12 December 2015
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Today is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Mary’s appearance to Juan Diego as one of his people is a powerful reminder that God hears the cries of the poor. More importantly, it is a reminder that it was God who sent Mary to the hill of Tepeyac and met Juan Diego. In other words, God is in charge of the enterprise of loving the poor and being with the poor.
We hear so much about preferential option for the poor. Sins and evils are not a common language any longer. Rather, equality of income and opportunity become favorite vocabularies. All social and economic problems are caused by capitalism in the form of money and greed. Many people of God have tried to change the world into a better and more humane society. But, many times they forgot that what Mother Teresa said, “I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.”
Saint Oscar Romero said, “the oppressed must be saved, not with a revolutionary salvation in mere human fashion, but with the holy revolution of the Son of Man, who dies on the cross to cleanse God’s image. God’s image is soiled in today’s humanity, a humanity so enslaved, so selfish, so sinful.” Let us pause and reflect on the heroes who will save the poor. With Jesus Christ, we are just his pencil.