Our Lady Of Guadalupe

12 Dec

Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion!
See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the Lord.
Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day,
and they shall be his people,
and he will dwell among you,
and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. (Zec 2-14-15)

The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is very much a story of how God comes to all people and not just a chosen few.

We, in our sinful nature that often leads to arrogance, would like to think that we are above others and that they do not deserve certain things.

When Mary appeared to a Native American, Juan Diego, outside of Mexico, it was something that was unthinkable among the many Spaniards who had settled there and who were converting the Native Americans.  They would have thought that if Mary would appear to anyone, she would appear to one of the Spanish Missionaries, not to some newly converted Catholic.

But God’s mystery knows no bounds and Mary’s apparitions are not bound by people or territories.  She brought Good News to Juan Diego and a challenge to the local bishop to build a chapel on the hill called Tepeyac where she appeared to Juan Diego.  Through a miracle — the imprinting of her visage upon Juan Diego’s tilma — the bishop came to believe that Mary had, indeed, appeared.

It has always amazed me that so many people have fought the idea of Mary’s appearances in many places in the world.  Only after great miracles have people come to believe.  Why do we make God prove Himself?  Why do we have such a natural mistrust of the divine?

And why do we believe that some people deserve to experience these things while others should not?  God’s love is open to all and freely given to all.

Thank God for that!

FAITH ACTION:  Ask God to give His grace to all people so that we could live together in peace, defeating the prejudice and racism that often comes between us.