The Lady on the Hill – Br. Jamie Nelson

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Br. Jamie Nelson

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Luke 1:39-47

Today we celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary’s appearance near Mexico City in the year 1531 as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

As the story goes, an Indigenous Nahua farmer named Juan Diego was walking alone at dawn on his way to mass at the nearest church. As he passed a hill, he heard music and birdsong coming from the summit. When he went to the top of the hill to find out what was going on, he saw a beautiful lady surrounded by light.

The lady spoke to him in Nahuatl, his native language, and identified herself as the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God. She told Juan Diego to go to the bishop in Mexico City to ask for a church to be built on top of the hill.

So Juan Diego humbly and faithfully presented himself at the bishop’s office, but the bishop didn’t believe him. Juan Diego returned to the hill and reported his mission’s failure. Undaunted, the Lady told him to go back to the bishop the next day and to ask again.

This time, the bishop requested a sign from the Lady. When Juan Diego reported the bishop’s request to the Lady, she told him to come back the next morning, and she would provide the sign.

However, when morning came, Juan Diego’s beloved uncle was very ill. Instead of going to seek the sign that would make the bishop believe him, Juan Diego hurried to bring a priest to administer last rites before his uncle died.

His path took him past the Lady’s hill, but his mission was far too urgent to stop. The Lady came to him instead, appearing on the road before him. Juan Diego explained the urgency of his errand as the reason why he had not come to her as directed. The Lady told him not to fear, that his uncle was now healed. She directed Juan Diego to climb once again to the hill’s summit, where he would find the promised sign for the bishop.

On the top of the hill, Juan Diego found roses in full flower – blooming despite it being a cold December day. When Juan Diego met with the bishop, he opened his cloak to display the out-of-season bouquet. The flowers tumbled to the ground to reveal an image imprinted on the rough fabric of the cloak – a marvelous life-size portrait of the Lady as she had appeared to Juan Diego.

The church built at the Lady’s command is now a place of pilgrimage where more than nine million people visit on or near this day each year. Juan Diego’s cloak hangs above the altar, remaining without decay almost 500 years after the miraculous image first appeared.

So how might we pray with this story?

Let’s start with Mary. There’s a long tradition in the Episcopal Church and in our Society of regarding Mary with great esteem as the Mother of our Lord. We can ask for her intercession on behalf of the concerns of our hearts. We can look to her as a model of courageous faith and as a wise and loving friend inviting us into deeper relationship with her son.

Next, this story is a reminder that God shows a special desire to connect with people at the margins. Juan Diego was an Indigenous man who lived in a time of massive cultural upheaval due to European colonization. Mary was a young, unmarried woman, occupying a precarious social position, when she was called to bear her son Jesus.

Finally, this story is a reminder that God desires to connect with us in our everyday language and context, by means which we can understand. Juan Diego’s Lady shared her message in his native language. Many of the details of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s portrait carried deep symbolism in Nahua culture and thus were able to convey Christian theology in a visual way.[1] In Advent, we use familiar songs and symbols to retell the story of Jesus who came as Emmanuel to a particular people in a particular place who were longing for a savior.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, help us to prepare our hearts for the arrival of your Son.

[1] This infographic handout explains the symbolism of the image: https://guadalupeshrine.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/our-lady-guadalupe-heaven-tilma-infographic-theological-message-symbolism-english-lg.jpg