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August 26, 2021On Dec. 9, 1531, Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared for the first time to the Indian Saint Juan Diego. According to the accounts of the apparitions, Our Lady asked Juan Diego to go and see the Archbishop of Mexico and tell him that it was the will of the Mother of God that a temple be built on the hill of Tepeyac.
Juan Diego did so, but without any luck. He was not listened to and returned to the hill to tell the "the Lady of Heaven" what had happened. According to the "Nican Mopohoa" original account of the apparitions, Juan Diego told the Virgin what happened with the following words:
“Seeing her, prostrated before her, he said: ‘Lady, the least of my daughters, my child, I went where you sent me to comply with your command. With difficulty I entered the prelate’s study. I saw him and exposed your message, just as you instructed me. He received me benevolently and listened attentively, but when he replied, it appeared that he did not believe me.
He said: ‘You will return; I will hear you at my pleasure. I will review from the beginning the wish and desire that you have brought.’ I perfectly understood by the manner he replied that he believes it to be an invention of mine that you wish that a temple be built here to you, and that it is not your order; for which I exceedingly beg, Lady and my child, that you entrust the delivery of your message to someone of importance, well known, respected and esteemed, so that they may believe in him; because I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf, and you, my child, the least of my children, my Lady, you send me to a place where I never visit nor repose. Please excuse the great unpleasantness and let not fretfulness befall, my Lady and my all.”
Our Lady listened attentively, with love I would say, the words of Juan Diego, and with patience and also firmness she replied: “Hark, my son the least, you must understand that I have many servants and messengers to whom I must entrust the delivery of my message and carry my wish, but it is of precise detail that you yourself solicit and assist and that through your mediation my wish be complied. I earnestly implore, my son the least, and with sternness I command that you again go tomorrow and see the bishop. You go in my name and make known my wish in its entirety that he has to start the erection of a temple that I ask of him. And again, tell him that I, in person, the ever-virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God, sent you. … You are my ambassador, most worthy of all confidence.”
To the initial attitude of San Juan Diego, that of not believing in himself and what he could do; that of thinking less than others; that of believing oneself not worthy of this or that; that of believing the famous "you can't," is what I call the "syndrome" of Juan Diego.
And, I think it is, unfortunately, very common among us Catholics, particularly Hispanic Catholics. How many young people drop out of school because they lack a little faith in themselves and what they can achieve? How many times do we think that in the Church we cannot be part of the great events and decisions? How many times do we stop participating in the parish council, the finance council and other important groups because we think that "we don't visit those places?” How many times do we stop trusting ourselves and the potential we have, what we have to offer to our society and to our Church?
Thank God there is a "vaccine" against this "syndrome," and Juan Diego received it and knew how to use it. The "vaccine" is given to us by Our Lady of Guadalupe. With her words, with her insistence, with her order to become “ambassadors, most worthy of all confidence.”
My invitation is to "raise your heads" (cf. Lc 21,28). We Hispanics can be a blessing for the Church in the United States. It is time to believe it; it is time to put it into practice; it is time to show it. If you believe you don’t have the needed formation, please remember God does not necessarily only call the formed, but forms the ones called.
Approach your parish priest and tell him that you want to participate, that you want to contribute, that you want to be an ambassador, that you want to be a bridge that serves as a sign of unity and integration for the Church, that you want to be a messenger of Good News.
Take the risk, learn English, study, learn your faith, live your faith, share your faith, bear witness to Christ at every moment. We have a big mission in front of us. Many say that it is the Hispanic moment in society. Without a doubt it is, but it also is in the Church. Today, in addition to firmly believing in God, it is time for us Catholics to know that God firmly believes in us, his “ambassadors, most worthy of all confidence.”