With tomorrow’s solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, I thought to focus my talk onthe spiritual transparency shared by the Virgin Mary and St Bernadette in their relationship with God.

What do I mean by spiritual transparency… Like a window through which the sunlight pours through… the spiritually transparent one allows God’s love to pour through them so that others may see it.

MARY SECTION

During the apparitions in the Lourdes grotto in 1858, Mary stood before a 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous as that pristine window, through which shone the divine love of God and the radiant dignity of the human person.

Mary was completely available to God’s work.

She is the creation fully created, the being fully formed by God.

The living icon – filled with the Holy Spirit – the perfect example of what we were meant for in Christ’s salvation plan.

Mary was the window that let God’s light in. The one who allowed God to fully love her.

LEAD-IN

And those who witnessed Bernadette during the apparitions or in retelling her

experience, saw the beauty of the Mother of God shine through her face. For both Mary and Bernadette, relationship with God was focused on spiritual transparency.

I want to share three instances in the life of St Bernadette, where this spiritual transparency is particularly evident…

THE FINAL EPISCOPAL INTERROGATION

On December 7, 1860 (165 years ago today), Bernadette was summoned for a solemn and final episcopal interrogation before the French Bishop Laurence in his chancery. It is said that the bishop’s face was a smooth, imperturbable mask. He was surrounded by the sharply chiseled faces of the twelve members of the commission.

“The idea of making you eat some kind of grass doesn’t seem to me to be an idea worthy of the Holy Virgin,” remarked another member of the commission.

“Well, we eat salad all right,” replied Bernadette.

At the end of the interview she was asked to show exactly how the Virgin spoke the words of March 25, 1858: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”

In previous interviews, Bernadette recounted the scene thus: Mary, whose hands were joined, opened out her hands toward the ground and then rejoined her hands. Then, she looked up to the sky and said the proclamation.

So in her simplicity, Bernadette got up, stretched out her arms, and joined her hands.

Something happened as they watched the enactment of this inspired gesture:

Two tears were seen running down the face of the old bishop.

After the meeting, still deeply moved, he said to a vicar-general: “Did you see that child?”

It was Mary who he saw in the face of Bernadette.

—

Thirteen months later, on January 18, 1862, the bishop issued his official letter recognizing the apparition: (106)

“We judge that the Immaculate Mother of God truly appeared to Bernadette.” (107)

The judgment was solidly grounded on the spiritual fruits of the pilgrimage, the cures,and Bernadette herself.

THE SECOND INSTANCE – THE SCULPTURE’S EXPERIENCE

Wealthy devotees of the marian apparitions decided to replace the little statue, which the people of Lourdes had placed in the grotto, with a statue to be hewn out of Carrara marble.

They signed a contract with the sculptor, Joseph FAbisch.

He prepared twenty questions…

“What about the hands? How did she join them when she said: ‘I am the Immaculate Conception?”

Later the sculptor wrote the following:

“Bernadette got up with the greatest simplicity. She joined her hands and raised her eyes to heaven. I have never seen anything more beautiful…”

He went on to say that no artist has “ever done anything so sweet and yet so profound as was the look of that young girl.” (111)

It was Mary’s own presence glowing through Bernadette.

DURING THE APPARITIONS THEMSELVES –

BERNADETTE’S FACE – RADIATING THE GLOW OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER – HAD AN EFFECT ON THOSE IN THE CROWD AROUND HER

During the apparitions her face would pale and light up.

Although Bernadette didn’t realize it, the transfiguration of her face and the transport of her prayer shook and converted many onlookers. (85)

As the Virgin Mother spoke to Bernadette, the surrounding crowd saw her message reflected on the face of Bernadette in her transparent ecstasy. (190)

When Mary spoke of something that elated her, Bernadette’s face glowed. When Mary spoke of something that saddened her, Bernadette face became sad.

Closing:

Bernadette resembled the model of simple spiritual transparency shown her by the Immaculate Mother.

Both Mary and Bernadette understood the necessity of allowing God to love them.

They knew that to believe in a God, who is love, who is Trinity – a relationship of love –and that without Him we can do nothing – to believe this is to accept that we are creatures who need love.

And like the Trinity – Love is an experience that we learn in relationship.

We cannot give ourselves love.

It is something that we receive and then pass on to others – like that light pouring through the window.

Or like the desert Father Abba Lot, who inquired to Abba Joseph what more he should do… Abba Joseph replied, “Why not be totally changed into fire?”…

Which is just another way of speaking of spiritual transparency – of letting God love you.

We don’t need to wait for our own 4th and Walnut epiphany, where the veil is suddenly removed and we see that everyone is shining like the sun.

We can welcome God in a continual Advent throughout each moment of the day and become a window through which God’s love shines forth for another.

If we all were to do this – our world would be like an infinity of windows, shot through with the radiant love of God.

Yes. Come Lord Jesus.

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Work Cited – Bernadette of Lourdes : a life based on authenticated documents

by Rene Laurentin

Presentation to the Monks by Br Joseph Bender