Feast of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin
Feast of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin
Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
La Crosse, Wisconsin
December 9, 2025
1 Cor 1, 26-31
Ps 131, 1. 2. 3
Mt 11, 25-30
Homily
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
God sent the Blessed Virgin Mary to Tepeyac Hill in December of 1531 to be the messenger of His unceasing and immeasurable love and mercy. He did not send her to perform works of magic, that is, acts completely foreign to nature and especially to our human nature. Rather, He sent her as a witness of His espousal of our human nature, uniting it to His divine nature in the womb of the same Virgin Mary. Through the Virginal Conception of God the Son in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the overshadowing of God the Holy Spirit, God became man: the one Second Person of the Holy Trinity united our human nature to His divine nature, while respecting completely the integrity of both natures.
Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared with the Child Jesus in her immaculate womb. Yes, God sent Our Lady to accomplish a divine work not through magic but through our cooperation, through our human cooperation with divine grace. He sent her to draw men to God the Son Incarnate, Divine Savior of the World. He sent her to draw men to the divine gifts of Faith and Baptism. We know the wondrous result of Our Lady’s message represented in a miraculous way by her continued presence with us, her image divinely imprinted, on the tilma of Saint Juan Diego. Encountering Our Lady through her miraculous image and message, millions were converted to Christ. Millions received the gifts of Faith and Baptism.
Even as God chose the Virgin Mary, from all time, to cooperate with Him, in an altogether singular way, in the work of the Redemption of man, that is, to be the Virgin Mother of God, so He sent Mary to Saint Juan Diego and to all who would come to know her through Saint Juan Diego. He has chosen them, He has chosen us, to cooperate in the work of the Redemption, the salvation of the world. Saint Paul teaches us about God’s election of the Virgin Mary and of her messengers with these words:
For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to the flesh, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, … so that no flesh might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.”[1]
Even as God chose the Virgin Mary, insignificant in the eyes of the world, to be the instrument by which He would come to dwell with us in our human flesh, so Our Lady was sent to Saint Juan Diego, chosen to be her messenger to Bishop Juan de Zumárraga for the accomplishment of the conversion of millions to the Faith, to Christ, God and man, alive for in the Church for us, for our eternal salvation. It is not a question of magic but of the work of divine grace in human souls to accomplish God’s most wonderful plan for our happiness during our earthly pilgrimage and our eternal happiness at its destiny: the Kingdom of Heaven.
Celebrating the Feast of Saint Juan Diego, let us, as Saint Paul urges us to do, consider the call which we received in Baptism, when we were cleansed of the stain of original sin and received into our souls the sevenfold gift of God the Holy Spirit. Each of us, according to our vocation in life and the particular gifts with which God has endowed us are called to work with Our Lord, under the guidance of His Virgin Mother, for our salvation, for the salvation of many souls, for the salvation of the world. Yes, most of us are of little account in the eyes of the world. But we are alive in Christ and, therefore, have the highest possible calling, the call to a good and holy life for our own salvation and the salvation of that portion of Our Lord’s vineyard which He has entrusted into our care.
Certainly, looking at the forces of evil in our midst, in the world, we, from a human point of view, can doubt our call or even effectively abandon it. Saint Juan Diego, after experiencing an initial disappointment in delivering Our Lady’s message to Bishop Juan de Zumárraga, urged Our Lady to find a better messenger:
So I beg you, my Lady, my Queen, my little Girl, to have one of the nobles who are held in esteem, one who is known, respected, honored, have him carry on, take your venerable breath, your venerable word, so that he will be believed. Because I am really just a man from the country, I’m the porter’s rope, I’m a back frame, just a tail, a wing; I myself need to be led, carried on someone’s back; there where you sent me, it is not my place to go or to stay, my little Girl, my littlest Daughter, my Lady, my Girl.[2]
Our Lady responded immediately:
Listen my youngest son, know for sure that I have no lack of servants, of messengers, to whom I can give the task of carrying my breath, my word, so that they carry out my will; but it is necessary that you, personally, go and plead, that by your intercession, my wish, my will, become a reality. And I beg you, my youngest son, and I strictly order you, to go again tomorrow to see the Bishop. And in my name, make him know, make him hear my wish, my will, so that he will bring into being, he will build, my sacred house that I ask of him. And carefully tell him again how I, personally, the ever Virgin Holy Mary, I, who am the Mother of God, sent you as my messenger.[3]
Our Lady’s words assured Saint Juan Diego that, if God had given him a mission, then he must have confidence in God’s grace to accomplish the mission, by giving his heart and soul to it, notwithstanding his own personal limitations.
