Friday, December 12, 2025

 

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

(Zechariah 2:14-17; Revelation 11:19a.12:1-6.10ab; Luke 1:39-47)

By the Incarnation God became a human in order to raise all humans from sin and death.  It was a singular act that cannot be duplicated.  However, today we celebrate another act of God which resembles in a way the achievement of the Incarnation.  He sent His mother, the Virgin of Guadalupe, to lift up the downtrodden indigenous people of Mexico.

To appreciate the magnitude of this incarnation-like event, we must remember the state of the Mexican nation in 1531.  Ten years previous, the might Aztec nation was defeated by a force of only a few hundred Spanish soldiers.  Of course, it was a plague, which the militia unknowingly carried, that did the most damage.  The people were left powerless but defiant.  They largely wanted no part in the Spaniards’ culture.

 Then the Virgin appeared to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatotzin, one of the few indigenous Catholic converts.  She sent him to the Bishop of Mexico with the order to build a church in her honor.  It was not to be constructed in the city among the rich and influential but in the country where the poor, indigenous people resided.  By “church” she meant not only a physical structure but, more importantly, a community of believers.  When the former was completed, the native people converted en masse.    

By our celebration today we remember not only the appearance of the Our Lady of Guadalupe to the Mexican people, but also God’s lifting of all people who have been beaten down.  Whether humans suffer from disease, war, natural disaster, or poverty, God comes to their aid.  Mary identifies herself with a similar intervention of mercy in today’s gospel.  She openly declares that God has visited her in her humble estate so that she might proclaim his greatness.

Thursday, December 12, 2024

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

 (Zechariah 1:14-17; Luke 1:39-47)

 When someone compliments us, it is only polite to say something gracious in return.  But surprisingly this is not what happens in the gospel today.  When Elizabeth greets Mary, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb…,” Mary turns to God and says, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord…”  Mary first thinks of God, not herself and not of other people as manners dictate.

Something similar takes place in the account of the appearance of the Virgin Mother to Juan Diego on Mount Tepeyac.  When the woman whose clothing shines like the sun introduces herself, she says, “I am truly the ever perfect Holy Virgin Mary.”  Then her words shift to God almost entirely, “…who has the honor to be the Mother of the one true God for whom we all live, the Creator of people, the Lord of all around us and of what is close to us…”  And when she explains the purpose of the shrine which she is requesting, it is solely to give glory to God.  She says, “In (my sacred little house) I will show Him, I will exalt Him upon making Him manifest, I will give Him to all people in all my personal love.”

We venerate Our Lady of Guadalupe today because she has given us Jesus Christ, the God-man who has saved us from our sins.  She brought him into the world for us, of course.  But even more than that, she has given him to us by exemplifying how we are to live with him as the center of our life. 

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

 (Zechariah 1:14-17; Luke 1:39-47)

What were Juan Diego’s hopes as he set out the morning of December 9, 1531, for the Franciscan mission?  Perhaps he only hoped to learn more about Christ.  But probably deep down he harbored other, greater hopes.  He might have hoped for the Europeans to leave his land.  They were foreigners telling the native people where they could go and what they could do.  It may be that Juan Diego harbored another hope that morning.  He was a devout man and already a Christian.  Perhaps he hoped to see all the native peoples embrace Jesus.  As the Spaniards occupied more of the land, fewer natives were accepting the faith.  Juan Diego may have regretted that his people were missing the one who could have improved their lives immeasurably.

Hope is more than wishful thinking.  It invades one’s consciousness causing the person to search for opportunities to realize what is hoped for. Hope overcomes the fear of taking risks.  People today cross seas in small boats and deserts at night in hope of a better future.  Juan Diego’s hope moved him to enter the city as the lovely lady, the Virgin of Guadalupe, told him.  It made him insist that the bishop there hear what the lady wanted.  Hope finally caused Juan Diego to work for the conversion of his people to Christianity.

During Advent Christians become aware of a great hope in our hearts.  We long to see the good prosper and the evil reform.  We try to reform ourselves and pray for others to do so.  Because we know that the mother of God is an especially powerful advocate, we ask her to pray for us.  Today we especially pray to the Virgin of Guadalupe.  We ask her to intercede for us that our hope that our children keep the faith, our elders may live out their years in peace and happiness, and that we may become more just and kind.

Monday, December 1`2, 2022

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

(Zechariah 2:14-17; Luke 1:26-38)

Humans do not initiate Christian repentance.  It is a divine undertaking.  For this reason, both John the Baptist and Jesus preached, "The Kingdom of God is near," before calling people to repent. They urged people to seize the opportunity to meet God on good terms.  This dynamic was also at play at Tepeyac with the Virgin of Guadalupe.

When the Virgen met the indigenous Juan Diego, she introduced herself as the “mother of God.” She represented God to Mexico’s native people.  After Juan Diego carried out her orders, his tilma showed her image, and the Spanish bishop of Mexico recognized the Virgin’s glory.  More significantly, the event resulted in the massive conversion of the Mexican people.

