A Graduate School of Theology and Ministry

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

December 12, 2022

Lectionary 690A:

Rev 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab

Jdt 13:18bcde, 19

Luke 1:26-38

 

Possible preaching themes:

  • God speaks to us through created signs (from the Book of Revelation)
  • The free will of Mary that allowed her to say yes (from the Gospel)

Possible scientific resources:

 

Homily outline on option one: God talks to us through created signs

  • God talks to people through different means
    • God often uses the created world to reveal his power and glory.
    • Many passages, especially from the Old Testament, confirm this
      • This is very true in the psalms, e.g., Ps 19:1 notes now the heavens declare the glory of God
      • In Exodus God separated the sea so that Moses and the children of Israel could escape from Pharaoh (Exod 14:21-22)
    • In the New Testament
      • God used a star to bring the Magi to the newborn Christ (Luke 2:1)
      • Jesus calms the waters in a storm, revealing his power over creation (Luke 8:22-25)
      • The Book of Revelation is particularly rich in cosmic images of God and Christ and the church.
  • Through the Guadalupe’s apparition, God talks to indigenous peoples of America. https://fsspx.news/es/news-events/news/nican-mopohua-relato-original-de-las-apariciones-de-nuestra-se%C3%B1ora-de-guadalupe
    • The description of Juan Diego’s outer garment (or Tilma), reveals to the natives knew that he had received a special message from God.
    • That message was revealed through Stars, roses, and music.
    • The stars recall the passage from the Book of Revelation we read today: “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve starts” (Rev. 12, 1.)
    • Flowers in a hilltop of Tepeyac
      • The Blessed Virgin instructed Juan Diego to go to the top of the hill where she appeared and cut all the roses blooming there
      • He doubted that was possible because it was a rocky place that had practically no vegetation and it was December
    • Music: Juan Diego hear a beautiful music never heard before
      • Described as “different beautiful birds” singing.
  • Our Lady of Guadalupe
    • is often understood through cultural lenses
      • g., her brown skin identified her with Indigenous people
      • the way her hands are place are culturally interpreted as a gesture of offering
      • the sash is a cultural image that she is with child
    • But what happens if we interpret her through cosmic lenses
      • She is not only a revelation for people of the Americas, but for the cosmos
      • She reveals God’s cosmic power and expansion through a seemingly fragile and marginalized young girl
      • She reveals that God’s cosmic power can break through in something as seemingly insignificant as a flower in the snow
      • And she reveals that the music of God’s voice is the very cosmic vibration that give all of us life
      • Mary is God’s own version of the Hubble Telescope, revealing the expansiveness of God’s universe of care for all, especially the marginalized
  • Attending to God
    • God spoke through Mary at Tepeyac through specific cultural signs
    • But God also spoke to all humanity through cosmic signs
      • Stars
      • Flowers
      • Music
    • The revelation at Tepeyac is not confined those of Mexican heritage but is a gift to all humanity
      • We are still in aw of God’s cosmos and the cosmic revelations of God
    • if only we are attentive to God’s signs
      • Announcing that the presence of God is our midst
      • In the vastness of the cosmos
      • And in the fragility of a marginalized young woman or culture
      • That presence invites us also to change the face of the earth.
Liturgical: Christmas
Topic: Astronomy

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