Our Lady of Lourdes - 11th February

I recently read a guide book for France that was quite sniffy about Lourdes, and made some very snobby comments about taste, tat, and kitch. Those sorts of comments have been made time and again since the shrine was founded but, for all their sneering, these ‘cultured’ commentators cannot explain the power of the place.

The Christian faith is not some abstract idea accessible only to the cultured and the clever. It is a religion that proclaims the incarnation - our God comes to join us in this world as it is. The Church is not just for those who appreciate fine art but for everyone, whatever their educational, intellectual or aesthetic background. There is good religious art and there is bad religious art. What is important is whether or not it leads its observers to a deeper love and relationship with God.

The Church has always been blessed with great intellectuals - with far better brains than the writer of my guide book, but it has also been blessed with the not so bright, the not so clever, the not so talented.

The incarnation took place in a cultural backwater, most of Jesus’ life was spent in obscurity. And yet it was in and through that ‘ordinary’ life that our salvation was secured. On Wednesday, when we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, let us take some time to ponder the mysterious plan of God who chooses ordinary peasant girls like Mary and Bernadette to bring his good news to the world. P.D.