Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes.
August 26th 2017.
‘Who do the people say the Son of Man is?’. ‘Who do you say I am?’ The first question is easy enough and the answers, as we saw in this Gospel, are very varied. The second question is the tough one; ‘Who do you say I am?’ Peter had the faith to give the right answer. But bring that question down to you and I; to Christ standing in front of either of us and what kind of an answer would we give. ‘Who do you say I am?’
If Christ were to walk down O’Connell Street in Dublin today and ask that question of those who pass-by I think he would probably get a fairly similar answer from many of the passers-by. And the answer would probably be quite blunt; ‘I don’t know’ and many might say ‘really I don’t care’. You might be surprised to hear that or to hear me say that. But the reality is that for very many people in Ireland today faith does not really matter. And the answers today might not be that different in fact to those given during the hay-day of Catholic Ireland. Fifty, sixty or a hundred years ago in Ireland people would not be so blunt as to say ‘I don’t know and I don’t’ care but the reality may be much the same. I remember, as a child, hearing my father say that one Sunday when he was passing the local church during one of the many Sunday Masses he met a neighbour who was leaning against the old-fashioned water pump. He saluted my father with the greeting ‘He’s keeping us long today’. The water pump was at least fifty yards from the church and the neighbour hadn’t darkened its doorstep. In the local community at that time he was considered a Catholic, as was everyone else. And not only that; if he was asked the question, ‘were you at Mass today?’ he would have certainly said that he was. In reality he was as disinterested then as many passer-by on O’Connell Street in Dublin today.
Lots of people lament the loss of Catholic Ireland. I’m not so sure that the loss is as great as we might think today or Ireland as Catholic then as it was supposed to be. Lots of people long ago, perhaps without knowing it, paid lip-service to Christ and would have found it hard to give an honest answer to his question; ‘who do you say I am?’. For each generation, the challenge and the question remain the same for us today; ‘Who do you say I am?’.
This Grotto in Lourdes is a very special place and has been such for over a century and a half. Official miracles have been recorded here but the real miracles are the silent, mysterious actions of grace which touch the lives of most of us at one time or another in this place and help us with the answer to the question ‘Who do you say I am?’ Sitting quietly here, alone, saying nothing and very often thinking of nothing become a special moment for us, a moment of grace, and in that moment we come closer to giving the answer given by Peter; ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’. And Mary is the mother who draws us here and makes this possible.
The fact that it was Peter who stood up and gave the right answer gives me great hope. Peter, the chosen leader of the Church, the impetuous one who jumped out of the boat and nearly got a heart attack when he began to sink. Peter, the one who despite being chosen by Christ and being with him for his entire public life, denied him three times when he most needed to stand up for Jesus. Peter, the family man who worried about the health of his mother-in-law. If we think we have good points, faults and failures, think of Peter and then remember that he was the one chosen to lead the Church. This should give us courage to face ourselves and the future.
Pope Francis, thinking about the faith of Peter in this Gospel last March said “For it counts little to know the articles of faith if we do not confess Jesus as the Lord of our lives. Today he looks straight at us and asks, “Who am I for you?” As if to say: “Am I still the Lord of your life, the longing of your heart, the reason for your hope, the source of your unfailing trust?” Along with Saint Peter, we too renew today our life choice to be Jesus’ disciples and apostles. May we too pass from Jesus’ first question to his second, so as to be “his own” not merely in words, but in our actions and our very lives.”
Pope Francis has a great phrase for many Christians today. He calls them ‘parlour Christians’ and for any of us who grew up with the reality of ‘the parlour’ in our country homes this is very significant. He says “Let us ask ourselves if we are parlour Christians, who love to chat about how things are going in the Church and the world, or apostles on the go, who confess Jesus with their lives because they hold him in their hearts. Those who confess Jesus know that they are not simply to offer opinions but to offer their very lives. They know that they are not to believe half-heartedly but to “be on fire” with love. Those who confess their faith in Jesus do as Peter and Paul did: they follow the Lord along his way, not our own ways. His way is that of new life, of joy and resurrection; it is also the way that passes through the cross and persecution.
And the Grotto here in Lourdes is where those who pass through the Cross meet to have their faith renewed. The Cross of suffering divides the men from the boys, as it were. Either carrying the Cross of suffering, in whatever form, or watching others do so changes your faith and deepens it. Gathered here at the Grotto it is the silent agent which touches all our lives and deepens our faith as we try to say in all sincerity ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’.
And we are the fortunate ones. We can come here, to Lourdes and to the Grotto, to be touched by grace. Just think of what would happen to so many on O’Connell Street in Dublin if they had the chances that we have. I believe that for many our experience of this place would change their ‘I don’t know and I don’t care’ into ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’.