On the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

It was difficult at first for me to learn to let Guadalupe speak to me.  Culturally it seemed that I lived a world far from that of those for whom Guadalupe resonates.  However, what Guadalupe represents most to us is the ability of our faith to transcend language and culture--Guadalupe is truly a catholic event.

My relationship to Guadalupe grew gradually out of the Marian devotion I learned as a new Catholic coming through the RCIA many years ago.  Having come from a Protestant background, I think that the Marian dimension of the faith might have been the hardest for me to accept, but perhaps the one thing that helped in that regard more than anything else was the rosary.  Someone had the foresight to put a rosary in my hand.  Certainly, I feel that God had invited me to explore the rosary and to examine how I might come to Jesus by way of the one who bore him.  There was something irresistible in the prayers of the rosary.  Someone, it seems, had been praying for my soul--my mercy-needful soul--for some time.

My first experiences of Guadalupe were introduced to me by means of a culture where I live that has coexisted alongside the English speaking culture since the days when my Anglo-Saxon and Scottish ancestors first arrived in what was then a foreign land.  Ironically we look to Our Lady of Guadalupe as the patroness of the Americas--rather than standing for a segment of us, she stands for everyone, especially in our ability to carry and receive the message of Christ.  Guadalupe stands for our hope that the western hemisphere, and the whole world, ultimately will belong to Jesus. Naturally the first bearer of the message of universal salvation is the one who bore salvation for us.  Guadalupe tells us that Christ has come for all people, especially for future generations and converts.

Six years ago my mother, actually my great aunt but still the only person whom I had ever known as Mother, lay dying in a nursing home.  I was just finishing up the last part of the diaconal formation process with ordination only a few months ahead.  I was planning on making a trip to the far Northeast corner of the state to visit my mother.  I felt her need as she struggled with the pain of her last days.  Relatives had said, "How long will God let her suffer?"  So, a week before my visit, at one of the parishes where we were having formation classes, I took a moment to pray.  I found in the parish church a beautiful copy of Guadalupe and I knelt and prayed--"Assist me dear Mother, and assist that one who gave her love to me as a mother."  A week later mother converted to Catholicism as she lay in a nursing home bed and I had the privilege of baptizing her.  That afternoon she held my rosary--the same one I still use for prayer and carry in my pocket daily.  Mother died peacefully only a couple months later.

Throughout my faith journey icons have played an important role.  Perhaps none has been so important as she who is surrounded by the light that is her Son while she mysteriously bears him at once.  She always bears him--always she serves as carrier of the Good News, the Evangel within.

In Guadalupe the mystery appears richer because in order to apprehend it we must suspend our cultural prejudices.  We let go of who we are in order to hear her speak to us--she speaks neither in English nor Spanish.  We hear her in the tongue of the New World, a tongue that leans toward heaven because it resembles the new and final world in which Christ is the eternal light.  We too are the new people of God and when we are able to receive the message of Christ in a tongue that transcends our own, it is as profound as roses blooming in the snow.

Comments

[h]

Amen :-) Beautiful

[Honora]

Well, it's funny. Earlier I couldn't decide between going to a meeting to find out more about jail ministry (in the family center) which I've wanted to help with for a long time, or to return to Cenacle at long last. Both were at 7 pm, and in different parishes.

I went to Cenacle. Partly because of this post, partly because I've asked to come closer to Mary for a while (along with others asking that for me), and partly because after this month when my vehicle will be illegal, I'll have no way to get to the jail.

But I'd say this post tipped the scales, tho', and I'm thankful. I hope I gave Mary and Jesus something nice last night at Cenacle. I hear there are usually 10 folks; we made 6 last night. It was simple, quiet, slow, and so sweetly real in that winter-darkened church, and in the chapel we were even treated to His being reposed in a monstrance for our tiny little magnificent gathering.

Deacon Dan, thank you for writing of her.

:-)