Learning from Lourdes

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Here’s the thing: Lourdes unites people around the ordinary, the poor, and the vulnerable. In that focus, divisions dissolve; a sense of oneness supervenes. Our God-dependent humanity is what comes first. What matters is faith: even a poor faith, weakened by doubt and suspicion, is enough – as long as there’s the thirst in the hope.
And the basics of the faith are everywhere, in earthy symbols which tell the Gospel story through signs: the poverty of Bernadette, which forces her to go in search of firewood – the same poverty which causes humans to look for God; the stone of the Grotto -- God as a rock and fortress; the cave, where in the Bible God is to be found – by Moses or Elijah, or as the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem; water – the healing sign of the Holy Spirit; light – the candle which Bernadette takes to the Grotto, reminding us of Jesus as light of the world; and the sign of the Cross -- the first gesture of Bernadette when she sees Our Lady -- which speaks of the suffering redeemed and made meaningful by Christ.
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http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&id=5CA6BD6D-5056-8928-1074B7A59EB89A43