Sermons

Dec 11 - The Rev. Brian C. Taylor The Virgin of Guadalupe

Listen to an audio version of this sermon

Tradition tells us that exactly 474 years ago, an Aztec man my age, a recent convert to Christianity, was walking along a hillside called Tepeyac 1,500 miles south of here. The Virgin Mary appeared to him as a beautiful young Aztec woman, dark-skinned. She spoke to him in his native tongue, Nahuatl:

“Juanito, my son, where are you going?” "Noble lady," he murmured,"I am on my way to the church in Tlatelolco to hear Mass." The lady smiled and said: "Know for certain, dearest of my sons, that I am the Mother of the True God. I ardently desire a temple to be built for me where I will show and offer all my love, my compassion, my help and my protection to the people. I am your merciful Mother, the Mother of all who live united in this land, and of all mankind, of all those who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who have confidence in me. Here I will hear their weeping and their sorrows, and will remedy and alleviate their sufferings, necessities and misfortunes. Therefore, in order to realize my intentions, go to the house of the Bishop of Mexico City and tell him that I sent you and that it is my desire to have a temple built here. Tell him all that you have seen and heard."

Juan Diego went to the bishop, as instructed, who demanded a sign. Juan Diego tried to ignore what was happening for 3 days, and besides, he was busy caring for a dying uncle. He finally gave up on traditional medicines for his uncle and took a shortcut across Tepeyac, on his way to the church to get a priest in Tlatelolco for last rites. Mary appeared again, asking why he hadn’t come back to her. He told her of his uncle, to whom she promptly appeared and healed, and he also told her of the bishop’s disbelief.

Mary told Juan Diego to go to a nearby hill and gather fresh roses, even though it was winter. Miraculously, Castillian roses were found, and he carried them in his peasant overshirt, a tilma, made of cactus cloth. He went to the bishop, and dropped the hem of his shirt. The roses tumbled out, and on the tilma was miraculously imprinted the image of the Virgin Mary that is so familiar to us: a young, dark-skinned Aztec maiden straight out of the book of Revelation, which we heard as our second lesson today: stars on her cloak, the rays of the sun, a crescent moon, and an angel beneath her. The bishop built the temple on Tepeyac, enshrining the image of Mary on the tilma for all time.

Pilgrimages began immediately. In 1662 a new shrine was built, and in 1709 a larger one. The miracle of Guadalupe was recognized by the Vatican in 1745. An enormous new basilica was built in 1976. Juan Diego was canonized a saint by Pope John Paul II in 2002.

The Virgin of Guadalupe has been the patron saint of Mexico since 1737, with her patronage extended slowly until it included all of the Americas by 1946. Millions visit the basilica and glimpse Juan Diego’s tilma on her feast day every Dec. 12, some crawling on their knees for long distances.

Throughout Latin America and the Southwestern United States, the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe appears on countless scarves, store signs, paintings, candles, automobiles, churches, decals, posters, statues, and tattoos. She is credited for many miracles. De verdad, ella es la madre de las Americas.

There is much to be learned from her relationship with the people of Latin America, including here in Nuevo Mexico. First of all, there is the dark skin of the Aztec. The Virgin Mary is indigenous. She is not European, not even an Israelite. She is Indian. As such her image has been claimed by many indigenous people’s campaigns, including the land-reform Zapatista movement of Chiapas in recent decades.

What does this tell us? That God belongs to everyone equally. Christ is not owned by European culture, and is not limited to any race, language, or people. In fact, Jesus taught us that God is found most immediately in the poor and downtrodden of this world. How would it affect you to see a cross with a young Sudanese woman hanging on it? Or a Palestinian with his black and white-checked kaffeya wrapped around his waist? An old woman in a wheelchair? A young African-American in an electric chair?

What these potential images tell us, what the Virgin Mary as an Aztec woman tells us, is that God is manifested through every culture and people. We live together as hermanos y hermanas in one Body of Christ. And so when we use un poco de Español here at St. Michael’s in our liturgy, we celebrate a part of ourselves; we’re not pretending to be something we’re not. Our parish is Hispanic, in part; Somos Hispanos. We live in community in this highly Hispanic part of the world. Christ is Latino. Furthermore, the reason why women need to be deacons and priests and bishops is that Christ is a woman. If this sounds shocking, listen to what St. Paul said:
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

Perhaps more profoundly, this means that you are Christ. You are Mary. As you are, with your personality, your history, your language, God manifests through you as much as anyone else anywhere. And if God is in you, God is in everyone; we are to look for God especially in those who differ from us, especially in the disadvantaged, to appreciate and learn from them how they experience and manifest God in ways that we do not.

Secondly, in the Virgin of Guadalupe there is this amazing tenderness. She said to Juan Diego, she says to all the downtrodden people of the Americas, she says to you:
I offer all my love, my compassion, my help and my protection. I am your merciful Mother, the Mother of all who love me, who cry to me, who have confidence in me. I will hear their weeping and their sorrows, and will remedy and alleviate their sufferings, necessities and misfortunes.

Is this the kind of relationship you have with God? Is this the kind of relationship you want with God? The Virgin Mary of Guadalupe tells us that this is possible. She is the maternal, merciful, gentle expression of God’s love. But she offers nothing that is not God’s. In fact, because she is human, she is only a pale reflection of her Creator. God is infinitely willing to hear and alleviate your weeping, your sorrows, and your misfortunes.

What this also tells us is since we are created in the image of this compassionate One, we are most fully ourselves, most fulfilled, when we too are tender and understanding towards others. The Virgin of Guadalupe calls us, by her example, as a human being like one of us, to be in some measure what she is: one who listens, feels with others, and alleviates suffering.

Among Hispanos, the closeness of family is well-known, as is the affection of the mother and the father. The cry for justice in Latin America is well-known, and it is another expression of Mary’s voice of compassion: In the gospel of Luke Mary herself called upon God to lift up the lowly and put down the mighty from their thrones, to feed the hungry and send the rich away empty. And so we learn something from the Virgin of Guadalupe about how to be in compassionate relationship with each other. She models it for us.

Finally, the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe teaches us to include Mary in our devotion. She is only human, but she is the first of all saints. We say we believe in the communion of saints, which means the community that exists between both the earthly and the resurrected. We can call upon them to intercede for us; we can call upon Mary to help us.

Perhaps it would be good for you to pray the rosary now and then, if you don’t already. It’s easy to learn. Just go online or go to a Roman Catholic supply store. In the rosary Mary leads us into the mysteries of her son – Jesus’ birth, his miracles, his death and his resurrection. But perhaps even more profoundly, the rosary is a form of meditation, allowing one to sink deeply into communion with La Primera de los santos, the one who said that she would be with us in our joys and sorrows.

And so, as we continue in this liturgy in communion with Mary our mother, the Mother of all the Americas, I close with this devotion, a part of the traditional song Buenos Dias, Paloma Blanca:

Madre mía de Guadalupe Our mother of Guadalupe
Dáme ya tu bendición
 Give us your blessing
Recibe éstas mañanitas Receive these morning greetings
De un humilde corazón. From our humble hearts.

Amen.