Une Minute avec Marie
Faire connaître et aimer Marie
Father André Cabes, from the diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes, has been rector of the French church of Trinité-des-Monts in Rome since 2015. After publishing a dissertation of theology on the message of Lourdes, he became director of the Youth Service of the Shrines of Lourdes, and has been part of the Lourdes community for years. He is also a professor of Marian theology. Following is an excerpt from an interview he gave on the meaning of Lourdes:
Q - You wrote in the opening of your theology thesis: "I entered Lourdes through the door of Nevers": it was indeed during her religious life in Nevers (central France) that the visionary of Lourdes, Saint Bernadette, put into practice the message of the Virgin. What are the keys to Bernadette's holiness?
A - In order to recognize the authenticity of the apparitions, the Bishop of Tarbes, based his first argument on "the quality of the witness". "Did you see this child?" he said, quite moved, to his advisers after having questioned the visionary. Bernardette's simplicity was disarming: she foiled the traps by not seeing them!
One day she was in the commissioner's office with her mother, who was exhausted and almost fell ill. The commissioner said to them, "There are chairs, sit down." But Bernadette chose to sit down cross-legged on the floor and replied: "Oh no, we'd dirty them!" She could see that any other visitor would have been offered a seat immediately, unless they were poor people, which was the case. In Nevers, Bernadette kept this freedom of manners. She once quipped about all the interviews she had to grant to important people: "You show off me like a fat ox!" Above all, she knew how to advance through the darkness with patience and love, and how to accept suffering: "I am ground like a grain of wheat!"
It would be tempting to bring Bernadette’s incorrupt body back to Lourdes, but it would not be easy to transport it. But it’s for the better: one should leave Lourdes and go to Nevers; we are called to the light and step into ordinary life. We find ourselves before this small, young woman, who seems to be sleeping, but who still speaks to us, inviting us to open our heart to a presence and this proclamation: You too should open your heart to the Gospel! Everyday life will then appear to you illuminated by grace; and you too will be the brothers, sisters, and mothers of Jesus!