From Dark Aztec History, Juan Diego Emerges to Fulfill Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Request (Part II)

From Dark Aztec History, Juan Diego Emerges to Fulfill Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Request (Part II)

Lecture on Our Lady of Guadalupe from the 2008 Fatima Conference

by Rev. Fr. Dominic Radecki, CMRI

(Winter, 2015)

The beautiful words Our Lady spoke to Juan Diego were not meant for him alone; they constitute the special gift, the signal grace of the Guadalupan apparitions. Here on Tepeyac Hill, to all her bewildered and troubled children, to all her children who are trying so hard to do what is right and yet meet with nothing but opposition, failure and cross upon cross, Our Lady does not open up the ground and display the horrors of hell. She does not predict famine, war or the annihilation of nations. She isn’t going to warn Juan Diego of what will happen to him unless he amends his life. We have heard all these things at Fatima, Lourdes and La Salette. But here at Guadalupe, our Blessed Mother tells us what we need to hear when we feel we just can’t go on any more and when everything seems at its worst.

So listen carefully to Our Lady’s words of December 12th, 153l, as she speaks to all of us who live in this land:

“Hear and let it pen­etrate into your heart, my dear little son. Let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you. Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here, I who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the crossing of my arms, in the folding of my mantle? Is there anything else that you need?”

As the accounts declare, Juan Diego’s uncle was cured at that very hour. After assuring him that his uncle was better, Our Lady asks Juan to go up the hill and pluck the roses he will find growing there. Roses, in mid-December, on the barren top of Tepeyac? Little Bernadette Soubirous, three centuries later, was commanded by the Lady of the Grotto to eat the herbs and drink the water at the bank of Massabielle. The child could find nothing but weeds and a pool of mud; nevertheless she ate and washed herself as the Lady had bidden. Simple faith, humble obedience — and the miraculous waters of Lourdes sprang up at her hand!

Am I not here, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the crossing of my arms, in the folds of my mantle? Is there anything else that you need?

Now Juan Diego obeys Our Lady in the same simple faith, climbs the hill, and lo! roses! Beautiful Castilian roses are growing in the hard, frozen ground where nothing ever had grown but cactus, thorny plants and thistles. Gingerly he plucks as many of the fragrant flowers as he can, tying his tilma around his neck and using it as an apron. In spite of the sharp thorns and his frozen fingers, Juan’s cloak is soon filled with the miraculous blooms; he hastens back to the Lady, who rearranges them carefully with her own hands. Then she tells him:

“My son, these flow­ers are the sign you are to take to the Bishop. You are to tell him, in my name, that in them he will recognize my will and that he must fulfill it. You are my ambassador, worthy of trust. Do not unfold your tilma or reveal its contents until you are in his presence.”

The altar image of Our Lady of Guadalupe with St. John the Baptist, Juan de Zumárraga and Juan Diego by Miguel Cabrera

Will the Castilian Roses Be the Sign the Bishop Needs to Believe Juan’s Story?

A very different Juan Diego now runs almost all the way to Mexico City. His heart is beating with joy as he carries the sign  the beautiful  Lady has given him for the  Bishop. Now His Excellency will surely believe him!

The sneers and insults of the servants no longer bother him, Juan waits patiently, holding the ends of his tilma tightly to himself, warding off the curious aides and officials who pluck at it to see what he is hiding. Some succeed in catching sight of the beautiful flowers, even smelling their wonderful perfume, but when they try to snatch at them, the flowers seem to melt into the sides of the tilma as if suddenly woven into the fabric.

One of the servants now dashes off to report to the Bishop that the persistent Indian is back and this time is carrying something strange in his tilma. When Juan is finally admitted into the Bishop’s presence, he finds himself surrounded by a number of important personages, including the new governor of Mexico, Bishop Don Sebastian Ramirez. God had so arranged that these personages were to bear witness to all posterity of the miracle about to take place before their very eyes.

An engraving from the book, “The Happiness of Mexico”, published in Spain in the mid 1600s. Public domain via Wikimedia.

Juan retells his story: the appearance of the Lady, her words, the roses growing on Tepeyac, how she arranged them in his tilma and sent them as the sign the Bishop had asked for… With that, Juan trium­phantly releases the ends of his cloak and says: “Here they are, receive them!” The lovely floral bouquet cascades to the floor in a profusion of color and perfume.

The Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Juan’s Tilma Inspires Millions of Natives in Mexico to Receive Baptism

Bishop Zumarraga gazes down, momentarily speechless. The sign! Full of wonder he lifts his eyes to the tilma, and at that instant there appears on it a glorious image of the Mother of Christ!

