Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 12, 2022
Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”
And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”
We hear in this story what happens after Mary receives a visit from the angel Gabriel and offers her fiat for all of humanity. She sets out to visit her cousin Elizabeth after hearing that Elizabeth, too, is expecting a miracle.
Among the many feelings that this pair of cousins likely shared as they recounted their recent weeks, joy was prevalent. Elizabeth may have been surprised to see Mary, yet she immediately recognized how God was present in and through Mary.
And through the movement of the Holy Spirit and the baby she carried within her, Elizabeth recognized Christ within Mary. Mary’s response to this recognition was to praise and rejoice in God.
On this special feast day, we remember that Mary made another surprise visit to a man named Juan Diego many generations later. Juan Diego could not have been expecting Mary’s appearance, even though Mary also knew of Juan Diego’s life situation prior to appearing before him. And just like Elizabeth, Juan Diego was able to recognize in the image of Mary the presence of Jesus Christ under the prompting of the Holy Spirit because he had a heart oriented to God.
How often do we remember that Mary also knows us in our situations, even right as they are in this moment of prayer together? Do we allow the Holy Spirit to enable us to be receptive to Mary inviting us to draw closer to Christ through her?
Our Lady of Guadelupe revealed herself to be the Mother of God but also the mother of all of humanity. With our own hearts oriented to God, how can we also proclaim the greatness of the Lord, trusting in the fulfillment of God’s promises and rejoicing in the wonder of God’s mystery?
Prayer
O God, Father of mercies, who placed your people under the singular protection of your Son’s most holy Mother, grant that all who invoke the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, may seek with ever more lively faith the progress of peoples in the ways of justice and peace. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.
Saint of the Day
In December of 1531, a poor native Aztec Indian named Juan Diego was walking through the hills outside of Mexico City on his way to Mass. He heard sweet music and a woman’s voice calling his name from a hill called Tepeyac.
Juan Diego climbed the hill and found a woman who looked like she was also Aztec and dressed in traditional Aztec clothing. She identified herself as the Virgin Mary and instructed Juan Diego to tell his bishop to build a shrine on Tepeyac hill to encourage faithfulness in the people of Mexico City.
When he heard Juan Diego's request, the bishop was skeptical and asked for a sign. When Juan Diego went back and gave this message to Mary, she told him to go to the top of Tepeyac hill and pick the roses he would find there. Juan Diego gathered the roses in his tilma, a cloak-like a poncho, and Mary arranged the flowers and told him to take them to the bishop.
When Juan showed the bishop the roses, they saw that an image of Mary was left upon Juan’s cloak. The bishop was immediately convinced and built a shrine on Tepeyac. Soon, some 8 million people had come to the faith because of Mary’s apparition.
Juan Diego’s tilma was framed and kept in the shrine. It was made of a rough material from cactus and should have decayed within a few decades, but 500 years later is still an object of wonder for millions of pilgrims today. (Recent analyses have revealed that recorded in the image of Mary's iris there are small images of Juan Diego himself, which further indicates its supernatural origin.)
Our Lady of Guadalupe was declared patroness of the Americas. And, as, in the image of Guadalupe, she is portrayed as an expectant mother (her pregnancy is indicated by the high-waisted black sash) she is depicted as pregnant with Jesus, she is also the patron of the Right to Life movement. (For a short reflection on the placement of this feast during the Advent season, read this essay from theology professor and Guadalupe scholar Maxwell Johnson here.)
This feast day is celebrated on Notre Dame's campus with a vibrant Mass in the Basilica led by the Spanish-language student choir. A number of images of Our Lady of Guadalupe are presented on campus—the most recent shown below was painted along St. Joseph Lake by artist Bea Bradley.
Our featured image for the day can be found in a side chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and is brought out for veneration annually for the Guadalupe Mass. It was painted by Maria Tomasula, professor of painting in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design. In the video below, Director of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, Dr. Joseph Becherer, explains two different paintings of Our Lady of Guadalupe: a piece from 18th century in the Raclin Murphy collection and Tomasula piece in the basilica.
View and personalize a card with a prayer to of Our Lady of Guadalupe here on FaithND.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas and of the Right to Life movement—pray for us!
Image Credit: Maria Tomasula, Virgin of Guadalupe, 2008, Oil on board. Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame. Pat and Robert Kill Family Endowment for Excellence for Latin American Art, 2009.001. ©Maria Tomasula, 2020