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Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Immaculate Conception
By Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner, F.I.
Is there a link between Guadalupe and the Immaculate Conception? From
the time of the apparition and first glimpse of the Miraculous Image on
the tilma of Bl. Juan Diego, Catholics, Spaniards and Indian, American
and European, have always believed there is a relation between Mary Immaculate
and Guadalupe.
But toward the end of the "age of enlightenment," the eighteenth
century, voices increasingly more strident have denied any such connection.
Clearly, these "voices" are often identical with those who doubt
or deny the historicity and/or supernatural nature of the apparitions.
The arguments they use and the conclusions they reach exactly parallel
those of modernists who claim one can deny the historicity of the infancy
narratives, but still believe as a Catholic in the "symbolic"
value of Marian dogmas such as the divine motherhood and perpetual virginity.
As so frequently happens, those attacking the truths of Faith unwittingly
draw the attention of believers to the importance of facts easily discovered,
yet commonly overlooked, which justify the traditional belief. In this
case it is the role played by the Franciscans who assured that the link,
intended by Our Lady, would be seen. That link has been explained over
the centuries to rest upon the Franciscan influence in Spain and the New
World.
During the first two hundred years after the apparition, belief in a link
between Guadalupe and the Immaculate Conception usually is evident in
discussions of the "Woman clothed with the sun" (Apoc. 12,1
ff) plainly recalled by the Miraculous Figure of the Mother of God on
the tilma. By 1531 it was commonplace among Catholics to identify the
Woman of the Apocalypse the Woman who crushes the head of the serpent
(Gen. 3,15), with the Mother of God, Coredemptrix and Queen, under the
title of Immaculate Conception.
The popular awareness of that identity and of its significance is the
result of the role played by the Franciscan Order. It was the Franciscan
theologian, Bl. John Duns Scotus (1266?-1308), who worked out the classic
theology of the Immaculate Conception. Since then, Franciscan preachers
and missionaries, guided by his profound insights, effectively contributed
to the acceptance of his "thesis" throughout the Church. A good
example of this kind of "borrowing Franciscan insights" without
mentioning the Franciscans, is to be found in the writings of the Mexican
Miguel Sanchez (1594-1674). As long as one is aware of and accepts the
assumptions of the Franciscan "thesis" about the Immaculate,
then the reference to the text of the Apocalypse mirrored on the tilma
clearly says: She is the Immaculate Woman.
More recently, defenders of the tradition have brought forward arguments
based on the words which our Lady used to identify herself to Juan Bernardino.
Thus, Helen Behrens popularized the view that in identifying herself Our
Lady used, not the Spanish name Guadalupe, but a word in Nahuatl: Quetzalcóatl,
i.e., I am the one who has crushed the head of the serpent (who demands
human sacrifice). To Spanish ears that word spoken by Juan Bernardino
would have sounded like Guadalupe; whence the link with the Spanish shrine
and the popular name of the Mexican shrine.
Now, the meaning assigned Quetzalcóatl in this thesis (crushing
the head of the serpent) has come under considerable fire from students
of Nahuatl and of Aztec culture. The sometimes heated exchanges, concentrating
on what is a secondary point in regard to our theme, distract from the
essential contribution of Helen Behrens. She called the attention of the
English speaking public to some true facts.
First, Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico really is the Immaculate, the "Perfect
Virgin" of the Nican Mopohua. In bringing about the conversion of
nations to Jesus she does in some real sense crush the head of the enemy
of the Savior and our salvation, whatever form this opposition takes.
She, the Mother of mercy, because she is the Immaculate, intervenes in
history to secure the conversion, sanctification and salvation of all
peoples.
Second, Quetzalcóatl, the word used by Juan Bernardino, whatever
it means in Nahuatl when pronounced does sound like Guadalupe in Spanish!
But to say that the link between Guadalupe and the Immaculate is based
only on the misunderstanding of the word Guadalupe is a capital error.
This fails to take into account the role played by the Franciscans at
both Guadalupan shrines.
By the end of the fifteenth century the Franciscans had placed in the
shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extramadura a statue of the Immaculate
Conception, one which soon became a popular object of veneration. There
is also good evidence that the same statue had already been made known
by the Franciscan missionaries in Mexico to the Indians and that perhaps
a reproduction was already venerated in the vicinity of Tepeyac.
Now, the similarity between the depiction of the Immaculate in the statue
placed by the Friars Minor in the sanctuary of Extramadura and the Image
on the tilma is extraordinarily close, so close that anyone from the region
of Extramadura, like the Spanish translator in the Bishop's palace, hearing
what sounded like Guadalupe, would have spontaneously associated this
Image with the Immaculate Conception statue in Spain.
In the Franciscan tradition the Immaculate is Our Lady, Queen of the Angels,
whose Portiuncula (Little Portion) was the chapel where Angels were often
seen to descend and ascend, waiting on their Queen and her clients, "the
rest of her offspring," i.e., the rest of the Savior's brethren (cf.
Apoc. 12:17). This is the place where St. Francis came to understand his
vocation, found his Order and where he died.
When, therefore, the good Bishop beheld the roses spilling on the floor,
it was not only a sign that he could believe Juan Diego, but an answer
to his own prayer for a sign assuring the success of the evangelization
and the pacification of the two peoples. When he saw the image of Our
Lady supported by an angel at her feet on the tilma, he could not help
but recognize the Franciscan mode of conceiving the Immaculate as Queen
of the Angels. The link between Guadalupe in Mexico, Guadalupe in Spain
and the Immaculate Conception was fixed. The core of the Perfect Virgin's
message at every authenticated appearance since, because she is the Immaculate,
rests upon her maternal mediation as Dispenstrix of God's mercy and grace.
