12 December 2014 - Our Lady of Guadalupe

Today, we are invited to realize the great blessing we have in Mary. She is indeed "the highest honor of our race". As Wordsworth put it, "Our tainted nature's solitary boast".

What difference does one "deed of hope" make? We see that today. Mary trusts in God's word. She hopes in his promise. Even though she has no relations with a man, even though she is not planning on having any, she trusts the angel who tells her that she will somehow have a son. She hears that he will not only be her son but also the Son of God, ruler of the house of Jacob forever and ever. She hears that she herself will be filled with the Holy Spirit in a way that no one ever has before or since. And in response, she makes her deed of hope. In some ways it seems small. She just says yes. She says, "May it be done to me according to your word."

Her deed of hope is not only remembered but continues to bless us to this day. It is Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, who takes Juan Diego under her mantle. It is her intercession that converts the Aztecs where missionaries could not.

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,
and he will dwell among you,
and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.

Mary's openness is enough. Even hundreds of years later God still blesses his people through her yes. He comes as man through her. He brings his presence to the Aztec's through her. It is all because of one small and seemingly insignificant yes.

The Aztecs were once closed and refused to say yes to God. Even the bishop of Mexico was slow to say yes. Mary knows the value of starting small because she considers herself lowly. She knows that it is the power of God that makes all things possible and not her yes. Because she knows, she first draws the yes from Juan Diego. She then works through him to draw a yes to God's plan from the bishop and even the Aztecs.

She wants to draw the yes from us as well. She wants to teach us that our yes is no small thing, that it may well be remembered forever.

Let us watch for her coming to us with anticipation and hope.

The LORD will possess Judah as his portion in the holy land,
and he will again choose Jerusalem.
Silence, all mankind, in the presence of the LORD!
For he stirs forth from his holy dwelling.