Tenacity with Tenderness

“[Our Lady’s] requests were more like pleas than orders, and she gave me tenacity tempered with tenderness for the mission she entrusted to me.” (St. Bernadette Soubirous, “My Name is Bernadette”, available on https://www.ewtn.com/catholici...).

Tenacity with tenderness. I sometimes call this “holy stubbornness.” It is about doing the right thing, fulfilling our mission, in spite of the difficulties that the world, or sometimes even our loved ones put in front of us. The quote above is taken from St. Bernadette attempting to convince her local priest, a Fr. Peyramele, to build a chapel in Our Lady’s honor at the grotto. If you read her story, then to us, the priest might have seemed a little gruff, but it is important to note that supernatural visions must always be viewed with a higher degree of scrutiny and at least initial scepticism than many things. Even if we always presume the good of the visionary, but whether by self-deceit, imagination, poor mental health, or what have you, the vision needs to prove itself to the Church authorities, not the other way around. But, as the saint noted, “[Fr. Peyramele] was a man whose heart belonged to the poor. For years he paid the rents of 35 families in Lourdes to save them from eviction.” And later, while still trying to discern if the vision was true, Fr. Peyramele, “in a tone so soft it surprised me [said], ‘If I knew it was the Blessed Virgin, I would do all she desires.” So again, the priest was a good man with good intentions.

St. Bernadette would obviously prevail over the parish priest, who was astounded that this little illiterate and poorly-educated child was told by the vision that she, the Virgin, was “The Immaculate Conception.” But she would continue to face difficulties, from family, friends, townsfolk, and even the secular and police authorities.

Religious life would not shield her from the rougher parts of this life. Her novice mistress, Sr. Marie-Thérèse Vauzou, though having a certain fondness for her, thought of her as “vain and simple.” This very same Sr. MarieThérèse would later become Mother Superior, and would block any process of canonization for St. Bernadette in her own lifetime.

This is not entirely surprising. Sister (later Mother) Marie-Thérèse Vauzou was, if not heretical, at least partly formed by Jansenism, which tended to have a rather dour view of the nature of man. We must remember that devotion to the Sacred Heart was in part an answer to the overly harsh piety of Jansenism, to assure the faithful that Our Lord indeed burned with a burning love for even sinful man. So, of course, Sr. Marie-Thérèse would not think of silly, ignorant St. Bernadette as “worthy” of such things as apparitions from the most pure and holy Mother of God.

But, we take Scripture and Our Blessed Mother at their word that God, “has shown the strength of His arm, He has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly” (Lk 1:51-52).

This is why St. Bernadette, in that holy stubbornness of tenacity with tenderness, merely plodded along, always responding with the truth, and not taking the attacks so personally, as we are often wont to do in our days, when we are so worried about our public image or reputation or feelings. Yes, we may be attacked, yes we may feel hurt, but we are to rely on Our Lord and Our Blessed Mother, not on our own strength. This is where even people who might start out with good and holy intentions fail – they depend on themselves, and end up falling, and perhaps causing more harm than they could have possibly intended. It would have been better for them if they had remained quiet the whole time!

Let us have, then, that same spirit of tenacity with tenderness. Ask Our Lady to give you that beautiful gift, that holy stubbornness in defending our Faith, in promoting devotion to Our Lady, and in preaching the Rosary. The worldly powers are indeed formidable, but St. Bernadette eventually wore them all down, like a constant stream of small drops of grace that wore down even the toughest stone

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