Peter Espeut
LENT IS NOW OVER and the Easter Season has begun. And there must be fewer better places to celebrate the beginning of Easter than in Lourdes (France). Here in 1858 Mary, the mother of Jesus (and our mother) appeared a number of times to a little shepherd girl, Bernadette Soubirous, which drew huge crowds at the time. One of Mary's instructions to Bernadette was to dig at the foot of the huge rock of Massabielle, and when she did that, a spring emerged, which has been a font of healing for hundreds.
Lourdes still draws crowds. This is the 21st year that a group organised by Pokar Chandiram has travelled on pilgrimage to Lourdes, and this year we are 40 strong (last year for our 20th anniversary we were about 130, including the whole Stella Maris Steel band). Archbishop (Emeritus) Clarke is with us, and so are Catholics from Bull Savanna, Olympic Gardens, August Town and Palmer's Cross, and we have been joined by our West Indian brethren and sistren from London - including Grenadians and Dominicans and Trinidadians. We are all here to do honour to Mary, who points us towards her son.
The Roman Catholic world is here. There is a huge group from Sri Lanka over 1,000 strong, who process around with their banners; there is a medium sized group from the Philippines, and smaller groups from several African countries, in addition to the numerous Italians, Germans, French, English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish, and others of indeterminate nationality. I come from a profoundly anti-Catholic society, where we are constantly under attack; it is tremendously consoling as my wife and I relax among our confreres in a supportive environment, far away from the religious intolerance of fundamentalist Jamaica.
GROUP OF 5,000
We are a part of a group of 5,000 which this year celebrates 50 years of pilgrimages to Lourdes with handicapped children. Here, being handicapped is not out of place, as a stroll down any street will demonstrate; indeed Lourdes specially caters for persons with disabilities in several specialist hospitals, and there is a medical tribunal to certify miracles. On my first few visits I was impressed by the array of crutches and walkers hung up on the walls, left behind by persons healed in the waters which emerge in the grotto where Mary appeared. There are ten handicapped kids in our group, including two in wheelchairs. As we cater to their bodily and spiritual needs, somehow we too are blessed!
There were tears of anguish during the Stations of the Cross as we ascended the mountain, and tears of joy and many Alleluias as we celebrate the Eucharist every day. Lourdes is a spiritually moving experience, and few are unaffected.
Some of our detractors spread the lie that we worship Mary, or consider her part of the Godhead. Mary cannot save. She has no power of her own, and cannot - and has not - worked even one miracle. But she has a powerful son who loves her, and like at the Wedding Feast at Cana, will often do things because she asks. Our prayers to her are prayers for her to intercede for us with the one who can do the miracles.
And of course there is only one mediator between God and humanity, and she is not - and has never been - a mediator; she is an intercessor, which is an entirely different thing. We pray directly to Jesus too, which is wonderful; but if sometimes Jesus seems a little slow in answering, it does no harm to get a little help from someone close to him who listens to him. She has been given to us as our mother, and even though many reject her, she is still there to intercede for us.
On the secular side, many of us are impressed by the service in our hotel and elsewhere. The speed at which these (white) waiters and waitresses move is almost blurring. I suppose they don't have a history of slavery to bind them; they don't have to try to prove every day that they are free by working slowly. Maybe, one day, we will be free!
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon.
