Megan Mulls It Over

+JMJ

Yesterday was the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas. There are some in my Church who would like to reduce her legacy to a collection of leftist talking points. I have a different take. The woman on St. Juan Diego’s tilma proclaims at least four triggering messages. (Two very interesting resources that were helpful for this post were this fact page from La Crosse, Wisconsin’s Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and this one from a pro-life apostolate dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe.)

1 – Motherhood is something to celebrate.

The black band around her midsection indicates that Our Lady of Guadalupe is pregnant.

2 – Don’t let the Gospel of Ariana Grande fool you: God is not a woman.

Her praying hands are Our Lady’s way of telling all who see her that she is not a goddess. And her downward gaze draws attention to the Child in her womb, who is God.

3 – Religions are not created equal.

Through His mother’s image, the pre-born Jesus is explicitly throwing shade on at least one Aztec deity. Our Lady is standing in front of the sun, which is said to represent the Aztec god of the sun. And she is also standing on the moon, which some sources say represents the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl. Fun fact that’s totally not a coincidence: Quetzalcoatl was often depicted as a serpent.

4 – Wokeness is overrated.

A woke Juan Diego would never have become St. Juan Diego, because he would never have converted to Christianity. Imperialism sucks, but so does idol worship.

And Our Lady of Guadalupe is arguably a Jewish woman “wearing indigenous-face.” (But wait, is it anti-Semitic to accuse a Jew of cultural appropriation? If I wake up to find that Laura Loomer has chained herself to something outside my apartment, I’ll have my answer.)

Despite these politically incorrect points, social justice warriors are not wrong when they say that Our Lady of Guadalupe’s message is one that promotes unity while celebrating diversity.

But too many forget that unity isn’t worth anything if it’s not based in goodness and truth, and the form of unity that we should really be striving for is unity in Christ.

Even though she makes no compromises when it comes to matters of who is worthy of worship, Our Lady of Guadalupe demonstrates that unity is not the same thing as uniformity. She is clearly promoting the religion of the Spanish conquerors, but she is wearing indigenous clothing. This shows that Christianity is for all peoples and that accepting Christianity doesn’t require abandoning good or morally neutral non-Christian traditions.

The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe also takes a shot at clericalism, which is a favorite pastime of many social justice warriors (except when it comes to clerics who agree with them). Juan Diego’s bishop was initially skeptical of his apparition account. (This is not a bad thing. Someone who claims to experience an apparition may well be lying or delusional, and not all apparitions are of heavenly origin.) But Juan Diego did not allow this to discourage him. And 21^st century Catholics shouldn’t let the benefit of hindsight blind them to the fact that he was taking a big risk when he returned to the bishop with a tilma full of roses. Even though the roses were not native to the area and were growing out of season, I would argue that Juan Diego could not have been 100% confident and certain that the bishop would believe that they had a heavenly, rather than a diabolical, origin.

But Juan Diego’s courage and faith paid off. His bishop believed his account when he saw the roses and the image that Our Lady had left behind on the tilma. And through this image, Our Lady would help to bring in as many in the New World as the Reformation had led away in Europe.

Now that’s what I call an “epic clapback.”

Verso l’alto,
Megan