“We All Love Our Mother, Who Unites Us into One Family of God”
Homily on the Occasion of the Annual Archdiocesan Cruzada Guadalupana
December 7, 2024; St. Mary’s Cathedral
Readings: Zec 2:14-17; Jdt 13; Lk 1:39-47
Introduction
Today is an historic day in Paris, and really all throughout the world, as bells rang out at the reopening of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Its reconstruction has been completed since the devastating fire in April 2019 that nearly completely destroyed it. In an act of solidarity, churches throughout the United States have rung their bells, including here in our Archdiocese at 11:00, corresponding to the time the bells rang in Paris.
The destruction of that masterpiece of great beauty captured the attention of the entire world, as we all mourned the damage being done to this sacred temple to the glory of God, in honor of the Mother of God’s Son. Even as secular as the country of France has become, the Cathedral of Notre Dame is still the Mother of every French person.
Nine-Year Novena
This is what a mother is like. And so our Mother Mary appears everywhere in the world, to all races, to people of all nations, to speak to them words of hope and consolation, and of invitation to turn their lives toward her Son, who loves them with the love of God himself. And so we, too, love to come together today to honor our Mother as she appeared to the lowly indigenous man, Juan Diego, bringing her Son’s message of peace, unity and salvation to a people whom she would introduce to him. We are now only seven years away from a significant milestone from that encounter: 2031 will mark the 500th anniversary of the apparition of the Most Holy Virgin to St. Juan Diego.
It is for good reason, then, that Pope Francis has called for an Intercontinental Nine-Year Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe to prepare for the 500th anniversary of the apparition. It is an intercontinental novena because it is for everyone: the Virgin of Guadalupe unites us because she is the Mother of all, the Mother of all humanity, not just one race or another. Sadly, in the times in which we now live, we need to defend her honor.
In the homily in which he announced the Nine-Year novena, Pope Francis spoke to this, saying: “They want to discredit her, to smear our Mother. Please, let us not allow the message to be watered down into worldly and ideological modes of thinking. The message is simple, it is tender: ‘Am I not here, I who am your Mother.’ And the Mother is not ideologized.” And he made a special appeal to us here in our hemisphere, when he said: “I encourage all members of the pilgrim Church in America, pastors and faithful, to participate in this celebratory journey, but please do so with a true Guadalupano spirit.”[1]
Notice that he speaks here of the pilgrim Church in America, not “in the Americas.” His vision is to see our entire hemisphere, South, Central and North America, as one continent. It cannot be otherwise for us who are Catholic, because we are all one people united in our faith, and what happened at Tepeyac 493 years ago affects us directly all throughout this part of the world.
Vision of Unity
Pope St. John Paul II had the same vision. In the late 1990s, when he held a special Synod of Bishops for each continent in the world in preparation for the great Jubilee year of 2000, to begin the third Christian millennium, the Synod held for our part of the world was the “Synod for America.” Not “the Americas,” much less different Synods for North America and Latin America, or North America, Central America and South America.
After every Synod of Bishops the Pope writes a pastoral plan for its implementation, called an Apostolic Exhortation. He made his fourth pilgrimage to Mexico in 1999 in order to present this Apostolic Exhoration, which has, precisely, the title, “The Church in America.” He says there:
I announced the theme of the Special Assembly for America of the Synod in these words: Encounter with the Living Jesus Christ: The Way to Conversion, Communion and Solidarity in America. Put this way, the theme makes clear the centrality of the person of the Risen Christ, present in the life of the Church and calling people to conversion, communion and solidarity. The starting-point of such a program of evangelization is in fact the encounter with the Lord. Given by Christ in the Paschal Mystery, the Holy Spirit guides us towards those pastoral goals which the Church in America must attain in the third Christian millennium.[2]
Notice that Pope John Paul II also refers to America as one continent, and said that Americans are called to unity. He went on to say:
Open to the unity which comes from true communion with the Risen Lord … all … will discover through their own spiritual experience that ‘the encounter with the living Jesus Christ’ is ‘the path to conversion, communion and solidarity’. To the extent that these goals are reached, there will emerge an ever increasing dedication to the new evangelization of America.[3]
The vision of the Popes of our time is that of the prophet Zechariah, indeed, of God himself, as Zechariah was merely the mouthpiece of what God was speaking to His people in the Old Testament times. Recall what we heard proclaimed from the prophet: “many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day, and they shall be his people, and he will dwell among you.” God chose one race of people, a simple, lowly people, to prepare the world for the coming of His Son, who would unite the entire world – all races, not just one – into one people of God.
