Our Bright and Morning Star

Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dec 12)

When the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego, a humble, illiterate Indian peasant whose back was bent more steeply each day by the weight of Spanish oppression, the timing could hardly have been better.

In 1519, a band of Spanish newcomers organized the vassal nations of the mighty Aztec empire to overthrow it. For two years, Spanish incursions into Mexico had failed, but at last Cortez had found the secret: appeal to the natives' hatred of their own native overlords. The Aztec empire was rapidly undone, but what replaced it was not much better - not for the natives at least. They replaced one overlord for another, and the dark serpent gods of the Aztecs were replaced by the cruel whips of the Spaniards. Their impression of the Cross was that its long end cut like a sword. For twelve years they labored under this darkness, and their cruel oppression could only make a mockery of the love of Christ preached by the missionaries that accompanied the new conquerors.

In Europe at about the same time, the great darkness that had descended upon Christendom during the late Middle Ages burst into a storm called the Reformation. The Church began to hemorrhage there, as hundreds of thousands of people of all stations joined in the Protest of Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Calvin.

In this dark gloom a star arose. She was a Morning Star, the first light before the Sunlight, in a darkness so deep that she could almost be mistaken for the Sun at a distance. She was Mary. The Queen of the Universe condescended to speak to a peasant farmer of a crushed race, just as her Son had condescended to speak with peasant fishers of a crush race, 1531 years earlier. She appeared to Juan Diego, calling him "Dieguito," like calling him Johnny. She sent him to go speak with a bishop, a veritable prince of the new conquerors. "But what if he does not believe me?" To which she replied with a gentle reproach that has echoed through the ages, "Am I not here, I who am your Mother?" Little Johnny, Juan Diego, went to see the bishop. Miracles attended their meeting and the bishop was convinced. The picture she imprinted upon Juan Diego's cloak moved the bishop to tears. He ordered a great shrine to be built at the spot where the Virgin had stood, making Spanish roses bloom in the cold December winter of the central Mexican plateau.

A greater miracle followed. The Indians converted. Though Spanish law insisted that baptized persons be released from servile bondage, that incentive had produced few converts in 12 years of domination. Now, at a word from their mother, the Indians converted by the tens of thousands, nay, by the millions. Baptistries - chapels dedicated exclusively to baptisms - were built around the country, and the Franciscan missionaries had to send home for more brethren, so great was the demand for baptisms and catechisms. They complained about sore shoulders from pouring so much water over so many heads. The Virgin had called herself the Lady of Guadalupe - a town near the bishop's home. Historians speculate that she may have called herself the similar-sounding Coatlaxupe ("Co-ah-tul-ah-shoo-pay") because she spoke in Nahuatl, Juan Diego's language. Whether she called herself that or not, it is a name she well deserves, for it means she crushes the serpent. And that is what she did. With one fell blow, she undid the cults of the Feathered Serpent whom the Indians had formerly worshipped, along with its human sacrifices and bloodlettings, and at the same time she undid the cruel Spanish bondage to which the Indians had become subject, surely itself a manifestation of the malice of the same serpent who had slithered in the garden of Eden so long ago. Following the Morning Star, the Dawn had indeed come, bringing the Sunlight of God's own Son to Mexico.

Today, in Mexico City, a teaming metropolis with tens of millions of people from every country conducting every manner of business, the old pyramids of the Aztecs stand empty and desolate, while the gardens at the Lady's Shrine are swollen with greenery and life. The Basilica of Guadalupe stands as a visible lighthouse for Christian sailors at sea in the dark and raging waters of our times. The serpent seems to have arisen again, this time under the seductive guises of the gods Autonomy and Choice. Still he demands human sacrifice and turns women's wombs and doctor's operating tables into his altars. As tens of millions of children are murdered within their sanctuaries each year around the world, Our Lady, who appeared to Juan Diego pregnant with Our Lord and full of life, is again invoked to crush the serpent's head and to put an end to his reign of death. The Virgin of Guadalupe, already crowned Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas, has been designated by Holy John Paul the Great as the Great Protectress and Patroness of the Unborn. It is to her that we cry out: "Mother, save our children! Bring us back to Your Son!"

Mexicans frequently quote the prophet Isaiah beneath their images of the Virgin of Guadalupe: "God has not dealt thus with every nation." Indeed. He loves all people, and has given us His Son. And to those of us who fear Him and love His Son, He has also given His mother.

Remember, oh most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence I fly unto thee, oh Virgin of Virgins, my mother. To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. Oh mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy, hear and answer me. Amen.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of Mexico, Empress of the Americas, Great Protectress and Patroness of the Unborn, Queen of All Hearts, Mother of the Church, Mama, pray for us!