Homily, Memorial of Our Lady of The Rosary
Mass of the Americas at the Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City
LEA AQUÍ LA HOMILÍA EN ESPAÑOL
Introduction
Nothing defines our Christian religion more, nothing defines the way in which we view all of reality more, than the fact and mystery of the Incarnation: God coming to earth, being born of a Virgin and assuming a human nature. The Church has venerated this mystery all throughout her history. The words ring out from the Prologue of St. John’s Gospel: Verbum caro factum est (“The Word became flesh”). In the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, right on the spot where this happened, are inscribed the words Verbum caro hic factum est. Notice that one Latin word added: hic, “here.” “The Word became flesh here.” It was right at that spot that heaven touched earth, and wedded earth to itself.
Heaven Visiting Earth
What happened at that spot in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago happened again here, on this spot, 1,530 years later. Here once again heaven came down and touched the earth, on this very spot. Here it was that the one through whom God worked the miracle of His Incarnation came down from heaven and touched earth. Notice how our Mother Mary repeats the pattern of the mystery she received at the moment of the Annunciation. As St. Luke describes it in the Gospel passage we just heard proclaimed, the Archangel greets her with the words: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”
And here she came to earth, touched the earth right here, and spoke these words to a poor, insignificant but very devout indigenous believer: “Listen, put it into your heart, my youngest and dearest son, that the thing that disturbs you, the thing that afflicts you, is nothing. Do not let your countenance, your heart be disturbed. Do not be afraid….” What favor St. Juan Diego found before God, to be privileged with this revelation, leading soon to the building of a new and wondrous Christian civilization!
This is what our Mother does for us, and why she appears all over the world. She is aways with us, accompanying us, as she has from the very beginning. Recall what we just heard from the Acts of the Apostles:
“After Jesus had been taken up into heaven, the Apostles returned to Jerusalem…. All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus.…”
It was almost 47 years ago that Pope St. John Paul II preached in this Basilica. He wasted no time: he came here joined by his brother bishops for his Apostolic Visit scarcely three months after assuming the Throne of Peter. He directed his homily to his brother bishops, but addressed it to our Blessed Mother, in the second person, almost as if a prayer. And he spoke to her right here about how she continues to accompany us through her many apparitions around the world and throughout history:
… ever since the time that the Indian Juan Diego spoke of the sweet Lady of Tepeyac, you, Mother of Guadalupe, have entered decisively into the Christian life of the people of Mexico. No less has been your presence in other places, where your children invoke you with tender names, as Our Lady of Altagracia, of the Aparecida, of Luján, and with many other no less affectionate names, not to give an unending list—names by which in each nation … the peoples … express their most profound devotion to you, and under which you protect them in their pilgrimage of faith.
Promises and Requests
This is what our Mother does for us, she promises us care and protection from heaven during our pilgrimage of faith from here to there. Did she not promise this to St. Juan Diego? Here are her words to him: “I am truly your merciful Mother, yours and all the people who live united in this land and of all the other people of different ancestries, my lovers, who love me, those who seek me, those who trust in me. Here I will hear their weeping, their complaints and heal all their sorrows, hardships and sufferings.”
This is why we love to address her with the words of the Archangel Gabriel, as John Paul II acclaimed in that same homily:
Hail Mary! It is with immense love and reverence that I utter these words, words so simple and at the same time so marvelous. No one will ever be able to greet you in a more wonderful way than the way in which the Archangel once greeted you at the moment of the Annunciation. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. I repeat these words, words that so many hearts ponder upon and so many lips utter throughout the world.
Yes, her promise of intercession and heavenly help and protection move us to greet her with such love, in this same way. However, she makes not only promises but also requests: she asks, as well as promises. What does she ask here, at this spot? She tells her dear Juan Dieguito: “… you must go to the residence of the Bishop of Mexico and tell him that I sent you here to show him how strongly I wish him to build me a temple here on the plain”; “Tell [the bishop] in my name and make him fully understand my intention that he start work on the chapel I am requesting.”
A temple, a chapel: that is, a sacred space. Our worship here in this sacred space, on this spot where heaven touched earth and our Mother opened the flood gates to the evangelization of the Americas, is meant to help us build that sacred space in our hearts. Our Blessed Mother first welcomed God’s Son into her heart, and only then could she fulfill God’s will for her and for the salvation of the entire human race by conceiving him physically in her womb.
Conclusion
Allow me to conclude, then, by citing one last time from that homily that Pope John Paul II delivered here in this holy place in January of 1979. His words are a prayer to our Blessed Mother asking her to help us show forth the fruits of creating that sacred space in our hearts for her to enter and again give birth to her Son in our lives:
O Mother, help us to be faithful stewards of the great mysteries of God. Help us to teach the truth proclaimed by your Son and to spread love, which is the chief commandment and the first fruit of the Holy Spirit. Help us … to awaken hope in eternal life…. You have entered so deeply into the hearts of the faithful through that sign of your presence constituted by your image in the Shrine of Guadalupe; be at home in [our] hearts…. Be at home in our families, our parishes, missions, dioceses, and in all … peoples.
Amen!
