The Feast of “Our Lady of Guadalupe”

“Our Lady of Guadalupe”

The history of the apparition of the Virgin Mary in Mexico to Juan Diego in 1531 is a story that is well documented and needs to be repeated many times so that everyone may understand the significance of why she came. I would like to give everyone my views about her that I hope will help some get to know her.

First we must understand why Mary deserves to be honored by all as our Mother. 

When Jesus was dying on the cross he saw his mother and the disciple John standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman. Here is your son,” and to John he said, “Here is your Mother”. Right there and then he established Mary as the Mother of all mankind, the new Eve.   

Mary was like no other person. God filled her with grace and created her without original sin.  Mary had to be a very holy person in order to carry Baby Jesus within her womb.  After all it was God being born in the flesh.

We do not know very much about Jesus’s childhood but we can assume that He grew up like all children do, including parental guidance. Although Jesus was God in the flesh he was also a new person to this planet whose brain needed to be given information.   I say this because of two episodes in the Bible. In Luke 2:41-52 Luke After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Then you read,And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.  It says there he was asking questions.  So you see he was like us.  We have to be taught in order to grow spiritually. Jesus had to be a true man in order to become the unblemished Sacrificial Lamb offered for saving all of mankind. 

Mary and Joseph had to teach Jesus about what was in the Bible.  Mary, as mothers do, spent more time with Jesus.  Jesus was guided until he would be able to interpret the Bible himself.  We now know from the New Testament’s teachings that he would not only refine the Old Testament teachings and more importantly he would fulfill it.

When Mary accepted the honor of being God’s Mother she became one the most important persons in history. She had to protect and raise Jesus until he came of age.  When Jesus was still a baby, Herod tried to have him killed. Jesus’s parents had to do whatever was necessary to make sure Jesus would be able to survive to manhood in order for him to complete the task he was born for.  

Mary knew all along that Jesus was the Messiah. Mary had to bring Jesus through all the childhood stages of growth. Mary as his Mother had to guide him through those stages. Eventually she gave him a little nudge that started his destined journey. That happened when they were at the wedding in Cana and Jesus performed his first miracle when he turned water into wine.   Any human would want to prolong a journey which was to end with much suffering and a terrible death.  I am sure Jesus knew that was to come and Mary didn’t.  After the miracle at Cana Jesus started getting really busy. All those documented stories are in the Bible’s New Testament.

So you see Mary our Mother loves us. She witnessed Jesus’s life and eventually his horrible death on the Cross for us. It hurts her when she sees people rejecting Jesus. It hurts her as well when people do not know about our Lord and savior Jesus. That is why she appeared in Mexico.

There in Mexico the Aztecs were a very, very religious people whose God was being taken away from them by the Catholic Spaniards.  The God that was being preached to them were just words coming out from the priest. You see they could not read the Bible for themselves. Their written language was small pictures of different colors, called glyphs. The colors all would mean something.  For example the picture of a person’s name that was of royalty would be in turquoise. So when Mary appeared to Juan Diego her mission was to bring these truly religious people to the one true God.  She did that by leaving a miraculous color printed picture of herself on Juan Diego’s tilma, (his cloak). She is shown in front of the sun.  The sun was worshiped by the Aztecs as their main God. Her standing in front of it meant it was being superseded. Mary was wearing a turquoise cape, the color of royalty. The picture also contained many symbols, (Glyphs), which informed the Indians about the true God. Mary is shown as a Virgin who was pregnant carrying in her womb the true God. She was bringing him to the New World. She wanted them to know him.  Once the Aztec Indians read the message on the tilma they got it! They started converting to Christianity by the millions.

This was also great news for all the virgins getting ready to be sacrificed. I am sure one of my ancestors went ”Whew that was close.” or “Mother what took you so long?”  (A little chuckle here).

Once again Mary brought Jesus to millions of people.  That is what she does. She brings people to Jesus. She helps us to get closer to God. We honor her because of who she is what she has done and continues to do. We ask her to pray for us because we know she is on our side and wants to help us.

Do you want to see a miracle to help you believe, go to the Basilica in Mexico City. There behind the altar enclosed in a glass frame and hanging real high for all to see is Juan Diego’s tilma which has exceeded its eleven year life span by over 500 years. Yep, it really happened.

We celebrate this grand occasion on December 12. It is called the Feast of our Lady of Guadalupe.

Your Friend in Christ,

Joe M. Govea,

A devout Catholic whose duty it is to evangelize

December 13, 2015