Wednesday,
12/12/12
Today we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the
patron feast of all the Americas. Every year we hear her story. On December 9,
1531 Juan Diego, a simple Nahuati Indian, was hastening into town for medicine and
a priest for his uncle when on a slope known as Tepeyac he was confronted by a light
filled fifteen or sixteen year old young lady. Speaking to him in Nahuati, she
asked that a church in her honor be built on that site.
Juan Diego got in to see the Spanish bishop, and speaking
through an interpreter he conveyed the lady’s message. The bishop, perhaps to
get rid of him, told him to go back and ask for a sign. When Juan again met
with the lady, she told him to gather roses from the top of Tepeyac Hill. The
season for roses was past, but turning, Juan saw a bush blooming gloriously, so
he gathered its buds in his tilma, then hurried back to show them to the
bishop.
When he unrolled his bundle the bishop and those with him saw on
it the colorful image of a lady standing above a new moon, crushing a serpent
under her feet. (The painting on the pancho-like garment of rough burlap does
not seem to be a trick.)
Perhaps you know the story better than I do. I had
always wondered what the name Guadalupe meant. One explanation I have heard is
that in Nahuati it would mean “The lady who crushes the snake.” That would
refer back to Chapter Three of Genesis where we read that God would put enmity
between the serpent and the woman, and she would crush the serpent's head.
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