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December 12
Our Lady of Guadalupe
The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe
goes back to the sixteenth century. Chronicles of that period tell us the
story.
A poor
Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was baptized and given
the name Juan Diego. He was a
57-year-old widower and lived in a small village near Mexico City. On Saturday
morning, December 9, 1531, he was on his way to a nearby barrio to attend Mass
in honor of Our Lady.
He was
walking by a hill called Tepeyac when he heard
beautiful music like the warbling of birds. A radiant cloud appeared and within
it a young Native American maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. The lady
spoke to him in his own language and sent him to the bishop of Mexico, a
Franciscan named Juan de Zumarraga. The bishop was to
build a chapel in the place where the lady appeared.
Eventually
the bishop told Juan Diego to have the lady give him a sign. About this same
time Juan Diego’s uncle became seriously ill. This led poor Diego to try to
avoid the lady. The lady found Diego, nevertheless, assured him that his uncle
would recover and provided roses for Juan to carry to the bishop in his cape or
tilma.
When Juan
Diego opened his tilma in the bishop’s presence, the
roses fell to the ground and the bishop sank to his knees. On Juan Diego’s tilma appeared an image of Mary exactly as she had appeared
at the hill of Tepeyac. It was December 12,
1531.
Comment:
Mary's appearance to Juan Diego as one of his people is a powerful
reminder that Mary and the God who sent her accept all peoples. In the context
of the sometimes rude and cruel treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards, the
apparition was a rebuke to the Spaniards and an event of vast significance for
Native Americans. While a number of them had converted before this incident,
they now came in droves. According to a contemporary chronicler, nine million
Indians became Catholic in a very short time. In these days when we hear so
much about God's preferential option for the poor, Our Lady of Guadalupe cries
out to us that God's love for and identification with the poor is an age-old
truth that stems from the Gospel itself.
Quote:
Mary to Juan Diego: “My dearest son, I am the eternal Virgin Mary, Mother
of the true God, Author of Life, Creator of all and Lord of the Heavens and of
the Earth...and it is my desire that a church be built here in this place for
me, where, as your most merciful Mother and that of all your people, I may show
my loving clemency and the compassion that I bear to the Indians, and to those
who love and seek me...” (from an ancient chronicle).
Patron Saint of:
Americas
Mexico
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