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Each December, Catholics focus on Mary in two unexpected ways in the middle of the penitential season of Advent: Her Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe, the 1531 apparition of Mary in Mexico.
But the two really do go together.
First, Our Lady of Guadalupe is an image of what the Immaculate Conception teaches.
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception teaches that “from the first instant of her conception, [Mary] was totally preserved from the stain of original sin and she remained pure from all personal sin throughout her life.” This happened because God applied the “merits of her Son” to her “before the foundation of the world.”
The New Testament actually describes a very clear picture of this. In the Book of Revelation, John sees a vision of heaven “before the foundation of the world,” and it reads like a description of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
John wrtites that “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head,” and about to give birth.
This is what the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe depicts: a pregnant woman standing on a darkened moon, clothed with the sun’s rays and cloaked in a mantle of stars pulled over her head.
Second, the image is an elaboration on the story of Eve.
At the Mass for the Immaculate Conception the first reading from Genesis, telling Eve’s story, closely matches the Gospel reading, telling Mary’s story.
In Genesis, Adam and Eve hide from God. In the Gospel, the angel tells Mary “The Lord is with you” and she welcomes God, saying, “May it be done to me according to your word.”
In Genesis, Eve blames the fallen angel for her disobedience in eating the forbidden fruit. In the Gospel, Mary’s obedience makes possible the saving fruit of her womb, Jesus.
In Genesis, God puts the serpent “at enmity” with the woman and her offspring. In the Gospel, Mary accepts her role as the mother of the one who will defeat Satan and “rule … forever.”
This can all seem like a tale that happens only in ancient Palestine and in heaven, but Our Lady of Guadalupe shows how it happens in our world, as well.
The symbols in the image of Our Lady of Gaudalupe were seen as a repudiation of the false worship in early Mexico, and devotion to the image led to widespread conversions. In our own day, St. John Paul promised that through Our Lady of Guadalupe’s “powerful intercession, the Gospel will penetrate the hearts of the men and women of America and permeate their cultures, transforming them from within.”
Third, Our Lady of Guadalupe shows that Mary associates herself with every nation.
Juan Diego had three encounters with the Blessed Virgin Mary. On December 9, he saw her on the way to Mass and she sent him to the bishop to ask him to build a shrine. On December 11, he reported to her that the bishops asked for a sign, and she promised one if he would return the next day.
On December 12, Juan Diego avoided the hill because he needed to care for his sick uncle, but Mary appeared to him anyway, healed his uncle, and directed him to a hilltop where he found foreign roses blooming out of season. He gathered them in his cloak, or tilma, and when he brought them to the bishop, he revealed not just the flowers, but the miraculous image on his cloak.
In these encounters, Mary spoke in an Aztec language and called herself “mother of the inhabitants of these lands and of all those who come to me.”
She tells us the same thing, since she is the new “Mother of all the living” who was entrusted to us by Jesus on the cross.
Fourth, Our Lady of Guadalupe’s interactions with Juan Diego reveal Immaculate Mary’s interactions with each individual.
Each action that Our Lady of Guadalupe takes with Juan Diego, she also takes with us.
First, she defines who she is, the Immaculate Conception, the model of humanity freed from sin, saying, “I am the perfect and ever Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the God of truth.”
Second, she defines who Juan Diego is. “There are many I could send, but you are the one I have chosen for this task,” she says, and gives him the flowers that will get the job done. She also sends us with her ages-old instruction to “Do whatever [Jesus] tells you,” and gives us the graces to get the job done.
Third, she comforts Juan Diego when he is troubled, and reassures him that she cares for him personally.
“Am I not here, I who am your mother?” she asks and makes the very motherly promise: “You will deserve very much the reward I will give you for your fatigue, the work and trouble that my mission will cause you.”
Those are the words Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception gives to each of us.