For one electrifying moment, the eyes of every person in that hushed room are riveted on the glowing image. Then slowly they sink to their knees in awe and venera­tion. Meanwhile, Juan sees nothing from where he is standing, only the roses now scattered in disarray at his feet. Why is the Bishop kneeling before him? Juan looks at his tilma to see what everyone is staring at. His eyes widen in amazement. The Lady has put her very own picture on his cloak! On his tilma, his very own tilma.

The Bishop reverently unties it and tells Juan Diego how sorry he is for not believ­ing him. Our Lady will have her chapel, her shrine. And with this stupendous miracle, the devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the conversion of the New World to Christianity, began in earnest. In just seven years from the day of this miracle, while the Protestant revolt in Europe was tear­ing at the heart of the Church and drawing thousands of her children to perdition, eight million natives in Mexico received the saving waters of Baptism.

Our Lady Heals Juan’s Uncle and Entrusts Him with Her Name

How did the Image on the tilma of Juan Diego come to be called Our Lady of Gua­dalupe? According to historians, Our Lady herself gave this name to Juan’s uncle when appearing to him. Old Juan Bernardino testified that as he lay close to death, waiting for his nephew to bring a priest, a beautiful young Lady appeared to him in a bright light, made him well and told him that she had given a picture of herself to his nephew. This picture was to be enshrined in a chapel on the hill at Tepeyac. And she said to him: “Call me and call my image Santa Maria de Guadalupe — Holy Mary of Guadalupe.”

Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Message is a Great Comfort in Our Times of Neo-Paganism

There are so many reflections to be made here, and so much more of the story that remains to be covered; the meaning of the Picture to the natives and the truths of the Faith that her very Image conveyed to them; the miracle of the tilma itself and its preservation in such perfect condition after nearly 500 years; the mystical symbolism of her garments and of the entire image, the spirituality it conveys and its influence upon the men and women of the Americas for nearly five centuries; how scientists and artists try to explain the way the image is “painted” upon the tilma; its colors, propor­tions, details, the enlarged photographs of her eyes; the scientific examinations which reveal such startling evidence that Our Lady is REALLY gazing upon her children… All of it is so wonderful that a Conference of an entire month’s length would still fall short of what could be said, what could be learned of the Guadalupan image and story. There is a fair plethora of books, periodicals, research material, scientific investigation, sworn testimony — all of it so intriguing to the historian. But what, in a few words, are we to take away from this particular talk?

Well, it seems to me that Guadalupe has a very special message for us all. We live in an age of very great material, scientific and technological advancement. Yet we are surrounded by a neo-paganism which has infiltrated our entire society, even our Church. The knowledge of the true Reli­gion, the worship of the one true God, is quickly disappearing from the face of the earth. It seems that Western civilization itself is collapsing before our very eyes.

The night of faith in which we are all engulfed grows darker by the moment with every sin and blasphemy and perversion which rises up to shake its fist in God’s face. There are so many idols, so many false gods, that our moderns so desperately try to please, sacrificing everything they have!

Our “economic world” lies on the brink of disaster. It is according to all the signs, a perfect setting for the coming of the Anti­christ foretold by St. Paul, and the battle lines are being tightly drawn between the forces of Good and the powers of hell. We are living during a pivotal point in the his­tory of mankind.

Our earthly life is very short. Although empires, dynasties and civilizations come and go, the salvation of souls, the salva­tion of our own soul, remains the single most important and urgent thing we must accomplish by the time we die.

Listen to these words again: “I am your merciful Mother, the Mother of all who live in this land.” Our Lady has not left her image, in such a way, anywhere else in the world. Since we live in America, she is OUR Mother in a very unique way. Our Lady loves us specially, like a favorite child. She did not leave such an image to the Catholics of Europe, who had the Faith long before we did. Our Blessed Mother left it here, for us, in a most special way.

As the beautiful words of her feastday Mass tells us; “I have chosen and sanctified this place, that My name may be there and that My eyes and My heart may remain there forever… He [God] has not done in like manner to every nation.”

Through our daily disappointments, frustrations, irritations, anxieties, sorrows, pain and fears let us always recall Our Lady’s most comforting words. We must trust in her motherly love and care for us for she has said:

“Hear and let it penetrate into your heart. Let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you. Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here, I who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the crossing of my arms, in the folding of my mantle? Is there anything else that you need?”

–Taken from the Reign of Mary Quarterly Magazine, Issue 157

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