Our Lady of Guadalupe
One
Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe
The apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City is one of the most important world events in the last thousand years and very few people know the facts.
The Aztec people were enslaved to demonic forces. They believed their god, Huitzilopochtl, also called Mexitli, known as the Sun God of War, the Serpent God, signified by the Crescent Moon, threatened not to rise so the world would perish unless they offered him human sacrifice every day. Mexitli was Satan. He enslaved the Mexican people by fear. He established a religion to himself. He was to be worshipped by a temple sacrifice, not of lambs, but of people. You also had to eat the sacrifice to take part in it, meaning ritual cannibalism. 50,000 men women and children were killed annually. In 1487, 80,000 were killed in one four-day period.
In 1519 the Spanish explorer Cortes landed in Mexico. There he found the Aztec people enslaved to a culture of death, literally a cult of human sacrifice. The Spanish witnessed this with their own eyes and wanted to flee. But though shalt not stand idly by in the face of grave evil.
Cortes became convinced he was sent by God to put an end to the human sacrifice. So, he scuttled their ships, leaving his men no option but to fight their way into Mexico City and put an end to this evil occult. There was estimated 350,000-500,000 Aztec Warriors. Cortes had 200 soldiers. A few of the tribes who had suffered grievously under the tyranny of the Aztecs joined Cortes, but still they were outnumbered 1000-1 and gun-powder ran out quickly. It devolved to hand to hand combat.
This was impossible.
In November of 1519, Cortes fought his way into Mexico City and arrested Montezuma. In April of 1520, 1000 Spanish arrived from Cuba to arrest Cortes ecause they thought he was stealing all the gold. Cortes left Mexico City with 2/3 of his men to confront and defeat the Spanish. By the time he got back to Mexico City, Montezuma realized these were just ordinary men, not gods. And the whole Aztec Empire crashed down on them.
Miraculously, one half escaped on the Night of Sorrow, June 30th, 1520. They gained time and help from surrounding tribes and defeated the Aztec nation in 1521.
Franciscan missionaries came in 1524, but had little success with conversions because the King of Spain replaced Cortes with Nuno de Guzman, a wicked tyrant, who enslaved the Aztec people shipping them to the Caribbean colonies.
In 1530 the Bishop of Mexico City, Bishop Zumarrago, had all the Franciscans publicly denounce de Guzman. He had them arrested, tortured and one killed. The Bishop Excommunicated De Guzman for his crimes, but De Guzman then tried to assassinate the Bishop. The Mexican people then lost a third of their population to the small-pox brought by the Spanish.
The Aztec Astrologers said it was the end of their world. This was a situation and a culture impossible to convert to Christ. It looked so hopeless that the Bishop wrote a letter to Emperor Charles V at the end of which he said, “If God does not provide a solution from His own hand, the land is about to be completely lost.”
Do you ever feel our culture is hopelessly lost?
Two
First and Second Apparitions of Guadalupe
On Saturday, December 9th, 1531, one of the few Aztec converts, 57-year-old Juan Diego was running to Saturday morning Mass and Catechism class nine miles away!
As he came to Tepayac Hill, he heard singing, saw a brilliant white cloud and a rainbow. A beautiful young woman appeared to him. Juan Diego fell to his knees and the Woman spoke to him, “Know for certain, littlest of my sons, that I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God through Whom everything lives. You must go to the house of the bishop of Mexico and tell him that I sent you and that it is my desire to have a Church built here.”
Juan went to the Bishop, but the Bishop did not believe him.
Second Apparition
As Juan Diego was returning home, Mary was waiting for him again at Tepayak Hill. He explained to her what happened. He begged her to send someone of more important, “Because I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, I am just a leaf the tail end, …”
But Our Lady answered, “I have many servants and messengers whom I could send But I have chosen you…Go and tell the Bishop that I, in person, the ever-virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God, sent you.”
Someone has to take the message to others. Our Lady is asking you!
