OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE

December 8, 2006

On December 8 and 12, the Church celebrates two of her most joyful feasts in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception commemorates the mystery that Mary remained sinless from the first moment of her conception. Pius IX pronounced this dogma in 1954, defining that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin." In other words, she was preserved from sin by the redemptive grace won by her Son, Jesus, the universal Savior, in anticipation of his incarnation, life, and redemptive death and resurrection.

The Church has always seen a scriptural witness of her sinlessness in the angel’s greeting to her, “Hail, full of grace” (Lk 1:28). In addition, references to Mary’s purity from sin abounded in the writings of the Church Fathers throughout Tradition. Adecree of the first Council of Baltimore (1846) elected Mary in her Immaculate Conception as the principal Patron of the United States.

The annual feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12 gives the Church the opportunity to celebrate the dramatic apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the Blessed Juan Diego outside Mexico City in 1531.

Juan was humble Indian who, unlike most of his Mexican contemporaries at the time, did accept the Christian teaching. When Mary appeared to him speaking his language, she asked him to tell Bishop Juan Zumarraga of Mexico City that she wanted a church built on the site of her apparition, Tepeyac hill. Juan Diego was hesitant to go, but then she appeared again and offered him a sign. She promised him his sick uncle would be healed, and Juan later found out that this miraculously happened.

Bishop Zumarraga was prudently cautious about Juan Diego's story, but then on December 12, 1351 he received proof of the apparitions. In the dead of winter, Mary placed roses in Juan Diego's tilma (cloak) and sent him back to the bishop. When he opened his tilma before the bishop, all present were astonished to discover not only the roses, but also a miraculous image Mary had left of herself on the tilma.

Bishop Zumarraga built the church Mary had asked for, and encouraged devotion to her as Our Lady of Guadalupe. The word "Guadalupe", roughly translated in Aztec, means "she who crushes the serpent".

The serpent was a symbol of evil for Aztecs, as it is for Christians. So in Mary they found protection from all the unseen powers of evil they had feared. Mary also enabled them to accept the all loving God of Christian revelation and the gift of his Son for the world's salvation. In the next seventeen years, approximately nine million Mexicans became Catholic.

Juan Diego's tilma, made of ayate fiber, should not have lasted more than 20 years. For over a century it was exposed to damp air, lit candles, and human handling conditions that should have caused its complete deterioration. In 1921 a terrorist bomb exploded beneath it, twisting a large metal cross but leaving the image undamaged. Now, 465 years later, the tilma still shows no signs of decay.

In 1754, Pope Benedict XIV made Our Lady of Guadalupe Patroness of Mexico, and in 1910 Pope Pius X acclaimed her Patroness of Latin America. Today, she continues to lead many to her Son, Jesus Christ. Millions are devoted to her, and many in the pro-life movement have also adopted her as their patroness.

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe give us wonderful occasions to celebrate and honor the Virgin Mary, as we join her in worshiping God. These days also provide us important moments to pray for her protection, and to ask her help in proclaiming the sacredness of all human life.

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 05-Jun-2008 9:48 sitemap