by Bishop James Conley
Feb. 11 marks the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. In 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared several times in Lourdes, France to St. Bernadette Soubirous, a simple peasant girl. The Blessed Mother told her to have a chapel built on the site where she appeared, and asked Bernadette to pray for the conversion of sinners.
Our Lady proclaimed to Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception,” a message affirming the declaration of the Immaculate Conception as a dogmatic definition merely four years earlier in 1854. Mary also told Bernadette to drink of the water near the grotto where she appeared, which almost immediately was known to bring about healing.
Our Lady of Lourdes is an apparition approved by the Holy See and is a popular devotion site. More than five million pilgrims from over 140 countries travel to Lourdes in the Pyrenees of southern France each year. It’s a beautiful pilgrimage site to visit. Every night, there is a torchlight procession throughout the shrine as a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary is carried, while the pilgrims ask for her intercession.
Lourdes continues to be a place of profound healing. By wading in the waters at Lourdes, many have received physical healing, which is memorialized by the crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs left as a reminder of physical recovery that’s happened at Lourdes. Many more have received spiritual healing, deep conversion, and a regeneration of the spiritual life in the waters of Lourdes. After I graduated from college I had the opportunity to visit Lourdes and to volunteer for a few weeks to help accompany the sick down to the grotto. I was profoundly moved by the faith and devotion of the people.
The world longs for greater healing of heart, mind and soul. Many bear deep wounds and God wants us to be free from their shackles. All of us suffer from the primordial wound of Original Sin, which causes disunity with God, with others, and within ourselves. We know and believe that Jesus is the ultimate healer, who repairs this discord. His redemptive action is the salve that heals us in this life and prepares us for the world to come.
Lourdes is an exceptional place because the sick receive special attention and priority. It serves as a reminder that just as Jesus cared for the sick and was mindful of the sick, we must be as well. In 1992, St. Pope John Paul II instituted the World Day of the Sick for Feb. 11 to coincide with the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. On this day people take the time to pray for those who are sick. As citizens of the United States, we tend to forget that we live in the most advanced, comprehensive health care system the world has ever seen.
While it is not without its problems, it’s easy for us to take for granted the excellent health care that we enjoy. And so, we take this occasion of the World Day of the Sick to remember those throughout the world who do not have proper health care. Many people throughout the world and in ages past could only dream of the care that we enjoy.
Of course, none of these great medical technologies and innovations would be possible without dedicated, loving, and compassionate health care workers. Those who have chosen as their vocation to care for the sick and the dying should receive our gratitude and commendation. As I’ve mentioned before, I am personally grateful for those who took care of my physical and mental health during my time of medical leave.
Health care workers have been on the front lines during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Not only have health care workers put their own health and well-being on the line, they have endured a long, grueling, and exhausting two years of fighting this pandemic. In speaking to medical professionals, I know that this pain is real.
A great example of terrific, compassionate, Christ-like care in the Diocese of Lincoln is the work of the religious sisters of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George at Bonacum House. Bonacum House was established to provide assistance to retired priests of the diocese. For the sisters, it is truly a labor of love as they speak regularly of their deep love for the priesthood. They have such a love for the priesthood that their whole lives are dedicated to the care of priests in their twilight years. Not every diocese has the gift and blessing of having sisters providing this kind of care. I thank God every day for these holy and dedicated sisters.
On Feb. 2, the diocese lost a dear and beloved priest with the passing of Father John Zastrow at the age of 97.
Like my own father, who was born the year after Father Zastrow, he was a veteran of World War II and the oldest priest in the diocese at the time of his death and a true giant in the history of the Diocese of Lincoln. Priests and others who knew Father Zastrow remember his quick wit and trademark dry sense of humor, in addition to his palpable holiness.
Father Zastrow was a resident of Bonacum House since 2000. He received the loving care of the sisters throughout that time and up to the very end. Toward the end of his life, as Father Zastrow was getting more and more ill, one of the sisters asked him, “how are you doing right now?” He said, “I am not afraid to die, but I don’t want to be alone.”
The sisters responded to this request by making sure Father Zastrow would not be alone when the Lord called him to himself. While Father Zastrow had moved to Madonna in recent months due to a higher level of care necessary to meet his needs, they put together an online sign-up sheet so that someone would always be by his side during his last days. As God’s providence would have it, the sisters were surrounding him when he left this world.
The World Day of the Sick directs us to pray for those who are sick, and all who care for the sick. I want all who are sick and suffering to know that they are loved eternally by God. Even if you feel you may not be able to do much in the eyes of the world, or think you have little worth, know that you have great dignity. You have such dignity that God himself would come down among us a man, suffering and dying as proof of that dignity.
For those who care for the sick, be strengthened by the Holy Spirit, despite your frustrations and weariness. Do not be discouraged. You are modern day heroes. You are the presence of Christ to those who may be scared, vulnerable, in great pain and even despairing. You are instruments of God’s love and compassion in your care for others. May God reward you!
