Our Lady of Guadalupe
Vespers/Donor Reception
St. Mary’s Seminary
December 12, 2023
The Mission of Juan Diego
The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe takes us back to 1531 when the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill. She sent Juan Diego to the bishop to ask that a church be built in her honor on that hill as a sign of her compassion and love for the struggling Christian community. When Juan Diego presented her request to the local bishop, he was skeptical. A second time, she sent Juan to the bishop but his response was the same. When Juan Diego tried to evade the Blessed Mother, she sought him out and sent him back yet again to the bishop, but this time the Virgin Mary sent him to the bishop with a sign: his tilma was filled with Castellan roses that had miraculously bloomed amid the frost. When Juan opened his tilma, not only did the beautiful roses fall to the floor, but there was imprinted on his cloak a beautiful image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the very image we venerate as Our Lady of Guadalupe nearly 500 years later.
Not only did the Virgin Mary speak Juan Diego’s language, she wore vesture illuminated with religious symbolism that spoke powerfully to native Americans and Europeans alike. After her apparition on Tepeyac Hill, the Americas were rapidly evangelized. It is said that some nine million were added to the faith in a relatively short time, as the Gospel of Jesus Christ swept up and down the Americas. Aglow with the light of Christ, Mary is rightly called “the star of evangelization”.
A Closer Look
I have visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico many times. Like millions of pilgrims, I rode the conveyor belt taking pilgrims past her image to venerate Mary and to ask her intercession for myself and those I serve. But on two occasions I had the wonderful privilege of visiting the Basilica after hours. The Rector of the Basilica brought me and a small number of pilgrims to the sacristy. We climbed steps to an area behind which the image of Our Lady is displayed. The image was turned around into an opening in the wall so that we could venerate the image up close…within only a few inches…I was very moved. I felt the something of the maternal love that St. Juan Diego experienced so long ago, and from my heart I poured out a welter of needs, worries, and intentions for the members of this archdiocese as well as for myself and my loved ones.
Tonight, I feel the same as I gather with you on this beautiful feast day. As we offer our evening sacrifice of praise, Mary graces us anew with her presence. She is with us, as a family of faith, showering us with maternal love. Let us gaze at her, and seeing her, let us pour out our hearts to her with confidence:
We see Mary clothed with sun and on her head a crown adored with twelve stars. Because she is radiant with the light of Christ, we ask her to shine on us to illuminate our path forward, to lead us to Christ, to guide us with a mother’s love.
We see that Mary is with Child, the Son of God whom she bore with love beyond all telling. We ask that we too might receive Christ into our hearts and homes, even as we cherish mothers and their unborn children in their need.
We listen as Mary sends Juan Diego on what seemed a mission impossible, and we ask to be bold and courageous messengers of Christ in our world, among family members, friends, and colleagues.
We behold Mary’s choice of a messenger, a man who was poor and lowly. And we ask to be meek and humble of heart, like Mary’s Son, even as we ask also to have eyes that see the poor and love them as Christ does.
We hear Mary address Juan affectionately, as a mother would speak to a son, and we ask for the grace and strength to love our young people, to gather them into the arms of the Church – to educate them, to catechize them, to help them become the persons God intended them to be.
With Juan Diego we are amazed to see the barren hill of Tepeyac bloom with roses, and we ask that desolate neighborhoods in Baltimore and beyond may bloom again as places of justice, peace, safety, and opportunity, and that hearts rendered barren by indifference may bloom again with renewed faith.
We see Mary’s image imprinted on the tilma and pray that her virtues may be imprinted in our hearts, as we follower Son in discipleship, resolute in fulfilling the mission he gave us.
Gazing at Mary, let our hearts be filled with hope and good cheer – confident, that even in the most challenging of times, when headwinds seem strongest, her powerful intercession will merit for us the strength from God we need to fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ in our time and place in history. It is a mission we accomplish together, you and I, and it is a joy and privilege not only to serve you but to serve with you. This night, with Mary’s help, we give thanks and praise to the Triune God, even as I take this moment to offer all of you and each of you my profoundest gratitude for your leadership and support.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!