The timing of this feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is immensely important. We find ourselves in the heart of Advent, this year in particular, the beginning of the third week. For the Northern Hemisphere, the cold days of winter are sinking in and the flurries are flying, if not landing and piling up in some places. This day of December 12th was the day that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego on a desolate hill outside of Tepeyac, Mexico in 1531. It was Advent and winter in 1531 just as it is for us today. The hill of Tepeyac was experiencing the winter dying phase of all of the plants too. The daylight was in 1531 and is today fading away, as we are a mere ten days from the winter solstice.
In the Advent readings of this past Sunday, Isaiah: 35 (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121122.cfm) spoke of the desert. The Gospel from Matthew 11 recounted how Jesus was asking the crowds why they went into the desert and what they sought in the desert. Today’s first reading from the book of revelation provided the great heavenly battle of the huge red dragon preying on a woman about to give birth. Upon giving birth, the woman runs into a desert where there is a place prepared for her. The Gospel is the story of Mary heading out, alone, into the hill country to travel from Nazareth to Judah to visit Elizabeth, (that was about a 90 mile journey that Mary did “in haste”; through a desert!).
So from Mary, to Juan Diego, to the great apocalypse, to us today, we keep finding ourselves in desert-type places; places of death, coldness, dryness, the plants out of bloom, the light fading, loneliness, our hearts in desolation, our prayer seemingly empty. This experience, both physically and spiritually, is never easy and wished always to be avoided.
And yet, what are we seeking in this Advent time, but the coming of a savior to turn our mourning into dancing, our dark world into light, our deserts into blooming gardens. What did Juan Diego receive from the Blessed Mother on that cold and desolate December day? Bunches of Castilian Roses, not ordinarily in bloom and not even from that area of the world. What are we seeking in the world we find ourselves in today, that of chaos, loneliness and turmoil? Do we believe that God’s grace and entry into our world can indeed bring great transformation and joy? As faithful disciples of Jesus Christ and through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, let us have the confidence that God has in the past and will ever continue to work redemption in this world.