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.
