On this the 150th anniversary of Our Lady of Lourdes apparition to Saint Bernadette, Pope Benedict XVI encourages all of us to indulge in the abundance of God’s grace at work in this festive event. It was in 1858 that Mary Most Holy appeared to young Bernadette Soubirous declaring herself to be the Immaculate Conception.
As we all know the Immaculate Conception refers to that moment of singular grace when God preserved Mary from every strain of original sin from the very moment of her conception within the womb of good St. Anne. But why did God preserve Mary from every strain of original sin? God chose this grace for Mary because she was to be the vessel of purity through which Jesus Christ, the Son of the Most High God was to be born into human history. The main reason that God became man in the person of Jesus of Nazareth was so that He could save us from our sins.
The wages of our sins are death and eternal separation from the God who loves us without conditions. By Jesus’ death on the cross and through our participation in it through the sacrament of reconciliation Jesus gives us forgiveness and healing so that we may stand before God in confidence and with a clear conscience.
There is an element of God’s mercy, however, that we must never overlook and that element is seen in the way in which his mercy directs us toward living a life of justice. So each time we approach the confessional and tell our sins to the priest we are not only forgiven for our sins but we are also given a penance. This penance is our way of thanking God for forgiving our sins as well as our response to God’s kindness by committing ourselves to a life of Justice.
For example I could break out a window in my neighbor’s house and seek forgiveness for the wrong that I did to him and in mercy he could accept my confession but yet the call of Justice demands that I should make a charitable effort to assist my neighbor in restoring to wholeness that which was broken. This is the same with God, we sin, he shows us mercy and He then gives us a way in which to work for justice so as to show some initiative in the area of sorrow for the wrong committed. Basically, if we are truly sorry for our sins it means that we have undergone a change of heart and that we want to show that change of heart by working to correct as is humanly possible the wrong committed. This penance which seeks to establish justice in the wrong committed is referred to by the Church as the temporal punishment due to sin.
On this feast of our Lady of Lourdes, the Pope through the merits of Christ is offering a plenary indulgence for all who desire to be free of these temporal punishments. An indulgence is in definition a kindness or favor shown and plenary means something in its totality or entirety. So the Pope is offering to all of us a plenary indulgence so that all of our temporal punishments may be satisfied by the divine kindness of God. To attain this indulgence on this feast of our Lady of Lourdes the Pope requires that the faithful must visit a statue of the virgin of Lourdes, which is solemnly exposed for public veneration and before the image participate in a pious exercise of Marian devotion, concluding with the recital of the Our Father, the profession of Faith, and the invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In order for this fully overflowing kindness of God’s divine mercy to be active in our lives there are also certain dispositions necessary. These dispositions are the following: One, we should be free of mortal sin; Two, we should receive the sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist within a week of the indulgence being offered; Three, Prayer in keeping with the intentions of the Holy Father.
Having looked at the ideas of God’s mercy and justice and our responsibility toward both, what then is the connection between these ideas and today’s Gospel? In the Gospel it is through Mary’s intercession that Jesus performs the miracle of an abundance of wine, a miracle symbolizing the Eucharist, which is the primary witness in our daily lives to the abundant kindness of God toward his children who constantly struggle with sin. In the Eucharist we eat and drink the mercy of God in abundance. As a result of Mary’s intercession the disciples of Jesus recognize his glory and believe in him. As the Immaculate Conception Mary is the only woman in all creation who could say yes to God’s desire to bring forth the abundance of his mercy through the birth of his Son. Both in today’s Gospel and in Mary’s fiat before the Angel Gabriel we have become the benefactors of God’s abundant kindness which seeks to deliver us from our sins and attachment to sin so that we may recognize his glory here and now in this Eucharist and after our life here on earth in the heavenly Banquet when all of us will be gathered with Mary and the Twelve to celebrate the Wedding feast of the Lamb.
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