‘Wednesday.’ Although Bernadette had been going to the grotto during the past fortnight, the Soubirous family had to be even more careful. On 27 March the Prefect sent three doctors to commit Bernadette to a mental hospital. A Bernadette officially certified as mentally ill would be very useful to him and other officials.
The doctors found nothing in Bernadette that would require hospitalization. Nevertheless, the embarassed officials made them draft a statement which declared that Bernadette’s “illness does not constitute danger to her health”. It is clear why the family wanted to remain away from the public eye.
Thus, the family was pretending that Bernadette was out of town. However, when she reached the grotto at 5:00 AM about a hundred people were already praying there. Among them was a scientist, Dr Douzous, whom fate chose to record the “Miracle of the Candle”, as it came to be known later.
Douzous clearly observed that she was holding a lit candle with the flame beneath her left hand, apparently totally insensible; and kept that position for fifteen minutes. After the ecstasy, Douzous examined her hand. There was absolutely no sign of a burn.
Ref: G Menotti, “Lourdes”, pp14-5
A cry for justice
Nowadays, a loud cry can be heard for “a better-assured peace within an atmosphere of mutual respect between men, and between the peoples of the world”. (Paul VI, Apostolic Letter, “Octogesima adveniens”, 14 May 1971) This desire for a more just world in which greater respect is given to man, is fundamental to the “hunger and thirst for justice” (cf Mt 5:6) which must exist in the heart of a Christian.
The entire preaching of Jesus is a call to justice (in its fullness) and to mercy. The Apostle James harshly reproached those who grow rich through injustice: “Your riches have rotted ... The wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.” (James 5:2-4)
The Church in faithfulness to the teaching of Holy Scripture, urges us to unite ourselves to this universal clamour and to turn it into a prayer that reaches our Father God. At the same time she urges us to live the demands that justice makes on our personal lives (professional and social levels), and to defend the weak who cannot avail themselves of their rights.
In the heart of each man originates every type of injustice imaginable. It is there also that the possibility of correcting all human relationships is conceived. “By denying or trying to deny God, who is his Beginning and End, man profoundly disturbs his own order and interior balance and also those of society and even of visible creation.
“It is in their relationship to sin that Scripture regards all the different calamities which oppress man in his personal and social existence.” (SCDF, “Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation”, 22 March 1986, 38) Thus, as Christians, when through our personal apostolate we bring men closer to God, we are building a world which is more human and more just.
Furthermore, our faith urges us never to avoid our personal commitment to the defence of justice, particularly in those aspects related to fundamental rights of the person: right to life, to work, to education, to good reputation. Within our personal sphere of action we must ask ourselves --
Do we perfectly perform the work we are paid for? Do we pay in full what we owe people for services rendered? Do we responsibly exercise those rights and duties that affect the activities of our institutions? Do we make good use of our time at work? Do we defend other people’s good name? These are some instances where we show our love for justice.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:203-5
Virtues which perfect the scope of justice
We unite ourselves to this desire for greater justice, one of the principal characteristics of our age. (cf SCDF, “Instruction on Christian Freedom & Liberation”, 22 March 1986, 38) We ask our Lord for greater justice and greater peace; we pray, as the Church has always done, for our rulers (cf 1 Tim 2:1-2) that they should be promoters of justice, peace; and a greater respect for the dignity of the person.
We resolve to fulfil, as much as we can, the demands the Gospel makes on our personal lives. We will also practise other manifestations of natural and supernatural virtues such as loyalty, courtesy, cheerfulness.
Above all, faith, which enables us to know a person’s true value; and charity, which leads us to go beyond what strict justice would demand in our dealings with others. We see other people as children of God, as did Christ himself.
Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:207-8
Merciful Justice
God, who is always merciful even when he punishes, “put a mark on Cain, lest anyone should kill him on sight” (Gen 4:15). He thus gave him a distinctive sign, not to condemn him to the hatred of others, but to protect and defend him from those wishing to kill him, even out of a desire to avenge Abel’s death.
Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity, and God himself pledges to guarantee this. And it is precisely here that the paradoxical mystery of the merciful justice of God is shown forth.
As St Ambrose writes: ‘God drove Cain out of his presence and sent him into exile far from his native land, so that he passed from a life of human kindness to one which was more akin to the rude existence of a wild beast. God, who preferred the correction rather than the death of a sinner, did not desire that a homicide be punished by the exaction of another act of homicide.’
Ref: Pope John Paul II, “Breakfast With the Pope”, 1995, 6
Our Lady -- “Mother! Call her with a loud voice. She is listening to you; she sees you in danger, perhaps, and she -- your holy mother Mary -- offers you, along with the grace of her son, the refuge of her arms, the tenderness of her embrace ... you will find yourself with added strength for the new battle.” (cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Way”, 516)
Our Lady of the Conception, at the Capuchin Convent of Douai, in Flanders, where is seen a picture of the Immaculate Conception, which was miraculously preserved from fire, in the year 1553. — Amatus Franciscus, in his Manuscript Work.) (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)
Our Lady of the Conception, Flanders (1553). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
Our Lady of the Conception. Douai, France. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
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