← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
What People Forget About Our Lady of Guadalupe
00:08:38
The apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary that came to be known as Our Lady of Guadalupe was a miracle. The Castilian roses that came from Tepeyac Hill in winter were a miracle. The divinely illustrated vision of Our Lady on St. Juan Diego's tilma was a miracle—as is the fact that the tilma composed of organic fibers has refused to degrade for 500 years and is still available to see to this day. But none of those were the greatest miracle that Our Lady brought to the Americas that fateful century. Fr. Mike points out the incredible miracle that many people gloss over—but the one that makes an eternal difference.
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Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension presents. There's been a bunch of missionaries who have left everything to come be with the people of the New World. Why? Because they believed that it was worth leaving everything to bring these people the best thing they had to offer. There are many people from Europe came to the New World to exploit, to dominate, to steal, to ravage all those things. But Catholic missionaries came to the New World for one reason only. They themselves had been loved by God into life. They themselves knew the true story about a God who left heaven, right, And Jesus Christ comes. The Word became flesh to both among us so that we might have life and have it in abundance. And so they left every everything they knew to come to the New World in the hopes that they'd be able to pass on this good news, pass on this grace, pass on this new life to people they had never met, people that might not even want it. And that's what happened in the first 40, 50 years of Christianity being here in the New World. Maybe, I don't know, maybe a couple thousand converts. Then something happened. In December of 1531, there's a young man, or actually he's 40 something, so you tell me if that's young or not. His name is Juan Diego. Juan Diego was on his way through the hills of Tepeyac in Mexico, what is now Mexico, to take care of his. His uncle was sick. Now, Juan Diego was one of those people who had had a conversion to Catholicism. He had converted to becoming a Christ follower. And at one point, on his way to take care of his sick uncle, this young woman appeared to him. She seemed like she was. She was a Mezzi. So right, she was a native. She also seemed to be 15 or 16 years old. And she had a message for Juan Diego to go to the bishop and tell him that she wanted a shrine built on this hill, Tepeyak Hill in Guadalupe. And Juan Diego's like, well, hems and haws. Long story short, he goes to the bishop. The bishop's like, yeah, I don't think so. He's like, I think that was Mary, but who knows, you know? And the bishop is like, no, you're going to need to prove it to me somehow. So Juan Diego's like, I don't got time to prove any miracles to you, Bishop. I don't have time to deal with this, build a shrine. I don't have times for Mary to appear to me. So he kind of tries to avoid her. A couple times she finds him she says, no, no, listen. And she points to these Castilian roses that were blooming in December even though it was snow on the ground. And she picks them and she takes. He takes off his tilma, right? His kind of a poncho made of, like, these grass that's woven together. And she arranges these roses, Castilian roses, on, in his tilma, wraps it up, says, bring this to the bishop. This will be proof for him. And so he goes to the bishop's place and you might know the story as he unfolds the tilma to show the bishop, here are these Castilian roses that are blooming in December. Crazy. This is a sign from Our Lady. Here the roses fall to the ground. But on that tilma, on that poncho is the image of that young woman. It's the image that we now know as Our lady of Guadalupe. That's what, 1531. How many years ago? That is so many years ago. And yet, I don't know if you know this. Typically tilmas last for maybe 20 years because they're just made of dried straw, dried grass that's woven together. This tilma is what, 500 years old, and it's still intact. That when scholars have studied the image on the tilma, there are no brush strokes, there's no paint strokes, right? They have no idea even how this image is imprinted on this tilma that remains intact. I've seen images, you know, reprints of it, but I've never seen the actual image. But it's a miraculous thing. First these Castilian roses. Miraculous. Then the tilma, the image on the tilma, miraculous. Then the tilma itself staying intact, miraculous. And I used to think that that was the most incredible thing ever until I heard the rest of the story. Actually, I read about the rest of the story in a book by Dr. Peter Kreeft. K R E E F T. If you've never heard of Dr. Peter Kreeft, I recommend you getting any one of his books and reading them, because this man is brilliant and he can just communicate the truth of reality, the truth of God, the truth of Jesus, the truth of the church. So well. And in one of his books, he highlighted all those things, like, here's the roses, here's the tilma that's intact, here's the image. And the image is miraculous too. But he highlighted this one fact, even more miraculous than Our lady of Guadalupe on the tilma is that in the next, say, dozen years after Our lady appears, Juan Diego, as a native, there were somewhere between 8 million and 10 million conversions to Christianity in the dozen or so years following this apparition. At this image and this image on the tilma, between 8 and 10 million people dedicated their lives to Jesus Christ. It just blows my mind the reality that that's the miracle. The miracle is that for 40, 50 years, these missionaries had been slaving, toiling away, saying, we have so much goodness, so much grace. God himself wants you to have a new life. But it wasn't until Our lady showed up. And didn't just show up, but she showed up. Remember, whenever Mary appears, this is always, she's sent from the Father, she's sent by the Son. She's sent in the power of the Holy Spirit. So it's not like she did it on her own, that Mary is sent by God himself. And she was sent how as looking like the native people of this land. And what is God saying in that? Well, he's saying what he said in the Incarnation. I mean, what is the message of Christmas? What is the message of Christianity is that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw his glory, the glory as of a father's only son. That recognition that here is God, who so fully identified himself with us that he became one of us. Here's Mary, who is sent to the people of this land who are experiencing, obviously, as we know with the conquistadors and with all the other, like, violent things that were happening to the people of this land. Here's God who says, but listen, there's some destruction and there's a lot of violence and a lot of evil that's being brought to you, but there's also goodness. There's also grace, there's also truth that's being brought to you. And that truth is, I'm one of you, and I'm one with you. That when God sent Mary looking as a native of this land, he sent her with that message. That message is, you're my children, too. Every disciple of Jesus, regardless of race or ethnicity, regardless of social status, if you're a disciple of Jesus, we have God as our Father. If we're a disciple of Jesus, you have Mary as your mother, Mary, who's completely human rights. Mary's not God, but from the cross. What did Jesus say on the cross? Jesus looked at his beloved disciple and he said, there's your mother, and looked at his mother and said, and there's your son. And Scripture says in John's Gospel, from that hour, that beloved disciple took her into his home and cared for her. If you are a beloved disciple, and I believe you are, that means that Jesus from the cross and giving her his mom to John, and giving John to his mom. John was representative of how Jesus wants his mom to be our mom as well. And that. What's that look like? That looks like taking her into our homes. Now, we only. We have a unique relationship with God himself. Right? He is God, but God himself gave us his mom as our mom. And so you get to have a relationship with her as well, particularly if you find yourself saying, what if I'm unwanted? No, you have Mary as your mom. Say, what if I don't belong? No, you have Mary as your mom. What if you're going through some really difficult times? You have Mary as your mom. Jesus is our Savior and the Lord God is our Father and the source of all creation. The Holy Spirit is the One who gives us life from all eternity. God picked one woman to be his mom on earth, and he picked that one woman to be your mom and my mom. And the great miracle is not in the roses or in the tilma or in the image, although those are pretty cool. Great miracle is the fact that God is not done winning the hearts and the minds, the souls, the lives of people on this earth that others have forgotten. And apparently he wants to do this through the intercession, through the work, through the motherhood of Mary. Anyways, that's all I've got for today. Provost here at Ascension presents. My name is Father Mike. God bless and our leader of Guadalupe pray for us. Amen.