Revelation 12:1-17
The 12th 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.
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.
