I watched the movie “Song of Bernadette” for the first time yesterday. I am probably the last Catholic that has not seen this story about Bernadette and her Marian Apparitions at Lourdes, France. It was a wonderful testament to the strength and courage of a young girl who stood by her account of her visions of “The Lady” in spite of pressure from family, friends and the local politicians. For her, it was simple. She saw this beautiful lady who gave her instructions and advice to convey and she followed these directions very closely. While many thought she had some sinister and self-directed motivations for her “claims” she remained steadfast and simple in her contention. Even when her and her family were threatened with prison.
My wife watched part of it with me and she had two interesting questions. The first was why these apparitions only happened back in the earlier centuries and not more recently. The answer to that question is simple…there HAVE been many apparitions throughout the twentieth century. For example there was the visions of the Blessed Mother at Fatima, Portugal, in Belgium, Spain, Egypt, Japan, Rwanda, Korea and the Ukraine. And, of course, Jesus appearing to St. Faustina at Medjugorje, Poland.
The second question she had was why does it seem that the visions occur to poor people the majority of the time. And not only poor people but also often to children and not adults. In the movie, Vincent Price plays a local village politician in Lourdes whose main effort was to disprove what Bernadette was experiencing. Even in the face of many miraculous cures, he was steadfast in his unbelief. The local priest observed that, “For those that believe in God, no explanation is necessary. For those that do not believe, no explanation is sufficient”. Like many of the Pharisees in Jesus’ time, he could not see what was right in front of him.
And this is why I believe recipients of visions are largely children, the poor and less educated. They do not have preconceived notions that serve to cloud the obvious. They are more receptive to the possibility of the divine as opposed to trying to find reasons to refute it. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says “Let the children come to me” for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them. We must all become like children in order to enter into the Kingdom.
The Rabbi at the synagogue that my wife and I attend was giving a class on Jewish understanding of the New Testament. He told a story how he was with a Minister friend of his who is a professor at a local college. He asked her what aspect of Christianity did she feel was more of a story than truth. Her response? The resurrection. Really? The main tenant of Christianity was merely a story?! It was if her education in Theology, and the desire to be “edgy”, became the faith for her and not the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Let the CHILDREN come to me.
An example of this inability to “see” can be seen in the photo attached to this reflection. It was taken by the wife of someone I went through Cursillo with. When I show this photo to some people, they immediately see the cross in the clouds and others have a hard time seeing it even when I point it out to them.
In the first reading from Deuteronomy Joshua asks the people who they will serve. The God of their Fathers or the gods of the peoples living in the lands they were about to inhabit. The false gods. The Israelites claimed they would follow the true God. This was their covenant with Joshua. But we all know now that the children of Israel failed several times to adhere to this covenant as they fell to false gods and away from God the Father.
What false gods do we fall to today? Does education become an end to itself for some of us? Does wealth, power, fame, hobbies, and the digital world become our 21st century gods that take us further away from the one true God? Are we enough like children and poor enough in spirit that Our Lady would appear to us? Or are we too blinded by our false gods to be able to see the cross in our sky?
