"Guadalupe: Evangelizing Woman"
"Guadalupe: Evangelizing Woman"
In 1531 exactly ten years after the Spanish conquest of the native people of Mexico, there was an unprecedented “constellation of signs” that came at once from the heavens of Catholic Spain and the mythologies of the indigenous Americans: We call it the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Like all ongoing revelation, it has taken us four hundred years to being to unravel the depth of loving mystery that was revealed in this encounter between “a dear brown woman from heaven” (La Morenita) and Juan Diego, a poor Christianized Nahuatl Indian.
The oppressed Indians had lost everything: their land, their honor, their freedom, but most of all their gods. There was nothing left to do except die. But true to the biblical pattern, God’s way is not just to punish or destroy the misguided oppressors, but to surprise and subvert their explanation by creating a new and better reality through which they themselves could be converted and transformed. As always, God seems to be an expert in beating people at their own game.
In this case, the Lord speaks through the “Mother of the true God through whom one lives,” whom the Spanish call Mary. But she is dressed in the clothes of the Indians, speaks their Nahuatl language and uses Juan Diego, one of the poorest, to “repreach” the gospel back to the people who thought they had the gospel in the first place. It’s a classic example of God taking unexpected sides to usher in a new civilization – just when the Nahuatl thought it was all over!
In one generation, under this mother symbol, almost all of the native peoples accept Christianity. A new mestizo people, and I might say a new mestizo Christianity, unfolds. We are slowly, hesitatingly learning that there is no other kind. Christ always takes on the face and features of each people he loves. In this case God knew that the face and features had to be feminine and compassionate. There was no other sign that could convert both the Spanish machismo and the matriarchal religion of the Indians at the same time.
from Radical Grace, “Our Lady of Guadelupe”
In 1531 exactly ten years after the Spanish conquest of the native people of Mexico, there was an unprecedented “constellation of signs” that came at once from the heavens of Catholic Spain and the mythologies of the indigenous Americans: We call it the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Like all ongoing revelation, it has taken us four hundred years to being to unravel the depth of loving mystery that was revealed in this encounter between “a dear brown woman from heaven” (La Morenita) and Juan Diego, a poor Christianized Nahuatl Indian.
The oppressed Indians had lost everything: their land, their honor, their freedom, but most of all their gods. There was nothing left to do except die. But true to the biblical pattern, God’s way is not just to punish or destroy the misguided oppressors, but to surprise and subvert their explanation by creating a new and better reality through which they themselves could be converted and transformed. As always, God seems to be an expert in beating people at their own game.
In this case, the Lord speaks through the “Mother of the true God through whom one lives,” whom the Spanish call Mary. But she is dressed in the clothes of the Indians, speaks their Nahuatl language and uses Juan Diego, one of the poorest, to “repreach” the gospel back to the people who thought they had the gospel in the first place. It’s a classic example of God taking unexpected sides to usher in a new civilization – just when the Nahuatl thought it was all over!
In one generation, under this mother symbol, almost all of the native peoples accept Christianity. A new mestizo people, and I might say a new mestizo Christianity, unfolds. We are slowly, hesitatingly learning that there is no other kind. Christ always takes on the face and features of each people he loves. In this case God knew that the face and features had to be feminine and compassionate. There was no other sign that could convert both the Spanish machismo and the matriarchal religion of the Indians at the same time.
from Radical Grace, “Our Lady of Guadelupe”
posted by LuisVelasco @ 9:54 PM
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