Dec. 12 - Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 3rd Sunday in Advent

[MariaChristi]

Today, Dec 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, I’m posting a letter from Archbishop Gomez since many of us in the USA may not hear this in our parishes:

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
December 12, 2021

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,​

This is a historic night! Four hundred and ninety years ago, in these days, the Mother of God appeared to our ancestors in Mexico. Let us listen again to the first words that she spoke to the poor Indian Juan Diego. She said:​

“I am the Ever-Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the one True God, by whom we live, the Creator of all things, the Lord of heaven and earth. I desire that a temple be built here soon, so that I may show all my love, my compassion, my help, and my protection, because I am your merciful mother.”​

In these words, we hear the first “constitution” of the New World, the Americas. Our Lady of Guadalupe came to be the Mother of the Americas, to announce the new birth of Jesus Christ among the peoples and nations of the New World. Not only the Mother of Mexico, but of all the Americas. This country and every country in North and South America, is born “under God,” and under the mantle of Holy Mary, every nation and every person under her loving protection and care. In the apparitions at Tepeyac, the prophecy of Zechariah, that we heard in tonight’s first reading, is fulfilled: “Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! See, I am coming to dwell among you says the Lord. Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day, and they shall be his people.”​

Our Lady appears, in the radiant image of her tilma, “as a great sign in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” She fulfills the prophecy from the Bible’s last book, that we hear in tonight’s second reading. “She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations.”​

Jesus Christ is Lord, the ruler of the Americas! This is what Our Lady of Guadalupe came to reveal in those beautiful days of December 1531. My brothers and sisters, Our Lady is still building her temple in the Americas. As we know from the wonderful story of her apparition, St. Juan Diego was finally able to convince the Bishop Juan de Zumárraga to build the church that today is the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, the church that contains her miraculous tilma. But that was only the beginning. Our Lady wants so much more than that. The temple that Our Lady wants, is a spiritual temple that is built out of the “living stones” of our lives. Your life and my life. Each of us living with the joy of Jesus Christ in our hearts, following his way for our lives, living for the glory of God and for the love of our brothers and sisters.​

Brothers and sisters, we are the temple that Our Lady wants to build in the Americas! And as we hear in the Gospel tonight, Our Blessed Mother discovered that her life was a part of a bigger plan. She discovered that God had a role for her to play in salvation history. In her Magnificat, Mary sings of the beautiful things that God has done in her life. As we heard: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord … The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is His Name.”​

You and I, each one of us can sing our own “magnificats.” Our Lord has done great things for us! Through our Blessed Mother, he has given us the great gift of his only Son Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, Jesus came down from heaven for each one of you, personally. He loved each one of us so much that he lived and suffered and died for us on the cross. He did that for you. Never forget that! As Mary did, let us praise God for his tender mercies, for the little blessings of his love that he shows us every day. And as God had a plan for Mary, he has a plan for each one of us, too. He also has a role for you to play in his plan of salvation.​

On this great anniversary of Our Lady’s apparition at Tepeyac, let us commit ourselves to serve Jesus and His plan of love. Let us say with Our Blessed Mother “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to Your word.” In the Gospel tonight, we see Mary coming to visit and to serve her elderly cousin, St. Elizabeth, who is pregnant with St. John the Baptist. She is showing us here, the secret of God’s Kingdom. The secret is that the Kingdom grows through the love we share in our families and friendships. Our role in salvation history is the same as Blessed Mary’s. You and I — each one of us — is called to bring Jesus Christ into the world, into every area of our lives, by the way we live and by the way we love.​

God is calling us to be missionaries in our every day lives. He is calling us to bring Jesus to others by the love that we show, especially in our homes — by being good husbands and wives; raising good kids; taking care of our parents, like they once took care of us. Through our little efforts, day by day, loving others and trying to live as Jesus taught and as Jesus himself lived — this is how we build the temple that Our Lady of Guadalupe wants us to build!...​

The letter is longer but I end it here with a prayer for all our Bishops to urge their flocks to pray for an end to abortion on demand: "Let us pray for the Bishops in every country to urge their flocks to pray for the end of abortion in every country in the world. Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego as A Woman with child, at a time when heathens were sacrificing their children to death as a gift to their pagan gods. Mary, Mother and Model for the Church, intercede for us with your Son. Jesus we trust in You!