Advent Reflections – Day 12: Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe(Coatlaxopeuh),the Mother of the Son to Destroy Satan and Her Advent Message

 Revelation 12:1-17

The 12^th day of December is la Fiesta de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe (the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe), who is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Theotokos (mother of God), appearing to San Juan Diego in Tepeyac, Mexico, and his uncle, Juan Bernadino, in 1531, prompting the conversion of Aztec Mexico from its child-sacrifice religious practice to Christ, as pointed by her mother, Mary, appearing as Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe.

In fact, when Mary appeared to these Aztec men, her appearance was a young Aztec woman. And she introduced herself to Juan Diego as “coatlaxopeuh” in his native Aztec language, Nahautl. “Coatlaxopeuh” means “one who crushes the serpent” in Nahautl. In fact, the name “Guadalupe” is rather a Hispanized form of “Coatlaxopeuh” because of “lost in translation” between Juan Diego, who did not have a good command of Spanish and a Spanish interpreter, who did not have a good command of Nahautl. But, it is important to note that Mary identified herself in connection to Genesis 3:15, in which God the Father says that the son (זַרְעָ֑הּ/zerah, which is a masculine Hebrew noun meaning a seed, also translated as “offspring”) of the woman will crush the head of Satan in the serpent, who has corrupted the humans, especially in the flesh, with Eve, the first woman. And, this is the very first known indication of Yahweh’s determination to destroy Satan through His only begotten Son, also as the Son of the woman, who is Mary.

So, Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe is actually Nuestra Moadre de “Coatlaxopeuh”, our mother of the one who crushes the head of the serpent, Satan.  And, when she appeared as a young Aztec lady, she was pregnant. It means that Nuestra Moadre de “Coatlaxopeuh” appeared to Juan Diego and his uncle, Juan Bernadino with her son, the incarnated Christ to crush the head of Satan, in her womb.

At that time, Christ was still unknown to the Aztecs, though the Aztec Empire fell to the power of the Spanish Conquistadors in 1521, the culture of death in the Aztec tradition, including human sacrifice ritual, continued. This was what not even the conquistador, Hernan Cortes, could conquer completely. In the meantime, more and more living humans, especially babies, were cut open alive as sacrifices.

It was during this darkness of the culture of death that Mary with the incarnated Christ in her womb made apparitions in a figure of a young Aztec woman, as the mother of the one, who crush the head of the serpent.

The Aztec deity, Huitzilopochtli, who demands human sacrifice, was also regarded as the dreadful sun-deity. But, the way Mary appeared, in remembrance to the woman in Revelation 12:1, being closed with the sun, with the crescent moon under her feet, with stars spread over her mantle, and the black ribbon above her waist level, sent a very powerful message to the Aztecs.  The sun with Mary shows that she is more powerful than Huitzilopochtli, powerful Aztec sun deity, and all the stars in her mantle, which reflects the stellar constellation of the night of December 12, 1531, showed that she is the Queen of Heaven, and her black ribbon meant that this woman is of noble origin and is pregnant. And, her mantle itself was regarded as the one worn by empress.

So, with the Mary’s apparitions, the Aztecs came to realize that there is true God, who is more powerful than Huitzilopochtli. And this God is in the womb of the Queen of Heaven, who has just descended.

What is so important about Mary’s apparitions to the Aztecs through Juan Diego and Juan Bernadino in 1531 is that Mary as the mother of the incarnated Christ put an end to the Satan’s works of death, which was in the Aztec worship of Huitzilopochtli.

As reflected in Revelation 12, Mary herself could have lost her son, the incarnated Christ, during her labor or shortly after his birth, because Satan in Dragon came after her, upon lost his battle with Archangel Michael in heaven. 

Mary appeared first to give birth to the incarnated Christ, to fulfill prophesies of Genesis 3:15 and Isaiah 7:14. However, knowing that the son that she gives birth to will crush his head, Satan wanted to kill him together with his mother. But, Satan’s descent was a bit too late, as the incarnated Christ was already born. And, he completed his mission on earth and already ascended. So, Satan came after his mother, Mary, but, she too, was protected, so she was assumed into heaven.

Ever since then, here on earth, we have been at war with Satan and his servants, who promote sins and the culture of death, like what the Aztec had used to do in worshiping Huitzilopochtli.

Since the 1531 apparitions of Mary the Theotokos, as Nuestra Madre de “Coatlaxopeuh”, countless babies have been saved. This was a loss to Satan in his war against us. It was because the Aztecs were able to wake up to the true God of life and converted away from serving a deity of death to serving the will of true God of life. They had a spiritual acumen to recognize the power of the truth in Mary, when she appeared.

Through the incarnated Christ, God in the human figure of Jesus, was not yet revealed to their naked eyes as he was hidden in her womb, the Aztecs began to recognize him. So, they chose him over Huitzilopochtli, who was operated by Satan.

What about us?

Do we have a kind of spiritual insights that the Aztecs had to recognize Christ, though he was still hidden in the womb of his mother, and turn away from evil to be with Christ? Do we have the kind of spiritual acumen of John the Baptist to recognize and rejoice over Christ while he was still hidden in his mother’s womb, though he himself was still in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth (Luke 1:41)?

 

 

Perhaps, as she did to the Aztecs, represented by San Juan Diego and his uncle, Juan Bernadino, Mary may appear to us before his due day to turn our attention not to her but to the one in still in her womb, even before his birth.

Remember how the very first of the seven signs (miracles) performed by the incarnated Christ, as recorded in John’s Gospel?

It was when the incarnated Christ in Jesus turned water into the choicest wine during the wedding reception at Cana (John 2:1-11). It was Mary, who directed servants at the reception to her son to save the wedding from being crushed into abashment.  If Mary did not exercise her motherly care at the wedding reception to the shortage of wine at its early stage, the joy of the wedding would have turned into embarrassment.

Where the incarnated Christ is needed to destroy the works of Satan (1 John 3:8), there can be Mary, his mother, to direct our attention to him, even though he is still hidden.

Remember, as reminded in Revelation 12:17, Satan is still here with his offspring – his servants to wage wars against us, to bring more deaths through sins. And, we are still at war with him and his offspring, because we are, indeed, children of Mary, brothers and sisters of her Son.

Nothing to worry as we know that the incarnated Christ, the Son of Mary is truly Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23), affirmed by his own words in Matthew 28:20.  Whether he is visible to us or not, he is always with us. And, if we can recognize his presence while still hidden in her mother’s womb, we sure know he is always with us.

No we do not want to wait until we can see the incarnated Christ to turn our full attention to him. We must be ready not only to welcome him upon his arrival but to engage in battle against Satan as offspring of the woman and brothers and sisters of Christ.