12 December 2019 - Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe - Advent Reflection by Father Lincoln

     Normally, on December 8, we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of Mary, a holy day in our faith and the national patron of our country, the United States.  However, because December 8 falls on a Sunday in Advent this year, we celebrate the Immaculate Conception on December 9 this year.  Normally, on December 9, we celebrate the feast day of an important Advent saint: Juan Diego, the man to whom Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared.  Our Lady of Guadalupe is the feast day we celebrate today on December 12.  As you can see, within the course of a week, we celebrate three major feasts in our Church that center around Mary, which is quite appropriate since we in the holy time of Advent in which we celebrate the birth of Jesus, son of Mary. 

      The context of our Blessed Mother appearing to Juan Diego is certainly remarkable.  Back in 1519, Hernan Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors had invaded the Aztec empire, declaring their victory over the native population in 1521.  We can only imagine how devastated the native population of the Aztec empire was at that time, to have seen its culture and way of life conquered by a foreign power that arrived seemingly out of nowhere.  Just 10 years later, in 1531, a 57 year-old native Mexican man named Juan Diego was making the 15-mile trek to attend mass. He was a convert to the Catholic faith that was brought by the Spanish explorers.   A woman's voice called out to Juan Diego as he heard beautiful music while he was atop Tepeyac Hill.  This started the chain of events that led to the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Juan Diego is said to have told the Virgin Mary in his humility: “I am a nobody.  I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf.”  Yet God chose Juan Diego for a special task. Thanks to him, Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of just a small group of confirmed apparitions of the Virgin Mary validated by the Catholic Church.  Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the Americas and a symbol of the pro-life movement in the United States.  

But the message that Juan Diego himself brings us is an important as well.  It strikes me how the Blessed Mother did not come to the important people of the region, to the Spanish nobility, to the commander of the Spanish military, to the Bishop, or to the governmental officials.  Rather, she brought her message to a humble native man with no power and no authority.  In a society where the rich and the powerful often try to grab all the attention and try to drown out the voice of the poor and the humble, the voice of Juan Diego cries out to us today.  Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said: “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”  Like Juan Diego, in our humble ways, all of us can do things with love.  Let us all be inspired to do actions of love this Advent season.