Gospel: Luke 1:26-38
She was
deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could
mean, but the angel said to her, 'Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God's
favor. Look! You are to conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you must name
him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord
God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House
of Jacob forever and his reign will have no end.
Mary said
to the angel, 'But how can this come about, since I have no knowledge of man?'
The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and
will be called Son of God. And I tell you this too: your cousin Elizabeth also,
in her old age, has conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now
in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God.'
Mary said,
'You see before you the Lord's servant, let it happen to me as you have said.'
And the angel left her.
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The Our Lady
of Guadalupe appeared on the hill of Tepeyac in Mexico in December 1531, to an
indigenous peasant, named Juan Diego. After she had identified herself to him,
The Virgin Mary asked that Juan build her a shrine in that same spot, in order
for her to show and share her love and compassion with all believers.
So, Juan
Diego visited Juan de Zumárraga, who was Archbishop of what is now Mexico City.
Zumárraga dismissed him in disbelief and asked that Juan Diego provide proof of
his story and proof of the Lady’s identity. Juan Diego returned to the hill and
encountered the Virgin Mary again. The Virgin Mary told him to climb to the top
of the hill and pick some flowers to present to Archbishop Juan de Zumárraga.
Even though
it was winter and nothing should have been in bloom, Juan Diego found an
abundance of flowers of a type he had never seen before. The Virgin Mary
bundled the flowers into Juan's cloak, known as tilma. When Juan Diego
presented the tilma of exotic flowers to Archbishop Juan de Zumárraga, the
flowers fell out and he recognised them as Castilian roses, which are not found
in Mexico.
What was even
more astonishing was the tilma had been miraculously imprinted with a colorful
image of the Virgin Mary. This tilma, showing the familiar image of the Virgin
Mary with her head bowed and hands together in prayer, represents the Virgin of
Guadalupe.
In 1990, Pope
Saint John Paul II visited Mexico and beatified Juan Diego. 10 years later, in
the year 2000, he was declared a Saint.
Do you always submit
to the wisdom God?
Sometimes there are
situations in our lives that would disturb our peace, for example a sudden
diagnoses of sickness. This kind of life event will surely bother us. But in
the midst of this life disturbances let us not forget that the good Lord is
always there for us. To heal us, to give us hope and to assure us that He will
always be there for us.
When the angel Gabriel
appeared and greeted Mary she was naturally concerned about it. Perhaps the
Blessed Mother asked herself, why did this angel appear to me? What would this
angel bring me; a trial that is hard for me to bear?
But the angel told the
Blessed Mother that she would bear a son and His name is Jesus. The angel additionally
said that she has nothing to worry because the Lord will take care of her.
Thus, the Blessed Mother humbly accepted her destiny and entrusted herself to
God.
Whatever we are going
through right now or we might go through in the future. Be it sickness or severe
trial that may test our fidelity to Jesus, let us hold on to our deep faith in
Jesus. For as long as we have faith there would be hope and deliverance from
all of life’s challenges.
As the Blessed Mother
entrusted her fate to the good Lord we too must learn to submit to God’s will
for ourselves. Let us never worry for God is always there for us and never will
He abandon us. - Marino J. Dasmarinas
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