"The Inmaculate alone has from God the promise of victory over Satan. She seeks souls that will consecrate themselves entirely to her, that will become in her hands forceful instruments for the defeat of Satan and the spread of God's kingdom."
St. Maximillian Kolbe
Today we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Most people know the story of a man named Juan Diego who encountered the Virgin Mary in Mexico City, between December 9 and December 12, 1531. Mary told Juan Diego to ask the bishop to build a church on Tepeyac Hill. However, the bishop needed proof of Juan Diego’s encounter and asked for a miracle. Juan Diego returned to the hill to see roses in a spot where there were previously cacti. When Juan Diego returned, he showed the roses to the archbishop which he was carrying in his cloak. When he opened up his cloak, the roses cascaded to the floor and an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared miraculously in its place. The bishop was convinced of the miracle and built a church in honor of the event. The cloak is kept in this church and millions of pilgrims visit every year to pray to Our Lady.
Most people, however, don't know the story behind the story. In the year when the Virgin appeared to Juan Diego, the Aztec culture was a dominant force in Mexico. The Aztec religion was one of the most brutal the world has ever seen. Human sacrifice was a regular event in their liturgical cycle. The consecration of a new temple would include the sacrifice of thousands upon thousands of human victims. They lived in what St. John Paul II would have called a "culture of death."
Among the chief gods of the Aztecs was the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl. This was the god of the moon who would enter the abode of the dead to retrieve the life-energy of the departed. According to Aztec legend, this god produced human beings from his own blood.
Prior to the miraculous appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, all attempts to evangelize the Aztec people had failed. For about fifty years, the Spanish missionaries attempted to exercise the demons of the Aztecs and make room for the God of love, but to no avail. And then, to one pious Indian convert who had taken the name Juan Diego, appears a woman enveloped by the sun, the moon under her feet, wearing a mantle, the color of the night sky, pierced-through with glimmering stars. Beneath the mantle, she wore a rose-colored garment marked with a four-petaled flower and tied with a black ribbon above her waist. Her own gaze was averted as she stood, head bowed, with her hands held gently against one another at her breast. And the color of her skin made her to look as one of them, a native to their own land.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, which means "the one who crushes the serpent," defeated the enemy without speaking a word. Here appeared a simple woman of their own race, whose own glory outshone the sun, and who had totally vanquished the plumed serpent god of the moon who lay beneath her delicate feet. The darkness of the night sky that lay about her shoulders was the color of the kingdom of death but its darkness had been dispelled by the glimmering stars that shone through from within. The black ribbon tied above her waist was a sign of her pregnancy, and, in spite of her lowly disposition, she was a Queen. The child she carried in her womb was the very essence of divinity itself, for her garment was marked with a four-petaled flower, which signified the power of the divine realm over the whole of the world. This child in her womb made her greater than all the gods of the Aztec religion, and promised freedom in life for those who would receive her reign as Queen over heaven and earth.
All at once, the battle had been won, and the Aztec religion began to collapse. By the thousands came the converts seeking Baptism at the hands of the missionaries. They could finally believe that the demons who had held them captive had been defeated by a far greater power and that life was stronger than death, because love was the foundation of all reality. She changed the whole worldview of the Aztec people, replacing a culture of death with the Gospel of life, crushing the head of the serpent by giving birth to our Redemption, the baby Jesus who came to give us abundant life and peace.
If we are being tempted by the enemy, we can turn to Our Lady who will send him away. We can ask for her shield and protection under the mantle of her love. Our Queen has defeated the enemy. We have nothing to fear.
"Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of Peace! Save the nations and peoples of this continent. Teach everyone, political leaders and citizens, to live in true freedom and to act according to the requirements of justice and respect for human rights, so that peace may thus be established once and for all." Pope St. John Paul II, Homily for the Mass at the Basilica of Guadalupe, January 23, 1998
Among the chief gods of the Aztecs was the feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl. This was the god of the moon who would enter the abode of the dead to retrieve the life-energy of the departed. According to Aztec legend, this god produced human beings from his own blood.
Prior to the miraculous appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, all attempts to evangelize the Aztec people had failed. For about fifty years, the Spanish missionaries attempted to exercise the demons of the Aztecs and make room for the God of love, but to no avail. And then, to one pious Indian convert who had taken the name Juan Diego, appears a woman enveloped by the sun, the moon under her feet, wearing a mantle, the color of the night sky, pierced-through with glimmering stars. Beneath the mantle, she wore a rose-colored garment marked with a four-petaled flower and tied with a black ribbon above her waist. Her own gaze was averted as she stood, head bowed, with her hands held gently against one another at her breast. And the color of her skin made her to look as one of them, a native to their own land.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, which means "the one who crushes the serpent," defeated the enemy without speaking a word. Here appeared a simple woman of their own race, whose own glory outshone the sun, and who had totally vanquished the plumed serpent god of the moon who lay beneath her delicate feet. The darkness of the night sky that lay about her shoulders was the color of the kingdom of death but its darkness had been dispelled by the glimmering stars that shone through from within. The black ribbon tied above her waist was a sign of her pregnancy, and, in spite of her lowly disposition, she was a Queen. The child she carried in her womb was the very essence of divinity itself, for her garment was marked with a four-petaled flower, which signified the power of the divine realm over the whole of the world. This child in her womb made her greater than all the gods of the Aztec religion, and promised freedom in life for those who would receive her reign as Queen over heaven and earth.
All at once, the battle had been won, and the Aztec religion began to collapse. By the thousands came the converts seeking Baptism at the hands of the missionaries. They could finally believe that the demons who had held them captive had been defeated by a far greater power and that life was stronger than death, because love was the foundation of all reality. She changed the whole worldview of the Aztec people, replacing a culture of death with the Gospel of life, crushing the head of the serpent by giving birth to our Redemption, the baby Jesus who came to give us abundant life and peace.
If we are being tempted by the enemy, we can turn to Our Lady who will send him away. We can ask for her shield and protection under the mantle of her love. Our Queen has defeated the enemy. We have nothing to fear.
"Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of Peace! Save the nations and peoples of this continent. Teach everyone, political leaders and citizens, to live in true freedom and to act according to the requirements of justice and respect for human rights, so that peace may thus be established once and for all." Pope St. John Paul II, Homily for the Mass at the Basilica of Guadalupe, January 23, 1998
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