It is she upon whom the Angels wait, the Angels venerated at both Guadalupe
shrines.
The association between Guadalupe in Mexico and the Immaculate Conception
was perceived immediately, not only in Mexico, but in Europe as well.
More and more as the Miracle came to be known representations of the Immaculate
Conception reflected the likeness on Bl. Juan Diego's tilma. With the
decisive victory of the Christian fleet over the more powerful Moslems
at Lepanto, lifting the threat of the infidels over the whole of Europe,
through a copy of the Icon, the Immaculate Conception came to occupy center
stage in the Catholic counter-reformation. She is the Auxiliatrix Christianorum—Help
of Christians.
This, therefore, is what the tradition uniformly assumed. To get around
the obvious, skeptics interpreted references to the Woman of Apocalypse,
such as those of Miguel Sanchez, the seventeenth century commentator,
as inspired by criollo patriotism, rather than as they always have been
understood: testimonials to the common belief in the Immaculate Conception
reflected by the Image on the tilma. There is no indication that Sanchez
or Bl. Juan Diego or our Lady anticipate a liberation theology interpretation
of the Magnificat. The proof is all to the contrary.
The role of Franciscan piety in the origins of Guadalupe is understandable
in the context of the Franciscan influence in Spain and Mexico, an influence
explicitly and almost aggressively "Immaculatist." At the time
of the apparitions the Franciscan Order was popularly known as the one
which "preached the Immaculate Conception." Our Lady appearing
at Tepeyac made use of Franciscans and their long tradition of devotion
to the Immaculate, first of all in the person of Bishop Zumárraga,
who openly supported the building of the first church at the site which
she indicated.
The Franciscan spirituality, plus the urgency of the times, inspired and
impelled Christopher Columbus, a Third Order Franciscan, in his expeditions.
He was quite familiar with the Apocalypse, in particular chapter 12, with
its account of the opening of the Ark of the Covenant in heaven and the
appearance of the Woman clothed with the sun, who literally is the Ark.
This is the same biblical reference which played so central a role in
the iconography of the tilma. There Our Lady blots out the sun, indicating
she is greater than the sun god whom the Aztecs worshiped. She has the
moon beneath her feet and stars on her robe which places her above and
beyond mere terrestrial creation.
Guadalupe is not an explanation of the Immaculate Conception as such.
Rather it is a heavenly confirmation of the basis for her universal maternal
mediation as the Immaculate One, and so provides the key to the understanding
of the successful evangelization of Mexico and of all people and nations.
It is no accident that in every authentic appearance of our Lady since
1531, in some way these two themes, Immaculate Conception and Marian mediation,
are involved. In a word, the appearance of the Perfect Virgin declares
the wonders of divine grace and glory over a world darkened by sin, the
degradation of false worship involving human sacrifice, and the enslavement
of neighbor through unjust amassment of riches.
Similarly, today vast numbers of souls are enslaved by the idolatry of
sensual pleasure. Instead of worshiping the Child of the Virgin as Our
Lady of Guadalupe asked, they sacrifice their offspring and their fecundity
to the demands of lust and greed. How needed it is to look upon and listen
to the Mother of Tepeyac, the Mother of Life and heed her requests to
build a temple for the Holy Spirit in their souls in imitation of the
Immaculate Virgin's purity, modesty and chastity.
Guadalupe, then, is no mere symbolic myth as one prestigious anti-apparitionist
claims and this book refutes. Guadalupe is above all a person, the Perfect
Virgin, our Mother of mercy, a model to be imitated, and a living Mother
who anticipates our needs as when she intervenes in our history for the
sake of our salvation and for the sake of our welfare as pilgrims in this
world. As a Mother to all she deliberately spoke in a way that both nations,
Indian and Spanish, would understand the same mystery at Extramadura and
at Tepeyac—the Immaculate Virgin in her unique role as Mother of
all men.
Before airing questions of inculturation, politics, economics, etc., there
is need for unity of Faith in her Son. This is possible only when she
is humbly acknowledged to be the Mother of God, as in Mexico, by both
nations through the erection of a temple in her honor. Where this is not
recognized, there will be constant conflict and revolution. The genius
of Catholicism, of Catholic political philosophy and culture, is the Perfect
Virgin.
"Behold your Mother" Jesus says to St. John (Jn 19:26). To all
his "beloved disciples" could He not also be saying before the
tilma of Bl. Juan Diego: Behold the Woman of Revelation, the Immaculate?
The more we grasp and live this mystery, the foundation of the Virgin's
compassionate and motherly mediation, the greater our understanding of
the person and work of her Son and Savior, and our sharing in His life.
Blessed, indeed, those who behold their Immaculate Mother and, as the
Son asks, take her into their homes by true devotion to Mary, by total
consecration to the Immaculate.
Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner, F.I., a member of the Franciscans of the
Immaculate, is an internationally known lecturer on Marian doctrine who
has appeared on EWTN and is past editor of the international Marian magazine
founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe, Miles Immaculatae. This article first
appeared in the publication A Handbook on Guadalupe, Academy of the Immaculate,
1997.
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