Why Juan Diego is an American Saint
Blessed Juan Diego: A Model of Humility
Posted on 12/09/2005 9:03:34 AM PST by Salvation
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Why Juan Diego is an American Saint
Blessed Juan Diego: A Model of Humility
From: Matthew 11:16-19
Jesus Reproaches People for their Unbelief
| Friday, December 9, 2005 St. Juan Diego, Hermit (Optional Memorial) |
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San Diego bump!
Thanks for stopping by and coming on board.
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December 09, 2005    Optional Memorial of St. Juan Diego (USA)
Little is known about the life of Juan Diego before his conversion, but tradition and archaelogical and iconographical sources, along with the most important and oldest indigenous document on the event of Guadalupe, "El Nican Mopohua" (written in Náhuatl with Latin characters, 1556, by the Indigenous writer Antonio Valeriano), give some information on the life of the saint and the apparitions. Juan Diego was born in 1474 with the name "Cuauhtlatoatzin" ("the talking eagle") in Cuautlitlán, today part of Mexico City, Mexico. He was a gifted member of the Chichimeca people, one of the more culturally advanced groups living in the Anáhuac Valley. When he was 50 years old he was baptized by a Franciscan priest, Fr. Peter da Gand, one of the first Franciscan missionaries. On December 9, 1531, when Juan Diego was on his way to morning Mass, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City. She asked him to go to the Bishop and to request in her name that a shrine be built at Tepeyac, where she promised to pour out her grace upon those who invoked her. The Bishop, who did not believe Juan Diego, asked for a sign to prove that the apparition was true. On December 12, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac. Here, the Blessed Mother told him to climb the hill and to pick the flowers that he would find in bloom. He obeyed, and although it was winter time, he found roses blooming. He gathered the flowers and took them to Our Lady who carefully placed them in his mantle and told him to take them to the Bishop as "proof". When he opened his mantle, the flowers fell on the ground and there remained impressed, in place of the flowers, an image of the Blessed Mother, the apparition at Tepeyac.
Much deeper than the exterior grace of having been chosen as Our Lady's messenger, Juan Diego received the grace of interior enlightenment and from that moment, he began a life dedicated to prayer and the practice of virtue and boundless love of God and neighbour. He died in 1548 and was buried in the first chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. He was beatified on May 6, 1990 by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of Santa Maria di Guadalupe, Mexico City. The miraculous image, which is preserved in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, shows a woman with native features and dress. She is supported by an angel whose wings are reminiscent of one of the major gods of the traditional religion of that area. The moon is beneath her feet and her blue mantle is covered with gold stars. The black girdle about her waist signifies that she is pregnant. Thus, the image graphically depicts the fact that Christ is to be "born" again among the peoples of the New World, and is a message as relevant to the "New World" today as it was during the lifetime of Juan Diego. Patron: Mexico. Symbols: Pictured carrying a tilma full of roses. Things to Do:
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December 9, 2005
 St. Juan Diego
(1474-1548)
Thousands of people gathered in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe July 31, 2002, for the canonization of Juan Diego, to whom the Blessed Mother appeared in the 16th century. Pope John Paul II celebrated the ceremony at which the poor Indian peasant became the Church’s first indigenous saint. The Holy Father called the new saint “a simple, humble Indian” who accepted Christianity without giving up his identity as an Indian. “In praising the Indian Juan Diego, I want to express to all of you the closeness of the church and the pope, embracing you with love and encouraging you to overcome with hope the difficult times you are going through,” John Paul said. Among the thousands present for the event were members of Mexico’s 64 indigenous groups. First called Cuauhtlatohuac (“The eagle who speaks”), Juan Diego’s name is forever linked with Our Lady of Guadalupe because it was to him that she first appeared at Tepeyac hill on December 9, 1531. The most famous part of his story is told in connection with the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12). After the roses gathered in his tilma were transformed into the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, however, little more is said about Juan Diego. In time he lived near the shrine constructed at Tepeyac, revered as a holy, unselfish and compassionate catechist who taught by word and especially by example. During his 1990 pastoral visit to Mexico, Pope John Paul II confirmed the long-standing liturgical cult in honor of Juan Diego, beatifying him. Twelve years later he was proclaimed a saint. Quote:
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Isaiah 48:17-19 / Matthew 11:16-19 We Americans aren't noted for our fondness for rules and regulations. Anything that even hints of restraints on our freedoms engenders instant hostility and opposition. Today's Gospel suggests that we're not alone in this aversion to being told what to do and how to live, no matter how gently or wisely it is done. Jesus came, not to impose another set of rules, but to help us understand that there's only one way of living that really works, only one way of living that will fill all our hearts' desires by putting us at peace with God and one another. But, no matter what Jesus said or how He said it, far too many of His listeners resisted Him. If He said "black," they'd say "white," and the sniping was continual. In today's reading from Isaiah, the Lord pleads with us: "If you would hearken to my commandments, your prosperity would be like a river." God's commandments aren't a kind of arbitrary obstacle course that we have to survive in order to arrive at the promised land. They simply tell us how to live if we want to be happy and live in peace. The commandments are God's gift to us. They have in them an inner truth, and they give us a roadmap to true freedom. Listen to that inner truth, find a deeper wisdom, and be free. |
| Mt 11:16-19 | ||
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| # | Douay-Rheims | Vulgate |
| 16 | But whereunto shall I esteem this generation to be like? It is like to children sitting in the market place. | cui autem similem aestimabo generationem istam similis est pueris sedentibus in foro qui clamantes coaequalibus |
| 17 | Who crying to their companions say: We have piped to you, and you have not danced: we have lamented, and you have not mourned. | dicunt cecinimus vobis et non saltastis lamentavimus et non planxistis |
| 18 | For John came neither eating nor drinking; and they say: He hath a devil. | venit enim Iohannes neque manducans neque bibens et dicunt daemonium habet |
| 19 | The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say: Behold a man that is a glutton and a wine drinker, a friend of publicans and sinners. And wisdom is justified by her children. | venit Filius hominis manducans et bibens et dicunt ecce homo vorax et potator vini publicanorum et peccatorum amicus et iustificata est sapientia a filiis suis |
Faith-sharing bump.
