Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Renaissance of Civilization December 12, 2015 by Peter Howard Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Renaissance of Civilization “The level of any civilization is the level of its womanhood.” These words of Venerable Fulton Sheen echoed across the radio waves back in 1947 when he spoke about the effects of communism on modern womanhood and the decision our age must make whether or not it will accept the gift of woman, which produces the strongest societies, or reject that gift and live with the catastrophic consequences that come with that. Who can better reveal to the world the unique gift of womanhood that will make or break modern civilization than “the Woman” herself, who in her usual style of beauty and mystery left the world a timeless revelation at Tepeyac Hill on 12 December 1531, forever memorialized under her title “Our Lady of Guadalupe”. The global significance of Mary’s appearances in Guadalupe cannot be underscored enough. What took place in 1531, and the Marian revolution which followed for the next eight years, is a message for all the world! Let’s briefly look at the history of this event in order to appreciate its more important spiritual significance. It is a history contextualized between the seemingly endless conflict between Christianity and Islam and, more broadly, the culture of life versus a culture of death. Our reflection takes us back to the 8th century when the Moslems swept through Spain and the Christians there hid a highly revered statue, given to them from Pope St. Gregory the Great, of Mary who held the Christ Child. It was a statue referred to as the Divine Motherhood and to protect it from the Moslems, it was buried in the ground in the Extremadura mountains. When the Moslems were driven out six centuries later, the statue was miraculously recovered by a humble shepherd and later enshrined in a Franciscan monastery next to a river called “The Wolf River” (“Guada” = river, “lupe” = wolf) a name derived from Arabic during the Moslem occupation. So, the statue of the Divine Motherhood became known according to its Islamic name Our Lady of Guadalupe. This is an interesting fact considering Our Lady would do this again centuries later by becoming known as Our Lady of Fatima in 1917 – a name connected with Mohammed’s daughter. What our secular history books do not include about Christopher Columbus were the predominantly Catholic roots of his inspiration to discover what was later called “the new world.” Even less known is that the Franciscan monastery now located where the statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Spain) is currently enshrined was where both Columbus and Hernán Cortés came to pray before setting off to the Americas. Fast forward to 1531 . . . the Church of the “Old World” in Europe is being torn to pieces by the Protestant Revolution and the impact of the early Franciscan evangelization into the New World is sparse as they encounter a diabolically inspired Aztec religion which was characterized by human sacrifice. From a Catholic point of view, things are a disaster on both fronts. You also have the growing threat of Islam returning to western Europe. Is heaven just passively watching the beginning of the end of Christendom? 9 December 1531 gave us the answer. Most are familiar with the story of St. Juan Diego and the visitations he experienced from St. Juan Diego a woman whom he learned was the Mother of Jesus Christ. I’d like to dial in on the deeper significance of the events and revelations. First, let’s reflect on the significance of the date. The visitations to St. Juan Diego began on December 9. Some may say, “Oh! just one day off from the Immaculate Conception date!” Well, historically, the first feast celebrated in honor of Mary’s conception was in the East and goes back perhaps as far as the 5th century in Syria . . . and it was celebrated on December 9. It was called “the Feast of the Conception of the Most Holy and All Pure Mother of God.” A few centuries later the feast was celebrated in the West on December 8. Is there any connection here that Our Lady was trying to make? Do Mary’s visitations beginning on this date even have any connection with her being the Immaculate Conception? This is where it really gets interesting, but because we have such limited space in a blog post, I will attempt to be brief in summarizing it. During Mary’s apparitions, she appeared to the uncle of St. Juan Diego, Juan Bernardino, and mediated a miraculous healing of a life-threatening illness. During her apparition to Juan Bernadino, Our Lady revealed that she wished to be known as “the ever-virgin Holy Mary of Guadalupe”. Catholic historians believe that Mary