6th Sunday, Healing of a Leper & Lourdes Healings

 

Today is Feb. 11^th, the annual World Day of the Sick. Today, we will look at Jesus healing of the leper and speak about Our Lady of Lourdes and give advice to the sick.

In the first reading, we heard the rules concerning lepers. When lepers were near others, they were required to shout, “Unclean, unclean” to prevent others from having any contact with them. They were separated from the community for fear of spreading the disease.

When he approached Jesus, the leper kept his distance. But, Our Lord stretched out His hand to touch him, healed his illness and restored him to his community and family once again.

This action of showing the blotch on the skin to the priest and the priest restoring the leper to the community is symbolic of what happens when we commit a serious sin. If we commit a mortal, we separate our self from God and the mystical body of Christ. And if we want to be restored to the community of believers, and restored in our ability to receive Holy Communion, we do as the leper, we go to a priest, and we show him, so to speak, “the blotch of sin”. Then, Jesus in the priest absolves our sins, restores our relationship with God, and once again restores us to the body of Christ. And we can once again receive the Eucharist worthily.

In 1858 in the grotto of Massabielle, near Lourdes, France, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared 18 times to Bernadette Soubirous, who was 14 years old. The first apparition was on February 11^th near the River Gave by a grotto. The grotto was a place where pigs fed in the area and took shelter there.

While in front of the Grotto of Massabielle, Bernadette describes what she saw: “I saw a Lady in white. I was a little frightened, and thinking I was seeing things (an illusion), I rubbed my eyes, but in vain…. The Lady took up the Rosary, She held in her hands and She made the Sign of the Cross. I tried again to make it and this time I could. My great fear went “away” as soon as I made the Sign of the Cross. I knelt down, and said the Rosary before this beautiful Lady.”

In a later apparition, Bernadette asked the Virgin Mary Her name, She said, “I am the Immaculate Conception”. She told Bernadette: "Pray and do penance for the conversion of the world." The Lady asked Bernadette again to scrape the ground in the "pigs’ shelter", saying, "Go to the spring, drink of it and wash yourself there". She moved on her knees to the back of the Grotto, kissed the disgusting ground used by pigs, ate the grass, and took mud in her hands and smeared her face. Later, the spring of water would prove to be miraculous.

During the third apparition on Feb. 18^th, Mary said, "I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the other.”

In four years after the apparitions, the Lourdes Shrine recorded 7 Church approved miracles on Jan. 18^th of 1862. As of today, there have been 70 Church approved medical miracles. Since the beginning of the apparitions, there have been 7000 unexplained cures. Doctors of all religions examine the evidence to determine if it’s an unexplained miraculous healing.

Here are a few of officially approved healings.

Justin Bouhort was born in Lourdes in 1856. He was a sickly child since birth. By age two—the age of his miracle cure—he could not walk, suffered from malnutrition (as a result of previous infections), intellectual disability, and tuberculosis. Justin’s mom took him to the Grotto of Lourdes to plead for help from the Blessed Mother Mary. She bathed her son in the waters, then ventured back home with Justin. Justin recovered quickly and even began to walk! He grew into adulthood healthy. His miracle was approved on January 18, 1862.

Marie Moreau, was born in 1841. In 1858, when Marie was 16 years of age, she contracted an inflammatory disease of the eyes. Despite the remedies tried, her condition led to a severe degree of visual impairment, bordering on blindness. Her father went to Lourdes to get some water from the Grotto. On November 8th,1858, the family started a novena of prayers. In the evening, the young girl soaked a bandage with Lourdes' water, and tied it over her eyes. The next morning, Nov. 9^th at the moment Marie removed the bandage, her eyesight was fully restored. It was declared a miracle, on Jan. 18^th, 1862.

Sister Bernadette Moriau was born on September 23, 1939, in France. At the age of 19, she entered the congregation of the Franciscan Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and graduated in 1965 as a nurse. However, at the age of 27, she began experiencing pain in her low back and underwent 4 unsuccessful surgeries. By 1975, Moriau was no longer able to practice her nursing. She began to have neurological ailments began, was fit for a spinal neurostimulator, was on morphine medication, was diagnosed with sphincter dysfunction, began wearing a cervical-lumbar corset. In 2005, her left foot was put into a splint after developing a contracture. In February of 2008, she made her pilgrimage to the Grotto of Lourdes, France. While retracing the steps of St. Bernadette, Moriau said she could feel the presence of little Bernadette, the Blessed Mother, and Jesus. On July 11, 2008—at the same time as the Eucharist procession in Lourdes was taking place—Moriau had her hour of adoration at her community chapel. It was there that a warm sensation fell over her. She was completely healed and was declared an official miracle on January 10, 2018.

Gabriel Gargam had a twofold healing, spiritual and physical. Born in 1870 at 15 years of age, he lost his faith. At the age of 29, when the train he was traveling from Bordeaux to Paris collided with another train, and threw him fifty-two feet from the train. He was taken to a hospital. Formerly a robust man, in eight months he weighed 78 pounds, his feet developed gangrene, could not take solid food, and was on a feeding tube. Doctors testified the man was a hopeless cripple for life. Previous to the accident Gabriel had not been to Church for fifteen years. But, his aunt begged him to go to Lourdes.

When he arrived at Lourdes, he went to confession and received Holy Communion. There was no change in his condition. Later he was carried to the miraculous pool and tenderly placed in its waters – but no effect. Rather, he lay motionless. On the way back they saw the procession of the Holy Eucharist (the Blessed Sacrament) approaching. Because he was motionless, his family thought he died and placed a cloth over his head. As the priest passed by carrying the Sacred Host, he gave a blessing over the sorrowful group around the covered body. Soon there was a movement from under the covering. While the family were looking on dumbfounded and the spectators gazed in amazement, he got up and stood erect, walked about and said he was cured. The multitude looked in wonder, and then all fell to their knees and thanked God for this new sign of His power at the Shrine of His Blessed Mother.

In this story, Gabriel cut himself off from the mystical body of Christ for 15 years because he no longer attended church. Just as a leper does not participate in the community, and separated himself from the Church.

Our Lord wanted his soul to be healed first, then his body. After he received Jesus in Holy Communion at Mass, he was bathed in the waters from the miraculous spring which prepared him for his physical healing. It was through Mary’s prayers and intercession that he went to confession, received Holy Communion and was bathed in the waters. Then Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, physically healed him when the priest gave him benediction.

The events of Our Lady of Lourdes remind the sick today, what is most important is the healing of our soul. If we want healing of our body, we need to first allow Jesus to heal our soul.

Eventually all of us will die, but our soul will live forever. If we die, while our soul is cut off from the mystical body of Christ, due to serious sin, then we will be cut off from heaven, and go to hell for all eternity.

But, if we live out our faith regularly attending Mass, going to Confession frequently, praying the Rosary daily, and accept our sufferings with love as a penance for the conversion of sinners, we will be ready for our eternal home in heaven.

My friends after you allowed Jesus to heal your soul, by washing away your sins, do not be afraid-- to ask for a physical healing through the prayers and intercession of the Virgin Mary. She was not afraid to come to a pig’s shelter and give us a miraculous spring of water, that has touched the lives of over 7000 people in an unexplained manner since 1858 in Lourdes, France.