Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Revelation 12 illustrates an apocalyptic, archetypal, and ancient tale of God’s intervention involving a woman and a dragon. The dragon is red with the blood of the martyrs, and wishes to thwart God’s plan of salvation for humankind. The woman is secured by God and is taken up to a place of safety.
Fr. John Tickle notes the fascinating comparison of today’s first reading with the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast we keep today. “We can imagine this scene taking place in heaven back in 1531. Jesus asks his mother to go down to earth and help those in Mexico’s young church who need assurance very badly. And she might well have said, ‘I think I’ll do Revelation 12.’”
The image of Our Lady revealed on the tilma (poncho) of Saint Juan Diego is the same image as the “Woman Clothed with the Sun” of Revelation chapter 12. Of special note, she wears a maternity belt, as she is pregnant with the Gospel about to be birthed in the new world. She is pregnant with the Gospel in Revelation 12, as well, which was about to be birthed across the Roman world.
The Vatican is very careful in authenticating Marian apparitions. Guadalupe is one of the few that has been granted, “worthy of veneration.” Others include Lourdes, Fatima, and Knock (Ireland), among others. (My great-grandparents came from a village not far from Knock.)
Lourdes is of special importance to our parish church which is adorned by a beautiful stained glass window in our sanctuary of the Lady who told little Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
Our blessed Mother has not gone to heaven to be kept distant from her children. The “Woman Clothed with the Sun” is ready to respond to our prayers. The Virgin of Guadalupe gladly whispers in the ear of her son our supplications, as surely as she did at that wedding at Cana. Remember her words to the wine stewards, “Do whatever he tells you.”
A sure way for us to have a relationship with the “Woman Clothed with the Sun,” who in iconography and art through the ages has always pointed to her divine Son, is to pray always—her constant request in all Marian apparitions. Looking to her divine Son is what Mary wants above all else.
Can we have a greater advocate than the Woman Clothed with the Sun?
-Timothy J. Cronin