Am I not here, I who am your mother?

Dec. 12: Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Today we celebrate the Marian apparitions that occurred nearly 500 years ago in Mexico, the first time she appeared in the Americas. Juan Diego reported seeing her to his local bishop, who demanded proof. Mary then showed Juan a field of roses (out of season at the time), which he gathered in his cloak as a sign. Unfurling his cloak for the bishop, Juan revealed a miraculous image of the Virgin wearing a black maternity belt and bearing the jasmine flower over her womb.

While recognizably the Virgin Mother, this depiction also included Aztec symbolism, which showed Mary’s unborn child to be the divine center of the cosmos. The Church is universal, and Mary is everybody’s mother. Both find ways to reach out to her children wherever they are, in whatever culture and situation they may be.