12 December 2019
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
There is a certain reticence before the image of our Lady of Guadalupe among certain Christians. For some people, the image is too gaudy, the devotional practices that surround her too earthy, the cultural expressions that embrace her too low-brow. If we must have images at all (and some people really would rather not have them), these people would rather that they express what they consider to be a more restrained, noble tradition. And does it not seem odd that the image would have been given on the cloak of Juan Diego, an indigenous catechumen who had not even been baptized? Pope Francis observes of Juan Diego, “it was precisely he, and not another, who carried imprinted on his mantle, the tilma, the image of the Virgin: the Virgin with a dark complexion and face of mixed race, supported by an angel with the wings of quetzal, pelican and macaw; the mother able to assume the features of her children to make them feel part of her blessing. It would seem that God unceasingly persists in showing us that “the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Ps 118[117]:22).”
I am reminded of another scripture, that of Naaman who resists the remedy that the prophet Elisha offers him because he considers the waters of the Jordan (in which he was told to bathe) to be far inferior to the waters of his own land (2 Kings 5). However much the tilma of our Lady of Guadalupe might jar certain people of more restrained devotion or cultural expression, it continues to be an extraordinary source of grace for many peoples, and especially for the poorest among them. Perhaps we could examine in our hearts some of the reasons why we might be jarred by this lovely image, asking ourselves whether these very reasons might not indicate some resistance to what God has revealed to us through Jesus Christ. Does not this image proclaim to us the Word that seeks to become flesh in every people, even though understandings and traditions which pre-date the arrival of Christianity, but pave the way for Christ’s coming? In this Advent, let us have the courage and humility to let ourselves be moved once again (or for the first time) by the Word that comes to us through the womb of a Virgin among us, a Virgin among those who are often overlooked, forgotten, or ignored, a Virgin among the indigenous peoples of the world.