Thursday, 12/12/13
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 Nahunta
Indian, was hastening into town for medicine and a priest for his sick uncle. On
a slope known as Tepeyac Hill he
was confronted by the vision of a light filled fifteen year old young lady. Speaking to him
in Nahunta, 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 tilma 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 Nahunta 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.
Although
Pope John XXIII called Our Lady of Guadalupe the Mother of the Americas, and
Pope John Paul II named her the patron saint of North and South America, we
seldom hear of devotion to her outside of Mexican circles. Our gringo snobbery
could even be sinful in God’s eyes. There was a bit of that two years ago when
Jenny Rivera, a great Mexcan-American singer with fifteen million albums died
in a plane crash. There was great mourning up and down the border, but outside
of the Southwest people just asked, “Jenny who”?
1 comment:
Hi Father, I love our Lady of Gaudalupe . At Prince of Peace, there is a Shrine to Her. When my husband died, I had her image on his urn. When the time comes, she will be on mine also. God bless, Theresa Longino
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