Homily on the Occasion of the Annual Archdiocesan Cruzada Guadalupana
December 6, 2025; St. Mary’s Cathedral
Readings: Rev 11:19a, 12:1-6a.10ab; Jdt 13; Lk 1:26-38
Introduction
During the years that I was pursuing my canon law studies in Rome, I lived at the Casa Santa Maria, the residence for priests in graduate studies from the United States. It is a very old building, dating back to the seventeenth century, and was originally a convent of cloistered nuns. It has a very beautiful baroque chapel, and above one of the side altars there hangs one of the first replicas made of St. Juan Diego’s tilma.
My preferred spot for private prayer in that chapel was at the end of the pew right next to that altar. One day when I was praying there I raised my eyes to contemplate our Lady’s image on the tilma, and I still recalled being transfixed by the sheer beauty of it all. I remained silent and till for an extended period of time simply admiring and being absorbed by the sheer beauty of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Heaven Visits Earth
She came from heaven, and understandably so, because only heaven could contain such beauty. Her appearance she shows to us on that tilma is what she looks like in her full glory in heaven. She is the woman whom St. John describes to us in his vision: “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” This is the woman, our Queen and our Mother, who came to visit us at Tepeyac. She is a mother who loves all of her children, so she came in a way that all could understand, all the people of that particular time and place, two peoples in a great clash of civilizations, from whom she would form one new people in her Son.
This formation of a new people for God, though, began a long time ago with another visit from heaven. It was when God sent His angel from heaven to her, to announce to her the special favor He was asking of her: to be the mother of His Son. He waited for her “yes” so that, through her willing obedience, He could send us the greatest visit from heaven: His Son, born into our world of space and time, taking upon himself our limited, weak human flesh.
In her image on Juan Dieguito’s tilma, we see what she looks like, reigning in glory in heaven. But she doesn’t stay there. She says “yes” once again, coming back to earth to bring us her Son once again, and to bring us into the saving encounter with him. But what is the way there? How do we set out on that path, the path to her Son that she paves for us? How do we turn ourselves in the right direction to go and meet him?
The Way to Jesus
She paves the way for us by going there first herself. And just what was her way to heaven? We need to look there, for that is where she paves the path to heaven for us. It was precisely in her “yes” to God: “May it be done to me according to your word” – taking God at His word, in willing, humble obedience.
That one “yes” changed everything: it changed the whole course of human history, creating a people of God in her Son, in His Son, consisting of all races on the face of the earth. Jew and Gentile are now fused into one new people of God that is the Church, to whom the head of the body, the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ, gives the Great Commission to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. In spreading the Christian faith across the globe, the Church built up a Christian civilization, from which we have inherited all the good things which we cherish to this day: the works of justice and charity and care for the poor and sick, with special recognition for the equal dignity of all human beings; the beauty of the arts; advances in learning and understanding the world of God’s creation; but above all, the gift of salvation which comes from knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
She gave her “yes” once again in coming to earth to visit a new people and bring her Son to them, through which she would give birth to a whole new Christian civilization, changing the course of history once again here in the Americas. But her “yes” changes not only the course of history; that is, what is changed is not confined to this world of time. Rather, it has indeed changed not only history but all of eternity. Now the possibility of heaven is open to us, now it is possible for us to live in perfect peace and happiness with God in the whole company of saints forever after we depart from this world of time and space.
She is With Us Still
The way there is to follow her trusting, humble obedience. She is still with us, and we here in our Archdiocese are now blessed to feel even more closely connected with her. It was my great honor and joy to celebrate Mass two months ago on the feast day of her Most Holy Rosary in the Basilica Shrine in Mexico City, at the very spot where she appeared to St. Juan Diego. At a reception after the Mass, the committee of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference entrusted with preparations for the 500th anniversary of the apparition in 2031 gifted me with a blessing beyond my imagination or anything I could have anticipated: an exact replica of Juan Diego’s tilma – the same size, the same material, a reproduction of the tilma to the last exact detail. And, it was touched to the actual tilma itself.
Now with this relic in our midst, we have her presence with us in an even more immediate way. We are happy to conclude the novena leading up to this Cruzada Guadalupana here at the Cathedral, after the tilma has been exposed and venerated in different parishes throughout the Archdiocese each day leading up to this day. We offered our prayers during this novena to ask for her assistance to us, here in the family of our Archdiocese and in so many families who are experiencing fear and uncertainty at this time. We need to hear once again, and take to heart, the words she spoke to her dear Juan Dieguito 494 years ago: “Listen, put it into your heart, my youngest and dearest son, that the thing that disturbs you, the thing that afflicts you, is nothing. Do not let your countenance, your heart be disturbed. Do not be afraid….”
Her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is with us, and if we are with him, following him with loving and trusting obedience, then we have nothing to fear. If he is for us, who can be against us? And she who is his mother and ours covers us with the mantle of her protection. If we abide in him, follow his way and imitate the loving and humble example of his mother, entrusting ourselves to her intercession and protection, then we need not be afraid.
Conclusion
This is the way of beauty, the way of a beautiful life. We love to contemplate the beauty of our mother, a beauty that only heaven can contain. But that beauty on the outside is the manifestation of her perfect beauty on the inside. Her “yes” is the way to that interior beauty, the way to peace and confidence in the will of God for us.
Let us flee to her for her protection, taking to heart once again the words she spoke to Juan Diego and his people and which she now speaks to us: “I am truly your merciful Mother, yours and all the people who live united in this land and of all the other people of different ancestries, my lovers, who love me, those who seek me, those who trust in me. Here I will hear their weeping, their complaints and heal all their sorrows, hardships and sufferings.”
