Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Ultimate Lesson In Encounter
by Paulist Fr. Rich Andre
December 12, 2016

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
12 December 2016 – St. Austin Parish, Austin, TX 

There are several options for the Scripture readings at the Mass For Our Lady of Guadalupe. At this particular Mass, the community proclaimed the following passages: Revelation 11:19a, 12:1-6a, 10ab; Psalm 122; Luke 1:39-47. 



We’ve heard the story of Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth so often, perhaps we’ve forgotten how strange this encounter must have been. Elizabeth is elderly and has been living in seclusion, presumably because no one would understand why she is six months pregnant. Her husband Zechariah was struck dumb by the angel Gabriel when he heard the news, so presumably no one knew what was going on. Mary unexpectly arrives – a mere girl, a distant relative from the distant town of Nazareth, probably only a few weeks pregnant. But Elizabeth suddenly senses the extraordinary presence of God in Mary’s womb. And Elizabeth greets Mary with radiant joy. Which is really remarkable. Imagine all the other things Elizabeth might have said: “You’re pregnant so young!” “Is it a boy or a girl?” “Who’s the father?” “That’s an extraordinary story, Mary, but I have one that will top that!” “The first trimester’s realy tough, but you’ll bounce back.” “I wish you had told me you were coming to visit for three months… the place is a mess, and I don’t have a thing for you to eat.”

When I learned that I was going to be the liaison for the little dynamo committee of four people in this parish who want to share the devotion of Our Lady of Guadalupe with the entire world, I was kind of shocked. I barely knew anything about Our Lady of Guadalupe. I wasn’t Hispanic. I come from a major city with so few Hispanics that there was only one Mexican restaurant besides Chi-chis. I barely knew any Spanish – my Spanish teacher in New York said that I was the first student she had had in 30 years who didn’t even know what the word cerveza meant. 

So, this fall, I’ve had an intensive crash course about the events and miracles of Guadalupe. The more I learn, the more amazed I am, and the more devoted I become. In the book we studied in October, Fr. Virgil Elizando wrote that Guadalupe was the most remarkable event in the history of Christianity since the first Pentecost. That statement took me aback. Greater than Constantine? Greater than Vatican II? Greater than the conversion of St. Paul? 

But after some reflection,  I think Fr. Elizando may be correct. There is no scientific explanation for how the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was created. It was not painted. The fabric, now 485 years old, should have disintegrated after 10 years. It was barely damaged when someone accidentally spilled acid on it in 1785, and it withstood an explosion of 29 sticks of dynamite in 1921. In 1531, the Spaniards and the Aztecs had only known each other for 10 years, 10 years of violence and atrocities. And yet the details of the image — and the conversations between Our Lady and Juan Diego — show a remarkably sophisticated understanding of both Nahautl religion and Christianity, combining all that was good in both religions while rejecting the violence and hatred of the Aztec warriors and the Spanish conquistadors. 

But the miracles of Guadalupe reach far beyond the fields of science, art, and comparative religion. More than anything, it is the story of encounter, an encounter as remarkable as Mary’s encounter with Elizabeth. The young pregnant virgin, dressed as royalty, looking to be of either indigenous or mestiza race, appears to the elderly, humble Juan Diego, at a location long associated with one of the most important nonviolent deities in the Nahautl religion. In Juan Diego and Our Lady, we have an encounter of different genders, ages, socio-economic levels, cultures, religions, and hemispheres. Despite the intense efforts of conquistadors and missionaries to bring the Christian faith to the people of the New World over the previous 39 years, Our Lady accomplished more in her encounters with Juan Diego in December of 1531. As St. John Paul II said, “Guadalupe and Juan Diego… are a model of perfectly inculturated evangelization.” Up until this point, the spread of Christianity was primarily accomplished by the strong and the mighty accepting the faith, and then forcing their subjects to become Christians. But Guadalupe ushered in the new template of conversion: Christ comes to the poor and the humble, and through them, the world inches forward towards the new creation God intends for the earth.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the example par excellence of how to build bridges. She perfectly encapsulated all that was good in two different cultures while not affirming anything that was contrary to goodness, justice, or Truth. In an era in our country, when our rhetoric has become so negative and divisive along the lines of gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, race, and religion, we need Our Lady of Guadalupe more than ever to lead us towards a vision of inclusiveness. 

And that inclusiveness is not just for the secular world. We need it within the Catholic Church of the United States. According to Monsignor Arturo Banuelas of El Paso, the average American Latino or Latina Catholic is 24 years old. The average American church employee is a 52-year-old Anglo woman who does not speak Spanish. How often, on our own parish doorstep, are we re-enacting the encounter between Mary and Elizabeth?

It’s a question that the American Church is asking us to imagine. The United States Catholic Church is preparing for a major event called Cinco Encuentro. Encuentro has two intertwined goals. The first is to empower all Catholics to be evangelizers through our one-on-one interactions with friends, neighbors, and relatives. The second is a special focus for us, as Church, to reach out to first-, second-, and third-generation American Latinos, to meet them where they are.

With the intertwined goals, it’s not clear what a parish like St. Austin’s is supposed to do. We don’t have a lot of first-, second-, or third-generation Latinos in our parish. But the people of St. Austin Parish have abundant gifts to share with the national Encuentro process. We are passionate about social justice. We understand the centrality of evangelization to our Christian identity. And many of us know first-, second-, and third-generation Latino Americans.

So, here comes the hard sell, friends: I’m asking you to support St. Austin’s participation in Encuentro in 2017. On Sunday, January 8, join us for a kick-off talk at 10 am by none other than our own Father Bruce Nieli. Bruce has three uniqe gifts to kick off the process. First, he’s the former Director of Evangelization for the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Second, he’s a bilingual mission preacher who knows countless first-, second-, and third-generation Latino Catholics. And third, he’s one of the most passionate speakers I know. (Some of us call him “Juicy Brucey.”) Bruce will talk with us about the varieties of experiences of Latino American Catholics in their teens and twenties. I’m hoping this will get enough of us fired up to participate in five weeks of small-group discussions in February and March, as we explore what we, as a parish, can do to support the national Encuentro.

When we encounter young Latino people, can we be filled with the Holy Spirit like Elizabeth, and recognize that Christ is present in those young people, as Christ was present in Mary?