Introduction
Last month, our reflection focused on the trust that Saint Juan Diego placed in Our Lady of Guadalupe, even when difficult circumstances in his life tempted him to avoid a personal encounter with her, which she corrected with the love and mercy of a mother redirecting the faltering footsteps of her child.
This month, let us turn our attention to the last direction of the Virgin Mother of God, Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is that we are to become her messengers, just as she called Saint Juan Diego to be her messenger to Bishop Juan de Zumárraga. Juan Diego experienced numerous temptations from Satan to shun Our Lady’s mission. An early snare tempted him to believe that he was the wrong person, describing himself as “just a man from the country” and, about the Bishop’s residence, “it is not my place to go or to stay” (Nican Mopohua, no. 55).
All of us can easily give way to doubt and fear before the challenge of living in Christ in our totally secularized culture. There is the tendency to doubt God’s grace and to give way to fear in responding to its “costly” demands. There is the temptation to think that we must devise some program, “some magic formula,” to transform the world. Yet it is Christ, alive for us in the Church, Who alone shows us the way. It is our humble and confident following of Christ which will transform us and our world. To help us follow Him, as He was dying upon the cross, Our Lord gave His Mother to us as our Mother.
By the mystery of the Divine Maternity, the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, assumed into glory, never ceases to beat with love for us, the children whom her Divine Son gave to her, also as He was dying upon the Cross. When Our Lord pronounced the words, “Woman, behold thy son” (Jn 19, 26) to His Mother and “Behold thy mother” (Jn 19, 27) to Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist, standing at the foot of the cross, He expressed an essential reality of the salvation He was winning for us: the full cooperation of His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, in His saving work.
The work that the Virgin of Guadalupe gave to Saint Juan Diego is the work that he asks us to continue today: It is the work of evangelization in the Church and in the world. Her humbling words to Saint Juan Diego are her words to us, too: “I have no lack of servants, of messengers, to whom I can give the task” (Nican Mopohua, no. 58). The Queen of Heaven can choose anyone to accomplish her desire, but she, Our Blessed Mother, has chosen you and me, her children, to be her messengers, to carry the Word of God, her Divine Son, into the hearts of all, so that they might unite their heart to her Immaculate Heart, through whom, our hearts become more intimately united to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Accordingly, let her words to Saint Juan Deigo fill us with virtuous courage as we persevere in this Nine-Month Novena. “I, personally, the ever Virgin Holy Mary, I, who am the Mother of God, sent you as my messenger” (Nican Mopohua, no. 59).
In five months, on December 12, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin, during the Holy Mass at 12:15 pm Central Time, I will be making the Official Act of Consecration to Our Lady of Guadalupe by reciting the Official Prayer of this Nine-Month Novena.
I invite you to come to the Shrine to make your Official Act of Consecration with me. Those who can join should take a brief moment to RSVP on the Shrine's Site.
