These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion!
See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD.
(Zech 2:14)
As we continue the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I remember the first time I entered the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the Cherokee Qualla Boundary in Cherokee, North Carolina. The church is seven-sided similar to a Cherokee meeting hut, representing the seven tribes of the Cherokee Nation. But the remarkable stained glass window of Our Lady of Guadalupe commands attention. Underneath Our Lady is a banner that says, “Patroness of Captured Nations and Conquered Peoples.” The other notable is that Cuauhtlatoatzin (Saint Juan Diego) is pictured in the window not as a Chichimeca but as a Cherokee. The artist and the community of the Qualla Boundary know that Our Lady of Guadalupe is their mother too.
A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
(Rev 12:1)
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
(Lk 1:43)
In 1531, the appearance of the Virgin Mary to Cuauhtlatoatzin (baptized as Juan Diego) was the impetus for the evangelization of the Americas. The fruits of this moment live on in the faith of the native peoples of these lands and their descendants. A dear friend (non-Hispanic) once said to me: “This is the only apparition about which I have no doubts.” What the Lady said to Cuauhtlatoatzin was very simple, “I am your loving mother.” But she appeared to him as one like himself and speaking his language. And even now, the Lady of Guadalupe continues to be the loving mother of all the disciples of her Son.
Thus says the LORD, your redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel:
I, the LORD, your God,
teach you what is for your good,
and lead you on the way you should go.
If you would hearken to my commandments,
your prosperity would be like a river,
and your vindication like the waves of the sea;
Your descendants would be like the sand,
and those born of your stock like its grains,
Their name never cut off
or blotted out from my presence.
(Is 48:17-19)
God's promise to lead us in the way we should go seems more important this Advent than ever before. We seem to have forgotten the common good, that we are all in this together. But God promises to teach us what is for our good. If only we would listen! The picture today is of the Red Beach on the Greek island, Santorini.
The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain,
their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, the LORD, will answer them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will open up rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the broad valleys;
I will turn the desert into a marshland,
and the dry ground into springs of water.
I will plant in the desert the cedar,
acacia, myrtle, and olive;
I will set in the wasteland the cypress,
together with the plane tree and the pine,
That all may see and know,
observe and understand,
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.
(Is 41:17-21)
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Let the clouds rain down the Just One,
and the earth bring forth a Savior. (Is 45:8)
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I remember when I discovered that both pairs of my maternal great grandparents moved to California in the 1920’s. I happened to find a letter from one of them describing California as the “Garden of the Earth.” Compared with where they came from, Iowa (originally Denmark) and Kansas (originally Germany), I guess California must have seemed an oasis. I think of that letter from my ancestors when I read Isaiah’s description of water in abundance and of the desert becoming a marshland. May the clouds rain down the Just One, and the earth bring forth a Savior! The picture today is of the Garden of Delights by Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516).
The LORD is the eternal God,
creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint nor grow weary,
and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.
He gives strength to the fainting;
for the weak he makes vigor abound.
Though young men faint and grow weary,
and youths stagger and fall,
They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength,
they will soar as with eagles’ wings;
They will run and not grow weary,
walk and not grow faint.
(Is 40:28-31)
Another message of hope from Isaiah that has been used to express God’s providential care for us—that we may run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint. Today is the feast of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin. His name, Cuauhtlatoatzin, means "he who speaks like an eagle." He received the visions of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the hill of Tepeyac outside the great city of Tenochtitlán (now Mexico City) in December, 1531. After he told his story, over 11 million indigenous inhabitants were baptized. He was canonized by John Paul II in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe on July 31, 2002, the first indigenous saint of the Americas. I was there.
