Little girl, get up!

Last weekend, parishioners were asked to cast their ballots in order to determine the name of a new patron saint for the parish that will serve as the spiritual home for all Catholics in Elliot Lake.  Voting was extended until Wednesday of this week in order to allow those who could not be present on the weekend to participate.  On Wednesday afternoon, I myself counted the ballots, and then I sent a note to the Bishop.  Before sharing the results of the vote, I wanted to be sure whether he was ok with me telling you now or whether he preferred that the name of the new parish be revealed only when the official decrees are published.  And what was the result?, you ask.  The parish in Elliot Lake will be known as ... Saint Bernadette.

As I read the readings for this Sunday’s Mass, I began to notice an interesting connection between the choice of this new patron saint and the images presented in the scriptures.  The gospel account places us with Jesus at the point when he met Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders – a man of great importance who fell at his feet and begged him repeatedly: ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live' (Mk 5:22-23).  As the story continues, the official’s daughter – the one who is weak and dying - becomes the focus of the story.

Bernadette Soubirous was the first-born daughter of François and Louise Soubirous.  She had eight brothers and sisters.  Her father was a miller by trade, but her family was not rich.  As a toddler, Bernadette contracted cholera – an infection of the lower intestine that often causes diarrhea, vomiting and muscle cramps.  She also suffered from severe asthma.  Like Jairus, I am sure that Bernadette’s parents often prayed for Bernadette, asking God to come and lay his hands on her so that she may be made well and live.

Saint Bernadette’s life provides us with an example of the goodness of our God who though he was rich ... for our sakes became poor so that by his poverty, we might be made rich (2 Cor 8:9).  The physical poverty experienced by the Soubirous family did not stop them from loving one another.  Even in her own frailty, Bernadette learned about God who made himself poor so that he could be close to us.  What a wonderful image, what consolation she must have found in knowing that he was always close to her.  We too can find comfort in this knowledge: our God made himself poor so that he could come close to us.

None of us might ever have heard about Bernadette and her family except for the great gift that God granted to her: the grace of seeing a young lady who Bernadette herself only ever referred to as aquero (a word which means: that).  In total, she saw the lady seventeen times, but it was only on the sixteenth of these visits that the lady told her: I am the Immaculate Conception.

Bernadette eventually moved to Nevers, where she entered the Sisters of Charity.  Her incorrupt body (Wis 2:23) still lies in the chapel of the Motherhouse of her Order.

The parishes of Our Lady of Fatima and Ste-Marie will continue to exist until canonical decrees are published, at some time in the future, but even now, we can begin to ask Saint Bernadette to pray for us: that we may always recognize our own poverty and human weakness ... and that God may share with us the great abundance of his riches.