Teen Essay Winner: MEETING ST. BERNADETTE

If I could travel back in time to meet one person in Church history, there is no doubt in my mind that I would go back to the year 1858 so I could meet Bernadette Soubirous (St. Bernadette).

Bernadette was a French peasant girl who was born in Lourdes, France, in 1844. Her family was so poor that they were lucky if the six of them were able to share a loaf of bread for dinner, but they knew God would provide and were content.

Because of Bernadette's illness with asthma, she nearly did not make her First Holy Communion. She missed many classes and could not even remember the three persons of the Holy Trinity when her pastor asked her. But when her pastor asked her if she loved Jesus, her answer was, "Yes, very much. I want to receive Him more than anything in the entire world." He obviously knew that Bernadette was a person of great conviction and love of the Lord.

After Bernadette began to see that apparitions of Mary, the townspeople jeered and laughed at her. The police chief threatened to have her arrested and put in a madhouse, and even her own pastor told her to never go back to the grotto again.

Her own parents, whom she had never disobeyed, became very upset with her, not because she had done anything wrong, but because they could not comprehend the beautiful miracle that was taking place, and that the Blessed Virgin had chosen this ill peasant girl to carry her message to the world. At 14, Bernadette herself must have experienced great apprehensions within herself, not understanding why this was happening to her. I know many of us believe we have great faith today, but it is not easy to defend it at the age of 14.

I can't imagine trying to convince my family, friends, teachers and/or pastor that they must build something that someone (whom no one else besides me could see or hear) tells me must be done, with no explanation as to why!

Bernadette set aside what her friends and peers may have thought of her, continued to go to the grotto and received the messages of the beautiful lady. Today, a magnificent basilica stands near the grotto, and millions of people from all over the world visit this place each year to pray and bathe in its healing waters.

I would have liked to have met St. Bernadette because today so many young people are strongly influenced by peer pressure, but Bernadette was not. Because of the way people treated her, she may never have gone back to the grotto; instead, she followed what her heart told her to do and what she believed to be right.

She did not allow others to sway her thinking or change her ways. Something inside told Bernadette to persist and not to let the ridicule and mocking of others affect her decision to go back to the grotto. She knew that it was the right thing to do.

Inherently in all of us, there is something that tells us right from wrong. It is up to each one of us to persevere and to choose the right path, for, indeed, that shall make all the difference, both in this life and beyond.

It would have been so much easier for Bernadette to do what she was told by her family and the town authorities, and to conform with their thinking. Instead, she stood up and did what had to be done, even at great sacrifice to herself and her family. What Bernadette did was not easy, but it was right!

Bernadette is a great inspiration to teenagers today as we face and try to deal with all types of obstacles along life's path.

(11-05-98) [[In-content Ad]]