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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Tue, 25 Aug 1992 12:38:21 CDT
Reply-To:     bradk%isdgsm@rtsg.mot.com
From:         Brad Kaiser <bradk%isdgsm@RTSG.MOT.COM>
Subject:      Our Lady of Guadalupe
X-To:         CHRISTIA%ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU@motgate.mot.com

A story of Mary's love for a people ...

In the early part of the 16th Century, the Spanish Conquistador
Hernando Cortez and his band of adventurers conquered the Aztec empire
of central Mexico.

The Aztecs were a proud, warrior people.  Their pagan religion
involved the worship of the sun god, the moon god, and a number of
minor gods also.  The believed that many of these gods, the sun god
especially, had to be propitiated on a daily basis by the gift of
human hearts.  I do not mean this metaphorically; they practiced human
sacrifice, ripping the beating hearts out of victims with obsidian
knives on the altars of their temples.  During great festivals,
hundreds of victims -- prisoners of war taken from neighboring tribes
-- would be sacrificed in a single day.

When the Spaniards came, they ended the temple cult.  They tried to
convert the Indians to Catholic Christianity, but met with little
success; the Indians hated the Spaniards because of their cruelty.

In December, 1531, an apparition of Mary appeared to an illiterate
Indian Christian named Juan Diego, on a hill outside present-day
Mexico City.  She told him of her love for the Aztec people, and asked
that a church be built in her honor on that hill.

Juan Diego went to his bishop with the story; the bishop thought he
was lying and demanded proof.

On December 12, the Virgin appeared again to Juan.  She indicated to
him a rose bush in bloom; that was odd, since it was too cold for
roses in December.  She told him to cut the roses and take them to the
bishop.  This he did, carrying them inside his cactus-fiber cloak.

When he opened his cloak to show the flowers to the bishop, they were
both stunned to see a beautiful picture of Mary on the inside of the
cloak.  The picture shows a slender woman, a girl really.  She wears a
white robe, fastened modestly around her neck with a brooch, on which
appeared a tiny cross.  Over her head and shoulders, falling to her
feet, is a blue robe, edged with gold and covered with gold stars.
She is surrounded by the golden rays of the sun, but the sun was
behind her and completely obscured by her body.  She stands on the
crescent moon.  She has olive skin.  Her head is bowed; her hands are
folded in front of her; she is at prayer.  Her face shows an
expression of sorrow and concern; much as a mother might look at her
ailing child.

The impact of this picture on the illiterate Aztecs was remarkable.
Consider the symbolism from their point of view: here was a mere girl,
yet she obscured one of their main gods, and stood on the other!  Most
remarkable, she was praying humbly as the Spanish priests wanted them
to do, praying to someone *INFINITELY* greater than herself ...
someone Whose symbol, the cross, she wore at her throat.  When the
priests explained that this God died for love of *them*, and had given
them His Sacred Body and Blood for their food (rather than the Satanic
reversal they had previously known!), they were stunned.

Whether you believe the image was miraculous or not, its effects
certainly were.  The bishop ordered the church to be built; a
temporary structure was erected in time for Christmas.  Over the next
seven years (1532-1538), *eight million* Mexican Indians heard the
gospel of Jesus Christ and received baptism into the Church.  Eight
million souls!  Imagine Satan's chagrin: he had held these people in
bondage for centuries, only to be defeated by a picture of Mary on a
peasant's cactus-fiber robe !!

This is one reason why Catholics say that "Mary leads people to
Jesus."

Interestingly, the cactus-fiber robe, which should have rotted to
pieces after 30 or 40 years, is whole and strong today, 450 years
later.  Thousands of pilgrims visit it annually.

God bless you all!

Brad Kaiser
(bradk%isdgsm@rtsg.mot.com)

           "From now on will all ages call me blessed"
                            -- Lk 1:48
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