What is a “common denominator” across the scripture readings for la Fiesta de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe?
Zechariah 2:14-17 (First Reading, option A),
Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab (First Reading, option B), Luke 1:26-38
(Gospel Reading, option A), Luke 1:39-47(Gospel Reading, option B).
It is about the coming of Christ, described
differently.
In Zechariah 2:14-17, we hear the pre-incarnated Christ’s prophetic oracle, announcing his coming in our midst (Zechariah 2:14; cf. John 1:14), as he also brings back who have been scattered away to Jerusalem in Judah, where he re-establishes his holy land as he reigns (Zechariah 2:10-11, 16-17). This means that Christ comes to reign his holy land, Judea, from its capitol, Jerusalem, as the Davidic King, as promised to David (2 Samuel 7:10-16). He is coming triumphantly also to conquer enemies (Zechariah 2:12-13). Therefore, he calls to rejoice over his coming to be in our midst, as we come together many different places on earth to be one with him, to have him dwell among us (Zechariah 2:14-15; cf. Zephaniah 3:14-20; Zechariah 9:9; Psalm 149:1-5).
In Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, we see Christ coming down
to earth while he is still in his mother’s womb. As the Temple in heavenly
Jerusalem opens, the new Ark of the Covenant, Mary, is seen there (Revelation
11:19), because it signals the fullness of time for Christ to come down from
heaven to complete his redemption, upon the seventh angel blows his trumpet to announce
the imminent coming of Christ the King’s reign (Revelation 10:7; 11:15-19). The
coming of Christ the King begins with a great sign, which is Mary, the Mother
of Christ the King, being pregnant with him and clothed with the sun, with the
moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars (Revelation 12:1-2).
In fact, when she is coming down from heaven, she is in labor pain (Revelation
12:2), indicating the imminency of Christ’s coming. Because her body carries
Christ inside, Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant, to bring her Son, Christ
the King, down to the earth, to fight and destroy Satan (Revelation
11:19-12:18), to completely fulfill God’s protoevangelium in Genesis 3:15.
Some, especially, Protestants, who do not revere Mary
as the Catholics do, challenge such an exegesis of Revelation 11:19-12:6,
because it contradicts the Lucan Gospel account of Mary conceiving Christ in
her womb and giving birth (Luke 1:26-38; 2:1-7). However, the narrative of
Revelation 11:19-12:6, as a response to the seventh trumpet (Revelation 10:7,
11:15-19), is referring to Christ’s second coming, not the first coming (Luke
1:26-38, 2:1-7).
Then, the Protestants may further argue that why Mary
has anything to do with Christ’s second coming. And they do not see him being
back into Mary’s womb to be “born again”. This is like Nicodemus’ problem in
interpreting Jesus’ saying of being born from above (John 3:2-12). In order for
us to understand Mary’s involvement with Christ’s second coming, we must first
understand her assumption into heaven upon completing her earthly life.
Then, the Protestants further argue that there is no
explicit description of her assumption into heaven in the scriptures. However,
there are some implicit implications, such as Psalm 132:8, which speaks that
Christ and his Ark, namely, Mary’s womb that carries him, are to find resting
place in heaven as being raised to heaven. This is mentioned in Pope Pius XII’s
Munificentissimus Deus (paragraph 21).
Catholics know that Mary was assumed into heaven with
her whole body and soul upon completing her earthly life to be reunited with
her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who ascended into heaven (Luke 24:50-53), as
the heavenly Gebilar (Queen-Mother).
These are reflected in the Second, the Fourth, and the Fifth Glorious Mysteries
of the Holy Rosary. But Mary did not stay in heaven, simply waiting for us to
come as saints. As necessary, she comes down from heaven in response to a
problem that can disrupt our spiritual pilgrimage to the sainthood and to enter
her Son’s Kingdom in heaven. And she can rightfully come down from heaven,
because she has already gone up to heaven, following her Son (Psalm 132:8), in
light of John 3:13.
But Satan surely attacks Christ, together with her
Mother, when she gives birth to Christ (Revelation 12:3-4), because of the enmity
between him and the offspring of Mary, the new Eve (Genesis 3:15). And her
firstborn is Christ, incarnated in the unblemished human flesh of Jesu (Luke
2:7), and we are her offspring, as he made us her children through John (John 19:27).
