12/12/2011 – Monday – Homily for Our Lady of Guadalupe – Luke 1:39-47 –

          It is wonderful to be here at St Richard’s to celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe today.  Two years, Sandra Flores, Suzan Cox, and I planned our first Spanish mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and here we are two years later having our third annual celebration here in our parish.  Today’s celebration remembers an event that took place way back in 1531, not long after the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish conquistadors.   On that day, a beautiful lady from heaven appeared to poor & humble Juan Diego on Tepeya hill near present-day Mexico City.  She identified herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.  She requested that a church be built on that site, but the bishop asked Juan to bring him a sign that this was really the Blessed Mother.  Mary sent Juan Diego to the top of the hill to collect Castillian roses to give to the bishop as his sign, since roses wouldn't normally grow there in the middle of winter.  Juan collected the roses in his tilma, a type of poncho made from catus fibers.  When Juan unfurled his tilma to give the roses to the bishop, the image of Our Lady was revealed, miraculously printed appearing there.

         Our advanced modern technology still cannot explain the image & apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe that appeared on that day.  Over the centuries, Our Lady of Guadalupe has appealed to the hearts of the faithful all over the world.  Many miracles & cures are attributed to her healing power.  18 to 20 million pilgrims visit the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico each year.

         Even today, Our Lady of Guadalupe is the image of hope & liberation in Mexico & all over Latin America.  When Ceasar Chavez led the United Farm Workers in California to fight for their rights, Our Lady of Guadalupe was their symbol.  In poor Mexican American neighborhood throughout the United States, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a symbol of hope and liberation. The image that Juan Diego brought into the world almost 500 years ago has so much meaning on so many levels for us today. 

            This solemnity shows how important Mary is as the mother of our Church.  It also helps us here in the United State to appreciate the Hispanic and the gifts that it brings to our Church & to our society.  Just as Elizabeth called Mary blessed among women, we proclaim Mary blessed as well as we honor her in a special way on this feast day. Today, Juan Diego & Our Lady of Guadalupe are presented to us as examples of faith, speaking out to us from a time and place so different from modern America, but the message they bring to us still resonates so clearly today. May the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the image of a poor native woman who will bear a child, help us to prepare a place in our hearts for the upcoming birth of Christ into our world.  May Our Lady of Guadalupe inspire us to help others in our community & in our world.  May she be a symbol of unity for all of us who live in the Americas.