would have spoken this in the native Aztec language of Juan Bernardino, which would have communicated “Guadalupe” as coataxopeuh, which is pronounced “quatlasupe” (sounding very much like Guadalupe). This is indeed significant because the breakdown of the word coatlaxopeuh is the following: oa means “serpent”, tla means “the”, xopeuh means “to crush or stamp out.” Putting this all together, you have the name “Quatlasupe” meaning “the one who crushes the serpent” (and the Aztecs worshiped a serpent-god Quetzalcoatl). This allusion to Mary as “the woman” of Genesis 3:15 is remarkable as it is also used by the Church as one of the Scripture references supporting the dogma and feast of the Immaculate Conception. If that isn’t already awesome, we fast forward to the miracle celebrated today of St. Juan Diego’s tilma bearing the miraculous image of what one can say is Revelation 12 woven, literally, into the very fabric of civilization’s vestiture. There is the woman of Genesis 3:15 and Revelation 12 depicted [pregnant with Christ] in all her humility and glory at the same time: “And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child . . .” [Revelation 12:1-2]. And this “woman” who revealed herself as Our Lady of Guadalupe amidst one of the most violent cultures of death came as the Advent of Christ, pregnant with her Divine Son, ready to bear Him as the Mediatrix of Divine Mercy, to a civilization lost in darkness and death with the tenderness and power portrayed in that miraculous image. Historians report that within eight years, Our Lady of Guadalupe achieved the impossible — that approximately nine million Aztecs (basically a Pentecost a day for eight years) were converted to the Christian faith. Some even say that the number of Aztec conversions equalled those souls lost to the Protestant revolution. Cont.
What Our Lady of Guadalupe accomplished in the heart of the Americas reveals that she indeed is the bridge-builder par excellence as she connected and expanded a fractured Church in the Old World with the budding Church in the New World (since Mexico was known as the “New Spain”). Mary appeared at the geographic center of all the Americas as the Immaculate Conception (compare Mary’s appearance on the tilma with how she is described by St. Bernadette in Lourdes when she said “I am the Immaculate Conception” — they are basically identical). So, we have the Church of the East and West being united under Mary’s Immaculate Conception on 9 December, the Church of the Old World and the New World being united by the Blessed Mother bringing her Son to New Spain under the title “Our Lady of Guadalupe”, which also connects Mary with the Christian-Moslem problem. So, we’ve got North – South, East – West, Old World – New World, Christianity’s response to Paganism, Christianity’s response to Islam (In the battle of Lepanto, in 1571 Admiral Doria of the Holy League carried a small image of Our Lady of Guadalupe into the battle against the Moslems), Christianity’s response to the culture of death — all these represented in Our Lady of Guadalupe (aka Our Lady of the Divine Motherhood)! To what does Our Lady of Guadalupe not relate? Now we begin to see why in 1999, at the dawn of the new millennium St. John Paul II pointed to Our Lady as the Patroness not only of the unborn, but as the patroness of the new evangelization . . . because she is the Advent of Christ in every way. Or, to put it another way, as Venerable Fulton Sheen did, she is the spiritual Trojan horse who gets Christ, hidden within her (as we see in the Tilma), behind the most fortified walls (beginning with the walls of our own soul). So, what does this all of this have to do with womanhood? Wherever Mary enters, she crushes the head of the serpent and recalibrates a disoriented society according to its worship, its womanhood and its “yes” to life! When womanhood rediscovers this is their genius, we will have a renaissance of culture the world has never seen! And we men better be the ones fighting for this! As we enter the Jubilee of Mercy through the holy “door” of Mary let us take to heart the tender words that she spoke to her “Juanito” [her nickname for St. Juan Diego] during her visitations in 1531: “Know and understand well . . . that I am the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God for whom we live . . . I am your merciful mother, to you, and to all the inhabitants on this land and all the rest who love me, invoke and confide in me; [I listen] to their lamentations, and remedy all their miseries, afflictions and sorrows . . . Hear me and understand well . . . that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish?” Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mediatrix of Mercy and Patroness of the New Evangelization, pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Renaissance of Civilization - SpiritualDirection.com / Catholic Spiritual Direction
