In the first half of the 16th century, the Spanish arrived in what is present-day Mexico. The explorers came in the name of the Spanish Crown to claim the land. Spanish priests, notably Franciscans, came to bring the Gospel to a people who had not heard of Jesus Christ or of the Church He founded. Among them was Fray Juan de Zumárraga, who became the first Bishop of Mexico City. He certainly was interested in evangelizing the native people who lived there. He was also an ardent defender of the dignity and rights of the native Aztec people and interceded for them with the secular authorities.
The Franciscans experienced only meager success in helping the people to embrace the Catholic Faith. Committed to their mission, these priests worked with steadfast patience and loving kindness in proclaiming Christ. Still, it seemed like an uphill climb.
All this changed in December of 1531, when a native convert to the Catholic Faith, Juan Diego, climbed a hill named Tepeyac just outside of Mexico City. He was on his way to participate in Mass when, to his amazement, at the foot of the hill he heard singing of birds from above the hill. Then he heard a voice calling his name, “Beloved Juan Diego – Juanito, Juan Diegito.”
When he reached the top of the hill, he saw a Lady standing there, who called him to come to her. She was amazingly beautiful and her clothes shone like the sun. She said to him,
“Know, beloved son, that I am the immaculate ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God who is the Origin of all life, who creates all things and keeps them in being, the Lord of Heaven and Earth. I greatly wish, I earnestly desire, that my house should be built in this very place. There I will show my Son to you. There I will show my love and compassion, my help and my defense. For in truth I am your compassionate Mother, your Mother and the Mother of all who live in this land, and of any others who love me, seek me, and call on me with confidence and devotion. In that house I will listen to their weeping and their sadness, I will give them help in their troubles and provide a cure for their misfortunes. So that this desire of mine may be fulfilled, go to Mexico City to the palace of the bishop. Tell him that I have sent you to him to tell him how much I want a house to be built here for me, a church built here at the bottom of the hill.”
Obediently, Juan Diego went to the house of Bishop Juan de Zumárraga and related the experience he had had with the beautiful Lady and her request. Listening prudently, the bishop did not completely believe him. He invited Juan Diego to come again another time and indicated that, in the meanwhile, he would consider the Lady’s request.
Juan Diego was dismayed at the bishop’s response. He returned immediately to Tepeyac Hill and told the Lady what the bishop had said. He then begged her to choose a more worthy messenger. Our Lady replied to him,
“Listen, my little son; be sure that I have many servants and messengers, to whom I could entrust the delivery of my message, and carry out my wish, but it is precisely you who are chosen to assist as my messenger so that my wish be fulfilled. I earnestly implore you, my dear little son, and with I command, that you again go tomorrow and see the bishop.”
As before, Juan Diego humbly obeyed Our Lady and presented Our Lady’s message to the bishop, who still remained dubious of Juan Diego’s presentation. Bishop de Zumárraga instructed Juan Diego to return to Our Lady and ask for a sign to verify her request.
On Tepeyac Hill once again Our Lady came to her humble son. He told her of the Bishop’s request for a sign. She directed him to come the following morning for a sign she would provide for him to bring to Bishop de Zumárraga. He did not return the next morning, though, because his uncle was gravely ill and he was searching for a priest to bring him the Sacraments; he went around Tepeyac Hill to avoid his Lady. She, however, came down from the hill as he passed and spoke tenderly to him, saying,
“Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the fountain of your joy? Are you not in the fold of my mantle, in the cradle of my arms? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything. Do not be afflicted by the illness of your uncle, who will not die of it; be assured that he is now cured.”
Our Lady then sent Juan Diego to the top of Tepeyac to cut roses that he would take to the bishop. There he found exquisite varieties of Castilian roses and placed them in his tilma (a sort of poncho made of cactus fiber). He returned to Our Lady. She arranged them carefully and then said,
“My beloved son, this diversity of roses is the proof and sign which you will take to the bishop. You will tell him in my name that he will see in them my wish and that he will have to comply with it.”
Juan Diego returned to Bishop de Zumárraga who was in the presence of a number of people. When Juan Diego unfurled his tilma to present the roses, which he thought to be the sign, to everyone’s amazement, the true sign appeared. It was the image of Our Lady herself, miraculously and beautifully made present on his humble tilma. Bishop de Zumárraga fell to his knees, and all present did the same. Immediately the bishop ordered the building of a chapel as Our Lady had requested. For these last 490 years pilgrims in the millions have come to pray before the miraculous image of the Woman who is the Immaculate Mother of God and the Queen of Heaven, and yet who appears as a naive maiden, as one of her own dear people.
Another miracle occurred as a result of the Mother of God coming to Tepeyac Hill. The missionary efforts of the Franciscans went from few people coming into the Church to some nine million native people embracing the Faith within seven years of Our Lady’s visit. The culture went from worshipping false gods to whom human and even child sacrifice was offered to a culture that worshipped the One True God who became man and offered Himself in sacrifice for the salvation of all. The people ceased worshipping the “Winged Serpent” and followed the Lady who left her image on a poor man’s tilma. This image showed her to be the Woman described in the beginning of the 12th chapter of the Book of Revelation—the “Woman, clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and crowned with twelve stars, … who was about to give birth.”
She told her beloved native people, that she was Santa Maria de Guadalupe - Holy Mary of Guadalupe. Some scholars claim that what the natives heard and repeated was not Holy Mary “de Guadalupe” but “Te Quatlasupe,” which in the native language means Holy Mary “who will stamp out the stone serpent.” It makes sense, doesn’t it? This Woman is, after all, the one whose heel will strike at the serpent’s head as we read in Genesis 3:15.
We really need Our Lady of Guadalupe today! This is a time when many people are leaving the Church and the practice of the Catholic Faith. We live in a nation where the dignity of the human person is often denied. Children are sacrificed by the heinous crime of abortion. Worship of the false gods of relativism, materialism, secularism and individualism have declared war on the family, on Christian marriage, and on the identity of human persons as created in the image and likeness of God.
At a time when God’s help is needed to draw souls to Christ, to bolster and revive a culture that is often divided, confused and hostile to the Gospel, we should look to the “Holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of the True God, the Woman who stamps out the stone serpent” for her help and protection. Just as her presence brought nine million souls into the Church in 16th century Mexico and reminded that every human person has dignity and worth, we should have faith that she can do the same for us in the 21st century. After all, she is the Mother of God and our Mother, too. Who are we to doubt her power?
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Star of the New Evangelization, pray for us!
Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh