strengthening the parish. One of the most enigmatic Christian paradoxes is the way physical helplessness, when offered to the glory of God, becomes a major help in promoting the Gospel. Do let the clergy know of any parishioner unable to get to church for Confession and Communion. And do take time each day to pray for the ill whose names are listed in the parish bulletin.

Fr. George W. Rutler