Friday, December 11, 2009
Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Detroit
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Every year God our Father gives us the great joy of publicly expressing the honor and love we have for our revered Lady and beloved Mother, the Virgin of Guadalupe. She is the way through which God the Father gave us his Eternal Son. It is for this that we honor and love her: that she has brought us Our Savior and that she never fails to bring us to him.
All of the details that make up the story of the Holy Virgin's apparitions to Saint Juan Diego in that winter of Fifteen Thirty One are marvels of God's grace: (a) Juan Diego hearing songs as if they came from birds in heaven; (b) his finding on the hill of Tepeyac roses at a season when none should be in bloom; (c) the appearance of the Mother of God, resplendent in beauty, in robes fit for an empress; (d) the cure of Juan Bernardino, the uncle of Saint Juan Diego; (e) and, of course, the imprint of the Virgin's image on Juan Diego's tilma, a sign surviving even to our own time of her enduring presence among her children.
Today, however, among all these marvels that make up the great miracle of the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe to her own Juan Diego, what is most vivid in my heart and mind are the words themselves that Our Lady spoke to him. In his own mother tongue, Nahuatl, she spoke most tenderly to him. In that form which is both endearing and elegant, she spoke with a mother's own affection and called him her "Juanito," her "Juan Dieguito," "el más pequeño de mis hijos." Like any good mother would, she put aside all formality and shared with her Juanito the deepest truth about herself: that she is "la siempre Virgen Santa María, Madre del verdadero Dios por quien se vive; del Creador cabe quien está todo; Señor del cielo y de la tierra." And, like any loving mother, she told him of the deep desire that burned in her maternal heart: Deseo vivamente que se me erija aquí un templo para en él mostrar y dar todo mi amor, compasión, auxilio y defensa, pues yo soy vuestra piadosa madre; a ti, a todos vosotros juntos los moradores de esta tierra y a los demás amadores míos que me invoquen y en mí confíen; oír allí sus lamentos, y remediar todas sus miserias, penas y dolores." She told him of her ardent desires for the sons and daughters that Providence has given her when the Gospel came to this continent.
The fact that the miraculous image of the Virgin remains to this very day on the tilma of Juan Diego is a sign that this dialogue between the Virgin and Juan Diego endures, as well. She, who is the Mother of God until the end of time, remains our Mother, too. Her heart has not grown cold or indifferent. It cannot. She still wants to give us her love and compassion, her help and protection. She is ready today, and will always be ready to listen to our lamentations and to remedy our miseries, afflictions and sorrows.
Today I, like all of your other pastors, am vividly aware of two particular afflictions, among the many which burden you, the children of this Virgin Mother. First: the trial which besets so many who live without the documents and legal status needed to guarantee the inviolability and security of your family circle. The enduring image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is the pledge that Our Madrecita has not forgotten you; she knows of this sorrow, and she will hear our prayers for you to be delivered from it. Let us be one in asking her to use the events of this season to bring about an end to this affliction.
The second sorrow in your lives of which I am very much aware is the difficulty of preserving your homes as sanctuaries for the Christian love of husbands and wives, and of children and parents. Lack of resources, deficient educational opportunities, and cultural forces that war against the family, as God has intended it – all of these are sources which call forth from the heart of the Virgin of Guadalupe her love, compassion, help and defense. Let us be one in asking Our Lady, Our Mother, to protect our families and to give you all that you need for them to prosper. Especially, let us beg that parents will be strengthened so that they can share with their children their faith: their love for the Most Holy Eucharist, their devoted confidence in the Virgin of Guadalupe and their loyalty to the Catholic Church.
The dialogue between Saint Juan Diego and Our Lady is a sort of covenant. He was to see that there would be a temple, and she would, from that temple, be an instrument of our Heavenly Father's compassion and care. The Mother of God made a promise, a bold and daring and wonderful promise: that her care for us would never fail. Her fidelity is the cause of the joy we express today.
