Sermons

Dec 16 - Daniel Gutierrez - The Virgin of Guadalupe

Juanito, para donde vas? Juanito, where are you going? Those words set off a chain of events that would change millions forever.

An Aztec convert, Juan Diego begins a 15 mile walk to Mass in the cold morning darkness. He has no shoes and is wearing a thin mantle made of cactus fibers. As the sun rises, he stops at a hill enchanted by a brilliant light and song of thousands of birds. There he encounters a young girl, neither Indian nor Spanish, but a synthesis of the two.

She is dressed in the robes of an Aztec maiden and speaks to him in his native language. She identifies herself as Mary and asks him to send a message to the Bishop. Juan Diego relays her request that a church be built. He is dismissed as a dreamer, a peasant.

Dejected he tells her: "I am nobody." She responds "My little son, there are many I could send. But you are the one I have chosen." She appears three times, and each time he is turned away from the Bishop. The Bishop asks for proof, Mary instructs Juan Diego to pick Castilian roses growing in abundance in the frost of winter – they had bloomed at her word.

He fills his cloak with roses and hurries to the Bishop. When he opens his cloak, the roses fall on the ground and imprinted on the cloak is the image Mary. The unbelievers fall on their knees. 500 years later, the cloak is without deterioration and the image remains pristine. For those who believe, no explanation is necessary, for those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.
All over the world, people are celebrating Guadalupe on her feast day. In the darkness and cold, they walk from home to home, but they do not pray, they sing. They sing in memory of that early morning when a simple man, walking in the dark, heard the beautiful songs of birds, beckoning him to an encounter with Mary, pregnant with Jesus.
Guadalupe, my life and my faith are inextricably connected. Other than Christmas, this was the major celebration – it united the entire family. Every year, all the little boys in the neighborhood dressed as Juan Diego and we marched behind the Statue of the Virgin.

I was 12 standing in front of the Basilica in Mexico City holding the hand of the woman who raised me – my grandmother. We are both crying uncontrollably at the faith of thousands – poor, rich, young, old – who on that rough cobblestone of the plaza, approached the basilica on their knees.

Memories of my father who died as a young man, who during a celebration of the Virgin, insisted on carrying her statue in a driving snowstorm, despite undergoing major surgery just weeks earlier. This was the first and the last time I had ever seen this tower of strength cry.

So when the opportunity arose to speak of Guadalupe, I was overjoyed. But I found that this has been the most difficult piece I have ever written - I could not find the words. How does one explain someone who is so important to me? How do I explain the expression on the face of my father, grandmother, or the thousands of faithful? How do you explain love? How can you explain hope?

Then I realized that the expression on their faces was hope, and it is hope that makes this young woman from Galilee special.

We are blessed with a unique relationship with our God. Our creator has a heart filled with love and he continually yearns to be close to his creation. And we have the same yearning – the need to be present with our Lord in heart, mind, and body. We see this in the struggle of the Old Testament, in the poetic beauty of the Psalms. This is the promise of Advent.

It is God’s quiet call to us, and our response is hope, and hope forms the basis of our faith.

None of us want to be forgotten, we hope for love, healing, comfort, we hope for the presence of God. And we find that in Guadalupe, for she is more than ethnic identity, geographic place or denominational politics. Our Lady of Guadalupe represents hope.

Guadalupe includes. Juan Diego is walking in the darkness to Mass – he already believes in Christ. But although a Christian, he is not really part of the fellowship.

Why? Sadly, there are instances where people use religion to justify their oppression of others. Scripture is used to rationalize exclusion, segregation and discrimination. As a result, many are left squinting through the wrong side of the stained glass windows.

It is said that in every age the miracle of Guadalupe will remind the church that those the church alienates are precisely the ones who have the gifts she needs so badly to grow and be reformed.

Guadalupe transforms - for in the darkness Juan Diego hears the call and in Mary he meets the hope of a new day. Her request is not adoration, but a church where everyone can worship as one, to build a church where everyone is welcome.

Her message is that as a church, as a people, we must unite in love. And it applies not only to “the” church it applies to “our” church. Let’s continue to make this wonderful spiritual home of ours a place where there are no strangers in our sanctuary, where there is always a comforting hand for those who need it, a place that when we are away, someone recognizes our absence.

In appearing to Juan Diego, hope takes the form of liberation, Juan Diego lives in a society where money, greed and power determine your status. He is ostracized and moved to the margins because of his race and poverty.

But they only reasons to justify oppression. In another time or place, it could have easily been his gender, his physical condition, or just being how God made him. They are conditions that each one of us knows because oppression does not distinguish color, gender or faith.

In appearing to an illiterate peasant, Guadalupe realizes the promise of the Magnificat - the proud will be scattered, the powerful brought down, the lowly lifted up and the hungry filled with good things. Guadalupe understands oppression and marginalization, because when she said yes to the Angel Gabriel, she was a poor, oppressed and illiterate peasant.

For the same reason that John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice, millions sing to Guadalupe. We leap and sing because she brings the most important thing - the hope of love and peace.

What is often forgotten is that when she appeared on the barren hill of Tepayec, there were three symbols more important than the sun, the moon, and stars, more important than the angels.

They are two crosses and a black maternity band. Mary wore the band, signifying she was with child. At the center of the picture is found a native cross, the center of the cosmic order to the Aztec. This symbol indicated that the baby Mary carried within her, Jesus Christ was the Word made Flesh, the new center of the universe.

On the brooch around her neck is a black Christian cross, indicating she is both a bearer and follower of Christ, the Son of God, and our Savior, who died on the Cross to save mankind.

Her words speak of Christ. She tells Juan Diego: I greatly desire that a sacred home be erected here, which I can show him, exalt him by manifesting him. I will give him to the people with all my personal love.”

A theologian wrote one of the most moving descriptions of Mary in the form of Guadalupe. “God who made the sun, also made the moon. The moon does not take away from the brilliance of the sun. The moon would be a burnt-out cinder floating in space if it were not for the sun.

All its light is reflected from the sun. The Blessed Mother reflects her Divine Son; without him, she is nothing. With Him, she is the Mother of Men. On dark nights we are grateful for the moon; when we see it shining, we know there must be a sun.

So in this dark night of the world when men turn their backs on him who is the light of the world, we look to Mary to guide their feet while we await the sunrise.

We celebrate Guadalupe brings she brings inclusion, liberation, love and peace to the world through the hope that was inside her – Jesus Christ.

There are so many people in this world who are hurting, looking for that reason to hope. They are all around us, in our home, maybe even in the mirror.

And as we so often do, we go on our daily journey ignoring this fact. I doubt that Juan Diego was expecting anything miraculous that day. But that is why I love Guadalupe. She brings the message of hope that is Jesus Christ.

Because when we take the hope that is Jesus into our hearts, it transforms us. And when we take it into the world, it empowers us.

It empowers us:

To reach out to the lonely, the lost and the sick.
To fight poverty.
To heal.
Speak out against injustice.
Protect the most vulnerable.
To liberate the oppressed
Show kindness.
Forgive.
Yearn for God.
Love.

For only hope can bring roses to a cold , barren hillside in December
And hope brings belief.
For blessed is she or he who believes.
Blessed is each one of you.
For unto us, a child will be born.

Amen.