Mary, Our Lady of Guadelupe

The story associated with Our Lady of Guadalupe is familiar for most catholics, especially over the last 20 years.  Juan Diego, like so many of the Advent people we have heard, and will hear about, becomes an instrument in this mysterious event.  Mary's message here reminds us that we have a God who wants to join with us humans.  God sees and knows our goodness, despite we are often greedy, lost, and hurtful.  In our fragile nature God finds a home and a prophet in the Blessed Virgin Mary.

 

Mary is a real person, a model of faith, who had made the choice to join herself to God and to become part of God's plan of salvation.  She praises God who lifts up the lowly and fills the hungry with good things.  While many might be halted by fear and doubt, Mary responds positively to the initiative of God in our lives.

 

Mary's message at this feast is to believe and trust in God.  Even when we are broken and it seems that we are overwhelmed by exterior forces, God's saving actions continue to grace us and lift us up.  In spite of our faults and divisions God shows us a vision of who we really are and what we might become.  Mary, in her motherly love, draws us close to God and recalls for us the covenant made with us from the beginning of time.

 

When John Paul visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, back in December of 1999, he cajoled men and women to awaken their consciences as a people of God and to respond to the worlds problems as children of the light.  For John Paul there continues in our time an urgency to respond in faith to the needs and concerns in our midst.  Torture, oppression, violence, and abuse have become so common as to almost not be noticed anymore.

 

Our prayer today is that inspired by Our Lady of Guadalupe, all areas of life, whether it be social, professional, or cultural, might be informed by the immense love which God has for us.  In a very particular way we are to see the needs and concerns of the poor and the anawim.  To Mary of Guadalupe we pray to one who belongs all love, honor, glory and endless praise.