A desert becomes a marshland, and a wasteland flourishes with cypress and pine trees. A thirsty people find refreshment there. So, Isaiah today describes God’s care for Israel. Roses bloom in the winter and a miraculous image of a young Native American woman garbed as an Aztec princess appears on the cloak of a poor man in Mexico in 1531. Through it, the peoples of the Americas come to honor Mary in a new devotion that has flourished for almost five hundred years.
Anyone who has lived or worked in Latin America or in the United States among Hispanic Catholics knows the warmth of their love and affection for Our Lady of Guadalupe. Pilgrims flock to the great church built on the site where Juan Diego, a Native American convert, whose Indian name was Cuauhtlatohuac, saw the vision of the young woman on Tepeyac hill near Mexico City and carried her request to build a church to the local bishop.
The bishop’s demand for a sign led to the miracle of the roses that fell from Juan Diego’s tilma, which revealed the image of the woman in the fabric. Appearing there as she does, in the image of the native Aztec people, reinforces our faith in the fundamental truth of God enfleshed in humanity—the truth we will celebrate at Christmas.
—adapted from the book Advent with the Saints: Daily Reflections
by Greg Friedman, OFM
