“Just Human Bones”
The mortal remains of the young woman who claimed to have seen visions of Mary at Lourdes, in France, in the 1850s are being taken to more than 50 locations throughout Britain during September and October. It is expected that the relics of Bernadette Soubirous will attract great public interest and will be the largest-ever exhibition of its kind in this country. A tour of the relics of another Romanist “saint” in 2009 attracted over 500 000 people.
Those who come to “venerate” the relics will observe “bone and tissue fragments . . . in a golden reliquary within a hermetically sealed glass case” and many of them will then “pray, light candles and leave petitions”. The remains will also be accompanied by 1000 litres of spring water from Lourdes for washing and drinking. The intention is that the alleged healing power that those who attend the shrine at Lourdes enjoy will be extended to the UK. A priest in London remarked that “the relics are just human bones, but they are bones that belonged to an individual touched by the power of God”.
What poor, deluded people they must be who think that “dead men’s bones” can have any influence on their physical health. Indeed, one of the greatest sources of superstition lies in attributing spiritual power to physical things. The whole delusion of Lourdes is a gross example of Romanist superstition and also of imposing on people when many of them are in a most vulnerable and needy condition. It is sad that such an exhibition is taking place in once-Protestant Britain and it merely emphasises the reigning spiritual darkness that envelops our land.
May the Lord send forth His light with His truth so that multitudes who today sit in darkness would come to know the true light of the gospel of Christ. When that will take place, it is not to human remains, nor to the mother of Christ’s human nature that people will look for spiritual and physical health, but to the Sun of righteousness who arises with healing in His wings (Mal 4:2).
AWM