Our Lady of Guadalupe conveys God’s confidence in, concern for the humble and downtrodden
SCROLL THE ARROWS to see 32 more photos from Marshall and Sedalia.
Throughout Salvation History, God has been lifting up the lowly and sending them to proclaim his message to the powerful.
Faith and trust are what these unlikely emissaries have in common.
“God can choose wherever he wants, and he chooses very humble and faithful people who accept the invitation,” said Father Francis Doyle.
Fr. Doyle, pastor of St. Peter Parish in Marshall and St. Joseph Parish in Slater, offered Mass and preached the homily in St. Peter Church the evening of Dec. 12, the Solemnity of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
“God chose Mary, a very humble but enormously faithful woman, to be the mother of his Son,” the priest noted. “And also St. Juan Diego — uneducated, no status, very poor. The Lord chose him to have an encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
That unlikely encounter sent waves down through the generations, with millions of conversions to the Catholic faith being attributed to Our Lady’s apparitions to that humble man, along with her continued intercession.
On Dec. 9, 1531, Jesus’s Mother made the first of several apparitions to Juan Diego, an indigenous convert to Catholicism, at Mount Tepeyac in present-day Mexico City.
In the cold of winter, she left him with a bouquet of roses, a type that is not native to that locale, along with an intricate, scientifically inexplicable image of herself imprinted upon his tilma (cloak).
With those powerful signs, she sent Juan Diego as a missionary to his own people and to those who had led them to the cross by the sword.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe near Mexico City, where the tilma is displayed, is the most celebrated place of pilgrimage in the Americas.
Devotion to Mary under the title Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to increase, and today she is venerated as patroness of the Americas.
Personal devotion to her as an intercessor is an essential element of Latin American spirituality and culture.
Pope St. John Paul II declared Juan Diego a saint in 2001.
Masses and daylong celebrations mark the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico and other Latin American countries and in U.S. communities with large Hispanic populations.
Celebrations often include Las Mañanitas, the traditional serenading of the Blessed Mother, usually before dawn; Mass; the acting-out of the story of St. Juan Diego and the Blessed Mother; festive music and fellowship.
“Closer to Christ”
Celebrations in Sedalia started at 4 a.m. in the St. Patrick Chapel of St. Vincent de Paul Parish, with the serenading of the Blessed Mother.
Father Brad Berhorst, associate pastor of the parish and judicial vicar for the diocese, offered Mass at 5 a.m.
He noted that the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated just four days after this year’s observance of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception — the title under which Our Lady is revered as patron saint of the United States.
Why two Marian feasts, celebrated close together?
“Some things just can’t be over-celebrated!” Fr. Berhorst proclaimed in his homily, “and I am sure that our devotion to the Mother of God is one of those things.”
Furthermore, her appearance to Juan Diego in that particular time and place manifests God’s love and concern for every person.
“In his own great plan of salvation, God gave Mary as a mother to every Christian in the person of the Beloved Disciple when Jesus said to him from the Cross, ‘Behold, your mother,’” said Fr. Berhorst, referring to John 19:26-27.
“But God also ordained that Mary should at certain points later in history manifest her particular and special care for each and every one of us — not just in a general and universal way, but with a particular and special knowledge of our needs and intentions,” the priest stated.
He noted that the Blessed Mother appeared to Juan Diego as a beautiful, radiant young woman, speaking his indigenous language.
“She looked like him and his people, and she spoke like him and his people,” the priest said. “Our Lady knew Juan Diego — her appearance to him was not the beginning of her relationship with him, but rather a milestone along the way of her relationship to him.”
The fact that so many conversions took place so quickly shows that Mary also knew the hearts of the people in Mexico at that time.
“And although we may never experience such a remarkable manifestation of Our Lady’s presence as her appearance to Juan Diego, her relationship to each of us is no different,” said Fr. Berhorst. “It’s the same: Our Lady knows us. She knows our hearts, as well.”
The priest encouraged everyone to call upon the intercession of Our Lady, “who is truly ours, who knows our needs and intentions, who knows that what we need most is Jesus Christ, her Son, and who always knows how to bring us closer to him for help in time of need.
“This is the role that Mary plays in our lives,” said Fr. Berhorst. “She brings us closer to Christ, her Son, and to His Church.”
“Rich and instructive”
At the Mass in Marshall, Fr. Doyle encouraged the people to learn everything they can about the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on St. Juan Diego’s tilma.
“Take time to really investigate all the details of the image,” he suggested, “And not only scientifically but also symbolically. It’s incredibly rich and instructive.”
