Claimed by Mary: Under the Patronage of Mary in Her Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe
This week in the United States, we celebrate two great Marian feasts: the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, our country’s patronal feast day, and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who has been repeatedly declared the empress of – not just Latin America – all America. How did it come to be that America would fall so clearly under the patronage of our Lady? And what do these two aspects of our Lady mean for us today?
America is under the patronage of our Lady because, from the first, she has claimed us as her own.
This is something several bishops and popes have observed. How is this? The conception of our Lady had long been honored and celebrated in Christian Europe when Christopher Columbus made his voyage across the Atlantic to land on the shores of what would come to be called America. In fact, some historians say the full name of his lead ship was Santa Maria de la Concepcion and the second island to which he came, he named Santa Maria de la Concepcion (the first island he dubbed San Salvador). Then, with more Spanish explorers came missionaries, who brought their love and devotion of the Blessed Virgin to the native people.
Yet the missionaries had great difficulties in preaching the Gospel to the native people of America. Their religion had a deep hold on them and included dark practices, including human sacrifice. Additionally, some of the explorers were ruthless in their quest for fame and riches and at times resorted to harsh treatment, violence, and cruelty against the native people. Don Juan de Zumárraga, a Franciscan friar who was named the first bishop of Mexico, worked valiantly to defend the native peoples and preach the Gospel to them, but the situation escalated to the point he knew a miracle would be necessary to both protect the native people and to have their minds and hearts be open to the Gospel and coming to Christ. He redoubled his commitment to prayer and fasting, asking our Lady for her intercession.
It was then that our Lady appeared to a simple native man, Juan Diego, who had converted to Christianity. Beginning on December 9, 1531, she appeared to Juan Diego and asked that he go to the bishop and convey the message that she desired a Church to be built on the hill where they were standing, that the people might seek her aid and she might be of aid and comfort to the people. When Juan Diego relayed our Lady’s message to the bishop, he was cautious and skeptical. So our Lady sent Juan Diego back to the bishop with a sign – a bouquet of Castilian roses arranged by her own hands in Juan Diego’s tilma, or cloak. She gave Juan Diego instructions to not open his tilma until he was with the bishop. Now the sign of the roses was already miraculous, for it was not the season for roses and Castilian roses are not native to Mexico. But something even more remarkable was to happen – when Juan Diego opened his tilma and let the roses fall, an image of Our Lady was to be seen on the tilma, an image not made by human hands and extraordinary in every detail.
The chapel was built as our Lady had requested and, suddenly, the people gave up human sacrifice, idolatry and vices and flocked to the Christian faith in astounding numbers. This was before national boundaries were established, and our Lady made it clear that she was the mother of all in this “new land”, a claim recognized by bishops and popes throughout history since.
Fast forward about 300 years – it is May 13, 1846 and the bishops of the United States are gathered in the city of Baltimore for a council. On that day, they issued a decree announcing that they “unanimously approve and consent that [they] have chosen the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived without sin, as the Patroness of the United States of America…” Subsequently, they submitted a request to the Holy See that their decision be approved by the pope, which was done by decree on July 2, 1847. Since that time, Mary’s patronage of the United States in her Immaculate Conception has been reaffirmed.
As we celebrate these two great Marian feasts, we should, especially during these times, meditate on these titles of our Lady and what we can learn through them. Both the Immaculate Conception and our Lady of Guadalupe hold for us many graces and virtues, especially faith, hope and charity particularly when facing suffering, darkness, and evil.
In her Immaculate Conception, Mary, who was to be the Mother of the only-begotten Son, is “ever resplendent with the glory of most sublime holiness and so completely free from all taint of original sin that she would triumph utterly over the ancient serpent” (Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX, Dec. 8, 1854). This was a singular gift of God, in consideration of the salvation Jesus would obtain for us by his life, suffering, death and resurrection. By God’s grace, Mary has completely triumphed over Satan and the powers of evil.
