Today we celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary’s appearance to the poor peasant Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin in 1531. It was the first time she appeared to anyone in the Western Hemisphere and for that reason Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness not only of Mexico, but of all the Americas. She asked that a church be built on the site of her ap pearance so that all people—native Nahua people and the conquering Spaniards—could worship together in unity and peace. Let us pray for the unity and peace that Our Lady of Guadalupe fostered from the very beginning of Christian worship in the Americas.
Introduction to the Liturgy of the Word
When Juan Diego opened his cloak—his tilma—to show the bishop the roses he had collected on Tepeyac Hill, it also revealed the imprint of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The image can still be seen today, nearly five centuries later. May God’s word, which we hear proclaimed every time we celebrate Mass, imprint upon us so that we may reveal it as we live our lives, both now and forever.
Reflections
In the Magnificat, Mary proclaims that God lifts up the lowly. Indeed, God lifted Mary up to be the mother of the Son of God, choosing this lowly woman who did not have the lineage, wealth, or circumstances in life to reasonably expect great things. In parallel fashion, in 1531 Mary chose the lowly peasant Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, who had no reason to ever imagine that he’d still be remembered across two entire continents five hundred years later. Many of us are lowly ourselves in one sense or another. Know that God will lift us up. All of us know others whom we regard as lowly in comparison to us. Realize that they have a special place in God’s heart, if for no other reason than they are in greater need for God’s benevolence than us. May we join in the effort of lifting up those who are lowly.
When Mary appeared to Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill, she asked him to petition the bishop that a church be built in her honor on that site. She truly is the mother of the church at Guadalupe. But she is also the mother of the entire Church, the body of Christ, the spiritual mother of us all. When Juan Diego bypassed the hill on the morning he was rushing to get help for his seriously ill uncle, she pur sued him and asked, “Am I not here, I who am your mother?” Even if we don’t immediately turn to our Blessed Mother in our hour of need, she—like our own mothers who seem to have a sixth sense if one of their children needs her—will seek us out and watch over us with loving care.
After Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel, she must have been thinking about facing her husband, Joseph, and trying to explain what was going to happen. We know that Joseph, failing to understand and perhaps not really believing (and who, really, can blame him?), decided to divorce her. He believed only after an angel visited him. Juan Diego also faced a difficult conversation, in his case with the archbishop. The bishop likely didn’t really believe him either. He came to believe only after our Blessed Mother revealed herself. Blessed are we who trust in Mary and in God, based on the testimony of others, based on our own faith, but absent visible evidence.
Question of the Week What can I do today for someone whom the world regards as lowly?-
from Pastoral Patterns
readings of the mass
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Offerings
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