Homily For Our Lady of Guadalupe. Feast day: Dec 12

In 1531 (fifteen thirty one) a “Lady from Heaven” appeared in Mexico as the pregnant Mother of God to Blessed Juan Diego, an Aztec Indian from Tepeyac, a hill northwest of Mexico City. She identified herself as the Mother of the True God and instructed him to tell the bishop to build a church on the site.

As a sign for the bishop, she left a Miraculous Image of her appearance on his cactus fiber cloak, or tilma, which still exists today for all to see in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Our Lady came to offer faith, hope and consolation to the oppressed natives of Mexico and to reconcile them with their Spanish rulers. She put an end to the bloody human sacrifice of the Aztecs and converted ten million natives in the next 10 years. Her message was of love and compassion, and her universal promise of help and protection to all humankind.

The tilma on which her image appeared should have deteriorated within 20 (twenty) years but until now shows no sign of decay.  It is now over 470 (four hundred and seventy) years and it is still intact. To this day, it defies all scientific explanations of its origin.

There are many known Marian apparitions recorded and recognized by the Universal Church. For example Our Lady of Lourdes in France, Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal and the most recent one happened in Africa at Kibeho Rwanda. Each apparition is special and unique in its own way.

There is reason to believe that in Mexico Mary came in her glorified body, and her actual physical hands rearranged the roses in Juan Diego’s tilma, which makes this apparition very special.

An amazing list of miracles, cures, and divine interventions are attributed to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Each year an estimated 10 (ten) million people visit her Basilica, making her Mexico City home, the most popular Marian shrine in the world, and the most visited Catholic church in the world after Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Today, as a sign of their devotion to Mary, many pilgrims travel to this site on their knees for many miles. They do this as a sign of their devotion to Mary and to show gratitude for favors received from her.

Mary’s apparition in Mexico to Saint Juan Diego aided the Catholic Church’s effort to bring the Gospel to the Americas including Puerto Rico. This is why the bishops of the United States affirm that: “Mary embraces God’s will and freely chooses to cooperate with God’s grace, thereby fulfilling a crucial role in God’s plan of salvation.”

To this day, Science cannot explain the tilma.

There is no under sketch, no sizing and no protective over-varnish on the image. Microscopic examination revealed that there were no brush strokes. The image seems to increase in size and change colors due to an unknown property of the surface and substance of which it is made. According to Kodak of Mexico, the image is smooth and feels like a modern day photograph. Produced 300 (three hundred) years before the invention of photography.) The image has consistently defied exact reproduction, whether by brush or camera. Several images can be seen reflected in the eyes of the Virgin. It is believed to be the images of Juan Diego, Bishop Juan de Zummaraga, Juan Gonzales-the interpreter and others.

The distortion and place of the images are identical to what is produced in the normal eye, which is impossible to obtain on a flat surface. The stars on Our Lady’s Mantle coincide with the constellation in the sky on December 12, 1531 (fifteen thirty one). All who have scientifically examined the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe over the centuries confess that its properties are absolutely unique and so inexplicable in human terms that the image can only be supernatural.

In 1999 (nineteen ninety nine), Blessed John Paul II, in his homily given during the Solemn Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, declared the date of December the 12th as a Liturgical Holy Day for the whole continent. He also entrusted the cause of life to her loving protection, and placed under her motherly care the innocent lives of children, especially those who are in danger of not being born.

May our lady of Guadalipe and patron of the Americas pray for us.

Now take a moment of silence and offer your personal prayer to our lady of Guadalupe.