Advent Reflections

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2021

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Each year, on December 12th, the Church celebrates the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This day commemorates one of the many instances throughout human history where the Blessed Mother has appeared to individuals or to groups of people, for numerous reasons, including to provide comfort, to clarify Church teaching, or to ask for prayers for a certain intention. Today’s feast day is in honor of an apparition of Mary in sixteenth-century Aztec Mexico, during the period of Spanish colonial occupation of what today is Latin America.

Tradition tells us that during December of 1531, an Indigenous Mexican convert to Catholicism experienced several visions of the Virgin Mary. The witness’ name was Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, and his meeting with Our Lady came at a time of particular personal struggle; his uncle, with whom he was very close, was ill to the point of being on his deathbed. While en route to daily Mass, Juan Diego saw a beautiful indigenous woman upon a hilltop, which was already considered a sacred site in the area. The woman, clothed in traditional Aztec attire and speaking to him in the local language, identified herself as the Blessed Mother, comforted Juan Diego in his distress, and asked that a church be built on the site.

Over the next few days, Juan Diego encountered Our Lady multiple times. He experienced discouragement, as he did not believe himself worthy to speak on the Virgin’s behalf to the Church authorities of the area, but nonetheless saw his vision as a call to fulfill Mary’s wishes. Eventually, God performed several miracles through Mary in order to prove the authenticity of the apparition, including the miraculous healing of Juan Diego’s uncle. Strengthened by his faith, Juan Diego found comfort in the Blessed Mother’s message, and eventually convinced the local bishop to begin construction of the church she had requested be built. In 2002, Pope Saint John Paul II canonized Juan Diego as a saint.

I have always had a particular devotion to Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe. I think that this particular apparition of the Virgin Mary shows us something special about the universal nature of Christ’s saving mission. The Mother of God, in all her splendor, chose to appear to an Aztec Catholic man, herself in the countenance of an indigenous woman, at a time of immense persecution and colonial occupation for the indigenous peoples of Latin America. Our Lady of Guadalupe affirms that Christ died for the salvation of each and every human being, without any qualifications of race, ethnicity, or demography. What is all the more powerful about this particular story is that the Guadalupe tradition is, today, one of the most beloved devotions among Latin American Catholics, in particular Mexican Catholics. Theologian Roberto Goizueta writes that “one cannot understand the Mexican people without understanding the central role of Our Lady of Guadalupe” in their deeply religious culture and history.

Most poignant of all, in my opinion, are the words which Mary spoke to Juan Diego upon the hilltop in 1531. These words truly highlight the universal motherhood of Mary, which extends, just as her Son’s salvation does, to all peoples. As we prepare for the Nativity, I can think of no better example to keep the Blessed Mother and her love for us in our minds and our hearts.

“Am I not here, I, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything more? Let nothing else worry you, [let nothing else] disturb you.”

- Reflection by Madison Lessard, Class of 2022