Our Lady of Guadalupe:
Understanding Fully the Sign at Tepeyac
Fr. Hugh Gillespie, SMM
When we think of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the first thing that comes to mind is the image in the tilma. Be careful with that! While the image is not unimportant – it is exceedingly important – but there is a danger in it. In fact, today one sees many attempts to talk about the appearance of Our Lady in terms of interpreting the image. And while they are well-intentioned, they are often misguided.
Because the sign is not simply the image! And to zero in too quickly on the miraculous image is to miss the fullness of the sign. In fact, there are several signs associated with the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The image is the last of them, but is not the only sign. In fact the image has its meaning only in relation to the other signs.
This is why it is good before our eyes today the series of signs will be dramatized. Because, again, the sign is not simply the image. The sign is what happened. And as Our Lady appeared, before Our Lady’s image appears, there is the miraculous healing of Juan Diego’s uncle. Before the image appears in the tilma, there is the miraculous growing of roses at a time of year that roses have no right to grow. And before the image appears in the tilma, there is the gathering of those roses. The roses are the sign that is given to the Bishop. The healing is the sign that is given to Juan Diego. And Juan Diego, strengthened by the news of the healing, gathers the roses into his tilma. And he moves, literally, bearing a sign within his garment, before the image ever appears. When he comes to the door of the Bishop’s house, he already has a sign with him. It is the miraculous and beautiful abundance of roses. Where neither abundance, nor roses, nor beauty have been previously found.
Think about that for a moment. Roses in the winter! Roses in the winter! Tepeyac, Mexico is not much warmer in the winter than Manorville, NY ([the location of the Shrine where this homily was given]).
Roses in the winter! How many, assuming you do not have a green house, have roses in your backyard in the winter? Not just one or two. But enough to fill a garment to the point of overflowing. Not just a single rose and not just a bouquet of roses, but a literal garden of roses. A garden that suddenly bursts to life out of a desert. A garden that bursts into glorious beauty at a time of year when the air is too cold for a flower to grow.
And it is this sign that Juan Diego cradles in his tilma. He brings this sign, strengthened by the sign that has been given to him, which was the healing of his family member that was so deathly ill. How remarkable was this! In the knowledge of the love of the Virgin’s healing, gathering the miraculously beautiful and abundant sign of the roses, the garden that bursts out of the desert, he goes to the Bishop. It is only then upon his arrival, bearing this one sign, strengthened by the other signs, only then is the third sign revealed!
But look at how the tilma, the miraculous image on the tilma emerges. Because if we just look at the image we miss this! We miss where it comes from: we miss how it is given to us! And when we miss that, we have missed the point. Because the point of the miraculous image on the tilma is not “look at the tilma” and see that Our Lady left this miracle of an image on the tilma that doesn’t go away. Look at the tilma, and remember the roses! Look at the tilma, and know the healing! Look at the tilma, and see this is the one to whom a beautiful garden of life emerged at a time and place where such a thing was impossible!
Our Lady of Guadalupe
This tapestry hangs at the Montfort Spiritual Center.
Note from the editor:
The article is extracted from the homily Fr. Hugh gave on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The homily was taped on a hand recorder, which unfortunately, is not good enough for our members to hear. However, it was transcribed and appears in this post.
Because the point of the miraculous image on the tilma is not “look at the tilma” and see that Our Lady left this miracle of an image … that doesn’t go away.
The image on the tilma is not to stand in isolation, disconnected from everything that happened. It is a reminder of the events that happened. Any other signs hidden within the image are wonderful, but they are alone. But the real miracle is to remember what happened. And what happened is much more than Our Lady left an image. That would be beautiful: That would be wonderful: That would be remarkable, but would be strangely trivial. And Our Lady is never trivial. She never simply leaves behind something that is a mere wonder, or a mere curiosity. There is always something more. You see, whatever Our Lady leaves us is full of the grace with the life living power of her Son.
So imagine that moment! The first thing the Bishop and the others see is this spilling of red color roses. More than they could imagine. More than they could acquire. More than the Bishop ever had in his garden. Suddenly they spill out on the floor and they see the abundance and the beauty. Their nostrils are filled with the fragrant perfume of the roses! This is the miracle that is not just for the eyes. The ears hear the roses tumbling out of that tilma.
The nose is struck by the aroma of roses, which is filling the area! And what do we say today when people perceive the presence of Our Lady? The say they smelled the aroma of roses! Imagine how strong that would be if several hundred roses, fresh and filled with life, suddenly tumble out of that garment! And as this marvelous sign of the perfume of the roses announces Our Lady is present, then they see. Then they see on the tilma, in the wake of those beautiful roses, is the image of the mystical one. The image of that one who is the blessed garden, in which the new Adam comes to life. The image of that one who is paradise, the garden of the light of God Himself.
How remarkable that is! And how beautiful when we understand it, when we understand where this image comes from; what this points us to, and what it causes us to remember. Because, yet, on the one hand the image points to a victory. On one hand it is a reminder to Our Lady’s presence. The image also stands for us, as a confirmation, that healing and goodness that comes through her especially. It comes as the fruit of that what follows in the wake of one who will garden the flowers of her blessed tenderness. And it is a reminder that such a garden of roses is still possible when we turn to her. The healing of our wounds, the healing of our family, is possible when we turn to her.
The healing of nations, the wounds of our people is possible when we turn to her. In these days when our nation, even our world, are so horribly divided: When it seems that peace is less possible than ever, where many desire and long for goodness, despairing that it ever be possible, those roses are very important. On that dry, dusty and cold mountain top, where nothing has the right to live, a garden emerged. Such is the presence of Our Lady. It is a reminder that in the arid chilled soil of our hearts, where because of our own sinfulness, it seems that no great light can be there. So too can a garden emerge. It matters not how unlikely the place. It matters not how cold the winter. It matters only how great the belief. For she is the woman that is clothed in the Son. And those warming rays of the Son, that one true Son, Who is the true light of the world, of course roses will come. Of course, beauty will blossom in His Glory. Of course that will happen!
To turn to Our Lady, is to see that one whose garden is the goodness of Christ. To turn to Our Lady is to see that one who is filled with the overflowing grace of His presence. How marvelous it is that she visits Tepeyac, that her Son was not visible to the eye. But He is clearly visible in the effect of the tilma image.
Elizabeth did not see Jesus either [in the Visitation], but her unborn child recognized Him. And Elizabeth recognized that the woman who stood before her was the Mother of God. Juan Diego never saw Jesus on Tepeyac, but he met the Mother of the True God there. He never saw Jesus, but he felt His warmth. He never saw Jesus, but he was enriched by the power of His presence. And that image remains as a sign, the reminder of these things. It’s a testament to the fact that the winter may be cold, the night may be cold, the darkness may be great and our troubles may be many. But where there is the Mother, clothed in the light of her Son, the roses of devotion, the roses of goodness, the roses of victory, indeed may they always burst into life. How wonderful! The hidden goodness of Jesus revealing itself through these events on Tepeyac! As this image of Our Lady remaining on the tilma, it reminds us of the power of this same hidden Jesus Christ. He may be hidden, His face may be hidden. But when we turn to Him through Our Lady, His power asserts itself and makes a difference in this world. Amen.
