Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Today is another great feast day, this time for Our Lady of Lourdes! Our Lady said to dear little Bernadette Soubirous in her ninth apparition, “Go and drink from the spring and wash yourself there.” Water purifies and washes us clean.
In our gospel today, the Lord says at the very end, “All these evils come from within and they defile.” While digging for the water at Lourdes, Bernadette had nothing but muddy water in her 14-year-old hands. She tried drinking the muddy water three times but each time spitted it out until finally the fourth time she could drink the water. Imagine our Lady wanting us to do this. It reminds me of the Benedictine medal that says in Latin, “Be gone Satan what you offer me is evil, drink the poison yourself!” Bernadette drank the water out of love of the lady and for penance. Satan wants us to drink his water of poison and sin.
St. Bernadette cried at the top of her lungs to the crowd of about 250 people after the lady said at the eighth apparition, “”Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners!” Then she kissed the ground as an act of penance for sinners! Our Lady and St. Bernadette’s message echoes in our society today, PENANCE! Pray for sinners! What St. Bernadette said that pertains to all of us was, “I was Our Lady’s broom stick, she used me then she put me back in my place in the corner where I belong.”
Reflection by Br. Maximilian Burkhart, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections