CCC No.1674: “The religious sense of the Christian people has always found expression in various forms of piety surrounding the Church’s sacramental life, such as the veneration of relics…”. Also, regarding veneration, the CCC’s Glossary states, “Veneration must be clearly distinguished from adoration and worship, which are due to God alone.”
The Code of Canon Law: Can. 1186: “To foster the sanctification of the people of God, the Church commends to the special and filial reverence of the Christian faithful the Blessed Mary ever virgin, Mother of God, whom Christ established as the mother of all people, and promotes the true and authentic veneration of the other saints whose example instructs the Christian faithful and whose intercession sustains them.
The hope of the Resurrection
The veneration of relics, or a pilgrimage to the tombs of the blessed and the saints, greatly strengthens our faith and hope in the resurrection of the body.In the exceptional cases where a body has remained intact, the testimony is all the stronger. This is the case with Bernadette. She fell asleep in death. With her soul at peace, she awaits the call of the Lord: “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!” (Eph. 5:14)
The relics of the saints testify that the grace of Heaven has penetrated our earth. Those who have lived on earth in grace are called to live again in heaven in glory. The veneration of the relics of Saint Bernadette is a way of giving thanks for her life. We are not contemporaries of Bernadette, but as her soul is in Heaven, the grace she received in her life is still here, available to us. Our friendship with the saints in general looks forward to the time when we can meet them in Heaven and embrace them in the unity of the Body of Christ.
The happiness of Heaven
18th February 1858, the 3rd Apparition: “I do not promise you the happiness of this world but of the other.”
Bernadette testified that she saw the Virgin Mary in Lourdes, “in flesh and blood”. There is thus a real continuity between our earthly life, the relics and uncorrupted body of Bernadette, and the glorified body of the Virgin Mary. Today, Bernadette’s soul really “sees” the Virgin Mary. To be close to the relics of Bernadette is to be close to the Virgin Mary herself, and to “see” her in faith!
When Bernadette saw the Virgin Mary, she communicated the happiness of Heaven to her. That promise of the happiness of the other world is here for us today. The veneration of the relics of Bernadette gives us a foretaste of this happiness. It also strengthens our faith in God who comforts the afflicted and satisfies those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (cf. Matt. 5:5-6).
Go and drink at the spring and wash yourself there
25th February 1858, 9th apparition: “Go and drink at the spring and wash yourself there.”
When we welcome the relics of Saint Bernadette, we also therefore welcome the Virgin Mary, and hear her invitation to go to the Spring! Mary always leads us to Christ, the Risen One, the Author of our resurrection at the end of time.
During the Apparitions, pilgrims were already flocked around Bernadette, and immediately afterwards went to the Spring to drink and wash. Everyone did what Bernadette had done. Today, being close to the relics of Bernadette is a way to draw from the Spring! It is a way of refocusing our life on Christ, the unique mediator between God and humanity. By our closeness to the saints in the Communion of Saints, it is the grace of Christ, the grace of Salvation, that we receive.
Go and tell!
2nd March 1858, the 13th apparition: “Go and tell the priests to build a chapel here and that people should come in procession.”
Bernadette found the courage to find Father Peyramale to carry out the commission. No one yet knew the identity of the Lady who was asking for the chapel and procession. It was not until three weeks later that the Lady introduced herself with these words, “I am the Immaculate Conception”. It would take another three years for the Bishop of Tarbes to confirm that it was indeed the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God and the Queen of Heaven, the Immaculate Virgin.
Today, the pilgrims of Lourdes attest to the Virgin Mary’s request, “Go and tell!” It resonates like a new vocation, in the same way that Peter and John, in the Acts of the Apostles, said, “We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
(Acts 4:20) The journey and the receiving of Saint Bernadette’s into our parishes make it possible to radiate the grace of Lourdes and to bear witness to all that we have “seen and heard” during our pilgrimages to Lourdes.
