The Guadalupe Celebration
Homily Text by Archbishop John G. Vlazny
Given on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe December 12th, 2011
Archbishop Vlazny is the tenth Archbishop of Portland, Oregon
and is a dear friend of our community.
Today’s feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a very special day here at this abbey. In the gospel we just heard how Mary went to visit her older cousin Elizabeth to share the good news of the child in her womb. Today we come together to visit the abbey of Our Lady and to bless this senior wing for the elders of this community. We are grateful that the good news shared by Mary with Elizabeth has for centuries inspired consecrated men and women, like these Trappist monks, to give their lives completely through prayer and solitude in support of our church’s evangelizing mission. Some folks may wonder how prayer and solitude can help accomplish such an awesome goal. But prayer and solitude of consecrated men like these have for centuries been the fuel which ignited the church’s efforts to win the world for Christ.
These abbey grounds have been a construction site for many years and I am sure that Abbot Peter and his confreres, even though they truly welcomed the presence of workers and supporters, are happy to see the completion of all this external work on their property so that they can more quietly and prayerfully carry out their own good work in solitude and at peace with these surroundings. It was fun to go to the abbey website and see the photos of the progress that was made, beginning with the demolition of the infirmary and then construction of the new senior wing, the infirmary and the garth. Living in the heart of the city as I do, I am a bit envious of your garth. I would say that is one clearly visible perk that goes along with solitude. Like all of you, I too am grateful for the completion of this project and to all the friends of the abbey who have helped us reach this day.
As some of you may know, this evening I shall be celebrating a Mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe again with the Hispanic community in the greater Salem area. I shall remind them of the greeting Pope John Paul II gave them when he visited the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe back in 1979. The Pope back then said, “Quedate, virgencita, stay with us dear virgin in our homes, in our parishes, in our hearts, and especially during this time of Advent, while we prepare ourselves once again for the coming of your holy child, at Christmas, in grace and in glory.” I shall remind them that all of us, monks included, in virtue of our Baptism, are guadalupanos, messengers in word and deed of God’s good news, just like Mary herself and St. Juan Diego. I shall invite them to join me in singing “Ser guadalupano, Ser guadalupano, es algo esencial.” I am quite confident that they will join me in song and I hope they will take to heart the message that being a guadlupano, a messenger of Jesus Christ in word and deed, is something essential to the Christian vocation. Here at the abbey you monks convey that message prayerfully and effectively by the witness of your lives.
As we recall the story of the apparition of Mary to Juan Diego nearly five centuries ago, we see now that she came back then as a special messenger of her Son to people of a brave new world. But she was much more than a messenger. She herself was the message, because by appearing as a pregnant woman (the two black bands beneath her hands, joined together in prayer, were at the time the common apparel of a pregnant woman), she displays the fact that she is carrying the Savior of the world in her own person. As baptized and confirmed Christians, certainly as consecrated monks, we too carry the person of Jesus Christ on our own person as well, differently, but truly. This is the privilege of all of us, not just the rich and powerful, the religious and clergy, but also all the poor and marginalized people in today’s world, the homeless, the illegal immigrant, the family outcast. This is true, we know, because anything is possible, if God wants it.
In trying times like these, when our Catholic community is so often misunderstood and our beliefs and values undermined, this abbey confounds our critics and challenges some of the basic tenets of secularism which are evident in the lifestyle and values of so many of our friends and neighbors. Like these good monks, all of us are Catholic Christians, not simply because we have similar beliefs and values, but because we have all come to know Jesus Christ, to love him very much and to follow him as disciples and friends. Because we are His friends, we want others to come to know our friend, Jesus, too. It is our responsibility to be guadalupanos. We cannot do this if we keep our faith a secret. We need to continue proclaiming our friendship with the Lord and his mother publicly, without hesitation or fear of rejection. We are so blessed because this powerhouse of prayer here in the Willamette Valley fuels evangelizing activities throughout our local and worldwide Catholic community.
Our Mexican sisters and brothers have great reverence for the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Scientists have not been able to explain how this image was imprinted on Juan Diego’s tilma nor how it has lasted for almost five centuries. It gives the impression, they say, of being alive, that is, it bears the presence of a person. Like an icon, in some mysterious sense it contains the presence of this holy woman.
But this icon does not simply represent Mary. It also conveys her motherly presence. She came to assure both the colonizers and the natives that she was the mother of all. This is especially evident in the eyes of Mary as portrayed on this marvelous image. When NASA scientists were doing their investigation, they took pictures of the eyes and magnified them many times. They were amazed to see the reflection of a man in Mary’s eye. For sure it was Juan Diego, the “littlest of her sons” whom she was looking at with such love. But Mary has her eye not only on Juan Diego, but on you, on me, on all of us. She looks upon us as a mother and in a special way today she looks upon these wonderful monks as their most blessed mother. As a mother gazes upon her newborn child with love and affection, so too Mary gazes upon you, Abbot Peter, and all your brother monks.
This celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe gives us all an opportunity to draw closer to Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother too. She knows our troubles and pains, our frustrations and anxieties. She wants to comfort us and she wants to give us the greatest gift of all for which we long during these holy days of Advent, her own Son, Jesus the Christ. With great joy and gratitude for our new senior wing here at the Abbey today, the church cries out, Viva Maria! Viva esta comunidad de la virgen de Guadalupe!
+ Archbishop Vlazny