The Need for Unity
This is not just a lofty idea, or some sort of unattainable, ideal; we here on the American continent have a special call to bear witness to this divine plan, and to build up unity among us. And the only way to do that, Pope John Paul reminds us, is through “the encounter with the Living Jesus Christ” – that is, we must keep Jesus central in our lives, live for him and worship him and not false gods, and live the way that he teaches. As God did of old, choosing a lowly people to bring to fulfillment His plan of salvation in His Son, so He did on this continent, choosing a lowly people to again bring His Son into a new world through the appearance of His Son’s Mother.
The need for unity for the sake of conversion to Jesus Christ is now more urgent than ever, as we see threats to human life and dignity increasing, seemingly more and more with each passing day. Pope John Paul also spoke of this during that pilgrimage to Mexico. When there, he celebrated Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe with five hundred bishops and five thousand priests concelebrating. In his homily, he unequivocally called for an end to the culture of death. He said:
… the Church must proclaim the Gospel of life and speak out with prophetic force against the culture of death. May the Continent of Hope also be the Continent of Life! This is our cry: life with dignity for all! … the time has come to banish once and for all from the continent every attack against life…. As a matter of urgency, we must stir up a new springtime of holiness on the continent so that action and contemplation will go hand in hand.[4]
Yes, action and contemplation must go hand in hand. That is, our work for justice will not succeed unless it comes out of faith rooted in the encounter with the Son of the Virgin Mary, our Lord Jesus Christ. Long-standing attacks on the sanctity of human life at the beginning and end of life continue, while others are now intensifying, especially because of one’s legal status. It is always this way: only where human life is most vulnerable does it come under attack. What is required is the love of Jesus Christ to break us out of this mentality, a love that comes out of a life of faith in him. We can easily understand, then, these increasing attacks on the sanctity of human life given the sharp decline in any kind of faith in God in our society nowadays.
Our Mother Accompanies, and So Should We
But our Mother is always there for us. She always accompanies God’s loved ones in the most critical moments of their life. We see that from the very beginning, when she went “in haste” to visit her cousin Elizabeth when they were expecting their sons, one to be the forerunner of the other who came to save the entire human race. She came again at Tepeyac to put an end to bloodshed and unite two races into one new people for her Son, and she walks with us now, especially those who are experiencing fear and uncertainty in their lives right now. As Pope Francis reminded us, she does not come with some kind of a worldly message or ideology. She comes with the simple message to you today that she gave to St. Juan Diego 493 years ago: “Am I not here, I who am your Mother.”
Our Mother accompanies us, accompanies us to her Son who is the source of our peace. As she accompanies, so must we. I want to assure you that the leadership of our Archdiocese is aware of the fear and uncertainty of our people, and we have the resources to help you. After the celebration of the Mass on the occasion of the World Day of Migrants we offered information and workshops for people to know their rights and about where they can access assistance. Catholic Charities is working very hard to help people who need legal assistance as well as material and spiritual support, along with our parishes. This is the moment of testing for us in terms what it means to be a faith community: we accompany each other with the love of Jesus Christ, or we fail to walk the path of conversion which makes possible solidarity and peace.
Pope Francis, too, gave us words of assurance in that homily in which he proclaimed the nine-year novena in preparation for the 500th anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, while recognizing the reality of the current situation. He concluded his homily by telling us:
And although this horizon appears dark and disconcerting, appear as it may with omens of even greater destruction and desolation, nonetheless, faith, love and divine condescension still teach us and also tell us that this is a propitious time of salvation, in which the Lord, through the Virgin Mary, Mother and Mestiza, continues to give us his Son who calls us to be brothers, to put aside selfishness, indifference, and antagonism.[5]
Those are the obstacles to unity – selfishness, indifference, and antagonism. The path to unity, instead, is paved with faith and love, conversion and solidarity, all which are born of the saving encounter with the living Lord Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
And she will help us. We simply need to turn to her. Inspired by the prayer with which St. John Paul II concluded his homily at the Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico in 1999, we conclude by praying: Oh, Sweet Lady of Tepeyac, Mother of Guadalupe! We present to you all of the cares, worries, distresses and sufferings of your people in America. You who have come into our hearts, come and visit and comfort all of our homes, parishes and faith communities all over our continent. Show us the face of your Son, and we shall be saved!
[1] Proclama Papa inicio de Novena Intercontinental Guadalupana (translation author’s own).
[2] Ecclesia in America, n. 3
[3] Ibid., n. 7.
[4] https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19990123_mexico-guadalupe.html
[5] Proclama Papa inicio de Novena Intercontinental Guadalupana (translation author’s own).