Our Lady of Guadalupe

Today is the Feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas.

Ten years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521, an Indian peasant named Juan Diego saw a beautiful lady standing on the barren hill of Tepeyac. The lady was dressed like an Indian woman, she had Indian features and she spoke to Juan in his own language. She gave him a message for Bishop Zumarangga. Juan Diego's story was doubted: he was illiterate and naive. The bishop asked for a sign. Three days later, Juan returned, his arms full of roses gathered from the barren hill, his cloak imprinted with the Lady's image. The significance of the story reaches beyond place and time: God has used the poor and powerless to act as social critics of their time. Juan Diego not only helped reverse attitudes of political and church authorities toward native people, but he also initiated an experience of faith that has survived over four centuries" - so goes the blurb on the movie Our Lady of Guadalupe directed by Bruce Baker.

Probably the best way to understand the meaning of Guadalupe is to go back to the year 1531 and those days in December when Mary revealed herself and God’s love to a simple Indian peasant called Juan Diego.

Read the rest of the story here.

In the article, the writer Virgilio P. Elizondo, talks about Mary and the New Evangelization and how John Paul II was inspired in his maiden papal trip to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in America. There, he begged that she would teach us the true path of evangelization.

Catholic Online tells of the two lessons that we can draw from Guadalupe - one of faith and another of understanding. Read the whole article here.

While here in Malaysia, we have our own OLOG parish in Puchong, Selangor. Wikimapia has this location map. It's a very strange place to have a church - right smack in the middle of commercial and industrial buildings! And there have been rumblings about the heirachy of the Church being shortchanged by certain parties on the exact location and size of the plot of land alloted to build the present chuch. All "fertile" ground for evangelization, perhaps?

They have an excellent website, with plenty of information and even downloadable pdf forms! It's an example of how the "church in the modern world" can evangelize - by using effective modern methods of communication and resources. The pictures above were taken at the church sometime in early November 2008.

Which can lead us to ask ourselves especially during this Advent, of waiting for the Christ - how can we best understand and live this message of Guadalupe here today?

For me, it's very simply this:

Lately in Malaysia, we have witnessed the increasing use of intimidatory tactics by the very institutions that are supposed to protect citizens - the police, the use of immoral laws, the sheer arrogance of government, the complete and utter failure to acknowledge that we are in the midst of a recession, etc, etc.

I think each one of us, like Mary and Juan Diego - can avail ourselves to God by saying "Yes" - that most difficult and yet almost surreal surrender to His will to use us in every aspect of our ordinary lives - to bring about His kingdom of peace and justice here in Malaysia by:

• Striving to understand all those around us, especially people of other faiths and creeds;
• Continuing to build bridges that unite and tear down the walls that separate us;
• Discovering new ways to reach out to all those around us.
  

The following Opening prayer of the memorial of Our Lady of Guadalupe may help us mouth our own prayer to the Virgin:

God of power and mercy,
you blessed the Americas at Tepeyac
with the presence of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe.
May her prayers help all men and women
to accept each other as brothers and sisters.
Through your justice present in our hearts
may Your peace reign in the world.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever.

Amen.