By Sister Ines, O.C.D.
In every approved Marian apparition, Our Lady has a specific mission. Each one reveals a determined and specific message—a unique and necessary goal. In the Anáhuac Valley of Mexico, on a barren hill called Tepeyac, Our Lady of Guadalupe came as a “merciful Mother,” a healer and restorer of all who are broken in body and in spirit. It is an amazing thought to consider that the “woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars” would place her feet upon the bloodstained soil of a nation’s festering woundedness. Yet, that is precisely what she did and continues to do for our broken humanity.
Our Lady did not stand aloof from the disease, death and despair which assailed the people of Mexico. She did not seek to keep her radiant garments clean and free from the filth of our sins. She did not stand indignantly afar, nor did she wash her hands of us in our brokenness and helplessness. She did not hesitate to delve into the blood-drenched earth of a people’s idolatry. Nor does she hold back from my own idolatry, from all those altars of my heart wherein I place myself and so many other false gods as the center of my worship.
She came to a nation that was once invincible, yet now was a broken and broken-hearted people. And she called herself “your Merciful Mother.” In calling herself thus, Our Lady reveals her message of compassion and her solidarity with all that is weak, broken and humbled within us. She spares nothing of herself in coming to us; neither her garments nor her skin are spared in this extravagant gesture of love toward her children—a tender embrace wherein we are caught up in the crossing of her arms and in the folds of her mantle. It is here, in her very bosom, where she gathers up all of the scattered fragments of our lives into a single unity in love. In this tender exchange every heart finds solace, strength and renewed hope. Yes, even the most sinful and dejected heart can lay claim to the merciful love of this noble Queen. Thank God! Thank God!
This role of gathering up the broken humanity of Christ has been Mary’s from the beginning. Christ took unto himself the brokenness of all humanity at the Incarnation. As Mary held the vulnerable little body of the Infant Jesus in
Bethlehem, our own vulnerable humanity participated and continues to participate in that embrace. The fragmented Body of Christ was the tangible reality of the Eucharist … blessed, broken and given for us, as well as the reality of every broken member of His Mystical Body. These fragments are each of us and all of that which causes us to isolate ourselves from God and from each other. And Mary walks amid this brokenness, gathering us into the folds of her mantle, in the crossing of her arms.
It is precisely from this place of embrace, from the very heart of Our Lady into which she gathers us up, that Christ receives the offering of our lives. In Mary’s embrace and sure protection, our lives are touched and ennobled with the sweetness of her virtue. Simply to be in her presence is to absorb the fragrance of her pure love for God. In lingering with Mary, we take on the luster that radiates from her Immaculate Heart. Mary is the object of God’s overflowing love. Heaven’s entire treasury of grace is continually poured over her. And anyone who comes near her cannot help but get soaked by the torrent which is continually flowing upon her and through her. What a great cause for joy! This thought is a continual source of hope for me. Since even while there is so little merit in me, I need only stand beside Our Lady and all will be made well. She will restore me to Christ.
May the “woman clothed with the sun” be for every heart the sweet star of hope leading the way through darkness into light.