Mary, who was assumed into heaven (i.e. Psalm 132:8), delivers
her Son on earth as when she comes down (Revelation 12:4-5), in order to
fulfill the prophetic oracle of the seventh trumpet (Revelation 10:7, 11:15-19;
cf. Genesis 3:15). But this is different from other descriptions of Christ’s
second coming (e.g. Matthew 24:30; Revelation 19:11).
Not to get caught in this kind of exegetical problem,
we must take a lesson from Nicodemus’ problem (John 3:2-12). As Jesus was not
teaching Nicodemus to enter his mother’s womb to be born again, when he said, “born
from above”, the narrative of Revelation
11:19-12:6 does not necessarily mean that Christ would be incarnated in Mary’s
womb in heaven as he was on earth before, in order to return. This is rather a
figurative description to connect Christ’s return to the protoevangelium
(Genesis 3:15). However, when Mary came down from heaven to Tepeyac hill, near
Mexico City, appearing to St. Juan Diego, in 1531, she appeared as described in
Revelation 12:1-2. And Mary in this apparition is known as Nuestra Senora de
Guadalupe (Our Lacy of Guadalupe).
As Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, Mary from
heaven appeared as a pregnant mother, wearing a black sash, with a motherly
gaze to watch over her children. Indeed, she came down as a pregnant mother, as
described in Revelation 12:1-2, in response to Aztec practice of child
sacrifices. She saw many babies has been massacred for this evil practice,
which evokes Herod the Great’s great massacre of babies of age 2 and under, in
his fanatic hunt to kill baby Jesus (Matthew 2:16-18).
Mary chose St. Juan Diego, a humble Aztec man, who
became a believer of Christ and was baptized, to build a shrine for her, so
that she can figuratively deliver her Son, there, so that the darkness of Aztec
spirituality, which practiced child sacrifices, would be overcome with her Son’s
light of the life and the truth to make the way for Aztecs to the Father in
heaven (i.e. John 14:6). Mary, as Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, coming from
heaven, as the pregnant woman in Revelation 12:1-2, deliver the light, which is
her Son (John 8:12), letting the light of life and love be born in the darkness
of Aztec culture of death (i.e. Isaiah 9:1-6).
St. Juan Diego obeyed Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe on
her mission to deliver the Aztecs from their culture of death. As a result,
more Aztecs came to enjoy the light of Christ and child sacrifices began to
decline, more babies were saved.
Both options of the Gospel Reading (Luke 1:26-38; Luke
1:39-47) are about Christ’s first coming. In Luke 1:26-38, we see how Christ
was incarnated in Mary’s womb as the Holy Spirit descended on her at the
Annunciation. In Luke 1:39-47, we see how Elizabeth recognized the coming of
Christ in Mary’s womb, and how Elizabeth’s son in her womb, John the Baptist,
also recognized Christ in Mary’s womb, with joy. So, Mary joyfully and
gratefully sung her canticle, known as the Magnificat, praising God, for
choosing her as the Mother of His Son, to overcome the darkness of the world,
by her Son.
Mary’s apparition, in a figure of the pregnant woman
in Revelation 12:1-2 in Tepeyac hill and call of St. Juan Diego, to deliver her
Son, the Christ, there, was to overcome the darkness of Aztec death culture. But
we cannot contain Christ’s pro-life campaign in Mexico. This campaign for life
to overcome the culture of death must overcome the world, because this dark
culture has been plaguing the world. And we shall cooperate Nuestra Senora
de Guadalupe, la madre de madres, to let her Son, the Christ, continue to
be delivered, as Juan Diego did, so that the culture of death, shall be
completely replaced with the pro-life culture.
Let us be the highway of the coming of Christ (i.e.
Isaiah 40:3), to conquer the culture of death, as ninos y ninas de Nuestra
Madre de Gudadelupe, who comes from heaven to deliver Christ, her Son. This
way, the world will enjoy the highway of holiness (Isaiah 35:3) and verdant life.
Let Christ come, come through his Mother and our Mother, Nuestra Senora de
Guadalupe, as he gives us life in abundance (John 10:10). Let Christ reign
on earth so that the darkness of the culture of death shall be completely
destroyed (i.e. 1 Corinthians 15:25-28), as it is also to fulfill the message
of the seventh trumpet (Revelation 10:7, 11:15-19), which brings Nuestra
Senora de Guadalupe from heaven with her Son in her.
Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe derriba al Rey
para superar la cultura de la muerte.
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