From the Pastor’s desk— December 10, 2023

This week in addition to celebrating the Second Week of Advent, we are getting ready for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. On the surface it may seem they have nothing in common but in fact they are quite closely tied to one another. It is worth noting authentic faith is always tied together. 

Today’s message to “prepare the way of the Lord” by Isaiah and John the Baptist is first lived out by Mary.  It is precisely in the image of Guadalupe we see Mary preparing for the coming of the Lord.  If you look at the image of Mary, you will see her waist is tied with a black ribbon/belt. In the Aztec/indigenous culture of the time this meant Mary was a noble woman and pregnant.  Mary was not just preparing to give birth to any child, she was preparing for the birth of our Lord. 

It was not enough that Mary appeared to St Juan Diego, nor that she gave him roses for the bishop, but she imprinted on him her message of carrying the child Jesus. And this message wasn’t imprinted just anywhere, it was imprinted on the torso of Juan Diego’s tilma (a type of poncho). The message of her carrying the Christ child was imprinted onto the very part of him where she carried the child Jesus as if to say, you too are to carry my child and announce Him to the world.  This is to say preparing for the coming of the Lord is to prepare for His coming in the depths of our beings, in our hearts, in our minds, and in our souls.

Our Lady of Guadalupe said this message to St Juan Diego in another way, “I want you to build a church here for me.”  Take note that our Blessed Mother said, “for me” not “to me.”  That church is always to her Son, as she was. That church will mirror what she did and what we are to do to get ready. The church is a place for us to receive the “body of Christ.”  Every church is the home of the Eucharist, the body of Christ, just as we are to become a home for the body of Christ, just as Our Lady of Guadalupe with the black ribbon was a home for the body of Christ. 

How do we get ready to be this temple of the Lord?  We become like Mary who was a temple without sin.

Although no one of us is as sinless as she was, we can prepare a worthy home for Jesus who will take away that sin through the sacrament of reconciliation /confession where all our sins are wiped away. We prepare our homes for guests by cleaning them, so too our we prepare for Jesus by cleaning our hearts and souls of our sins.  In cleaning our souls, we become the Church worthy of Mary and worthy of Jesus this and every Christmas.

 

   

 

 

 

                     

 

With a heart for Mission,
Fr. Ray