The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

For centuries, Our Lady of Guadalupe was a symbol of hope for the people of Mexico.    However, in 1999 Pope John Paul II named her the Patroness of the Americas--North, as well as Central and South America, and the Caribbean.  For insight into the Pope's declaration, we need to go back a few centuries to the time of the encounter between Our Lady of Guadalupe and Juan Diego.  

The Story

On December 9, 1531, a native Mexican named Juan Diego was walking to Mass in what is now Mexico City.  Juan lived a simple life as a weaver, farmer, and laborer.  Mass was to be celebrated at Tlatelolco, once an Aztec center and the place where the final battle of the Spanish conquest had taken place just 10 years earlier.  That morning, as he passed Tepeyac Hill, he heard music and a woman's voice calling him to the top of the hill.  There he saw a young woman dressed like an Aztec princess.  She said she was the Mother of God and asked Juan to ask the bishop to build a church on that site.  The bishop received Juan kindly but skeptically. The next day, Juan tried again to convince the bishop. The bishop asked Juan for proof of the Lady's identity.  Before Juan could go back to the Lady, he found out his uncle was dying.  Hurrying to get a priest, Juan missed his meeting with the Lady.  The Lady, however, met him on his path and told him that his uncle had been cured.  She then told Juan to climb to the top of the hill where they first met.  Juan was shocked to find flowers growing in the frozen December soil.  He gathered them and took them to the Lady who arranged them in his cloak and instructed him to take them to the bishop as the sign the bishop had requested.   When Juan Diego arrived before the bishop, he opened his cloak and the roses fell to the floor. A portrait of the Lady appeared on the coarse fabric of the Indian's cloak.  The bishop and his whole household were filled with amazement. A temple was soon built in Mary's honor, on the site of her appearance, at the center of the Americas.

The Context

The appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe occurred during one of the darkest and most painful periods in the southwestern hemisphere.  Juan Diego grew up under Aztec rule.  The Aztecs were known for their religious practices which included human sacrifice.    

European explorers ultimately put an end to Aztec oppression by conquering the land.  

However, they too, were oppressive in their takeover, using rape, robbery, and exploitation to take control of the land.  Both under the Aztecs and during the Spanish conquest, the native people suffered death, disease and mistreatment.

It is no accident that the Pope declared Our Lady of Guadalupe as the Patroness of the Americas on the eve of the Jubilee year and the new millenium.  Two thousand years of celebrating the birth of Christ would not have been possible without Mary of Nazareth, who gave flesh and blood to the divine Word.   Though there was massive oppression at the time of Guadalupe's appearance, something new and hopeful had begun.  A new era was being born as the Europeans mingled with the natives, producing offspring that would give rise to a new culture.  Our Lady of Guadalupe, then, stands as a symbol that the living Word, God made flesh in Jesus continues to be an instrument of healing, liberation and unity for all peoples of the Western Hemisphere.   The brown-skinned Lady of Guadalupe is mestiza--of mixed race between European and Native Americans.   Her appearance affirms a new way of living among different peoples.