Our Lord Jesus Christ wanted the greatest source of miracles to flow from a sanctuary dedicated to his Mother, proving the need of the universal mediation of Our Lady.
Newsroom (February 12, 2022, 1:45 PM, Gaudium Press) The apparitions of Lourdes are part of a series of other famous manifestations of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the 19th century on, which would culminate with the revelations of Fatima at the beginning of the 20th century.
One could say that, in the deepening night in which contemporary civilization is being shipwrecked, these apparitions form a sprinkling of lights announcing the coming of Mary’s Kingdom.
Mediatrix of all graces
At Lourdes, these notions are evident, considering that Our Lord Jesus Christ could have provided this stupendous fecundity of miracles in some sanctuary dedicated to Him.
In France itself, at the Grotto of Massabielle, there stands the magnificent basilica of Paray-le-Monial, dedicated to the Sacred Heart, because it was there that the Redeemer made his revelations to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque.
Now, Jesus could have arranged for these prodigies of healings and conversions to take place in this place or in other sanctuaries erected in His honour.
But the Savior wanted the greatest source of miracles known in the history of the Church and the world to spring from a place consecrated to Our Lady. That is, that those spectacular healings were obtained under the aegis of the Blessed Virgin, through supplications made to Her.
In this way, Our Lord seems to want to prove the truth of the faith of Mary’s universal mediation, giving men clear reasons to understand that His Mother can do anything.
Through the Virgin’s petitions the greatest evils, the worst diseases, the most horrible sufferings are repressed. She is able to suspend the most inflexible laws of nature, overcomes any obstacle, and succeeds, for example, in enabling a man born blind, without an optic nerve, to acquire sight!
This is the omnipotent supplicant power, the power of the Sovereign, the mediator of all graces.
Physical miracles to do good to souls
There are people who are impressed by the miracles of Lourdes, and yet ask the Blessed Virgin only for material favours, forgetting the spiritual and more important ones.
They do not understand that the temporal gifts, which we need, should induce us to desire those that are useful for our eternal salvation.
Indeed, it is in this way that God truly draws souls to Himself, for all the gifts He bestows have the higher purpose of benefiting the human spirit.
Thus, one should not think, for example, that Our Lady will heal a physically handicapped man moved only by a feeling of pity for his handicap. Of course, She has compassion on the crippled man and is pleased to correct his defect.
But more than this, the Virgin uses a physical miracle to do good to the soul of the sick person and to those who witness or have knowledge of the miracle.
This benefit consists, above all, in infusing in hearts an immense faith in the truth that She is the universal Mediatrix of all graces.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Text extracted, with adaptations, from the Dr. Plinio Magazine, February 2006.
Compiled by Zephania Gangl