Three
On Sunday, December 10th Juan Diego went back to the Bishop. This time the bishop wanted a sign. On his way home Mary again appeared to Juan. This was the third apparition. She assured him that she would provide a sign, tomorrow.
“I will await you here,” she said.
On Monday, December 11th, Juan Diego’s uncle fell gravely ill with small pox. Juan skipped his appointment with Mary to go and find a doctor who told Juan his Uncle would die. Then, on Tuesday, December 12th, Juan set off for Mexico City to get a priest for Last Rites. He had to pass by Tepayac Hill on the way and was afraid to be delayed by Mary so he ran around the opposite side of the hill, this time to the east. But Mary came down and intercepted him. This was the fourth appearance.
He explained about his uncle. She already knew because she was appearing to his uncle at that very moment, healing him (the Fifth Apparition) Mary said, “Listen. Put it in your heart, my dear little son; the thing that frightens you, the thing that afflicts your heart is nothing. Do not let it disturb you; do not fear this sickness nor any other sickness, nor any painful or difficult thing. Am I not here, I who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, the crossing of my arms? Do you need something more?”
Four
The Sign
She then told Juan to climb the hill and he would find the sign. He saw Castillian roses, a type of rose not yet introduced to Mexico yet, blooming in winter on a barren hill-side, Juan gathered up the roses. Mary arranged them in his tilma, the bleached white cloak he wore, and she tied it up around his neck. Then Juan went back to the Bishop. When he untied the Tilma and let it fall from around his neck in the presence of the Bishop and twelve other people in the room, the roses fell out. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe developed right before their eyes, like a photograph developing. Everyone fell to their knees
The Bishop then placed the Tilma in his private chapel. Two weeks later, on December 26th, 1531, the Bishop brought the Tilma to the main church by procession. At the same time, a funeral procession bearing a young man who died from an arrow wound to the neck was coming into the city. When the two processions met and the Tilma passed by the dead man, he was instantly raised from the dead.
Five
Mary appeared to Juan Diego in 1531
She left a permanent indestructible sign, the Tilma, the cloak bearing her image. 10,000,000 Aztecs converted to Catholicism because they could read the Code, the symbols on the Image.
The woman stands in front of the sun, covering it, 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. She is a queen. She is surrounded by clouds. She came from another world to give her message. She is a virgin, signified by the parted hair that hangs loose. The black sash around her waist is a maternity belt, she is pregnant.
This woman is a Queen, who is also a virgin, yet she was pregnant, pregnant with whom? The four-petal jasmine flower over her womb is the symbol of the One True God. The true God 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 the whole Aztec Nation converted.
We all face things that make us feel like the Bishop when he wrote, “If God does not provide a solution from His own hand, the land is about to be completely lost.” But we never have reason to lose hope.
Have confidence in Our Lady who is with you and is saying to you, “Am I not here who, I who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?”
The Aztec people couldn’t save themselves. Cortes couldn’t save them. The Franciscans couldn’t do it. The culture of the Aztecs and the Spanish was too far gone. For men it was impossible. But all things are possible for God through Our Lady.
I think we could say the same for our culture today. Will we wake up and turn back to Christ and His moral teaching? I doubt it. So Jesus sends Mary. She is the only remedy left. Once again she will crush the head of the serpent who demands a culture of death. She will lead us to Jesus. This will be the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart.
Just as she had a mission for Juan Diego, she has a mission for us: Pray the Rosary every day. Invite others to pray the Rosary with you. Friendship, the Rosary, and good conversation. Invitation, simple hospitality, catch up with people. Print out the transcript or have them pull it up on their phone. Pray the podcast together or read each point of the transcript and pray the decades together. Then do what Teresa and I do, turn to someone and ask, “So, what struck you during the meditation?” Then have some good conversation. Do this once a week, on Sundays or once a month.
Ask yourself, what if Juan would have never responded?