Roses in December

Details: 02 December 2011

A Marian Month

Our season of Advent, which always occurs almost entirely in the month of December, is made more beautiful each year by several liturgical celebrations in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is particularly honored, venerated, and invoked by us, and in which we are invited to request her special intercessory prayers to God to help us better prepare annually for Christmas, when we are to welcome a new rebirth of Jesus Christ by grace in our souls. The feasts which immediately come to mind are the Solemnity of Mary’s Immaculate Conception on December 8th, and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12th. In the Litany of Loreto Mary is called the "Mystical Rose", reminding us each year in wintry December of God’s special and miraculous goodness to her and through her to all of us.

Nine months before Mary’s birthday (September 8th) we recall that from "the first moment of her conception", which came about in the normal way in the womb of Saint Ann, her mother, "by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, she was preserved immune from all stain of original sin." The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, "The splendor of an entirely unique holiness by which Mary is enriched from the first instant of her conception comes wholly from Christ. She is redeemed in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son. The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person in Christ with every spiritual blessing and chose her in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him in love."

The Catechism tells us, "Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, full of grace through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses." Implicitly but clearly this truth is found in the fonts of divine revelation, that is, in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, and that is what Blessed Pope Pius IX said when he defined that dogma in 1854. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception is often and mistakenly confused with another dogma of our Catholic Faith, that is, with the miraculous Virginal Conception and Birth of our (and Mary’s) Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Both dogmas are very important truths revealed by God.

Pope Benedict XVI

Our Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome, has said, "In today’s consumer society the period of Advent has unfortunately suffered a sort of commercial pollution that risks changing its authentic spirit, marked by recollection, moderation, and joy, which is not external but intimate. It is thus providential that almost as a portal to Christmas there should be the feast of one who is the Mother of Jesus and who, better than anyone else, can lead us to know, love, and adore the Son of God made Man. Let us therefore allow her to accompany us. May her sentiments prompt us to prepare ourselves with heartfelt sincerity and openness of spirit to recognize in the Child of Bethlehem the Son of God Who came into the world for our redemption. Let us walk together with her in prayer and accept the repeated invitation that the Advent liturgy addresses to us to remain in expectation, in watchful and joyful expectation. For the Lord will not delay. Thus it is Mary who tells us what Advent is: a going forth to meet the Lord Who comes to meet us. It is waiting for Him, listening to Him, longing for Him, and looking at Him."

Tepayac

Thirty-nine years after Christopher Columbus discovered our New World, while sailing on a ship called "Holy Mary" ("Santa Maria"), Mary herself chose to visit a part of that world on a hill in present day Mexico, which the Spaniards called "Guadalupe" and which the natives called "Tepayac". It was in December of 1531 that she appeared to an extremely poor, insignificant, and humble indigenous peasant, Juan Diego, recently canonized a saint by Pope John Paul II. Juan Diego then was a widower who lived with an aged and sick uncle and was on his way to Mass when the first apparition happened.

We know well the charming story of how Mary told him to go to the Bishop and tell him to build a beautiful church on that hilltop. The Bishop put him off and Juan Diego, discouraged, asked Mary in the second vision to go to the Bishop herself or to send a noble hidalgo because the Bishop would not believe an ignorant and impoverished Indian. She told him to return. The Bishop’s servant initially would not let him see the Bishop a second time, but the Bishop, hearing the commotion at his doorway did encounter Juan Diego, but told him, "Words are cheap. Tell this lady you are seeing that I, your Bishop, ask her for a sign." On December 12th, the uncle of Juan Diego looked like he was dying and so Juan Diego ran for a priest, but tried to avoid Tepayac so he would not be delayed talking to Mary, but she encountered him on the side of the hill, told him his uncle was cured, and instructed him to ascend the hill to find the sign for the Bishop. There Juan Diego found, despite the frost, cold, and barren rocks, a field of beautiful roses. Mary said, "Fill your cloak with those roses and bring them to the Bishop. He will understand." Juan Diego did so and ran to the Bishop’s house and dumped the roses in front of the Bishop, who rose from his desk and then fell on his knees in wonder because on Juan’s tilma, that had held the roses, there was a splendid image of Mary and her face, in a golden halo, was that of an Aztec princess.

The image persists to this day. Scientists have examined it. The paint is a strange combination of oil, water-color, tempera, and fresco. The tilma is woven of cactus fiber (as was the Indian custom), but there is no explanation of why it has not crumbled to pieces over these centuries, as have all other garments of that nature. During the 20th century Mexican persecution by the Marxists and Free Masons, led by Calles and supported by many American liberals, the government planted a bomb to destroy the tilma, but it was not damaged although the basilica that housed it was severely harmed. The image depicts Mary as pregnant with the stars on her mantle arranged in the constellations that were over Mexico in December of 1531.

Father Joseph Manton observes, "At Guadalupe our Lady said to the Spaniards: These Indians have souls as precious as yours. To the Indians she said, These Spaniards, for all their faults, are bringing you the true faith, the religion of Jesus Christ. Accept it and fling away forever your pagan superstitutions." He goes on to remark: "Guadalupe reminds us that nobody can be so lowly or stupid or blundering that heaven is not interested in him. What could be less important than Juan Diego and his old cloak." Another author writes, "In our Lady of Guadalupe God overturns the world by identifying with the poor and powerless. She is a magnificent symbol of our Advent hopes and longings that the Word of God at Christmas will be born anew by grace in our souls and will continue to dwell among us (John 1:14)." Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, "On that first Christmas God took Flesh and climbed upon Mary’s body as an ivory tower to kiss on her lips a mystic rose." Roses in December, indeed!