Mass Marking the Arrival of the Relics of St. Bernadette in the Diocese of Limerick

Speaking Notes of Bishop Brendan Leahy

Our Lady of Lourdes Church

12th September 2024

It is wonderful so many of us are here together this evening for this special visit of the relics of St. Bernadette. There are three points I’d like to make.

A healing touch. The relics of saint provide a healing touch. The veneration of the bodies of the saints goes right back to the origins of Christianity. Already in the first centuries, Christians believed benefits of all kinds were to be gained near the tombs of the martyrs and saints. Even though the saints and martyrs had died, these holy men and women were considered to be somehow alive for ever because they are alive in the life of God. Over time, it was felt that the relics brought the healing, strengthening presence of the saints. We find writings in the fifth century about how there was excitement in a city when relics came – as if the saint coming. People believed that the life of God was so strong in the saints during their life time that it permeated them completely, right to the depths even of their body. The saints had nourished themselves on the Eucharist, the food of immortality, the bread from heaven, guarantee of the Resurrection. And so, even in death, their earthly remains are venerated because in life they had been touched so profoundly by this divine life.

St. Augustine was not initially that interested in the cult of the saints or miracles. He was a little sceptical. But when the relics of St. Stephen were discovered near Jerusalem in 415 and brought to his city of Hippo in 424, he noticed the healing this brought about for many and so he began to think more about this. More and more, people grew in the belief that the relics possess a “virtue” or “energy” in the sense of energy or power, the same power that had animated the saint during his or her earthly life, showing he or she was full of God. People still today believe we experience that energy or power when come into contact with the relics of the bodies of the saints. This is so even at a distance through contact with a fabric and other objects that have been placed in contact with the holy bodies. So, this evening as we in this Diocese of Limerick venerate the relic of St. Bernadett we are saying we believe that the Risen Jesus Christ who was so present in her life, wants to be close to us now, entering into our personal lives, helping solve our problems, bringing his healing touch.

Healing Words. Of course, when we come to venerate St. Bernadette’s relics, we think of her words, and they too bring healing. For instance, to the question “what is belief?” Bernadette answered by saying “it is seeing God everywhere”. God’s love, God’s closeness, God’s tenderness, God’s compassion is all around us. Sometimes we don’t feel it because of what we are going through, a situation in our personal or family life, an illness, a setback, a feeling that things are too messy in our lives. But it is precisely then that we can make an act of faith – that God is in this situation, in this problem. And everything can serve a purpose because God’s love is everywhere.

Another word from Bernadette is one Our Lady gave her: “I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the other world.” In the Gospel, Jesus invites us to discover the other world, the Kingdom of Heaven, not just a world in the next life after we die. He invites us to discover “another world” now already within our world as it is. When does that other world open up for us? Wherever there is love we enter into the Kingdom of heaven, the world that provides a joy this world does not know. The other world speaks to us of peace, trust, confidence, deliverance from stress. It offers us healing.

A healing Example. Coming together to venerate the relics of St. Bernadette reminds us that in the saints we have not only protectors, but the saints are an example to us. St. Bernadette became a saint not because of the 18 visions at Lourdes or the precious words she said but because of her life of charity. We know that as a young girl she experienced great poverty. And yet she grew up with a lively, spontaneous and generous nature. Seemingly, she was quite witty. At 14, she still couldn’t read or write, and she suffered at being excluded. It was said that she could be touchy at times.  She suffered from asthma. Then after the apparitions, she had to undergo all kinds of questions and criticisms. She had to respond to people who were curious, to journalists and others and she had to appear before civil and religious commissions. She found herself thrown, as it were, into the glare of the news; a “media storm” battered her.  Soon, she realised her mission in Lourdes had finished and it was time to move on. She moved to convent in Nevers where she looked after the sick but above all did “her work” which was especially to pray and then, as we got more and more ill, accepting all the crosses that came her way, offering them up for sinners, keeping her eyes fixed on the crucifix: “That is where I find my strength.” That is where she found healing and could become a source of healing.

So this evening, let’s be grateful for the healing touch, the healing words and the healing example of St. Bernadette.