This year in Lourdes, the pastoral theme is that of ‘reconciliation’; Be Reconciled to God. It is not an easy one, this, simply because it involves ‘conversion’, seeing things in a different way, and that can be uncomfortable.
But make no mistake about it: we live in a world that is desperately short of reconciliation. Look at Iraq and Afghanistan and Darfur and parts of Africa. And look closer to home, too; look at the divisions in the society in which we live. Look at your own family and your own life, those people with whom you are not reconciled at the moment. Coming to Lourdes this year means that you can no longer ignore the situation; you have to be reconciled, for that is the task that God lays upon you if you come on pilgrimage to that extraordinary place.
Conflict of course is an unavoidable part of human life; there is no growth without growing pains. But the trick is to avoid turning conflict into all-out war. What God does is to proclaim, in the face of our sullen scepticism, the possibility of peace and unity. And it is no good our saying ‘Well – he’s not managed that very well so far, has he?’; because that is our task. God has no other hands but ours, as the saying goes; and if we go on pilgrimage to Lourdes this year we are agreeing to take on the job that God gives us, to be reconciled ourselves, and so to assist in God’s work of reconciliation.
At the heart of the matter is our being reconciled to God. Why is that? It is simply that the mess that we have made of our lives and of our world is a sign that we have drifted from the vision that God has for the world and for us; and we have to get back to it. Fortunately God is in there, and working for this reconciliation; and you can see it in those inspiring moments of reconciliation: Northern Ireland, South Africa, or the last time you smiled at someone you thought might be distanced from you, and received an answering smile in return. When that happens, God is there, a God who is sufficiently concerned about the urgency of reconciliation to have sent his Son to cover the immense distance that separates creation from its Creator.
‘Let yourselves be reconciled’ is a phrase taken from Paul’s letter to his Corinthians. ‘Reconciled’ was precisely what they were not, these overly self-satisfied Corinthians; there were terrible battles going on in the Church (there have always been terrible battles in the Church, because that is how the evil spirit works), and they had taken their eyes off Jesus and looked instead to boasting about the superiority of their different ways of being Christian. So Paul begs the Corinthians to be reconciled, first to God and then to each other.
It has to be that way round, God and then each other, because reconciliation is the work of God, restoring us to what we could be. Only in God and in Jesus Christ can we find the peace that we long for, and that our world so desperately needs. And what God invites us to do is to see things differently. First, we have to learn to see God differently, not as a tyrant who will punish us unless we conform and behave as we are ordered to behave, but as a loving Father who longs for us to be what we have it in us to be. Then, secondly, we have to see ourselves differently, to recognise that we get things dreadfully wrong, that there are ways in which we are simply not reconciled, areas of dark selfishness in each of us to which we are simply blind.
And the relative wealth of modern Western society blinds us to those areas of darkness; but just look underneath the consumerist materialism, which can seem so dazzling, and you notice that our society is restless and thoroughly discontented, because it aims at exactly the wrong goals, and needs conversion.
How is society to be converted? Not by priests and bishops uttering condemnatory sermons. Condemnation is great fun, and makes us feel better for a while, but it does not come anywhere near the reality of what God has in mind. Our society will be converted if we can learn to live reconciled lives, lives that show that precious truth about God and about Jesus working to reconcile the world.
What is our part in that work of reconciliation? First, we have to experience it for ourselves in Lourdes. It does happen, but it is important that we notice it. Watch that figure of Bernadette, and see how her poverty and astonishing humility teach us to see things quite differently. Watch the figure of Mary, not so much a gloriously reigning queen, more another modest peasant girl, who works for the world’s conversion and reconciliation simply by always saying ‘Yes – fiat’ to God’s invitation. Watch the people whom we call ‘sick’ in Lourdes, and all those people who in our society at home are pushed to the sidelines; see how suddenly it seems absolutely right to put them first when we are in Lourdes. Watch the people whom in Lourdes we call ‘helpers’, how they find themselves precisely in doing very ordinary, humble and sometimes even repellent tasks for the ‘sick’, and how they discover that they are the better for it, because they have discovered the depths of their own humanity and that of the people they serve. That is conversion and reconciliation in action; and we have to take it back home with us. The happiness and peace that we find in Lourdes is already the work of reconciliation and conversion. And it can work at home, too.
Take time at Lourdes to be there at the Grotto, at any time of the day or night, crowded or empty; listen to the voice of prayer that is never silent there; listen to the silent smile that Mary has for each one there; listen to the reconciliation that is at work in that holy place. Use the symbols that Lourdes offers: the taps that are nowadays opposite the Grotto, to wash and drink and deepen your experience of conversion; the Baths, if that is where you are called to deepen your sense of reconciliation; the way of the Cross, whether you go up over the hill or do it in the Prairie, watching the tragedy unfold that happens when God tries to reconcile the world, and vowing to play your part in it, standing at Jesus’ side.
Above all, make use, this year, of what we now call the ‘Sacrament of Reconciliation’, that extraordinary and mysterious moment of grace where, in the presence of Jesus Christ, one sinner speaks to another of their struggle to be converted and reconciled, and then in the name of Christ’s Church experiences absolution and the freedom to move forward in the journey of reconciliation.
Then return to your life outside Lourdes, reconciled and converted, and seeing things differently; and watch God at work in that life, and see the difference that God makes.