Sam, Thanks for posting this. I just saw the following today... And... Priest who survived major plane crash credits Our Lady of Guadalupe By Mary Rezac | https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/...ane-crash-credits-our-lady-of-guadalupe-13548 Chicago, Ill., Dec 12, 2018 / 04:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- This year, for Father Esequiel Sanchez, the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe brings up terrifying memories - and a huge reason to be thankful. Sanchez was one of 103 passengers aboard Aeromexico Flight 2431, which crashed and burned in a field shortly after takeoff on July 31 of this year. While there were some injuries, no one died. “I personally attributed that to the intercession of Our Lady, and so did the other passengers, I think most of us...saw it as miraculous,” Sanchez told CNA. Shortly after takeoff in Durango, the plane caught strong winds, causing the left wing to hit the ground and the plane to lose both of its engines. As the craft was hurtling toward the ground, Sanchez said he thought he would either die, be paralyzed, or be burned by subsequent explosions. All he walked away with was a broken arm. But his fear in the moment didn’t stop his priestly training from kicking in - he immediately started to pray out loud. “They say police officers and firefighters and soldiers will tell you that when you get into a crisis situation, your training kicks in. I think that’s happened to me too,” he said. “I prayed ‘God come to our assistance, Blessed Mother come to help us,’ and then I began to absolve everybody on the plane. I immediately said: ‘I absolve everyone on this plane, may the Lord have mercy,’” he recalled. “I thought it was just going to be it, because it was happening so fast. You don’t (crash) a 100-ton airplane at 150 miles per hour and think you’re gonna be ok. But happily we were.” When the plane crash-landed, emergency crews helped evacuate everyone before the plane exploded into flames. Sanchez’ first thought was for the victims. “I just couldn’t imagine finding someone’s mother who died and I survived. So for me to I wanted to tell them that I tried to get to them, so my primary concern was getting to the victims as best I could, and start ministering to them. When that’s what you’re concerned about, that’s what you’re going to go after.” Some survivors had worse injuries - a little girl with burn injuries was taken to a hospital, others had neck and back injuries. The plane “completely disintegrated,” Sanchez said, so the lack of deaths or worse injuries is miraculous. Besides being a plane crash survivor, Sanchez is also the rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines, Ill., a Chicago suburb. The shrine is the site of a massive celebration for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe every year on Dec. 12. The event attracts more than 200,000 pilgrims annually, many whom walk for hours or even days on foot to get there. For Sanchez, and for some other Durango plane crash survivors who have made the trek to the shrine this year, the Feast Day has taken on new significance. “So for me, on Our Lady of Guadalupe today, and all those memories...I’m a pilgrim just like them, I come to give her thanks,” he said. “Some of the survivors came and did the same thing, they came to give thanks to Our Lady.” Besides being grateful for his survival and lack of serious injury, Sanchez said one of the greatest blessings since the event has been the “outpouring of everyone from the city of Chicago and beyond.” “Everyone found out about the story and they prayed for us, there’s no place I can go without people saying we prayed for you,” he said. “So when you get that kind of generosity, my only response other than to say thank you is: I am so looking forward to becoming a better priest and a better minister, and I do things with a lot more joy,” he said. Sanchez said he loves his ministry as the rector at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and that every year it brings him hope to see the numerous pilgrims on Dec. 12, many of whom come with their whole families. “I find no more effective image or evangelizing tool than Our Lady of Guadalupe and her message,” he said. And whether you’re a pilgrim hurtling through the air in a near-death experience plane crash, or an undocumented immigrant trekking to the Shrine to beg her help: “She’s a source of hope.”
I just made the connection that OL Guadalupe is pregnant with Jesus and that is why she is the Patroness of pro-lifers. (From your post, Carol)
