Clothed With The Sun

Our Lady of Guadalupe – 2010

          Our Lady of Guadalupe is truly the woman of the Apocalypse. St. John in his Book of Revelations writes of a great sign which appeared in heaven: “a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown.” She bore a son destined to rule all nations. Our 2^nd Reading today closes with the words: “Victory and power and empire for ever have been won by our God, and all authority for his Christ.”

          Elizabeth in today’s Gospel passage from St. Luke points to her cousin Mary who is also expecting, calls her “the mother of my Lord”, and exclaims: “Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled”.

          In time, Guadalupe represents a one of a kind victory, a victory over sin and death as Spaniards and the indigenous population of the Americas found their way to each other in finding the Mother we have in common with the Son of God. Mary’s appearances freed people to choose.

          Today, the image on the tilma is not faded nor have centuries dimmed the essential message which Juan Diego was so glad to share with all comers and for the rest of his life after Mary chose him as her messenger of peace in answer to the archbishop’s prayers, in response to the tears of her children. Today as almost a half millennium ago Guadalupe stands for favor, stands for choice, stands for freedom. The sun in which she is clothed and the moon under her feet have not grown dim; yet today they brighten our path to Jesus.

          Mexico and our sisters are proud and happy today in a way that no battle won and no declaration of independence signed can make them or us. Adam and Eve were sorely mistaken in a fundamentally wrong choice they made. Day in and day out we encounter others who reach out and seize for themselves some delight which leaves them in the same hopeless and death dealing dilemma. Let the love of Mary for us her children at Guadalupe enlighten our every choice and put us on the path to that joy and oneness willed by God from all eternity and won for us by Christ upon the Cross.