Our Lady of Guadalupe, Empress of America

Come to me; tell me all your woes and problems. I am your Merciful Mother, Mother of all the Nations, and Mother of the One, True God, and I want to alleviate your sufferings… Am I not here who am thy Mother…What dost thou fear? Today, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we recall these words to St. Juan Diego.

John Paul II entrusted the one America to our Lady of Guadalupe. Single case: America. This brilliant Catholic insight of One America defies customary thinking. Geographically, we clearly envision two distinct continents united by a thin strip of land called Central America. But the Rio Grande is even more discriminatory of two contrasting worlds: Iberian Catholic vs. Anglo Protestant; Spanish/Portuguese vs. English; Third World vs. First World; patchwork of dictatorships and democracies vs. the world’s premier capitalisms. But John Paul sees one America and entrusts her to Our Lady, calling her “Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization.”

This makes perfect sense to the Catholic mind. We pledge allegiance to our flag, but this loyalty defers to a greater Kingdom, to the Church, and to the Queen herself. Our bonds with our south-of-the-border brothers are actually stronger and deeper than our patriotic pledge. It is a spiritual, eternal bond that transcends and relativizes differences in language, culture, income, politics, economics, or skin complexion.

The Western Hemisphere shares a common identity. First it is “western.” This raises the question: western in regard to what? We are western in regard to Europe and more specifically to Rome and Jerusalem, the source of the faith that defines us. We generally consider everything east of Rome/Jerusalem as the Orient or the East and the Atlantic community as the West. Our identity and the way we image our world centers from the gospel that moved from Jerusalem to Rome and then to the entire world.

But more deeply, we can see that the same core forces formed the one hemisphere of America: the indigenous people who were treated so badly by the European invaders; African slaves; the impulse to conquer and accumulate as seen in many of the conquistadores; the impulse to bring the Gospel in both the Catholic South and the Protestant North; and the thirst for freedom of religion, especially in the North. We might ask ourselves how our Empress presents herself to this menagerie.

Most vividly, she identifies with the poor, specifically American natives. Her image is that of an Aztec maiden. Dramatically she opposes the Aztec rites of human sacrifice and the barbaric treatment of the conquistadors. Her chosen ambassador is a humble native. She respects the freedom of her children as there is nothing compulsive or oppressive about this humble, gentle virgin. She appeals only to her children as a loving mother. She clearly identifies with the conquered, the poor, and the marginalized; at the same time she is an internationalist, unifying Spaniard and Native and all the peoples of America.

There is an inexpressible, gentle, consoling, miraculous and mysterious power about this image of our Lady. Last week an image of her that is traveling from house to house in our extended family was in our home and it truly was like a visitor, radiating a most non-intrusive but sweet and inspiring influence.

As we pledge our loyalty to this Queen and Empress as Americans (here implying the politically correct notion of continental, not national identity…the correct expression for USA nationals is not clear) and Catholics, she relativizes and contextualizes our political and economic values in favor of her own clear, powerful agenda. This includes:

Evangelization: Our little catechist St. Juan Diego was steward of this image which elicited 10 million conversions within a decade. Never has there been such successful evangelization. The image simply has an unexplainable power to touch human hearts and minds. The maiden’s goal is always to lead her children to her Son and our heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit. The reverent tilt of her head, deferring to Another and belying any misunderstanding of her as a goddess, speaks more than a million words.

Life Bearing and Protecting: With few words but powerful symbolism, the obviously expectant “little dark skinned girl” (“La Morenita”) deconstructed the entire Aztec system of human sacrifice even as she critiqued the brutality of the conquering Iberian armies. So today she is closely associated with a lucid and absolute renunciation of the apparatus of infant destruction.

Family: Our Lady’s words to Juan are striking for their maternal intimacy and affection. It is amazing that this 50-some-year-old man is addressed thus by a young woman of child bearing age. At that time, however, the family itself was not under attack as it is today. So it is of interest that a new devotion to Mary under the title of Our Lady of America has been encouraged by a number of bishops. In a series of apparitions to a contemplative nun named Sister Mary Ephrem (1916-2000), our Lady stressed the purity of love and the indwelling of the Holy Trinity within the Christian home. This private revelation was approved and advocated by Archbishop Paul Leibold of Cincinnati who had been Sister’s spiritual director. Just last year Archbishop Burke (then of St. Louis, now in the Vatican) reported favorably to our United States bishops on the devotion. It seems to be Mary as Immaculate Conception speaking directly to the attack on family. Sister Mary Ephrem herself explained that Our Lady of America is specifically patroness of the USA while Our Lady of Guadalupe is patroness of the one America as an entire hemisphere. (We note here again the linguistic problem of referring to the USA as America.)

Solidarity especially with the poor: Our bonds (religio in its root means “bonds”) with our Latino brothers and sisters are far deeper than any linguistic, cultural, economic differences. In particular, we cherish closeness to those who are poor, humble and simple…like the Virgin of Mexico. This means that we welcome our Latino immigrants like family, without disparaging the need for secure borders, controlled immigration, and respect for law. A Catholic internationalism complements a genuine patriotism, cleansed of insecurity, fear, nativism, isolationism and protectionism.

The mysterious, iconic sacramental from Tepeyac and the young-yet-ancient earthly-heavenly woman it images come into our homes like a spring of infinite peace, joy and hope. In the midst of forces of death that have become as virulent as Aztec sacrifice or Conquistador greed, she unites us with her Son and all the simplicity, generosity, courage and love of his Holy Spirit.