Song of Bernadette

My husband recently got the book "The Song of Bernadette" by Franz Werfel. Werfel was a Czech born Jewish writer who was very outspoken against Hitler and the Nazis. He had to flee from Austria to France and ended up in Lourdes. He became fascinated by the story of St. Bernadette. When he then had to escape from France, he promised God if he made it safely to America he would "sing the song" of Bernadette. Shortly after it was made into a Hollywood movie and Jennifer Jones who played Bernadette won an Oscar for best actress.

This novel by Werfel is not sugar coated and comes from an objective "outsider" of the Church. He fills in the blanks with fictional flourishes but otherwise relays the known accounts of the events accurately.

The movie is a tear jerker and in particular, the following scene is the most memorable of the film for myself. It begins where a jealous superior nun berates Bernadette asking her if she ever suffered. This nun was her teacher when she was younger and knew of Bernadette's ignorance and inability to learn her catechism. She witnessed Bernadette's rise from obscurity to a "chosen" one of God. This scene is pretty powerful as this nun discovers how she misjudged Bernadette and the horror of her realization that she was persecuting her all this time.



I think it hit a nerve for me because it really illustrates human weaknesses and how we're all guilty no matter how pious we try to be. We can all relate to times when we misjudge someone or were envious or hateful toward someone who turned out to be innocent. It shows how we can't force our will onto God but must accept whatever graces He gives to us in gratitude.

The Layers of Lourdes

Sometimes I wonder what it will take to get someone who doesn't believe in God to believe. I think of places like Lourdes, France and St. Bernadette and the many layers of the miraculous that has happened and continues to happen over there. At some point, you just have to throw up your hands and admit there just isn't any natural explanation and hopefully the hardened shell of disbelief get softened.

My stepmother, for example, who is a retired medical doctor is one who insists there is a natural explanation for why so many people are cured at Lourdes. She herself is from Belgium and is quite familiar with it and the many claims of miraculous cure. She seems to look at it more as a tourist attraction and the town is taking advantage of all the publicity and the millions of pilgrims who buy the special luminaries before the processional to the shrine. She mentioned the "sanitorium"  for the infirmed pilgrims who are hoping to be one of many who have been cured by the waters of Lourdes. She doesn't doubt that people are cured at Lourdes.

So what's her explanation? Her theory is that the people who suddenly get better wanted it so badly that they "made" it happened. They somehow cured themselves through their own will. She mentions cancer survivors  are an example of those who will themselves to be healed because they have a very strong will to live. There is some statistical evidence to what she has seen.  But cancer patients are given their chances of survival based on percentages of survivors verses those who succumb to the disease. Their surviving is in the realm of natural possibilities. But there are some inexplicable cures that really defy any possibility that a person willed themselves to be cured. In the case of Lourdes, only 66 have been verified as "worthy of belief." even though thousands of claims are reported. Here are the guidelines that a miraculous cure has to follow in order to be considered "worthy of belief."

• The affliction must be a serious disease. If it is not classified as incurable, it must be diagnosed as extremely difficult to cure.
• There must be no improvement in the patient's condition prior to the visit to the Lourdes shrine.
• Medication that may have been used must have been judged ineffective.
• The cure must be totally complete.
• The cure must be unquestionably definitive and free of all doubt.

Now, let's examine the activities that occurred at Lourdes. In 1858 on February 11th, Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette who was 14 years old at the time. Bernadette saw her 18 times. She as told to dig a hole and drink from the spring. A spring of water miraculously appeared where she dug. The water from the spring started curing people and grew in size.
Bernadette who was considered to be too "thick" to learn her Catechism and receive her first Holy Communion, asked the Lady her name and she responded,
"I am the Immaculate Conception"
Bernadette astonished her parish priest when she relayed the message because there was no way she would have known that. It was a new officially declared doctrine of the Church only several years before the apparitions. Bernadette was finally allowed to receive communion because Our Lady taught her Catechism when all other attempts had previously failed. She eventually entered the vocation as a nun of The Sisters of Never.
Bernadette who suffered from illnesses all her life, died April 16, 1879. Thirty years later her body was exhumed and found to be miraculously uncorrupted. Here she appears in a photo in the condition that she remains to this very day over 130 years after her death.

So, there you have it. The many layers of miracles at Lourdes. After examining these different events coinciding together, you really have to wonder how someone can remain certain of their unbelief. Science's role in this is very important and if one uses logic and reason to examine these events and are intellectually honest with themselves, they have to eventually admit that these things can only point to something much bigger than ourselves and our own will. Atheists pride themselves on their logic and reason and paint Christians and other believers as irrational superstitious fantasy believers. But they seem to get rather irrational when evidence suggest something supernatural is happening at places like Lourdes. The fact is, their belief in no God takes a greater act of faith than to believe that there is a God.