ON THE SOLEMNITY OF OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE THE MOTHER WHO FORGED A NATION.

 
 ON THE FESTIVITY OF OUR. LADY OF GUADALUPE

I did not choose this title at random, but because it was, is and will be until the end of the world the reality of the Mexican nation, that under the influence of Our Lady of Guadalupe this nation has emerged as such. We could properly say, “Non fecit talite omni nacioni” did no such thing with another nation.

When Hernán Cortes' ships arrived on the coast of what is now Veracruz, the Mexica or Aztec people were going through one of their worst spiritual, existential and moral crises. Its inhabitants anxiously awaited the fulfillment of the prophecy of that king who took them out of their nomadic life and led them to their new sedentary life.

Many conjectures have arisen about this king, some even point to Saint Thomas the Apostle, this is also what the Guaraní Indians seem to confirm, whom they called “Pay Tome” which means Father Thomas, I am a witness of this because I was on mission among them for four years.

According to the chronicles of Aztec history, he told them: “When you see a white man with brown hair coming, think that your end is near”, words more words less, this was the prophecy that was transmitted from generation to generation.

It was Moctezuma's turn to verify the veracity of these words, because in 1512 the ships or boats appeared with Hernán Cortez in command of them, in the morning of that day and at noon Moctezuma had news of Cortez's arrival on the coasts of Veracruz, omen that at that time predicted the end of the Aztec culture.

I do not want to dwell on the details of the Spanish conquest since it is a very controversial topic and is not the objective of this writing, thus being a topic for another article. After the conquest, when everything was calm, the Franciscan friars arrived on other ships, before whom Cortez bowed his knee and kissed their shoelaces as a sign of submission to the Church, represented by these missionaries of the Franciscan order.

This fact did not go unnoticed by the indigenous people, who viewed Cortez with great respect and admiration, as someone very superior and distinguished. Did they not understand how he bowed his knee before insignificant little men, dressed in poor and simple habits? Would this fact contribute to the evangelization of the indigenous people by the Franciscans?

Evangelization was not easy and with very few fruits, from 1512 to 1531 there were not many as expected, the converts to Catholicism flourished minimally despite the great effort made by the Franciscans, many difficulties crossed their path such as the language and pagan customs still deeply rooted in them, among others.

Divine intervention was required to get out of the quagmire in which the missionaries found themselves, such as prayers, supplications, penances and Masses that were abundant to obtain the much desired miracle from heaven. 1531 was the year chosen by divine providence to work the much-needed miracle, on the 12th of December on a small mountain near Mexico City called Tepeyac.

The one sent from heaven was the Blessed Virgin Mary, who appeared to an Indian converted to Catholicism named Juan Diego, who at the time was 57 years old, and had recently been widowed. What was it that captivated Juan Diego so much about Our Lady and with him all the indigenous people? The Virgin Mary spoke to them in her dialect in a soft and tender way, her mestizo color reflected in her face, as well as the signs that are printed on her clothing, in addition to other signs that would take us time and space to describe, since contemplating To the image we can add those details that undoubtedly stole the hearts of the indigenous people of that time.

I will only dwell on another very important detail in Our Lady's dialogue with Juan Diego during her five apparitions. How can the words of a Mother as tender and beautiful as the Mother of God not steal hearts? It is not my intention to write all the dialogues from the first to the fourth, but only those from the fifth appearance.

Of all the words that the Blessed Virgin addressed to us in her prodigious apparitions in different parts of the world, those said to Juan Diego on the Tepeyac hill by our Lady of Guadalupe, are without a doubt the most consoling, moving and comforting, because they flow from the heart of a very tender Mother and are aimed at producing rest and confidence in our souls. They were said in the fifth and last apparition to Juan Diego when he, worried about the illness of his uncle Bernardino, took another path than the usual one.

