Given for the Mass at the Grotto of Lourdes, together with Brentwood Diocese, Welsh National Pilgrimage, Order of Malta Volunteers on 24 July 2024
This morning each of us has followed the path down to this Grotto. We have done this responding to the request presented by Our Blessed Lady that we come in procession to this sacred place. Here we stand with Bernadette, before Mary, imploring her help for our world, so torn by strife, hostilities and anxiety, for ourselves and our loved ones, living and dead.
In this place, we become a little more deeply part of the story of our faith. Here we understand, from Bernadette, what it means to put our trust in Jesus, to place our life in his hands. Here we learn to lay aside our anxieties, every time they return, for come back they surely do. Here we learn to respond to each other with care and gentleness and not to be overcome by the timidity and suspicion that surrounds us. Cynicism can creep into our hearts. Fear can so often hold us back. Anxiety can shut us in, depriving us of the sunlight of each other’s care, leaving us isolated and downcast.
St Paul has a way of speaking about this story of faith that we are to enter more deeply. He tells us how it works in our lives. He puts it simply: ‘You are not a slave any more!’ Rather, we are adopted as sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, rescued from every imprisonment.
Think of what this means: no longer slaves but daughters and sons. We go from being a slave burdened and bound by duty, to a person who freely offers loving service. We go from being a slave who has no voice at all, or who has lost their voice and confidence, to one who can raise a joyful voice of praise and thanksgiving in every time and place. We go from having no status, to confidently knowing that we are treasured sons and daughters of God.
I read recently of three or four of the England football players who confidently proclaim their Christian faith. They explained that faith gives them an identity and security that does not depend on their success as footballers. They know who they are and what is important, beyond the glitter of their sporting careers.
So too for us. Our sense of our own worth does not depend on a successful career; it is not dependent on our achievements and capabilities – for which, of course, we thank God. Our worth is not taken away by illness and infirmity. Rather, as St Paul said, the proof of our dignity and worth ‘is that God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries out “Abba, Father”.’
This is the wonderful truth of faith that we can learn again here: we are worthy in the sight of God who pours into our inner selves every good gift. Freed from every rancour, envy, jealousy and suspicion, we simply have to receive, to be thankful, and to respond in joyful praise.
This is the same Spirit who gives life to the Church. And here, in the Grotto, we can breathe in more deeply the life of the Church. Here we salute Mary, the first member of the Church, commissioned from the Cross. Here we learn again about the Church as the rock, withstanding all weakness and attack, from without and from within. Here we come to the Church as the source of the flowing water of the sacraments, cleansing and restoring us, day by day, with the wonder of Christ’s life. On your pilgrimage here in Lourdes remember to come to touch this rock and restore your faith in the Church, our rock. Come, wash yourself in this water and be renewed by the sacraments.
But one last point. It is often said that here in the Grotto the distance between heaven and earth is shortened. Here we can glimpse, a little more keenly, the peace and beauty of heaven - especially when it is not raining! And this is important because, as St Paul tells us, in being made son and daughter we are also made the inheritors of heavenly glory. So here, sensing the touch of heaven, we are closer to home. This is the journey on which we have embarked, the very purpose of our life: that we come in procession, in pilgrimage, making our way to our Heavenly Father, to the one who provides wine for the feast from the simple water of our efforts and who will give unending joy to all who trust in him.
Later in life, St Bernadette said these words. Listen to them now and let them linger in our hearts. She said:
‘I will do everything for heaven because heaven is my homeland.’ ‘I will find my Mother there in all the splendour of her glory. There I will enjoy the happiness of Jesus, in perfect security.’
So be it! Amen!
X Cardinal Vincent Nichols
Archbishop of Westminster