14/12/2025
Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!
One aspect of this beautiful Feast Day that always moves me is how similar Marian apparitions are in many places around the world. As in Lourdes, Fatima and Knock, Our Lady of Guadalupe appears to a poor person living in a marginal place.
In Lourdes, she speaks to Bernadette Soubirous in a garbage dump, not in French, but in Bernadette's native patois. In Fatima, she appears to three poor and very young children. In Knock, she appears to an entire crowd of people, in a small town.
At Tepeyac, in Mexico, Our Lady speaks to Juan Diego not in Spanish, but in Nahuatl, Juan Diego's language.
Mary often appears to the poor who live on the margins. But this makes sense, when you think about Mary's own life. After all, the Angel Gabriel came to Mary, who was a young woman, perhaps still just a teenager, living in what was then a marginal village: Nazareth had only 200 to 400 people. The jibe directed at her son Jesus by Nathanael, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?," was a put-down.
So it makes sense that Our Lady would also favor those who are poor, marginal, struggling. Her Magnificat says just that. God, she says, has "lifted up the lowly."
Mary is mother of all, but especially those who are poor or struggling in any way.
"Am I not here, I, who am your Mother?" she says to Juan Diego. "Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything more? Let nothing else worry you, disturb you."
We are invited to follow Our Lady's lead and be close to the poor, those on the margins and those who are struggling, as well.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!