Here are his words: ¿WHERE ARE YOU GOING, MY SON, ¿ARE YOU NOT AFFLICTED BY ANYTHING? DO NOT FEAR THAT DISEASE, OR ANY OTHER DISEASE AND DISTRESS. ¿AM I NOT HERE, ME THAT I'M YOUR MOTHER? ¿ARE YOU NOT UNDER MY SHADOW AND PROTECTION? ¿AM I NOT LIFE AND HEALTH? ¿ARE YOU NOT IN MY LAP AND RUNNING ON MY OWN? ¿DO YOU NEED ANYTHING ELSE? DO NOT GRIEF ABOUT YOUR UNCLE'S ILLNESS, HE WILL NOT DIE FROM THIS ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND BE CERTAIN THAT HE IS ALREADY HEALTHY.

Read well and memorize the words expressed by the Blessed Virgin. Don't they seem like heavenly music, like a balm with a very soft smell that drives away the worldly humors and smells to which our poor soul is accustomed? Blessed are we since we greatly needed a balm of such heavenly make, because as the psalm says: “We were all in error” along the paths of this world that rather lead to hell. Such confident words are necessary to stop our headlong race.

See how the humble Juan Diego, overcome by these words, stops his hasty march and gives reason, with confident timidity of his deviation and attentively listens to the Queen of Heaven and attracted by the apparition, he stops to listen carefully to that beautiful waterfall of words that pierce his humble heart full of anguish.

Juan Diego represents the Mexican nation converted to God and just as Saint John an attentive apostle listened to the words of his Master before dying on Mount Calvary, Juan Diego listens to the testimony or testament bequeathed by Our Lady of Guadalupe in Tepeyac, ¿which is another mountain Chance? I would rather say causality that is typical of God.

As if he were currently telling us: Where are you going, ¿my son? and with sadness and tears in our eyes we responded as a nation, I don't know Lady, a long time ago I lost the way to heaven in the midst of this horrible darkness, with which the enemies have covered the nation that You forged there in Tepeyac. Many afflictions narrow my heart and afflict my soul, confusion took hold of me a long time ago, my step is wrong and I fail to take the path that You, my Mother, showed me, the dream is gone, true joy has disappeared. of my soul, my face has changed in such a way that I do not recognize myself, although I have not forgotten You, My Mother, because I carry you in the depths of my soul, the workmanship of your well-loved Son.

Our lament is stopped by these other words: ¿May nothing afflict you? Am i not here, me that I'm your mother? Without a doubt, the love of any mother will be an unfathomable mystery for us, a mystery reserved only for God. To what nation has the Blessed Virgin said these beautiful words? I wonder, only to Mexico since as a nation it treats her as what she is, her favorite daughter and to each of the Mexicans who still keep these memorable words in the depths of her hearts.

How much relief these words bring to our most afflicted soul, since She said them with all the heart of the one who beats at the right hand of the son, since she remembers that she was assumed into heaven in body and soul! She has never ceased to be faithful to her vocation as Mother of this nation. Will we cease to be faithful to our vocation as her children? She would woe to us if we renounced this sublime vocation as, unfortunately, the Israelites did by desiring in their hearts the onions of Egypt rather than aspiring to the promised land.

But unfortunately, in this current confusion we see many who were once her children turn away from this kind Mother and decisively take the paths of the evil one, let us pray for them. In case the above is not clear, this good Mother adds: ¿ARE YOU NOT UNDER MY SHADOW AND PROTECTION? Who doesn't remember that Psalm 90? where she says the soul to the Father: “My refuge and my strength, my God in whom he trusted!” If the psalmist said it with such a deep feeling of trust in God, how could we not express these same feelings of ours as a nation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who has so lavished herself in these words full of those who give and have an abundance of that? What is the fullness of grace, as the Archangel announced?

Mexicans, more than other nations, must feel and live in our lives, these words full of confidence, when we see that everything around us is sinking. Let us not forget that we are under his shadow that covers us because “He will cover you with his feathers, and you will have refuge under his wings” and “although a thousand fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, you will not be overtaken.” It is vain and dangerous to escape this protection of our Most Holy Mother, because outside of Her there is nothing but affliction and pain without merit for our souls eager for God.

Oh Guadalupe, do not move away from this shadow and protection! But if this seems not enough to you, he continues saying: ¿AM I NOT LIFE AND HEALTH? Saint John in his Gospel tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Later he goes on to say: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus Christ says of himself: “I am the way, the truth and the life”, Our Lady, by her predestination to be the Mother of the Word made Man, can say with all propriety that she is LIFE because she gave birth to the author of life. and, it is understood, that it is HEALTH due to what has already been said.

