Today we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe--Mary's appearance to Juan Diego, a Native American belonging to the Aztec tribe! As with Jesus, Mary's love for the poor and oppressed are revealed in this visit to Juan Diego. Because the bishop did not at first believe Juan Diego that Mary wanted a cathedral built on the spot where she appeared to him, he asked Mary to choose someone else. And Mary said "No, I have chosen you." The Bishop wanted proof, so Juan Diego asked for such and was told that there would be roses on a snowy hill nearby. He found the roses and wrapped them in his cloak and took them to the bishop. When Juan Diego opened his cloak and gave the Bishop the roses, there on his cloak was an imprint of our Blessed Mother clothed as an Aztec woman. Many miracles have occurred for the Mexican people through the intercession of Mary in the cathedral built at her request.
Like Juan Diego and like Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and like so many others who have gone before us, each one of us has been called to fulfill God's design and purpose that only we, with God's help, are able to do. If we refuse, that particular purpose is not accomplished. God designed it so! We might, as was the case with Juan Diego, want God to choose someone else whom we believe is better equipped to carry out what God is asking of us; however, God choose you and me for a specific purpose and equips us to carry out His design no less than He equipped Juan Diego and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to do what was theirs to do. When what is being asked of us seems too difficult, and we encounter our weaknesses, that is when God intervenes for us. At times like those, we also know much we depend upon God to empower us to do the good that is ours to do. May you and I humbly step up to the plate and embrace God's will for us as Mary and Juan Diego did!
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