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Friends,
today we celebrate the great feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. What
followed the apparition of Mary at Tepeyac is one of the most astounding
chapters in the history of Christian evangelism.
Though Franciscan missionaries had been laboring in Mexico for twenty years, they had made little progress. But within ten years
of the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe practically the entire
Mexican people, nine million strong, converted to Christianity. La
Morena had proved a more effective evangelist than Peter, Paul, St.
Patrick, and St. Francis Xavier combined! And with that great national
conversion, the Aztec’s practice of human sacrifice came to an end. She
had done battle with fallen spirits and had won a culture-changing
victory for the God of love.
The
challenge for us who honor her today is to join the same fight. We must
announce to our culture today the truth of the God of Israel, the God
of Jesus Christ, the God of non-violence and forgiving love. And we
ought, like La Morena, to be bearers of Jesus to a world that needs him
more than ever.
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