I have joined the yearly pilgrimage of the Order of Malta in the past. The men and women of the Order invite those with serious, debilitating health conditions to make the pilgrimage with them seeking the intercession of the Our Lady of Lourdes, the Blessed Virgin Mary. This year’s pilgrimage occurs during 2025, which is a Jubilee Year for the Catholic Church. The recently deceased Holy Father, Pope Francis, has called on Catholics to go on pilgrimage during this year with the intention of becoming “pilgrims of hope.”
The prayer for the Jubilee Year succinctly presents the aspiration for this sacred time:
“May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven. May that same grace spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth. To you our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise for ever. Amen”
During the earthly life of Jesus, he walked as a pilgrim. In his infancy, Mary and Joseph sowed in the heart of their child the pilgrim’s desire. In the Gospel according to Luke, his parents brought him to the Temple of Jerusalem for the Jewish ritual of Presentation. Mary and Joseph made the yearly pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Jewish Passover and brought along the young Jesus. On one of those occasions, as a teenager, the son of Mary remained behind in the temple, spending his time listening and questioning the scribes and elders.
As an adult, he continued the customs he had learned from Mary and Joseph. He invited his disciples to do the same. When Jesus called out, “Follow me,” to James and John, Peter, and Andrew along the Sea of Galilee, he was inviting them on a pilgrimage, not just to the holy city of Jerusalem but to the new Jerusalem in heaven. As disciples of the Lord Jesus, we follow in the footsteps of those first disciples keeping our eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus trusting he will lead us to the eternal treasures of heaven.
To be a pilgrim is to walk with hope. One hopes for a safe journey. The destination is the hope that directs one steps. A religious pilgrim, though, has a horizon that stretches beyond the distance and time of the journey. The Christian is responding to the personal invitation of Jesus, “Follow me.”
In the Gospel of John, Thomas asked Jesus, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” (Jn 16:4) With kind eyes and an encouraging smile, Jesus responded, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (Jn 16:5). Thomas was speaking for most of us. We do not know the way or have lost our way, allured by temptation’s distractions. The pilgrim Jesus is the way for those who choose to follow him. Jesus reveals heaven as the one true desire of the human heart. The joy of eternal life for which the Chistian hope begins taking the hand of the pilgrim Jesus and allowing him to lead us.
At Lourdes, the Blessed Virgin Mary teaches the disciples of Jesus the same customs she taught her Son. She is the mother of hope and teaches us to be pilgrims of hope with her Son, Jesus. To Lourdes come many pilgrims from around the world bearing all manner of physical suffering and emotional distress. During our pilgrimage at the foot of the Pyrenees mountains in the south of France, we were all immersed in the company of human debility and infirmity, an unavoidable part of the human condition. What transforms this crowd into a community is the hope that the Virgin Mary inspired in the heart of young Bernadette.
Lourdes has become a renowned pilgrimage site because of the litany of healings recited since Mary’s first appearance to Bernadette on Feb. 11, 1858. The story of Lourdes is much more than physical healing. The beautiful grounds surrounding the revered grotto where the Blessed Mother appeared to her young confidant lift the eyes of all who enter to the heavenly garden where God’s grace flows with greater abundance than the waters of the River Pau. True to the spirit of the Jubilee Year, Lourdes gives the healing grace that reawakens in all pilgrims of hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven.