Water is symbolic to life and healing. 2000 years ago, there was a pool of Bethesda, in Jerusalem, near the sheep gate. The waters of the pool had healing properties. Whenever the water was stirred, the first person to get in the pool was cured. Many sick people would gather around the pool every day, waiting for the water to be stirred, so that they could be the first to get in the pool and receive the healing. They believed an angel of God stirred the water. There was a sick man waiting besides the pool of Bethesda for 38 years to be cured. However, whenever the water was stirred, there was always someone else who got into the pool before him. Then Jesus comes along and heals him proving that it is not the water, but He, alone, is the source of healing.

2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3 In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed. 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ 7 The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ 8 Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ 9 At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk. … 14 Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well! Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.’

  (John 5: 2-14, NRSV).

In Aramaic, the pool of Bethesda means ‘House of Mercy’. Healing is a sign of God’s mercy and forgiveness. When God shows mercy, He also leads a person to repentance and conversion.  Jesus healed the man and instructed him not to sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to him. We must not take God’s healing for granted. God also provides us His grace through His Mother, She is also called Our Lady of Grace. Just as the people were healed in the pool of Bethesda, today, God provides us His grace and healing through the miraculous waters of Lourdes.

In February, we celebrate the feast of our Lady of Lourdes. On this feast day, we also celebrate World Day of the Sick. Mother Mary appeared to St Bernadette several times. During her apparition on the 25th of February, 1858, she asked St Bernadette to drink from the spring near the Grotto at Massabielle. However, St Bernadette couldn’t see a spring near the grotto. Our Lady described to Bernadette, the location and she began to dig the ground with her hands, and a spring of water appeared. From then onwards, water flows from the spring in Lourdes, France. This water has cured many who were ill from various ailments. Today, Lourdes is the most visited pilgrimage place in the world.

Lourdes is evidently a place where believers receive many graces. Many are healed at Lourdes every day; however, there are those who return with no healing. God loves everyone, and at times, He expresses His love and mercy through His healing, whereas other times, He allows people to suffer. Although, suffering is a result of man’s sins, God, through His unconditional love, shows His mercy, even through suffering, allowing us to make atonement of our sins and offer it as redemptive suffering for the salvation of others. St Bernadette offered her illness as redemptive suffering for others, even though the water of Lourdes healed many who were sick. St Bernadette did not desire to be healed from the water of Lourdes, as she wanted her suffering for the redemption of others.

St Bernadette died in Nevers, France, in 1879. When her body was exhumed, 30 years after her death, she was found completely incorrupt. There are movies and documentaries which depict the life of St Bernadette, Mother Mary’s apparition, and the healing waters of Lourdes. The most famous to view are The Song of Bernadette, The Passion of Bernadette, and St Bernadette of Lourdes.

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