
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 12, 2022
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:
- The Language of the Universe and the Stars
- The importance of creation and creation myths across cultures
- Astronomy reveals the vastness of God’s creation
- All the forces of the Universe can be understood as Music
- Formation of conscience and free will
- Development of the moral self
- Development of free will
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.
- The sciences are unlocking many of the mysteries of the cosmos
- Astronomy shows us the immensity of the universe that continues to expand
- The Hubble telescope has opened our eyes to many new worlds https://www.space.com/17-amazing-hubble-discoveries.html
- it has also revealed the existence of many previously unknown stars
- String theory contends that the cosmos can be understood as a symphony of vibrating strings as subatomic particles that continuously vibrate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW6JFKgbAF4
- physics can be understood as laws of harmony that you can write on vibrating strings
- some even contend that the mind of God is cosmic music resonating through hyperspace
- The Idea that the universe can be understood as music began over 2000 years ago with the Greek philosopher Pythagoras https://www.ted.com/talks/matt_russo_what_does_the_universe_sound_like_a_musical_tour?language=en
- Astronomy shows us the immensity of the universe that continues to expand
- 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.)
- The 46 starts in Juan Diego’s Tilma, coincide with the constellations appeared in 1531. https://denvercatholic.org/lady-guadalupe-numbers/
- Thus, creation itself seems to confirm this divine revelation
- 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
- is often understood through cultural lenses
- 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.
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