On the 50th anniversary of Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius X promulgated a beautiful encyclical, On the Immaculate Conception. In it he highlights the darkness of the times and the brightness of the hope presented in the Immaculate Conception, and he highlights the great benefits of devotion to our Lady in her Immaculate Conception, particularly in combatting attitudes and ideas that remain prevalent and dangerous today.
First, there is a great temptation and trap to deny or minimize sin and to not admit we have fallen from grace, we cannot lift ourselves up by our bootstraps, that we truly need a Savior. Devotion to the Immaculate Conception demands we acknowledge the reality of sin and our need for a savior, and it gives us hope, because in Mary and the Immaculate Conception we see God’s superabundant grace, mercy and love for us, as well as a model of what it is to live without sin. As Saint Ambrose pointed out, “Such was Mary that her life is an example for all. Have then before your eyes, as an image, the virginity and life of Mary from whom as from a mirror shines forth the brightness of chastity and the form of virtue.”
Devotion to the Immaculate Conception also leads us to greater docility and submission to Christ and His Church. While Mary does not have productive power of grace – that belong to God alone – she has been deemed by God as the conduit of grace, by virtue of her being the mother of the Source of grace. “Divine Providence has been pleased that we should have the Man-God through Mary, who conceived Him by the Holy Spirit and bore Him in her breast, it only remains for us to receive Christ from the hands of Mary.” (On the Immaculate Conception, 6). And as Christ is our head, Saint Bernardine of Siena observes, “she is the neck of Our Head, by which He communicates to His mystical body all spiritual gifts.”
In his encyclical, Pope Pius X goes on to quote a passage from Revelation, “a great sign appeared – a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars upon her head,” which brings us back to Our Lady of Guadalupe. In the miraculous image, we see a pregnant woman, clothed with the sun, standing on the moon with a cloak of stars. When Juan Diego had tried to evade meeting our Lady because he was worried about his uncle and was fetching a priest to give him last rites, Mary appeared to him on his detour and reassured him with these words: “Am I not your Mother?” Yes, “is not Mary the Mother of Christ? Then she is our Mother also.” (On the Immaculate Conception, 10). As we continue to meditate on the Immaculate Conception of Mary and on her appearances to us as our Lady of Guadalupe, we vividly see tender concern for all human life and the ultimate triumph of God’s grace and mercy in the face of seemingly overwhelming suffering and evil. Our hearts and minds are warmed and we can experience true freedom, peace, and reconciliation with all creation, and all people, in Christ, through Mary.
Advent is the perfect time to rekindle and renew our devotion to our Lady. As we prepare to welcome Christ at Christmas, let us seek Mary to journey with her and learn from her. It was she who shared intimately in the life and work of her Son, Jesus. If we want to know Jesus, who better to guide and instruct us than Mary? After all, it was
“with her alone of all others Jesus was for thirty years united, as a son is usually united with a mother, in the closest ties of intimacy and domestic life. Who better than His mother could have an open knowledge of the admirable mysteries of the birth and childhood of Christ, and above all the mystery of the Incarnation, which is the beginning and the foundation of faith?” (On the Immaculate Conception, 7).
Mary kept all these mysteries and pondered them in her heart. Let us ponder them too, especially in praying the Joyful Mysteries of our Lady’s Rosary.
Mary is also ever present to us with her maternal care, if we only will turn to her as her children. But we must turn with our whole heart and will. If our honor and devotion to our Lady does not keep us from committing sin, if it does not move our will to amend our lives, to turn from evil and vices and to learn to do good, to cultivate a life of goodness, truth and beauty and to shine forth the mercy of Christ to others, then we are deceiving ourselves and our devotion is false. Mary is there when we fall, when we lose our way in the darkness, when we “run out of wine” and don’t know where else to turn – we only need to ask with softened hearts and open minds. And if we cannot, then may we ask for the grace to do so. May the “Yes” of Mary’s fiat to God be the first and ever ready word on our own lips and may we learn from her the true meaning of life and love, freedom and victory.
Mary, Immaculate Virgin and our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!