Michel Bourgault: Brother Andre Bessette – saint in Quebec
On October 17, 2010, the Catholic Church canonized Brother Andre Bessette. How does this humble religious, object of great religious fervor, who succeeded in “moving a mountain”, appear to me?
Andre Bessette looks to me like a man who came out of the ordinary people, the day to day world. He lived in Montreal, Quebec, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, a time of great poverty, large families, when medical science was not developed. He entered religious life, in the Congregation of the Holy Cross, through the back door because of his delicate constitution, seen as insufficient to endure the rigors of community life. His story overturns all prejudices. Confronted with sickness and suffering, he defied the powers of medicine and the witnesses of healing by his own hands are so numerous that the superiors of his community were unable to control the flow of faithful that came to him in search of physical and spiritual relief.
I have always been perplexed when faced by Brother Andre and the healings attributed to him. I must admit: I am a man of little faith when it comes to extraordinary religious manifestations. I am inclined to think that in our scientific and rational age miraculous healings are few and far between. Are there still such healings even now?
Already in the Acts of the Apostles, God uses the apostle Paul, who describes himself as weak and poor, seized by Christ in order to accomplish great things. Before him, the Bible gives us the example of David, the last in his family, whom God seeks out when he is shepherding his sheep, in order to become King of Israel. At another time, when Israel is undergoing the aggressions of the Babylonians, a woman, Judith, uses her intelligence, her beauty and her courage in order to strike out at the Babylonian chief of staff. Surprising, is it not?
I do believe that the ways of God are different from our own. The power that came out of Andre Bessette did not come from himself but from his faith in God and from prayer. I am convinced of that. Today, the Catholic Church recognizes the saintliness of his life and the great movement of faith that he provoked. “If we would have faith like a mustard seed, we could move mountains”. With very little at his disposal, Brother Andre succeeded in building a huge oratory on the mountain alongside his monastery. Who would be able to accomplish this today? This does not prove that God acted in him but my own faith discerns His merciful action.
May the example of Andre Bessette provoke our faith in the power of a God capable of healing the human heart, so stricken by the evils of our century: wars, racial prejudice, draining of natural resources and the exploitation of the poor!
Michel Bourgault
Joliette, Québec