Let us who are called to be messengers of Our Lord, under the care and guidance of His Virgin Mother, take heart from the words of Our Lady and rededicate ourselves to excellence in the care of the portion of Our Lord’s vineyard entrusted to us. Let us listen again to the words of Our Lord to us whom He calls to have childlike trust in Him and childlike enthusiasm in doing His will:
All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.[4]
In the moments of discouragement and doubt about our mission in life, which come to us all, let us, with Saint Juan Diego, renew our trust in God’s grace, in the unfailing help of the Mother of God, and take up anew whatever burden weighs upon us. Let us never forget that Satan’s first temptation is not to some particular sin but to discouragement and doubt regarding our divine calling. He knows that once he has succeeded in that temptation, he will have success in leading us away from Christ our Life by many other sins. Let us also never forget that we, with Our Lady, are co-workers of her Divine Son in His great work of the Redemptive Incarnation and that He will never fail to give us the grace of which we have need, especially the grace to overcome discouragement and doubt.
Celebrating the Feast of Saint Juan Diego, I express special gratitude to Our Lady’s Messengers, a corps of the faithful who have pledged themselves to pray for and to support materially the great spiritual mission of the Shrine. One of the constant graces given to pilgrims who encounter Our Lord here through the maternal love of His Mother is the grace of new courage and enthusiasm for their calling to live in Him, to live a good and holy life, according to each pilgrim’s vocation and special gifts. Faced with temptations to discouragement and doubt, pilgrims here are led to prayer. They find peace and new courage in Our Lord, especially as they encounter Him in the Sacraments of Penance and of the Holy Eucharist, the Most Blessed Sacrament. Celebrating the Feast of Saint Juan Diego, I express special gratitude to Our Lady’s Messengers, brothers and sisters who are making it possible for the Shrine to be, every day, a place of extraordinary encounter with Our Lord Who dwells with us in the sometimes very challenging circumstances of our ordinary life. If you would like to learn more about Our Lady’s Messengers, please ask any of the staff of the Shrine or consult the Shrine’s website.[5]
Under the maternal guidance of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Mother of God, we now unite our hearts, one with her Immaculate Heart, to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. May the Heart of Jesus be for us, as it was for Saint Juan Diego, “our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”[6]
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE
[1] 1 Cor 1, 26-27, 29-31.
[2] “Por esto, mucho te suplico, Señora mía, Reina mía, Muchachita mía, que a alguno de los estimados nobles, que sea conocido, resptado, honrado, le encragues que conduzsa, que lleve tuo venerable aliento, tu venerable palabra para que le crean. Porque en Verdad you soy un hombre el campo, soy la cuerda de los cargadores, en Verdad soyt parihuela, solo soy cola, soy ala; you mismo necesito ser conducido, llevado a cuestas, no es lugar de mi andar ni de mí deternerme allá a donde me envías, mi Muchachita, mi Hija la mas pequeña, Señora, mi Niña.” “Apéndice A, El Nican Mopohua,” en Carl Anderson y Monseñor Eduardo Chávez, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Madre de la civilización del amor (México: Grijalbo, 2010), p. 216, nn. 54-55. [NMEsp]. English translation: “Appendix A, The Nican Mopohua,” in Carl A. Anderson and Msgr. Eduardo Chávez, Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love (New York: Doubleday, 2009), p. 175, nos. 54-55. [NMEng].
[3] “Escucha, tú, el más pequeño de mis hijos, ten por cierto que no son escasos mis servidores, mis mensajeros, a quien encargue que lleven mi aliento, mi palabra, para que efectúen mi voluntad; pero es necesario que tú, personalmente, vayas, ruegues, que por tu intercesión se realice, se lleve a efecto mi querer, mi voluntad. Y mucho te ruego, hijo mío el menor, y con rigor te mando, que otra vez vayas mañana ver al obispo. Y de mi parte hazle saber, hazle oír mi querer, mi voluntad, para que realice, edifique mi casa sagrada que le pido. Y bien, de nuevo dile de qué modo yo, personalmente, la siempre Virgen Santa María, yo, que soy la Madre de Dios, te envío a ti como mi mensajero.” NMEsp, p. 216, nn. 58-62. English translation: NMEng, pp. 175-176, nos.58-62.
[4] Mt 11, 27-30.
[5] Cf. https://guadalupeshrine.org/olm/
[6] 1 Cor 1, 30.