December 12
is the feast day of Nuestra Senora de
Gudalupe, who is the Theotokos in
her apparition to Santo Juan Diego from December 9 to 12, 1531, on the Tepeyac
Hill, near where Mexico City is today.
What is the
significance of this feast – besides celebrating her as the patron saint of
Mexico and the rest of the Americas and the Philippines?
Given her impact
on the Aztecs, prompting them to convert from their child-sacrificing pagan
religion to Christianity, it is a celebration of Mary as a patron saint of
children, including the unborn. Because of her appearance to San Juan Diego,
who was an Aztec convert, more and more Aztecs abandoned their pagan religion
and began to worship Christ. It means
that the apparition of Mary as Nuestra
Senora de Guadalupe on Tepeyac in December 1531 began saving the lives of
countless children from the Aztec cult of child-sacrifice.
There are
two options for the first reading in celebrating Mass on her feast day: Zechariah
2:14-17 and Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab.
The Zechariah narrative links Nuestra
Senora de Guadalupe as the vehicle to bring the Messiah, who is coming to
dwell among us to save us. On the other hand, the Revelation narrative apocalyptically
suggests that Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe
is, indeed, the pregnant woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her
feet, mentioned in Revelation 12:1-2 , because of the way she made a sign of
herself to Obispo Juan de Zumarraga to believe her appearance through the tilma
of San Juan Diego resembled the woman in Revelation 12. Because of this, the skeptical obispo instantly
fell on his knee in front of the sign and ordered to build the shrine for her,
as she asked Juan Diego to ask the obispo.
Juxtaposing
the story about the pregnant woman clothed with the sun in Revelation 12:1-10
to Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe as
Mary the Theotokos, we can see
powerful symbolic message that she has brought to the world. It is to save
children – born and unborn. Through, it is rather rare to see a
child-sacrificing cult of the ancient pagan practice, like the ones in Aztec
and in Canaan, in today’s world, there has been a cult of sacrifices of unborn
children, called abortion. The cult of
abortion continues on today with “rational justification” in today’s world.
In
Revelation 12, the child in the womb of the woman clothed with the sun, was
saved from the attack of dragon the Satan by God through the power of the
archangel Michael. Thanks to this God’s
provision, the woman was able to give birth to her son, who is Christ the King,
seated at the right hand of God the Father. This apocalyptic story on the pregnant woman
clothed with the sun, as a biblical story of Nuestra Senora de Gudadalupe, is very important for our pro-life
prayer and works to save the lives of unborn children from miscarriages and the
satanic snares of abortions.
The Marian apparition
as Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe in the
image on San Juan Diego’s tilma can make a curious association to Guanyin Bodhisattva
(観音菩薩),
in particular, its Hariti figure as a
protector of children – born and unborn, known as 鬼子母神(Kishimojin) in Japan.
Hariti
is a Hindu feminine deity, who is known as a mother of many children. However,
she was also known as a demon, who snatched human children to feed hers. A Buddhist
legend says that people who feared Hariti
sought help to Amitabha Buddha. In response, Buddha took Hariti’s children in order to make her grieve over the loss of her
children. She grieved so much and was
able to understand how human mothers, whose children she snatched to feed hers,
would grieve, as Buddha intended. Upon this Buddha’s teaching intervention on
her, Hariti converted herself from a
demonic child-snatching one to a Buddhist guardian figure for children and
pregnant mothers. Based on this legend, Chinese
and Japanese Buddhists elected converted Hariti
as one of guanyin bodhisattva figures for children, safe child birth and
healthy pregnancy.
During the nearly 250 years of
persecution, Christians in Japan used guanyin bodhisattva statues as Marian
statues in keeping their faith underground. Marian statues in disguise of Buddhist
guanyin boddhisattave statues are called “Maria Guanyin” or “Maria Kan-non” (マリア観音). Even
though there is no need to use gunyin bodhisattva figures as Marian figures any
more in Japan, we can continue to appreciate the connection of these in regard
to their common impression of a compassionate mother. Guanyin, 観音, as spelled in Chinese characters, means “seeing the sound – the sound
of people”, suggesting compassionate eyes and ears for voices of cries. A typical image of guanyin bodhisattva has
eyes looking down to show compassion. Having becoming one of guanyin bodhisattvas
upon her conversion, Hariti’s eyes
now show mother’s compassion. The guanyin bodhisattva’s compassionate eyes can
be evocatively juxtaposed to the looking-down eyes of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe – looking after children of the world
and hearing their cries.
 |
| Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe |
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| Hariti Guanyin Bodhisattva |
Now, juxtaposing Mary the Theotokos in the image of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, whose protective
mantle provide sanctuary for children, born and unborn, to the Hariti
figure guanyin bodhisattva, who is a symbol of protecting children, perhaps,
the feast of Nuestra Senora de Gudalupe
also means to Buddhists in China and Japan, who are faithful to Amitabha Buddha’s
compassion for children, born and unborn, as well as mothers. God’s mercy for children and Buddha’s mercy
for children – born and unborn – can be appreciated reciprocally through both Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe and Hariti figure guanyin bodhisattva.
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