Today, Dec. 12th, is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In the 1500’s, the Aztecs in Mexico practiced human sacrifice. They used to take out the hearts of the victims, while still alive and would eat human flesh. It is estimated 20% of the children at time were sacrificed. Thousands were killed on special feast days and about 300 people were sacrificed every single day.
When the explorer, Cortez landed, he built a church called the Rosary Chapel. He named the location, “rich town of the true Cross”. As he traveled through Mexico, he discovered a place, with racks of human skulls. On one rack there were over 100,000 human skulls. Cortez outraged and shocked by this abomination said, “We are obligated to exalt and increase our Holy Catholic faith, uproot idolatry, and abolish sacrifices and the eating of human flesh, which is so contrary to nature and so common here.”
As he and his army headed toward the main temples, they carried a banner with a Cross. When he approached the great temples, he met Montezuma, the Aztec leader. He told Montezuma, “I ask you not to sacrifice any more souls to your gods who are deceiving you, I beg you to allow them to remove them and put up Our Lady and the Cross”.
The Aztecs made war against the Spanish, but were defeated. When the war was over, Cortez said, “Our Lady was pleased to show God’s power and mercy, for with all our weakness, we broke the enemy’s arrogance and pride.”
It was under these circumstances, Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego on Dec. 9th, 1531. She said to him, “Know for certain, dearest of my sons, I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God, to whom everything lives, the Lord of all things, who is master of heaven and earth. I ardently desire a chapel be built here for me, for I will give my Son to the people and I will offer all of my love, my compassion and my help and protection to the people. I am your merciful Mother, the mother of all who live united in this land, and of all mankind, and all of those who love me, cry to me and have confidence in me, here I will hear their weeping and sorrows. And I will remedy and alleviate their sufferings and misfortunes. Go to the house of the bishop and ask him to build a chapel on the hill.” When Juan Diego went to the bishop and explained what Our Lady wanted, the bishop requested a sign, so that he could believe him.
A few days later, on Dec. 12th, Juan went to get a priest to give his uncle the last rites, and so as to avoid the lady went around the backside of the hill. But she appeared to him anyway. Our Lady said, “Listen and let it penetrate your heart, my dear little son. Let nothing discourage you, or depress you. Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness, or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here, who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of your arms? Am I not of your own kind? What else do you need? Do not let the illness of your uncle worry you, for at this very moment he is cured. Go to the hill top, my son, where you will find flowers.”
As Our Lady requested, Juan Diego went to the top of the hill and found Castilian roses, not native to Mexico and miraculously blossoming in winter. Our Lady Herself arranged the roses in his long apron, called a tilma, and then Juan went to the bishop. When he arrived, he opened the tilma and as the roses fell to the ground, the image of Our Lady’s image became immediately emboldened on it, which caused the Bishop to believe in the apparitions.
The news of the apparitions and the healings of Our Lady melted the hearts of the Aztec Indians, who brought their false gods and placed them before the image of Our Lady.
When two missionary priests arrived, hundreds of families came to the priests to be baptized. In 4 days, the priests baptized 14,000 natives. And within 10 years, 9 million became Catholic. This caused the human sacrifice to end forever, and the Spanish and Indians were reconciled. In a letter written by Bishop Zummaga to Cortez, he wrote, “In our day, God and his Blessed Mother was deigned to shower the land which was won by you, with His great mercy.”
On this feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, let us beseech our Mother, asking Her to close the abortion mills in Kansas and the USA.
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