The Message of Bernadette

The Message of Bernadette by Mons Vernon Johnson, updated by Donal Foley Published by CTS

This is one of those rare boks that is so powerful, so Catholic, and so completely at odds with our secular culture that I became aware of twin, and opposing, responses in me as I was reading it.  What I like to think of as my rational part, that is the educated mind, schooled in the liberal arts, kept balking at it.

How can anyone write like this about suffering, urging others to be patient, humble and accepting of it.  Is not this precisely what Kipling was talking about?

The toad beneath the harrow knows exactly where each toothpoint goes;

The butterfly upon the road preaches contentment to the toad.

(Incidentally, I seem to remember a wonderful Wodehouse joke when Bertie describes himself as as much like a toad beneath a Harrow as a chap who went to Eton can be... or words to that effect.  But as so often, I digress...)

The point being that this book is about suffering and our acceptance of it as a gift from our Heavenly Father.  The other part of me, the Catholic part, recognised the importance and profundity of this message.

What Monsignor Johnson does is look at the life of St Bernadette, and others, such as the Fatima seers, and discern the value of the suffering in them - and draw conclusions for us.

It was St Bernadette herself who said: You see, my business is to be ill; and Mons Johnson pays her the respect of taking this seriously.  He comes at this from many different angles, and Donal Foley has brought the text up to date in the light, particularly, of the life and teaching of Pope John Paul ll; but the message is always the same: it may be that we are called to suffer, and if that is the case, just like Our Lord in Gethsemane, we should willingly accept the cup that the Father is offering us.

This is so contrary to all our civilised values and the society in which we live that our intellect rebels at the thought of it; yet it is at the heart of a Catholic understanding of Calvary.  So for example, we read:

'Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?'  The above text can be thought of as a sermon in its own right, and in reality it is one which anyone who is suffering must never forget, something which ought to be imprinted on their minds for ever, if their sufferings are to bear fruit.

The more alien that notion is to us, the more we need this important and powerful booklet.