CATHOLIC CONNECTION

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO LOURDES

By Shannon Hogan

“This is what the Lord asks of you… only this: To act justly Love tenderly And walk humbly with your God.”

Micah 6:8

Many years ago, while I was studying at a university in Spain, I took a train during winter break to visit a friend who was studying at the Sorbonne in France.

For a variety of reasons totally beyond my control, I did not make it to the Sorbonne, but did end up in a Carmelite monastery in the low mountains just outside of Lourdes.

During my week-long stay, I was included in all of the duties of monastic life, including attendance at all hours of the day and night (depending on the schedule you were given) to sit in front of the Blessed Sacrament, which was exposed 24 hours a day.

Waking at 4 a.m. for “matins” (morning prayers) and attending my scheduled hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament made the fact that we were living under the rule of silence easy to master. I was pretty much sleep-walking for the most part, and conversing in French and Spanish did not come as easily to my tired mind.

One morning, after finishing breakfast, I noticed an elderly priest sitting in a room off the main dining room, having his breakfast. I had not been to confession for some time and thought I would take the opportunity to confess with this priest in this place.

He invited me to a parlour in the convent for a 4 p.m. sacrament of confession. He was fluent in English and thought this might be easier for me, stumbling around as I was.

When I entered the parlour and greeted the priest, he invited me to sit down and then asked a strange question. Through the thick of his Galois cigarette smoke he asked, “Why are you here?”

Needless to say, I was quite startled by the question, and wondered if this poor man was experiencing some form of dementia. I reminded him that I was there for confession. He asked why I wanted to go to confession, and I told him that I wanted to be forgiven for my sins.

He replied, “God has already forgiven you, so why are you here?” At that point, I was lost for words. He explained to me that in the sacrament of reconciliation, the priest is not the representative of God in the process, but rather a representative of the community of faith. In asking for forgiveness in confession, I was asking my community of faith to forgive me – to accept my sorrow for my separating from them in sin.

He then reflected that since God had forgiven me, and since he, as a representative of my community, had forgiven me, there was only one thing left for me to do – forgive myself. The most difficult thing of all.

For my penance, he quoted from the book of Micah, saying this was, for him, the only thing that made any sense as far as penance goes: “to act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with your God.”

Penance was not about a few prayers, he said, but about a shift in a way of life, for your whole life.

I have often thought of this wise French priest over the years. And given our current pandemic, his words have come back to me in a very powerful way.

In the helplessness that we feel in this global quarantine, with the looming possibility of contracting a serious, if not fatal virus, it is in our nature to want to do something, help something, or fix something.

As we find ways to do what we can to alleviate the suffering of others, we can use the words of the prophet Micah as a guide to all of what we do, all of what we say, and all of who we are being.

In acting justly, loving tenderly, and walking humbly with the God of our lives, we are creating hope in the midst of despair and courage in the face of fear.

Let us pray for and with each other – in our community of faith.

Shannon Hogan is a member of the Counselling and Member Services department at the OECTA Provincial Office.