Miraculous Image of Guadalupe
One
The Miraculous Image of Guadalupe
Before Mary appeared in Mexico City in 1532, the Aztec people worshipped demonic spirits represented by the "serpent god" under the sign of the crescent moon and the “god of war” under the sign of the sun, whom the Aztec people believed demanded human sacrifice. The Aztec priests offered 50,000 men, women, and children in human sacrifice to these so-called “gods” every year. One out of every five children was sacrificed, horribly similar to the fact that many nations today abort one out of every five children.
Furthermore, the Aztec culture wanted nothing to do with Jesus Christ or the Catholic Church because they had been defeated and humiliated by the Spanish, decimated by disease, and carried off as slaves to the Caribbean islands. Theirs was a people and culture that seemed impossible to convert. Yet, when things looked hopeless, as though all was lost, Mary the Mother of God appeared to Juan Diego. She left a supernatural, virtually indestructible sign, and within a few short years, the entire Aztec nation, 10,000,000 people asked for Baptism and entered the Catholic Church.
These were genuine conversions, a total change of life. A Franciscan Brother, Geronimo de Mendieta witnessed these events and recorded them. Before Our Lady appeared, not only did the Aztec people kill their children, but they practiced polygamy and refused to accept monogamous marriages. Yet after Mary intervened, 5000-10,000 came daily almost forcing us to Baptize them. Human and child sacrifice stopped, polygamy ended, five hundred couples a day came to be married, and whole tribes would walk 80-100 miles just to go to regular confession.
How was this possible?
Two
The Aztec People converted because they could understand the symbols in the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that matched their Aztec language. The woman stands in front of the sun, covering it, showing that she is greater than their sun god of war. She stands on the crescent moon, the symbol of their serpent god, appearing to crush it under her feet. She is wearing a bluish-green mantle, the color reserved for royalty. So she is a queen. She is surrounded by clouds so she came from another world to give her message. She is a virgin, signified by the parted hair that hangs loose. Around her waist is a black sash that signifies a maternity belt so she is pregnant.
This woman was a queen, who was also a virgin yet she was pregnant. Pregnant with whom? On her garment, over her womb was the four-petal jasmine flower signifying that she was pregnant with the One True God. The true God, the Lord of the universe was in her womb.
This woman is the Virgin Mother of the One True God. But she herself was not a god because she was praying to the One indicated by the black cross on her broch, Jesus Christ. He came to offer His life in sacrifice to put an end to all human sacrifice and set us free from slavery to sin, the devil, and death.
They read the message, believed, and converted.
Three
Miraculous Nature of the Tilma.
A “tilma” was a cloak made from cactus fibers. It lasts for no more than twenty years. The tilma of Juan Diego is almost five hundred years old. It laid on the floor in front of the altar of the Church for 116 years, exposed to constant human contact, candle smoke, heat, and humidity without decomposing.
In 1791 Nitric Acid was spilled on the Tilma by a negligent worker trying to clean the wooden frame. It began to eat through the Tilma but the Tilma in a sense, healed itself.
In 1921, the Marxist radically anti-Catholic Mexican Government which had outlawed Catholicism, planted a bomb with 29 sticks of dynamite in a flower arrangement next to the Tilma. When it detonated, it shattered the marble altar, altar rail, and marble flooring, smashing windows and doubling over a brass Crucifix, yet the Tilma was unharmed.
In 1979, a group of scientists from the Univ. of Florida and NASA studied the image. In their conclusions, they reported, the colors are not paint or dye. There are no sketch marks or brush strokes. The Image does not even rest on the fibers but floats above the Tilma at a distance of 3/10 of a millimeter without touching it.
In 1981 astronomers demonstrated that the arrangement of the stars on the Tilma match those found over Mexico City on December 12th, 1531.
Four
The Secret in Her Eyes
Every part of the Tilma has been digitally enlarged with extremely high resolution and studied. In this process, they found something amazing. Thirteen people appear in both eyes of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and they match the written account of the thirteen people who were in the room when her image appeared on the Tilma.
Dr. Tonsmann, in his book, The Secret of Her Eyes, documents the numerous studies that indicate when the eyes of Our Lady are exposed to light, the retina contracts, and when the light is withdrawn, it returns to a dilated state, just as it happens with a living eye. The eyes of Our Lady’s on the tilma have been ophthalmologically determined to be alive.
Photographer’s Account
Ivan Esther, one of the best technical photographers in Mexico but an agnostic, was commissioned to photograph the official digital image of the Tilma. While standing on a ladder to get a better shot, he zoomed in on the eyes of Our Lady and suddenly became so startled that he fell off the ladder as he cried out, “She’s alive! She’s alive!” He immediately confessed that the eyes of Our Lady reacted just as the eyes of a living person. He subsequently converted.
In some manner, the tilma bearing the image of Mary bears her presence. She is not distant. Our Mother is with us. Our Lady said to St. Juan Diego, “Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?”
Five
The Presence of Mary
Our Lady comes, to lead all people to Jesus. But she needs her Juan Diego’s. She needs you to take some action. Now you know the story so you must share it with others.
This week is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is a great opportunity to ask family and friends, “Do you know what the Image of Guadalupe is?” Then share this podcast with them or send them to something on YouTube or buy them the book Guadalupe Mysteries published by Ignatius Press.
Then follow up. Ask them what they thought about it. Tell them Our Lady has come many times recently asking us to pray the Rosary every day. And then help them sign up for the daily podcast and to create the habit of the daily Rosary, for that is the means Our Lady has given us to convert the culture and help bring about the Triumph of Her Immaculate Heart and the era of Peace.