Given at the Mass in Honour of Our Lady of Lourdes at Westminster Cathedral on 12th February 2022
Our celebration of Mass today is full of comfort and consolation.
This we would expect, as we are celebrating the love of God poured out for us through Mary, Our Blessed Lady, under her title of ‘Our Lady of Lourdes’.
This is how we should take to heart the two readings we have just heard: the one from the Prophet Isaiah and the wonderful narrative of the Wedding Feast at Cana. Here there are so many images that speak to us of God’s consoling love: the feeding of a child by her loving mother; the fondling and comforting of a child on his mother's knee; the outpouring of peace that overwhelms us completely; the utter relief and amazement at that wedding feast which was running out of wine!
There is one line which, in my mind, captures all of these images, a line from the First Reading. I suggest we can all keep it in mind from this day. It is this:
'To his servants the Lord will reveal his hand'.
Now, I am no card-sharp, but I know how important 'revealing a hand' can be in a game of cards. It’s a giveaway. In most games, it brings defeat, a loss of advantage and the possibility of winning.
Maybe this is what the Lord has in mind. God wants to show us his hand as he has no interest in competition. God is open in the offer made to us in life, clear in the lot dealt to each one of us. On bad days we might not think so. But the more we learn to come to the Lord 'as his servants' then the more readily we will see and accept the 'hand' he has given us.
The hand revealed to us by the Lord is one of unfailing love and compassion. All the images tell us so. And the Lord's actions make it even clearer. He gives himself, unstintingly, to be our compassion, our companion, our friend, our Saviour. And, as if his own actions in Jesus are not clear enough, he also gives us his mother to express that same love and compassion in feminine actions and responses. She reveals his hand in her presence, her consolation, her intercessions on our behalf, as we see so clearly in Lourdes.
Mother and Son; woman and man. Their togetherness is so important and seen so clearly in that wedding feast. It is she who first senses the threatening embarrassment. It is she who takes the initiative to prompt the saving response. It is she who reassures the watching servants who are all too aware of a coming crisis. 'Do whatever he tells you' are the words of a confident woman who knows what she is talking about. And the man responds.
Sometimes this dialogue between mother and son can sound harsh. The word 'Woman', used by Jesus towards Mary, has a dismissive ring to it. But it is not so. I am told that at the time and in the language of Jesus this word is more like the word 'Lady', or 'my Lady'. Indeed, I learn that the Emperor Antony used this word in order to address his Queen, Cleopatra. An address of honour and of love: 'My Lady'. And, if Jesus calls his mother 'my lady', then so much more may we call her Our Lady.
'To his servants the Lord will reveal his hand.' Yes, it is a hand of uncompromising love. And it is revealed also in suffering, on Calvary. This is, I suspect, the most difficult part of the hand he shows us: how suffering too is part of the deal, suffering that can weigh us down, crush our spirit, drown our joy and leave us desolate. Yet, this part of the lot we are given also has its own calling, a calling that Jesus himself had to face. He did not reject it, although he needed special help to embrace it. He even prayed that 'this chalice' might be taken from him.
And so do we. We pray that it may pass. We pray for perseverance. When we live in the midst of suffering, ourselves or those we love, we can struggle to see this as part of the Lord's plan and as part of the journey he calls us to make. We can easily see only its futility and relentlessness. But the more deeply we become servants, as Jesus did, the more deeply we are bound to him and draw those around us closer to him, too.
Here is the mystery of our suffering, a mystery we sense with greater clarity in Lourdes and, we pray, on a day like this when our hearts carry us to Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes. In Lourdes, those burdened with suffering of every kind are often restored, not so often to bodily health, although we know that this too happens there, but rather they receive a spiritual restoration. Somehow that suffering takes on a new light, a new dimension. Sometimes a freedom is given to make of that burden a golden gift, offered to the Lord, a gift that transforms not only the heart and face of the sick person but, through them, the hearts and faces of all who care for them. May this miracle of Lourdes bless us today and restore in each of us that newness of life and strength of hope which we know is not deceiving.
I believe that at the time of Jesus, and at other times too, a wedding feast could go on for days. No wonder they needed so much wine! Our feast today cannot do so. But we know that this Mass, and our coming together in communion in the Lord, is but a foretaste of a feast that will indeed last forever. Here we glimpse heaven. Here we glimpse the full hand that the Lord gives to each of us: the promise of eternal life with him in the glory of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, both now and forever, world without end. Amen.
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
St Bernadette, pray for us.
Amen.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols