🌹Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared in 1531 to the humble indigenous Saint Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill, in present-day Mexico, revealing herself as the "Perfect Ever-Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the true God." In her last apparition, on December 12, the Virgin ordered Juan Diego to gather Castilian roses in an arid and wintry place and take them to Bishop Zumárraga as a sign of the truth of her message; upon opening his tilma before the prelate, the flowers fell to the ground and the miraculous image of the Mestiza Virgin appeared imprinted on the fabric, remaining inexplicably intact through the centuries. This prodigious event precipitated the conversion of millions of indigenous people, unifying peoples under the Catholic faith and putting an end to human sacrifices in the region, with her being acclaimed Patroness of the Americas and recognized as the "Star of Evangelization" who led an entire continent to Christ (1531).
📜Book of Wisdom (Sir 24, 23-31)
As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odor: and my flowers are the fruit of honor and riches. I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb. My memory is unto everlasting generations. They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst. He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting.
✠Gospel (Lk 1, 39-47)
At that time, Mary rising up went into the hill country with haste into a city of Juda. And she entered into the house of Zachary, and saluted Elizabeth. And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord. And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
🌟The Ark of the New Covenant in the Americas
🛡️Today's liturgy establishes a profound connection between personified divine wisdom and Mary's maternal mission, which manifests in history as the "Mother of fair love and of holy hope." The apparition at Guadalupe is a mystical extension of the Gospel of the Visitation: just as Mary traveled "with haste into the hill country" of Judea carrying the Incarnate Word in her womb to sanctify John the Baptist and Elizabeth, she descended to Tepeyac Hill to bring Christ to the peoples of the New World, presenting herself pregnant in the image on the tilma and offering herself as the living tabernacle of God among men. Saint Ambrose teaches that Mary's soul magnifies the Lord not to add anything to God's greatness, but so that, through her, the image of God may be formed in the faithful (Commentary on Saint Luke), and this is exactly what occurs at Guadalupe: the Virgin does not draw gazes to herself, but, like the woman clothed with the sun of the Apocalypse, points to the true light that is her Son, crushing the head of the serpent of idolatry and cultural death. The promise contained in the Epistle, that "they that work by me shall not sin," reveals the pedagogical and preserving function of Marian devotion; by taking shelter under her mantle, we are molded in the virtue and purity necessary to welcome grace, for, as Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort states, Mary is the mold of God, where the old man is undone and the new man is formed in Christ without the agony of one's own strength, but with the sweetness of honey and the honeycomb (Treatise on True Devotion).
🇺🇸See English version of the critical articles here.
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