Here's hoping that all FReepers reading this thread have a blessed weekend full of faith, friends, family, peace, prosperity, and Advent cheer.
What a precious painting!
Friday December 9, 2005 Second Week of Advent
Reading (Isaiah 48:17-19) Gospel (St. Matthew 11:16-19)
In the first reading today from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, we hear Our Lord tell us that He teaches us what is for our good and He leads us on the way that we should go, and if we would hearken to His commandments, then, He says, our prosperity would be like a river and our vindication like the waves of the sea. Now then we have to ask ourselves: What exactly is it that He is asking of us? He has laid out for us exactly the way that He wants us to live. He has not only given us His Ten Commandments, but He has taught us (especially through Our Lord) exactly what He wants of us. But the problem is that most of us do not want it. The Lord says we are like children in the marketplace who say, We piped you a tune, but you didn’t dance; we sang you a dirge, but you didn’t wail. We have to ask ourselves: What is it that we really want? The Lord has presented for us in a variety of ways, through the saints over the years, through the teaching of the Church, through His own example, through His own mother, everything that we are supposed to be about. But most of us refuse to follow the example. We do not want to pray, we do not want to change our lives, we do not want to be saints, we do not even really want to be very holy–because we do not want to be different.
All we can continually say is that if we want to be like the people who want to be worldly, we are going straight down. Why would we want to be like that? Because everyone else is, is the only reason that we can give. So what? The question is: Who are we going to follow? The Lord has told us very clearly what we have to be about. We are saying that we want to be His followers, but our actions demonstrate something entirely different. It is just like the people of old. Jesus says, John the Baptist came, and you said he was possessed by a demon. “He is crazy! This guy’s out in the desert with a camel hair outfit and he’s eating grasshoppers. He’s nuts!” So Jesus comes along, and then they have excuses for Him. They said He was possessed. They said He was crazy. He says, They are calling Me a glutton and a drunkard. It is any excuse in the world to not listen and to not act. That is what we have, and that is what we do as human beings.
If Jesus Himself were right here in front of us today (other than as He is in the Eucharist), if He were standing here physically in front of us today and He was preaching at us, you know what we would do? We would come up with an excuse as to why we did not have to listen to what He said. We would walk away and say, “Wow! That was really nice. He’s a great speaker!” And we would ignore everything He said. Or we would walk away and say, “That guy just doesn’t get it. He’s crazy. He doesn’t want me living like the rest of these people. He wants me to throw my TV set away! He wants me to quit living like a pagan! He wants me to stop sinning! He wants me to change my life! He’s nuts!”
So what will we do? Nothing. We refuse to change because we do not want the inconvenience. And so we need to really look seriously at this. How many saints do we need? We have God Himself, Who told us how to live. We celebrate the ones who have done things the right way. We hold them up; we teach them to our children. We read the stories to our kids about being a saint, and then you know what we do? We tell our kids as they get older: “Don’t be like that.” Why? Because what is most important is how much money you make. Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, The only ones who are a failure in this life are the ones who fail to get to heaven, and the only ones who are a success in this life are the ones who get to heaven. So it is not about what kind of job you have. It is not about how much money you make. It is about how you live your life. If you are making ten million dollars a year and you are a saint, then praise God. And if you are making ten thousand dollars a year and you are a saint, praise God. But if you are making ten thousand dollars a year and you are a wretch, then you are going the wrong direction.
None of the worldly things matter. None of the external things matter. What matters is what is in our hearts and how we live our lives. That is what God is looking for. So we need to look at our own excuses, our rationalizations, all of the reasons why we refuse to change our lives to do it God’s way, and ask ourselves: What will it take? We piped you a tune, but you wouldn’t dance; we sang you a dirge, but you wouldn’t wail. What will it take to change our lives to be like Jesus?
* This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.
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With the Bishop's permission, Juan Diego lived the rest of his life as a hermit in a small hut near the chapel where the miraculous image was placed for veneration. Here he cared for the church and the first pilgrims who came to pray to the Mother of Jesus. 
