God’s intervention in the history of humanity is by way of a partnership with human beings who are invited to collaborate and be intermediaries in the realization of His divine plan.
The Bible bears witness to numerous examples of men and women who at one point in their lives heard a heavenly voice calling them for a special mission.
Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Paul, Mary, Peter, are just a few whom God called and entrusted with a concrete task. All of them felt unworthy and resisted at first, as they saw themselves undeserving of the noble tasks being assigned to them. Nevertheless, God conquered their hearts and minds by promising His divine assistance, thus, allaying their fears that could prevent a positive response.
The most poignant instance is the Virgin Mary, the modest girl from Nazareth, who unexpectedly saw an angel entering into her life. The divine messenger told her that she was to be the Mother of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Her humble “yes’’ changed the course of history. From there on, God entered humanity and made Himself one of us. This is called Incarnation, the awesome mystery Christians celebrate during the Christmas season.
The apparitions and visions of the heavenly Mother to mere children and lowly adults in recent history further confirm this divine pedagogy – Guadalupe, Lourdes, Fatima, just to mention the most renowned.
For this issue, we are highlighting the events in Guadalupe, Mexico, as this month the Church celebrates the feasts of St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe on the 9th and 12th, respectively.
The Virgin Mary appeared in 1531 to Juan Diego, a newly converted Aztec, asking him to go to his Bishop and request him to build a church at the same site of her apparition. The Bishop believed in the authenticity of the Marian apparitions and ordered the building of a church. In the next ten years, ten million natives were converted and baptized.
The Guadalupe event ushered in a time of peace that put an end to the human sacrifices of the Aztecs and the bloody war between the Mexican natives and the Spanish rulers.
The unassuming Diego enjoyed seeing himself as “a nobody…a small rope… a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf.” Yet he became the first indigenous saint of the Americas. In God’s mysterious plan, he was the instrument that triggered the start of a new chapter in the evangelization of Latin America.
To all our readers and subscribers, World Mission wishes you a joyful holy season of Christmas full of thanksgiving, love, and peace.
