Lessons from Tepyac

In the city where I live, there is an annual gathering of the faithful who pray on this day, asking the Virgin of Guadaloupe to intercede on our behalf and to help us to be people of faith.  This year, I was asked to preside at this celebration and to share words of wisdom that might help God's people to profess the Gospel of Life.

Homily for the Mass for Life

Celebrated at the Pro-Cathedral of the Assumption

Feast of Our Lady of Guadaloupe

Each year, the faithful gather for this special celebration, to remember and pray in thanksgiving to God for the gift of life, and also to raise awareness among God's holy people of the dignity of all human life.  We are also here today to commemorate the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin who appeared to a young man by the name of Juan Diego on the hilltop at Tepyac, near Mexico City.  What lessons can we learn from the series of encounters that took place there?  How can we apply these lessons to our lives today?

Just a few weeks ago, I had the privilege to accompany a group of pilgrims who traveled to Mexico City to pray at the Shrine of Guadaloupe.  There, we encountered amazing crowds of people who seemed to form a constant procession to and from the feet of the Mother.  During the week that we spent in and around Mexico City, I couldn’t help thinking that we Canadians can learn a lot about faith from the people of Mexico.  The faith that seems to unite them calls to all of us, inviting us too to come to the feet of the Mother, to place before her our concerns and our anxieties for our families, for our friends, for our health, for all the challenges that we face.

La Vierge Marie, qui est apparue sur la coline à Tepyac est la même femme decrite par Saint Jean dans la première lecture que nous avons entendue il y a quelques minutes.  Dans sa vision, Saint-Jean a vu une femme qui portait le soleil pour son manteau et qui avait la lune à ses pieds. Elle portait aussi une couronne d'étoiles sur sa tête. When Juan Diego encountered the young girl who appeared to him, he too might have thought that he was seeing a vision, or that he was dreaming.  As it turns out, he met her a number of times, and was even able to prove to the Bishop of Mexico City that she was truly present to him.  Saint Jean nous raconte sa vision de la femme qui metait au monde un fils.  La Vierge Marie a donné naissance à un fils que nous connaissons tous sous le nom du Fils de Dieu.

Mary’s encounter with the angel Gabriel, which is spoken of in Saint Luke's account of the Annunciation reminds all of us that God appeared not to the powerful of the land, but to a simple and humble virgin who lived in the hill country of Judea.  In the sixteenth century, the Virgin Mary appeared, not to the powerful of the land, but to a simple peasant who lived in the Mexican hill country.  Even today, God speaks, not often through the voices of those who have been accorded places of honor by worldly measure, but through those who are able to listen for his counsel with humility and trust.

When Juan Diego was overwhelmed with concern over his sick and ailing uncle, and wanted to run away from his encounter with the young woman in order to seek out a doctor, she herself asked him a question: No estoy yo aqui che soy tu madre? (Am I not here, I who am your mother?)  Mary our mother is always close to us.  Mary always knows how to help us.  At the moment when she heard the invitation of the Angel , Mary was filled with joy and wanted to share this good news with her cousin Elizabeth, who herself was also experiencing a similar miracle.  She set out in haste to find her.  Mary is always eager to share good news with us, to celebrate God`s goodness with us, to teach us how to share this good news with others.  May she who welcomed the invitation of the Lord to bear his son help us too to welcome God’s invitation to be instruments of his mercy and love.  May she who spoke words of tenderness to the young Juan Diego, calming his heart when he too was distressed, teach us to be faithful witnesses of gospel joy, and may she who brought comfort to Elizabeth teach us to always magnify the Lord through lives of faith so that the spirits of all God’s beloved children might learn to rejoice in God our Saviour.

At the conclusion of yesterday's General Audience in Saint Peter's Square, Pope Francis issued a special greeting to all the faithful of the Americas.  He said:

Tomorrow is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of the Americas. I would like to greet all my brothers and sisters on that continent, and I do so thinking of the Virgin of Tepeyac.

When Our Lady appeared to Saint Juan Diego, her face was that of a woman of mixed blood, a mestiza, and her garments bore many symbols of the native culture. Like Jesus, Mary is close to all her sons and daughters; as a concerned mother, she accompanies them on their way through life. She shares all the joys and hopes, the sorrows and troubles of God’s People, which is made up of men and women of every race and nation.

When the image of the Virgin appeared on the tilma of Juan Diego, it was the prophecy of an embrace: Mary’s embrace of all the peoples of the vast expanses of America – the peoples who already lived there, and those who were yet to come.

Mary’s embrace showed what America – North and South – is called to be: a land where different peoples come together; a land prepared to accept human life at every stage, from the mother’s womb to old age; a land which welcomes immigrants, and the poor and the marginalized, in every age. A land of generosity.

That is the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and it is also my message, the message of the Church. I ask all the people of the Americas to open wide their arms, like the Virgin, with love and tenderness.


I pray for all of you, dear brothers and sisters, and I ask you to pray for me! May the joy of the Gospel always abide in your hearts. May the Lord bless you, and may Our Lady be ever at your side.