Our Lady of Guadalupe: More Than Flowers

Continuing with excerpts from Our Lady of Guadalupe, we continue to see the depth of symbolism speaking in every item and gesture being used. For instance, I didn't know that the bishop-elect had been lied to. The stories I remember just implied that he was a crusty old so-and-so who didn't like Indians (which is completely untrue as I discovered in reading this book). I didn't realize those flowers had to do double duty. Read on and see what I mean.

The bishop-elect, disarmed by Juan Diego's confidence, sent two men to follow him to make sure that Juan Diego was not up to any tricks. The two men trailed Juan Diego for a good while but lost sight of him as he crossed the ravine near the bridge to Tepeyac. After a desperate and unsuccessful search, they returned to Friar Zumarraga's home and, infuriated with Juan Diego for having wasted their time, told Zumarraga that Juan Diego was a sorcerer and a fraud who deserved punishment to prevent him from lying again. ...

[Our Lady gives Juan Diego a sign for Friar Z. by putting roses in his tilma.]

Perhaps it is in this moment, as the Virgin stoops to rearrange the flowers in Juan Diego's tilma, that we are given the most poetically poignant expression of what the apparitions at Guadalupe would have meant to the Indian people. In her appearances on Tepeyac, the Virgin takes what is good and true in the Indian culture and rearranges it in such a way that these same elements are brought tothe fulfillment of truth. In the Indian culture, flowers and song (which, you will recall, Juan Diego heard just before the first apparition) were symbols of truth -- more specifically, the truth that, though somehow intuited by reason, is never comprehensively grasped. Thus the Virgin's sign of flowers, which had to undo the lie told to Firar Zumarrage by the false messengers, possesses a double meaning: more than a sign for the bishop-elect that is impossible to explain away as a mere trick by Juan Diego; for the indegenous people it is a sign of truth.

[Juan Diego takes the flowers to the bishop who recognizes the truth, unties the tilma from around Juan diego's neck, takes it immediately to his private chapel, and welcomes Juan Diego to spend the day in his home.]

In the account of the Guadalupan apparitions and miracles, there are many significant moments of reconciliation. In the image itself, one sees a perfect harmony of cultures and their respective symbols that convey the same truth. But for the Indians and laymen, the impression of the Virgin's image on the tilma and the acceptance of Juan Diego's tilma into the chapel are perhaps the most significant moments. In the Indian culture, the tilma reflected social status. A peasant's tilma would be plain and undecorated, while a tilma with color or decoration was reserved for noblemen and peole of high social rank. For the Indians, the Virgin, by placing her image on Juan Diego's tilma, gives a new and elevated dignity to the common person and especially the Indian.

Moreover, this dignity is recognized by the bishop-elect when, as the head of the Church in Mexico, he publicly and personally accepts the tilma into his own private chapel and welcomes Juan Diego into his home. At this moment, all of Juan Diego's roles that had previously impeded his total participation in the Church after the conquest -- as an Indian, a convert, a layman, and a man of limited social significance -- are welcomed as having an important and decisive place in the Church and its mission of evangelization.

Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love
by Carl Anderson, Eduardo Chavez

A Must-Read Book for Anyone Interested in Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love by Carl Anderson (Author), Eduardo Chavez

Although I usually pay scant attention to Marian apparitions, ever since I first was exposed to the importance of the symbolism in the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I have been interested in her. Briefly, as In Conversation With God (Vol 7: Feast Days, July-December) sums up: The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego on Tepayac hill near Mexico City on the 9th of December 1531 to ask for the construction of a church there in her honour. After the miraculous cure of his uncle, Bernardo, this Indian peasant brought to his Bishop some roses that he received from Our Lady as a sign of her request. As the flowers fell from his cloak to the ground before the astonished Prelate, the image of the blessed virgin, which is venerated in the Basilica of Guadalupe to this day, was miraculously impressed on the simple garment before their eyes.

For the full scoop, you really must read this fascinating book which I was lucky enough to receive thanks to Random House. This book helped me see not only how well Our Lady spoke to the Indians in the past but also how she continues to carry a message of love, unity and hope for us today. Authors Carl Anderson, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of the Knights of Columbus, and Father Eduardo Chavez, one of the most renowned experts on the Guadalupe apparitions, trace the history of the apparition and explore her as an important catalyst for modern religious and cultural transformation.

What has impressed me most is how completely every bit of symbolism was tailored to speak to the Indians of the time. Here is an example.

After introducing herself, the Virgin revealed the reason for her appearance:

I want very much that they build my sacred little house here, in which I will show Him, I will exalt Him on making Him manifest, I will give Him to all people in all my personal love, Him that is my compassionate gaze, Him that is my help, Him that is my salvation. Because truly I am your compassionate Mother, yours and that of all the people that live together in this land, and also of all the other various lineages of men, those who love me, those who cry to me, those who seek me, those who trust in me.

The Virgin then explained to Juan Diego how she needed him to deliver her message to Friar Juan de Zumarraga, the head of the church in New Spain.

Within the context of European Catholicism, the first apparition makes poignantly clear the Virgin Mary's universal role as mother and her desire to bring all people closer to God through her loving intercession. Less obvious, though no less significant, is what the Virgin's request for the construction of a chapel would have meant to a learned Indian. For the Aztecs, the temple was more than a religious building and the establishment of a temple was more than a ceremonial religious occasion. So central was religion to Aztec culture that the temple was seen as the foundation of society. Historically, the construction of a new temple marked the inauguration of a new civilization. In fact, the Aztecs built the Templo Mayor in the years immediately following their migration to the Valley of Mexico, and the common Aztec glyph, or pictogram, for a conquered people was the depiction of a temple toppling over, sometimes in flames. Thus the Virgin's commission to Juan Diego was rich in meaning far beyond the construction of a building, and was made richer still by the fact that it had been given to an Indian.

This scholarly but accessible book has so very much more fascinating information that I am going to do a series of excerpts to help give you a sense of the book. I'll list them at the bottom of the review as they are posted. Especially interesting to those who have read much about Our Lady of Guadalupe will be the appendices which include a transcription of Juan Diego's testimony about his encounters with Mary.

My one criticism of the book is that there isn't a good reproduction of the image on the tilma in the book for us to use in considering all the symbolism being explained. The best image is on the cover and is mostly covered by the title and other such information. I encourage you to seek out an image to put with the book so you really appreciate the information being shared by the authors. However, that is one oversight in an otherwise excellent book. I am not quite finished but wanted to get this review out there as it is being published August 4.

Highly recommended.

Additional excerpts:

• More Than Flowers

An Eyewitness Account from Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

These young sisters dressed as
indigenas peregrinas (Indian pilgrims)
for el Día de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe,
celebrated every December 12.

Read this wonderful account at Mexico Cooks! of the feast day celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe right where Juan Diego met Our Lady.