Handmaid proclaims the greatness of the Lord

The texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe are rich for contemplation of the change in our personal spiritual experience and the impact of faith on entire cultures of humble surrender to the will of God.


The Prophet Zechariah describes how the Covenant between God and Israel will be extended to include all nations.

* [2:15] Many nations…my people: a way of expressing God’s relationship to people in covenant language. The covenant between God and Israel (see Jer 31:33; 32:38) is here universalized to include all nations.

In the Gospel from Luke, chosen by the CCCB, the Mary visits her pregnant cousin Elizabeth and they rejoice in the role she has surrendered to proclaim the glory of God as the handmaid who will be Mother to Yeshua (Yahweh saves).

* [1:46–55] Although Mary is praised for being the mother of the Lord and because of her belief, she reacts as the servant in a psalm of praise, the Magnificat. Because there is no specific connection of the canticle to the context of Mary’s pregnancy and her visit to Elizabeth, the Magnificat (with the possible exception of v. 48) may have been a Jewish Christian hymn that Luke found appropriate at this point in his story. Even if not composed by Luke, it fits in well with themes found elsewhere in Luke: joy and exultation in the Lord; the lowly being singled out for God’s favor; the reversal of human fortunes; the fulfillment of Old Testament promises. The loose connection between the hymn and the context is further seen in the fact that a few Old Latin manuscripts identify the speaker of the hymn as Elizabeth, even though the overwhelming textual evidence makes Mary the speaker.

Eileen Wirth recalls, after attending an interfaith service remembering people slain in the synagogue in Pittsburgh, having a palpable sense that night of people from many “nations” joining together under the Lord. No matter what we call God or how we worship him, we are part of his common human family.

In a similar vein, today’s feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe speaks powerfully to me of uniting with people different from myself because of tragedy unfolding on our southern border and the efforts of the Sisters of Mercy to alleviate it.
Recently my friend, Sister Catherine Kuper RSM, appealed to our Saturday night Mass community at St. John’s to help the Sisters of Mercy assist asylum-seeking migrants in El Paso, Texas. The sisters are collecting funds, gift cards, toiletries and other necessities for the migrants, most of whom have only the clothes on their backs. Many carry a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe, their protector.
It was as if Mary, herself, was asking us to help protect her children.

Bishop Robert Barron comments on Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe that we do not sufficiently engage this great feast if we simply wonder at a marvelous event from long ago. We must announce to our culture today the truth of the God of Israel, the God of Jesus Christ, the God of nonviolence and forgiving love. And we ought, like La Morena, to be bearers of Jesus to a world that needs him more than ever.

What followed the apparition at Tepeyac is, of course, one of the most astounding chapters in the history of Christian evangelism. Though Franciscan missionaries had been laboring in Mexico for twenty years, they had made little progress. But within ten years of the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, practically the entire Mexican people, nine million strong, converted to Christianity. La Morena had proved a more effective evangelist than Peter, Paul, St. Patrick, and St. Francis Xavier combined! And with that great national conversion, human sacrifice came to an end. She had done battle with fallen spirits and had won a culture-changing victory for the God of love.

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 1:26-38 urges us to pray “Lord, help me to be as willing as Mary and St. Juan Diego to say yes to you!”

God could easily turn hearts and change minds by simply calling out from heaven in a big booming voice. But that’s not how he works. Throughout history, he chooses humble people to make his message heard and to change the world.

Friar Jude Winkler selects the USCCB optional texts from Rev. 11.19; 12.1, 3-6, 10 and Luke 1:26-38 to connect the events of the Annunciation and the Visitation to much of Roman Catholic understanding of Mary as Ark of the Covenant and predestined one as Mother of God. Friar Jude underlines that this was not an act of power but an act of surrender, love and humility.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, cites Thomas Keating about Centering Prayer that is a method designed to facilitate the development of contemplative prayer by preparing our faculties to receive this gift. . . . It is at the same time a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship. This method of prayer is a movement beyond conversation with Christ to communion with Him.

As you practice Centering Prayer, you begin to experience the value of inner silence, which reveals the true self. The presence of God can also be experienced through the love of nature, deep friendship, conjugal love, generous service of others, or the discoveries of genuine science. There are many roads leading to the awakening of the original endowment that God has given every human being, of which the gift of contemplation is one. Contemplation . . . is a gift that has already been given. You have got it! What you have to do is to allow it to awaken within you.

In our prayer communion with God, we seek the ability to surrender to His Will and be open to action that changes everything.

References

1	(n.d.). Zechariah chapter 2 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved December 12, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/zechariah/2
2	(n.d.). Luke, chapter 1 - United States Conference .... Retrieved December 12, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke
3	(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved December 12, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
4	(2015, December 11). The Challenge of Our Lady of Guadalupe | Word on Fire. Retrieved December 12, 2018, from https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/article/the-challenge-of-our-lady-of-guadalupe/5010/
5	(n.d.). Our Lady of Guadalupe (Feast) - Mass Readings and Catholic Daily .... Retrieved December 12, 2018, from https://wau.org/meditations/
6	(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved December 12, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/