We recall these words of Our Blessed Lady to Saint Juan Diego, whose memorial we celebrate today:
Listen, Juan, my dearest and youngest son….know for sure, my dearest… that I am the perfect and ever Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the God of truth through Whom everything lives, the Lord of all things near us, the Lord of heaven and earth. I want very much to have a little house built here for me, in which I will show Him, I will exalt Him and make Him manifest. I will give Him to the people in all my personal love, in my compassion, in my help, in my protection: because I am truly your merciful Mother, yours and all the people who live united in this land and of all the other people of different ancestries, my lovers, who love me, those who seek me, those who trust in me. Here I will hear their weeping, their complaints, and heal all their sorrows, hardships, and sufferings…
Juan Diego is the Church’s first saint indigenous to the Americas. Saint John Paul praised him as “a simple, humble Indian” who accepted Christianity without giving up his identity as an Indian. After the roses gathered in Juan’s coarse tilma were transformed into the miraculous image of Our Lady, little more is known about him. Eventually, he lived near the shrine constructed at Tepeyac and was revered as holy, unselfish, and compassionate.
