Father Thomas Welbers' Homily

(This homily was adapted from the reflections given by Maria Elena Cardeña at the 5:30 Vigil Mass on Saturday evening and the 1:00 Spanish Sunday Mass. Listen to it in English and in Spanish.)

Actions speak louder than words. How often we say that! But how well do we put it into practice? The good news today is that God matches his words with action.

When the prophet Isaiah proclaims that God is coming to vindicate his people, he foretells that “the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf will be cleared; the lame will leap like a stag, and the tongue of the mute will sing!” When the disciples of John the Baptist approach Jesus asking if he is the one they are expecting, Jesus simply tells them to pay attention to what they see and hear: the blind seeing, the lame walking, the lepers cleansed, the deaf hearing, the dead being raised, and the poor having good news brought to them.

In the same way, our Blessed Mother, whom we honor today as Our Lady of Guadalupe, demonstrates to the world who she is through her actions. Through her miracles, she shows clearly to all who will see, that she truly is the Mother of God – and our mother.

Today, as we celebrate both the Sunday of Advent that has a special character of rejoicing – Gaudete Sunday (the word means “rejoice” in Latin) – and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I want to tell you a little about her. To understand Our Lady, we must first understand something about the world that she came to.

In 1531, when she appeared to Juan Diego, the Spanish were pretty firmly in control of central Mexico, but before the conquest, the Aztecs had been the lords and masters of Middle America for over two hundred years. They were renowned warriors, and through their military power, they had built a vast empire that stretched from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and from northern Mexico to parts of Central America.

Like the Romans, they were efficient but brutal masters, and the mere mention of their name caused fear in people. This is the part that we are most familiar with.

But they were also poets, mathematicians, astronomers and architects – people of very high and sophisticated culture. Mexico City had temples, libraries, universities, and even a sewer system, something that was unknown in Europe at that time.

They had never known military defeat, and they had never surrendered.

In 1521, just 29 years after Columbus sailed the ocean blue looking for a trade route to India, and stumbled upon this continent hitherto unknown to Europeans, the Spaniards conquered the Aztecs, and left them both defeated and physically, emotionally, and psychologically devastated. As far as they were concerned their gods had abandoned them, and they were not sure they could trust the Christian God, the God of the arrogant and brutal Spanish conquistadores.

The apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe came into a world of death and destruction, fear and hatred, as a messenger preparing the way of the Lord. She restored life and hope to a broken people, and prepared them to turn their hearts over to Christ, her Son.

On a cold December morning in 1531, just ten years after the conquest, a man named Juan Diego was heading toward Mexico City. He was a peasant, but no simpleton. His name in his native language means “one who speaks like an eagle,” indicating that he probably was a respected leader in his community.

As he walked, he heard what sounded like music coming from the top of the hill of Tepeyac. As he reached the top, he found our Blessed Mother there. She instructed him to go to the Bishop of Mexico City, and request that a church be built for her on Tepeyac hill so that – in her words – she “may show her love to everyone who lives on this land.”

Twice Juan Diego went to the bishop, and twice he was rejected. But on the second visit, the bishop asked Juan Diego for proof that it was indeed the Mother of God making such a request.

When Juan Diego told the Blessed Mother that the bishop wanted proof, she instructed him to return the very next morning, and she would give him the proof that the bishop was looking for.

Juan Diego returned home only to find that his beloved uncle, Juan Bernardino, had taken ill, and in spite of all efforts he was not getting better. All that night and the next day Juan Diego sat with his uncle, until he realized that he had to go to Mexico City to get a priest to give him the last rites.

On his way back to Mexico City, he remembered the errand that he had promised Our Lady. And so he decided to skirt around the bottom of the hill, thinking that she would not see him. But of course, that didn’t work. She stopped him, and asked him where he was going.

He told her that his uncle was very ill, and that he promised to return as soon as he had gotten a priest. Then Our Lady delivered to him the words that reveal the depths of her love and her reason for coming to her dear people, words that we today still hear speaking deeply to us. She said to him:

“Listen, my youngest and dearest child, put this into your heart: the thing that afflicts you is nothing; do not let it disturb you. Do not fear this sickness or any other. … Am I not here? I, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my cloak, in the cross of my arms? Do you need something more?”

And then she instructed him to go to the top of the hill where he would find flowers, to cut them and take them to the bishop as the proof he desired. And thus her first miracle: to bring forth roses from a dry and bitter cold land where nothing but cactus had ever grown.

When Juan Diego arrived at the bishop’s palace, he retold the entire story, and then he opened his folded up tilma, his long loose outer garment, to take out the flowers, and there was the beloved image of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God. The second miracle. The bishop, and all who were with him, knelt and wept in awe and reverence.

The next day, Juan Diego showed the bishop where Our Lady wanted the church to be built, and then he returned home to see his uncle. When he arrived, he found that Juan Bernardino was healthy, and that he too had seen the Blessed Mother at the moment that she healed him. This was her third miracle.

This is why she is at the heart of the Mexican people. A people defeated and sick, and she restored hope and healing; a people oppressed, and she restored dignity; a people whose old gods had abandoned them, and through her love they became children of the One True God.

Over the centuries, the Church, through the voice of the popes, has not only encouraged and spread devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, but has emphasized that she is not only the Madonna of Mexico, but the Madonna of the Americas. This has been a recurring and much emphasized theme of our present Holy Father, John Paul II.

Why? In 1531, there were no national boundaries in the double continent of the Americas, and she said that she came to show her love to all who live on this land. In 1531, “this land” was everything from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego. In 1531 there was no United States or Canada, no other countries of Central or South America – there wasn’t even a Mexican nation in the modern sense of the word. She came to show her love to all who live on this land. And now, we too live on this land, no matter where we or our ancestors came from. She, Our Lady of Guadalupe, is ours, and we are hers.

On this Sunday of Advent-rejoicing, there is an even deeper meaning for us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, just like the Son whom she brings and reveals, demonstrated with her actions who she is for us and who we are for her. We are in the protection of her mantle; we are in the embrace of her crossed arms. She is our Blessed Mother, and we are the children whom she loves. What more could we need?

© 2004 Thomas Welbers