He does not say it as a reproach but so that, in our needs of both body and soul, we can fully trust and abandon ourselves in his lap as before, the Child Jesus did it without hesitation and sure that in his mother's lap he had no to worry, so say the holy Fathers of the Church.

 In case any doubt persists, he says it to you again with more explicit words: ¿ARE YOU NOT IN MY LAP AND ARE YOU RUNNING ON MY ACCOUNT? From that moment on, the Mexican nation was run by Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is our best guarantee before the Son and we do not need “human influences” of any kind because, in all this, she does not seek her own interest but that of her Son and ours with respect to the salvation of our soul, which is ours. biggest business in this world.

For the rest, our mothers are far away and only love us from afar or, even if they are close, they are often unable to help us, not only in body but also in soul and they are also powerless to protect us in the present moment. Not so with our Mother from heaven because we will always enjoy her perpetual protection, because that is what she promised to Juan Diego, our representative at that time and She is faithful to her promise. Furthermore, let us not forget that she is the supplicating omnipotence, but above all her maternal heart, is the driving force or the guarantee of her fidelity in what was promised.

Likewise, we are under his shadow and care; Therefore, Our Mother of Guadalupe, we can say, is closer to us than our own mothers and without a doubt, our soul is more united to Her: Loving and always present Mother.

 Finally, our mother of the earth, no matter how much she loves us, cannot say the same, because experience shows us that there are times in which she is powerless. Not so with our Mother in heaven, because She is the life that triumphs over death, she is the health that triumphs over illness and pain; This would be enough to dispel all doubt, all fear and to fill our hearts with holy and divine confidence.

¿DO YOU NEED ANYTHING ELSE? Our soul only needs two things, which are its goal and aspiration; to love God with all his being and through it, save his soul. It is clear that to achieve these means you need providential means, which can be of two categories: the positive ones, which directly influence our soul, such as grace, virtues, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, etc., the negative ones that God allows. for our sanctification as they are, the pains of the body and soul, external sufferings such as hunger, thirst, nakedness among others.

¿As a nation, Mexico also needs the protection of the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, since its “independence” until this moment, we have seen her intervene before the trinity, to prevent various calamities where, perhaps, the most dangerous have been the two occasions that freed us from the clutches of atheistic and anti-Catholic communism, do you remember it? The Cristero war in 1929 and that of 1968, whose purpose was to end Catholic Mexico and currently the renewed attempt by the new Mexican authorities to want to do what the others left pending, the communisation of Mexico.

  We must not fear these attacks from the enemy of all that is Catholic, Our Lady will not allow her nation to fall into the hands of communism and other similar vermin. But I want to point out another danger more serious than communism and that is MODERNISM, which devastates our Churches like a ferocious and diabolical beast: communism can kill bodies, but not the soul, on the contrary, MODERNISM kills body and soul and Our Divine Master told us specifically: “Do not fear those who kill the body, rather fear those who kill the body and the soul.”

As long as Mexico remains faithful to its sacred vocation as a son of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, She, by the way, will free us from our worst enemy for the moment, which is not communism but MODERNISM, whose purpose is to de-Christianize Mexico and leave it at the mercy of the hyenas represented by the Jews, the Freemasons and the Protestants, directed and orchestrated by the devil, eternal enemy of God and sworn enemy of ours, as long as we walk in this valley of tears.

It would be selfish to think that the Heart of this good Mother is only enough for the Mexican Nation; other Hispanic and non-Hispanic nations also have this Maternal protection. Her intention to help other nations is found in the words of Herself, when she asked Juan Diego to build the temple or Church on the Tepeyac hill and this same was the wish of SS Pius XII, when the I named Queen of Mexico and Empress of America.

R. Father Arturo Vargas Meza

 

 

 

NB I make some necessary corrections to this writing about Our Lady of Guadalupe:

 

a) SS Benedict XIV authorized the proper office of the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe.

 

b) SS Leo XIII ordered a gold crown to be placed on her head and named her Queen of Mexico and Empress of America.

 

c) SS Pius XII, officially named her the patron saint of all of America.