I have traveled to Lourdes with the Order of Malta and Malades (pilgrims with serious health conditions) at least three times, maybe four. When I first accepted the invitation some years ago, I presumed it would be a "one and done" visit. My repeated returns to the grotto along the River Gave indicate how wrong that first presumption was. The opportunity to accompany men and women who are sick, frail, and seeking God's healing has been an ever-unfolding epiphany of God's unfathomable wisdom and mercy calling me to repentance and conversion.
The stories of miraculous healings, associated with the waters of Lourdes since the beginning, can be a distraction from the much greater spiritual fruits unless one sees the sacramental nature of any healing.
Like the translucent nature of water itself, we must see through the healing to find the merciful hand of God lifting us to himself. With this understanding, Lourdes offers more than physical healings. The Virgin Mary brings us to a saving encounter with her Son, Jesus. He, who knows our heart and desires our salvation, cares for us in many ways, not always in the manner or the fashion we expect. The healing we want is not always the healing we need. While we hope for God's grace, we must learn to trust the divine wisdom of that grace to choose the time and the manner of its revelation.
These few reflections bring me to an interesting meeting during the visit to Lourdes. All the pilgrims were invited to a presentation by Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis who currently holds a curious job. He is the President of the “Bureau des Constatations Médicales” for the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes. Roughly translated, he directs the Shrine Office for Medical Findings. His principal task is to medically examine all claims of miraculous healings that are credited to Lourdes.
For two hours he kept the group rapt in attention with stories, humor, exuberance of faith, and a disarming Italian charm. Dr. Sandro gave a thorough presentation on the protocols and criteria used to determine a miraculous cure. I will not attempt to delineate all the steps.
I confess that parts of his presentation tested my low tolerance for graphic medical details. At certain points I squirmed in my chair as the letters "TMI" flashed through my mind (Too Much Information!).
The two main points that stayed with me were:
- His job as a doctor was to determine how a person was cured or make the opposite determination that there is no explanation for the cure. Dr. Sandro was clear and humble about the limitations of his job. He applies the light of scientific, collegial examination on any claim of miraculous healing. Could science explain the cure or was the cure unexplainable? If a collegial group of medical doctors, after reviewing all the facts surrounding an alleged cure, conclude that it is scientifically unexplainable then the case will go to the Bishop of Tarbes-et-Lourdes for him to consider the next question, "Is it a miracle?"
- Dr. Sandro was emphatic: Concluding that a healing was a miracle was not his job. Discerning a miracle is task of faith, not science. Reason and science can serve faith, but only faith can discern the hand of God moving in the world, in history, as well as the inner recesses of our body and soul. In this vein of thought, the doctor quoted Thomas Aquinas: “For those with faith, no evidence is necessary; for those without it, no evidence will suffice.”
During his presentation, Dr. Sandro spent a portion of time considering the miracles of the scriptures. Many people came to Jesus because he healed the sick. They knew nothing else about him. What made these healings miracles was because they revealed who Jesus was to those witnessing the event.
Consider the healing of the ten lepers in the Gospel of Luke. Ten were cured; only one returned to give praise and thanksgiving to Jesus. That one person, a Samaritan, saw the miracle because he recognized Jesus. Upon his return to Jesus the Lord told him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” (Lk. 17.11-19). This is the difference between a healing and a miracle.
I have often quoted the insight of the late Pope Benedict in his first encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est”: “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” (DCE, n.1). These words help us understand the difference between the inexplicable, incomprehensible in life and a miracle. In the miracle, we meet Jesus, the Divine Word Incarnate. He revealed himself to his disciples, to the sick, and to the poor. He continues to reveal himself through the Church today to his disciples, to the sick, and to the poor. Jesus is the revelation for whom the miracle is the sign, the translucent instrument that points us beyond the healing to the healer.
Mary, the Mother of the Church, always leads us to her Son. The true wonder of Lourdes or any Marian site are the signs and wonders that lead hearts and minds to know Christ Jesus. In the story of St. Bernadette, she was a simple young girl afflicted her whole life with poor health. She eventually died of tuberculosis at the young age of 35 in a convent of Nevers, France. As recipient of the apparitions, she never received a cure for her physical ailments. The holiness of her life was the more essential cure. Following her example, may this be our own Christian aspiration.
Read more from Lourdes: First Dispatch - Second Dispatch - Third Dispatch - Fourth Dispatch - Fifth Dispatch