We have heard John the Baptist’s call on the Second Sunday of Advent.  Now is the time to repent.  We may be reluctant to accept the invitation.  When the world goes to celebrate, should we go to confession?  Yes, we should.  The whole point of Jesus’ coming was to save us from sin and death.  The process will be completed with the Easter events.  Let us repent and believe, the sooner the better.

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

(Luke 1:39-47)

People will be unusually happy when 2020 passes into history.  The pandemic has brought on such misery this year that we want it to end as soon as possible.  Of course, the pandemic won’t be resolved with a new calendar.  Nevertheless, the new year will bring a fortified hope of a return to normalcy.  All the inconvenience, the worry, and the death toll of the Covid pandemic can help us appreciate the situation in Mexico when the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared.

People may think that Spanish brutality epitomized the hardship to indigenous Americans.  The conquistadors’ swords and muskets caused much suffering among the native population.  However, the diseases which they brought unwittingly wreaked much more extensive havoc.  It is estimated that when Hernan Cortes arrived in Mexico there were twenty-five million indigenous Americans.  Fifty years later smallpox and other infectious diseases left only three million people.  During this catastrophe, the Virgin appeared to Juan Diego.

From the beginning, the Virgin’s message was of maternal affection and protection.  “I am your mother,” she told the indigenous peasant, Juan Diego.  Her mission was to relieve the suffering of the people by imparting the Christian faith that proclaims God’s mercy.  As part of that relief, she called the European colonists from the city to the surrounding area.  There they might address the needs of the people.  In today’s gospel we see Mary on a similar mission of mercy.  Hearing from God that her relative Elizabeth was with child, Mary rushes to assist her.  So close to her son Jesus, who is also the Son of God, Mary will help us through the pandemic.  Praying to her, we can be assured of receiving God’s mercy.

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

(Zechariah 1:14-17; Luke 1:39-47)

What were Juan Diego’s hopes as he set out the morning of December 9, 1531, for the Franciscan mission?  Perhaps he only hoped to learn more about Christ.  But probably deep down he harbored other, greater hopes.  He might have hoped for the Europeans to leave his land.  They were foreigners telling the native people where they could go and what they could do.  It may be that Juan Diego harbored another hope that morning.  He was a devout man and already a Christian.  Perhaps he hoped to see all the native peoples embrace Jesus.  As the Spaniards occupied more of the land, fewer natives were accepting the faith.  Juan Diego may have regretted that his people were missing the one who could have improved their lives immeasurably.

Hope is more than wishful thinking.  It pervades one’s consciousness causing the person to search for opportunities to realize what is hoped for. Hope overcomes the fear of taking risks.  People today cross seas in small boats and deserts at night in hope of a better future.  Juan Diego’s hope moved him to enter the city as the lovely lady, the Virgin of Guadalupe, told him.  It made him insist that the bishop there hear what the lady wanted.  Hope finally caused Juan Diego to work for the conversion of his people to Christianity.

During Advent Christians become aware of a great hope in our hearts.  We long to see the good prosper and the evil reform.  We try to reform ourselves and pray for others to do so.  Because we know that the mother of God is an especially powerful advocate, we ask her to pray for us.  Today we especially pray to the Virgin of Guadalupe.  We ask her to intercede for us that our hope that our children keep the faith, our elders receive all deserved gratitude, and we may become more just people.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

(Zechariah 1:14-17; Luke 1:39-47)

All life is a journey.  Even if we never leave home, we journey through time.  If we do not stray, we come closer to the goal which is God.  Jesus accompanies us on our way.  He is like the sun around which the earth revolves as it moves through space.  He is near to help us.

Today’s gospel pictures Mary on a journey.  She goes to assist her cousin Elizabeth as the latter is heavy with child in her old age.  Mary, of course, is with child herself.  She carries within her Jesus who sent her forth.  As with most mothers, her child has become the critical focus of Mary’s life.  Bearing him in both body and soul, she freely gives of herself to others for the sake of the child. 

Today we celebrate a singularly important manifestation of Mary.  Our Lady of Guadalupe, the rose of Tepeyac, shows Mary pregnant with Jesus.  She is completing her journey to the new world – America.  She comes as a missionary to bring Jesus to the native people there.  But she dresses as a native princess and speaks in a native tongue.  She tells of her son symbolized by the church that she requests to be built in the native territory.  She indicates to the native whom she encounters that her son is to be as a bridge connecting European and Native American cultures.  He will bring about a new race born of the creativity of the former and endurance of the latter. 

