Learn more about our faith | Seasonal Reflections
After the events of the life of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, few divine interventions have had a more profound effect on human history as the appearance of Our Lady in Mexico City to Saint Juan Diego. Yet she came so tenderly and personally: such is Mary’s way! Faced with an impossible situation, she was able to open a new path that others could not imagine!
Do you know the story of “la Morenita” who, with her Son, brings unexpected light out of darkness?
In 1519, Hernán Cortés landed on the eastern shores of Mexico with a shipload of men and proceeded over the next two years to conquer the huge and powerful Aztec Empire with a small band of men. Cortés shrewdly acted to divide and conquer. At the same time, the Aztecs did not know how to react to these strangers, as omens and their own religious teaching had predicted the imminent end of their reign, to be precipitated by the return of a mythical white savior, Quetzalcoatl. Was Cortés a forerunner or, perhaps, himself Quetzalcoatl?
In 1521, the great Aztec capitol, Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) fell. The defeated Aztecs soon found that Cortés and his mercenary army were not the white saviors. The Aztecs’ gods had abandoned them! However, few Mexicans were converting to Christianity.
Sincere and holy friars also came to share the Good News of Christ. However, while Mezo-American religion had some beautiful aspects on which they might have built their preaching, the widespread practice of human sacrifice by the Aztecs was horrifying and made everything about the native religion seem diabolical to them. They had not found a way to preach the Good News and they made few inroads.
After ten years of the conquest, a cultural divide was escalating to very dangerous proportions. The Spanish were divided among themselves. The vastly larger native population was at breaking point and on the verge of eruption. If that happened, the Spanish forces would not withstand a major uprising, so a bloodbath and full-scale war would ensue.
Who would have imagined that Our Lady would enter the situation, bringing the Light to the New World?
On Saturday, December 9, 1531, Juan Diego, a middle-aged man, one of the few native Mexicans who had embraced the Christian faith, was making his way into the city for Mass and religious education. While he walked near what had been an old temple to the goddess considered the mother of the gods, the true Mother of the true God appeared to him. She spoke to him in endearing language::
“Juan Dieguito, I want you to go tell the Bishop that I want a little house built here where I can show my Love to my children.”
Then followed a series of apparitions, visits to the Franciscan Bishop of Mexico City, Juan de Zumarraga, and other events recorded in the beautiful Nahuatl text the Nican Mopohua.
On December 12, Our Lady sent Juan Diego to the Bishop with the sign that had been requested. Arriving in the Bishop’s office, Juan Diego opened his “tilma”, the poncho worn by peasants at that time, releasing an abundance of Spanish Roses (a variety that the Bishop would recognize), and revealing the image of the Lady that Juan Diego had seen, imprinted on the fabric.
After nearly five hundred years that tilma with its image remains on display for all to venerate. The normal life of the hemp fiber of this sort of tilma would typically be 30 or 40 years. The image itself has been carefully and repeatedly studied. Scientists have not been able to determine its composition and how it remains on the tilma. It is not painted. It is, effectively, a sort of photo of the Lady whom Juan Diego had seen.
The whole history reveals an amazing sort of divine revelation to be understood through much symbolic communication that the Mexicans of the time would have understood. By her garments, they would have recognized right away that the Lady was pregnant! She, the Mother of God, was carrying in her womb the Savior they had been hoping for!
A bloodbath was averted. The Light of the World was revealed to the New World! Out of an apparently unresolvable, even deadly, situation, something totally new was born. In the next ten years, approximately 9 million Mexicans were baptized. Our Lady of Guadalupe has helped to seal Christian faith in the marrow of the bones of Mexicans, while devotion to the Blessed Virgin helped to forge new Christian cultures throughout America! It all began with a warm-hearted encounter between our Holy Mother and one of her children.
There is so much to study about the Guadalupe event. It is truly fascinating when you get into it! On a grand scale we contemplate how the Lord and His Holy Mother want to work in the lives of each of us. It remains as an invitation to say YES to God as Our Lady did and see where He leads you!
- Visit our new Advent page, The Power of One "Yes" to God, offering resources throughout Advent to accompany families on their journey to Bethlehem and the celebration of Christmas.