The last few weeks have been a busy time, especially since my brother and our friend, Bishop Myron Cotta, began his new appointment as the Bishop of Stockton. I had scheduled joining the Order of Malta for their annual pilgrimage to Lourdes before the Holy Father’s announcement of his choice for Stockton. As the pilgrimage dates approached the tether of things to-do tugged at me. Considering what to do, the busyness was a much a reason for going as it was a reason for staying.
I decided to keep the commitment with the Order of Malta as well as the malades and others traveling to the Basilica of Our Lady of Lourdes. I boarded a plane to Southern California for a charter flight carrying 300+ pilgrims to one of Catholicism’s most holy site in the South of France.
During my overnight layover in Southern California I experience the usual late Spring - early Summer climate condition of the region: the marine layer, a thick cloud cover that can stretch from the coast to a few miles inland. The afternoon was wrapped in a grey, cold, damp feel. The cloudy layer hung like a curtain over the LA basin, while out over the ocean the sun was shining and a sliver of blue sky peeked out.
For the patient, and those knowledgeable of the region, the drama came when the setting sun would sink down into that sliver of sky on the fading horizon and cast its bright rays against the grey billowing curtain creating a technicolor climax to an otherwise gloomy day.
The following morning, pilgrims assembled in the chaotic, crowded Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX. The members of the Order of Malta had everything well organized and considerate for the needs of the malades, those who are sick or frail. They are at the heart of the pilgrimage. All of us who come to Lourdes accompany them in this journey of faith seeking the healing mercy of Jesus. The human frailty and weakness most of us try to hide becomes the common cause for all the pilgrims as we journey to the healing waters of Lourdes.
After a long 11-hour flight from LAX to Lourdes, we were quickly loaded into buses for the ride to the hotel, located a 5 minute walk from the grounds of the revered grotto of Our Lady. The beauty of South of France had already been made apparent as we descended from the sky. Traveling by bus from the airport to the small French hometown of St. Bernadette, the towering jagged, snow-capped peaks of the Pyrenees were an imposing backdrop to the provincial surroundings. Scattered clouds accentuated the blue canopy of sky that greeted us pilgrims.
A pilgrimage is a very earthy endeavor for a heavenly cause. In the contrast to the technological attempts at creating virtual realities, pilgrims travel to a geographic place to experience a divine reality. The physical elements of rushing water, mountains, and gurgling springs echo histories of encounters between a merciful creator and the humanity fashioned by divine hands. Lourdes is where men and women find God in the paradox of suffering and weakness. Both the human and the divine reveal themselves to one another in the very personal space of human suffering and weakness. Humanity does so from our innate poverty. God does so from his unfathomable mercy. Just as Mary began humanity’s pilgrimage to the Kingdom of God in the lowliness of her own person while living in Nazareth (Lk. 1.46-55), so she now invited us to experience in Lourdes the one whose mercy is from age to age. As the Lord once revealed his greatness in Nazareth he now continues to do so by lifting up the lowly from the spring waters of the Grotto.
---
Did you miss a dispatch? Find them all here: First | Second | Third | Fourth | Fifth | Sixth