(The above words were spoken to Juan Diego)
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 12, 2022
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121222.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, commemorating the apparitions of Mary to the Mexican peasant Juan Diego in 1531.
It is also on this date, 300 years later, that Catherine McAuley founded the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin, Ireland.
With a joyous faith like that expressed in our first reading, both Mary and Catherine found their joy in total commitment to God’s will and presence in their lives. May they inspire and help to make God the center of our lives. May that discovery fill us with joy.
Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion!
Zechariah 2:14
See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD.
Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day,
and they shall be his people,
and he will dwell among you,
and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.
Perhaps by increasing our spiritual simplicity, trust and humility like Juan Diego, we can grow closer to Mary and to her Son.
Today’s beautiful readings can lead us closer into Mary’s arms. Zechariah, even without knowing her, named Mary the Holy Dwelling from whom Christ would come forth. Revelation captures multiple images from the Hebrew scriptures, fashioning a glorious picture of Mary’s significance in salvation history.
A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun,
Revelation 11:19
with the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
And our treasured passage from Luke — can we not read it like a beloved family story that gives us roots and wings?
The angel Gabriel was sent from God
Luke 1:26
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
Mary is not so far away from us. She chose to enter Juan Diego’s life, looking like a queen he would recognize in his own culture. She has chosen to do the same thing in many other struggling cultures.
How is Mary present to us today? How was she present to Catherine McAuley? Maybe as a homeless woman? An immigrant mother? An incarcerated young woman/? A sickly neighbor? An annoying, lonely grandmother?
What language is Mary speaking to us? Through what image is she reaching out to touch our hearts and lead us to her Son?
Poetry: The Messenger – Thomas Merton
There is some sentry at the rim of winter
Fed with the speech the wind makes
In the grand belfries of the sleepless timber.
He understands the lasting strife of tears,
And the way the world is strung;
He waits to warn all life with the tongue of March's
bugle,
Of the coming of the warrior sun.
When spring has garrisoned up her army of water,
A million grasses leave their tents, and stand in rows
To see their invincible brother.
Mending the winter's ruins with their laughter,
The flowers go out to their undestructive wars.
Walk in the woods and be witnesses,
You, the best of these poor children.
When Gabriel hit the bright shore of the world,
Yours were the eyes saw some
Star-sandalled stranger walk like lightning down the
air,
The morning the Mother of God
Loved and dreaded the message of an angel.
Music: Tota Pulchra Es Maria – Latin words and translation below. This lovely hymn reflects our responsorial psalm for today.
Tota pulchra es, Maria,
et macula originalis non est in te.
Vestimentum tuum candidum quasi nix, et facies tua sicut sol.
Tota pulchra es, Maria,
et macula originalis non est in te.
Tu gloria Jerusalem, tu laetitia Israel, tu honorificentia populi nostri.
Tota pulchra es, Maria.
You are all beautiful, Mary,
and the original stain [of sin] is not in you.
Your clothing is white as snow, and your face is like the sun.
You are all beautiful, Mary,
and the original stain [of sin] is not in you.
You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you give honour to our people.
You are all beautiful, Mary.
Lavish Mercy 