Word to the Wise
Wednesday, December 12, 2007 - Our Lady of Guadalupe
[Zechariah 2:14-17 or Revelation 11:19A, 12:1-6A, 10AB and Luke 1:26-36 or Luke 1:39-47]A great sgn appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under he feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
From 1994 to 1998, I was pastor a an inner-city Hispanic majority parish. It was a never ending source of bemusement to me that on the holy day of obligation, December 8th, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the crowd at Mass wasn't even half the church - probably much less. Four days later, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, there would be a full church. About an hour before the Mass, which would be around 6:15-6:30 ish in the morning, a small group of faithful, especially members of the organization known as The Guadalupanas (almost every parish in San Antonio has one) would gather outside around the statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe to sing the Mananitas - a special hymn of greeting to the Virgin. Another source of bemusement to me was that this one morning each year seemed inevitably to be freezing cold and those little ladies were struggling to stay warm and the guitarists had trouble keeping the guitars tuned! After the Mass, parishioners would be invited to the hall to drink coffee, hot chocolate and a beverage made from corn called "chumpalada." The devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe is more than piety - it is cultural identity for Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. Later at Tulane, I could not find any excitement among Hispanic students for the feast for the simple reason, they explained, that they were not Mexican! Their country had its OWN Our Lady of_____________! The fact that the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been placed on the liturgical calendar in the USA is a tribute to the tremendous impact that Mexican immigration has had on the church in this land. In the South, it is estimated that more than 50% of the Catholic population is Mexican or Mexican-American. In San Antonio, her image shows up on all kinds of surfaces, some of which are not particularly holy in nature. And despite some fairly critical writing about the origins and history of the event, the appearance of the Blessed Virgin to Juan Diego remains one of the most powerful cultural icons in the Americas. The general interpretation of the event as one of care on the part of God and the Blessed Mother for the poor Hispanic is strong and compelling. The image on the cape ("tilma") has been examined over and over again with some very unusual results which I'm sure anyone can learn about online. Suffice it to say that the feast is an opportunity to reflect on the literal truth of the popularity of this particular Marian devotion in the light of the words from the Magnificat: "God who is mighty has done great things for me!" AMEN
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