The new race has recently arrived in this land with great numbers.  Its women and men bring Jesus as they replenish the Church here.  Their devotion to God, their care for others, their desire to submit to the Word – all make them welcome.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

(Zechariah 2:14-17; Luke 1:39-47)

When Mary visits Elizabeth in today’s gospel, she is doing more than helping an elderly relative with an unexpected pregnancy.  She is bringing Elizabeth the ultimate blessing of the Christ-child in her womb.  The baby within Elizabeth’s own womb recognizes the significance of the visit as he leaps for joy.  Elizabeth herself acknowledges the graciousness of Christ’s presence when she tells Mary, “’…how does this happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’”

Today we celebrate a similar visit of Mary.  She comes not to an elderly woman of a town in the hill country of Judea but to a humble Indian on a hillside outside the city of Mexico.  The two visits are parallel, however, because the central figure is the Christ-child in the Virgin mother’s womb.  Looking at the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we notice that at its center is her child-bearing womb.  Mary comes to bless the beginning of something new that is taking place in Mexico.

What is this innovation?  For a long time it was considered the salvation of the indigenous people of Mexico with their acceptance of Christianity.  As important as that development is, the event augurs something even greater.  Noting the Virgin’s message to Juan Diego, we can determine what she is introducing.  First, she tells him, “I am your mother.”  She is that, but something more – much more. To say what she is, let us look at her face.  It is not the face of an Indian but of a mestizo – a mixed breed.  The Virgin of Guadalupe is the mother not just of the indigenous but of the Europeans as well.  Indeed, she is the mother of all people who come to the new land of opportunity which is the Americas.

Then she tells Juan Diego to go to the bishop of Mexico City with instructions to build a church on the site where she stands.  In the indigenous culture of Mexico a church is more than a religious building.  Rather, because religion played the central role in the life of the people, a temple or church is seen as the foundation of society.  The construction of a new temple in a place where there is none means the foundation of a new society. The church which the Virgin requests will have a very specific purpose.  As she tells Juan Diego, it will be where she will make manifest Christ, her Son, who shows the love of God for the world.  Here is the key to the new creation.  Mary is calling for a new civilization of love to replace the old ones of domination.  The civilization of love is to supplant not just the cruelty of the Aztec empire but also the barbarity with which the Europeans are treating the conquered peoples.

As Mary is a young laywoman who brings Christ to Elizabeth and her son John, she asks another layperson to intercede on her behalf before the bishop of Mexico City.  Today the Church similarly asks lay people everywhere to take up this role of evangelizing.  The New Evangelization is a call especially to men and women in the world to announce Christ’s love for all.  They do it first by showing loving care for others, especially the poor.  They should not refrain, however, to testify in words to God’s care that they have experienced in their lives.  They need to tell the world that God has this same love for all.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

(Zechariah 2:14-17; Luke 1:39-47)

On the wall of a diocesan pastoral center hangs a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The other day an end table with a dish of roses was discreetly placed beneath that image. The table still may have impeded passage but nevertheless seemed quite appropriate during the novena of today’s feast. The roses it bears, we should understand, illustrate in part the significance of Guadalupe.

Roses growing abundantly out of season comprised the sign that corroborated Juan Diego’s story of having encountered the Mother of God. The rose itself, often considered the epitome of floral beauty, ably represents the Virgin. However, the roses’ symbolic value metamorphosed into the actual image of the Virgin as they fell from the Indian’s shirt. It is that image which has stirred the most discussion about the appearances.

Many characteristics of the image deserve commentary – the blocked out son, the color of the mantle and inner garment, the down-bent eyes reflecting the presence of Juan Diego. One such characteristic corresponds well with the gospel today in which Mary, having conceived by the Holy Spirit, visits her cousin Elizabeth. The black cord tied around the Virgin’s bosom indicates that she is carrying within her the Son of God whom she will present to the world with a critical message. In the gospel she will tell Elizabeth that God has lifted up the lowly while dismissing the arrogant. In Mexico she announces to both Indian and European – that is, to everyone -- that we must come together to honor God by creating a society based on human dignity.

Homilette for Friday, December 12, 2008

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

(Zechariah 2:14-17; Luke 1:39-48)

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Elizabeth recognizes that the action in her womb as a response to the Lord whom Mary carries womb. She can do little but exclaim, “Most blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” God has indeed blessed Mary by choosing her to bear His son, but this fact alone hardly makes her all that we believe her to be.

Later on in this same Gospel of Luke, a woman will call out to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” Jesus’ replies to this compliment with a correction. “Rather,” he says, “blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it” (Luke 11:27-28). Jesus is not slighting his mother a bit here because he knows better than anyone how Mary always responds graciously to God’s word. Her responsiveness is demonstrated when she hurries to Elizabeth’s side after the angel informs her that the latter is with child. The inspired Elizabeth recognizes this greater quality of Mary when she tells her, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

We can see find Mary acting on the word of God when she meets the indigenous Juan Diego. She orders the Indian to tell the Spanish bishop of Mexico City that he must build a church on the site where she stands. Native Mexicans at this time are a poor, defeated nation whose converted Christian members have to travel into the city for mass. By mandating a church where the people reside Mary demonstrates God’s care for the poor found on most pages of Scripture.