New Year's Day 2014

Five weeks ago I was in Mexico City in the area know as Tepeyac. From where I stood in the center of a huge Plaza I could see three churches; looking up the hill was a very simple small one, the original chapel site, another much larger one was located down the hill on one side of the Plaza, built centuries ago to accommodate many pilgrims and finally next to it an enormous, modern one where there were crowds of people coming and going. This, of course, was the new Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Inside the tilma or Indian cape with the image of Mary on it is kept in a gold frame over the main altar. Thousands of pilgrims come here to pray each day. The story of Mary’s appearance at Tepeyac is well known, but the context of the story is not.

It took place in 1531 about ten years after a war between two great nations, the Aztec and the Spanish. Because of their guns and horses the Spanish defeated the Aztecs. In addition to soldiers the Spanish had brought along missionaries with the intention that they would spread the Christian faith. While the soldiers were successful in defeating the Aztecs the missionaries were not successful in converting them. A generation later, only an insignificant number of the Indians had accepted Christ. This was largely due to the lifestyle of many of the Spanish conquerors and because the majority of Indians were harshly treated and impoverished.

Among those who did accept Christ was a humble, hardworking man named Juan Diego. It was while he was on his way to catechism class and Mass that Mary appeared to him. She came not as a foreigner but as a brown skinned woman who spoke to him in his native Nahuatl language. She was the antithesis of the powerful Spanish soldiers and also unlike the missionaries. She came and spoke as a tender, loving mother to a beloved son. She wore a black sash around her waist as did noble Indian women who were pregnant. Her words were spoken in a gentle manner and immediately touched Juan Diego’s heart, so that he fulfilled all she asked him to do. Only a few years after the appearances of Mary to Juan, thousands of Mexican became followers of her son.

When Mary requested that a chapel be built on the site of her appearance, it was to be a place where all, both Indians and Spaniards could come to seek her intercession for their needs. In the process of accepting Mary and her Son the people of Mexico became a new race, the mestizo people, a blend of Indian and Spanish blood, but also a people united by faith in Jesus Christ. Here Mary was doing what God desires so deeply everywhere, that all be one in the kind of unity that Jesus prayed for at the Last Supper and the kind of unity that leads to true peace.

Today we are celebrating the Solemnity of Mary. It is actually a celebration of her motherhood. That motherhood began on the day she said yes to the Angel Gabriel and conceived Jesus. She has never ceased being a mother. She was with the Apostles in the upper room when the Church was born to bring the Good News of Jesus to the world. She has continued down through the ages and done in other nations what she has done in Mexico. Pope Frances tells us in his recent Apostolic Exhortation that she is the model evangelizer and that we are to both seek her intercession and follow her example as we the Church of today take up our responsibility to bring Christ into our world. For we all have the responsibility of spreading the Gospel to others. More than ever the world needs the Good News and the Church needs all its sons and daughters to be its messengers. During this New Year we will all hear this call over and over again from our Holy Father. We must not be intimidated or fearful. With our “Yes” we will receive as Mary did the grace to be Christ-bearers.