The following is Bishop Jaime Soto's homily from the Mass offered at the Sacred Heart Church in Lourdes -where St. Bernadette was baptized- with all the pilgrims.
When they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day.” (Lk. 6.20-23) Jesus was speaking of the Evangelii Gaudium, the joy of the gospel. It is the joy of the gospel that persuasively and powerfully communicates Jesus to the world. The Evangelii Gaudium announces Jesus, who is the wisdom of God, God’s righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Take care to note that this heavenly joy springs from the humbling circumstances of suffering and poverty. The poor, the hungry, the sick, the persecuted are blessed with the Evangelii Gaudium, the joy no one can take away.
As we contemplate the figure of Bernadette, as well as our brother and sister malades, we journey with them during these days at Lourdes into this confounding mystery where humanity humbled is exalted with divine joy.
We know much human suffering and humiliation is not accompanied by joy. Many tribulations are the consequence of sin, inflicted by others or imposed by oneself. The many realities of suffering and sickness reflect the murky mystery of evil, stirring in all of us the puzzled pondering of Job.
The witness of martyrs, saints, Bernadette, as well as ordinary men and women speak of how the weight of human suffering was overcome with an amazing wellspring of divine joy.
Jesus has given us his own testimony: He did not aspire for divinity but assumed our suffering humanity. Son though he was he learned obedience from what he suffered. As a consequence, so did we. We learn obedience from what he suffered. His humility in the midst of suffering has shed a light on the path of joy. He emptied himself, becoming obedient unto death. Striped of his garments before being nailed to the cross, he was also stripped of all human means of joy. Like a lamb led before the shearers, the Lord’s humility created the obedient vessel that was poured out so then to be filled by the Father’s joy.
Joy is found by possessing what one loves. To possess the joy of the gospel one must come to know the love of Christ, then — like the wise merchant seeking the pearl of great price — gladly surrender all to which one clings, emptying oneself so that the love of the Lord Jesus may fill us with the Father’s delight.
The Blessed Mother invited Bernadette and all those who listen, to discover through prayer and penance the cause to rejoice and leap for joy. Through prayer and penance — especially in the penitential acceptance of one’s own illness and frailty – we more closely unite ourselves to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, the one, acceptable, saving sacrifice and prayer to the Father. All Christian prayer and penance echo the prayers and supplications offered by the Lord Jesus with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death. (Hb. 5.7) He was heard because of his reverence. Our prayers and penance are heard because of his reverence and our desire to have the same attitude of Christ.
The message of Lourdes is a Eucharistic message. St. Augustine reminds us that upon receiving the body of Christ, we become what we receive. We become who we receive. Jesus brings us with him to the cross so that the Father may raise us up with Christ in glory. This provides all the more reason for us to take to heart Mary’s message given to the young Bernadette. Through a life of prayer, penance, and charity we more wholeheartedly embrace Jesus in the communion of the Sacramentum Caritatis, the Sacrament of Charity. Heed now the Lord’s call to “rejoice and leap for joy.”
Read more from Bishop Jaime Soto's 2024 pilgrimage to Lourdes: First Dispatch, Second Dispatch, Third Dispatch, Fourth Dispatch