IT’S TIME TO HONOR ‘LA VIRGEN DE GUADALUPE’
I lead religious education at St. Didacus Catholic Church, where I have served for two decades. On the evening of Dec. 12, the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the children taking “el catecismo,” or catechism classes, will present a play depicting her apparitions nearly 500 years ago.
Parishes across the San Diego region, indeed the United States, Mexico and across the world, will honor “la Virgen de Guadalupe” with processions, special Masses and fiestas. At our parish, after a two-year break during the pandemic, we restarted this traditional play that we have been developing for 19 years.
The scenes the children will share are based on the five apparitions of la Virgen to Juan Diego, a peasant man. They occurred in December 1531 in what is now Mexico City, after the brutal Spanish conquest of the Aztecs. The scenes are taken from the tract “Nican Mopohua,” which frame the beautiful narration in songs and flowers.
In the Nahuatl language, “Nican Mopohua” means “Here It Is Told.” At St. Didacus Parish, it’s the children who tell this beautiful story, in which God invites a humble man to deliver His message of the Good News, a message that eventually leads to His will being done.
The story tells us that God’s mother appeared as a brown-skinned princess with indigenous features. Her visit to Tepeyac Hill is inspired by her attitude of service, and by her great yearning to listen to and help the hurting inhabitants of those lands.
In the story, the list is long of the traumas that lead Juan Diego to resist the mission that la Virgen entrusted to him — to ask the bishop of the land to erect a church for her so she may ease the pain of all those who seek her there.
Juan Diego has so many virtues, qualities and gifts that reflect his dignity, but the toll the conquest has taken on him, the scorn he routinely receives and the questioning he’s subjected to in the bishop’s house all make him doubt that he can be the best messenger for la Virgen.
“My Lady, maybe I will not be heard, and even if I was, maybe I will not be believed,” he tells her.
This story gives us hope because we, like Juan Diego, also doubt that we can deliver the Good News to our brothers and sisters.
“Nican Mopohua” uses the theme of flowers to symbolize life. La Virgen tells Juan Diego that he would find roses blooming in what is an arid place in winter — and indeed he does. He picks them, arranges them in his “tilma” or mantle, and tenderly carries them to the bishop.
“You are my ambassador, I place my trust in you,” la Virgen reiterates to Juan Diego.
After the fifth apparition, Juan Diego shows the bishop the imprint of la Virgen’s image on his mantle and the roses that he picked at Tepeyac Hill to prove that she is real. The bishop finally agrees to build her a church.
Some of the children who have shared this marvelous story over the years at our parish are now mothers and fathers themselves. They are able to tell their children how they once played la Virgen, Juan Diego or the bishop. In doing so, they pass her story to the next generation.
As people of faith, la Virgen is a symbol of the relationship God wants to have with each of us, and, that if we do what He asks us to do, we can achieve eternal life.
La Virgen is here today, tomorrow and always to help us to reach this goal. Let’s listen once more to what she tells Juan Diego.
“Am I not here, who is your mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Am I not your health? Are you not in my bosom?”
This Dec. 12, let us reflect on these words. And let’s share the “guadalupano” miracle of her apparitions, and put her loving example of love and service in practice in our own life. We can experience her, if we’re open to listening to a simple story told by children at this time of year.