“those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus”

“In this new saint you have a marvelous example of a just and upright man, a loyal son of the Church, docile to his Pastors, who deeply loved the Virgin and was a faithful disciple of Jesus. May he be a model for you who are so attached to him.” [i]  These words of Pope John Paul the Great exemplify the true character of San Juan Diego, “a loyal son of the Church” and a “simple, humble Indian who contemplated the sweet and serene face of Our Lady of Tepeyac.” [ii]  We learn by Juan Diego’s example how to be a son of the Church, to deeply love Our Lady and to be a faithful disciple of Jesus.  This commitment to be a son of the Church, to love Mary and to be a faithful disciple of Jesus pits us against the evil one, for Jesus says, “he who is not with me is against me.” [iii]

The Aztecs used pictograms to communicate since they did not have a written language.  The central emblem of the Mexican flag is the Aztec pictogram for Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), the center of their empire.  The emblem has an eagle, holding a serpent in its talon, is perched on top of a prickly pear cactus; the cactus is situated on a rock that rises above a lake.  It is derived from an Aztec legend that their gods told them to build a city where they spot an eagle on a nopal eating a serpent, which is now Mexico City.  In the Judea-Christian tradition, the serpent represents the evil one, Satan.  San Juan Diego’s name before his conversion was Cuauhtlatoatzin, which means talking eagle.  San Juan Diego the lowly, was asked by Our Lady to bring a message to the Bishop and thus to the people of Mexico.  It is this “talking eagle” that through his faithfulness to God held the serpent Satan in his talon. 
 
In the book of Revelation, the dragon (Satan) attacks not only the child (Jesus) of the woman (Mary) but, also, the offspring of the woman (the faithful).  “Then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus.”  This is war, a war for the souls of all humanity!  Satan, the father of lies, is the thief who “comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” [iv]  The only thing to keep Satan from killing and destroying all of humanity is Christ the Victor.  Christ’s mother, Mary, is right by her Son’s side in the victory against Satan. 
 
Juan Diego was a 57 year old Indian farmer.  Our Lady referred to him as Juanito.  Juanito was a sign of affection meaning “my little one”, “my child”, “little Juan”.  She said lovingly to him and to us, "Am I not your Mother? Am I not holding you here, where I cross my arms?" [v]  The faithful members of the Church, like San Juan Diego, have Mary as their mother.  It is very clear in Revelation that Satan, when he could not conquer Jesus or Mary, went to “wage war against the rest of her offspring”.  We are the offspring and we are at war.  This is why the faithful are called the Church Militant.

What is the Church Militant?  The Church on earth, still struggling with sin and temptation, and therefor engaged in warfare with the world, the flesh, and the devil. [vi]  [Eucharistic prayer from the 62 missal]
 
What is the world and why do we fight the world?  “The false maxims (teachings) of the world and the society of those who love vanities, riches and pleasures of this world better than God.” [vii]   Give examples of how society loves vanities, riches and pleasures more than God.

What is the flesh, why do we fight the flesh?  “The flesh is our own corrupt inclinations and passions, which are the most dangerous of all our enemies.” [viii]  It is our tendency to sin that we have to always be aware of, and through the Grace of God we must be “sober and alert” [ix]  A constant message of the Gospel is to “avoid evil and pursue good” [x].  Saint Timothy directs this message especially to the youth and says that by avoiding evil, we will escape from the snare of the devil.  “So shun youthful passions and aim at righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart…and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” [xi]   What are these inclinations, desires, and passions?  They are called vice and “are perverse habits which darken the conscience and incline one to evil. The vices can be linked to the seven, so-called, capital sins which are: pride, avarice [greed], envy, anger, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia [laziness].” [xii] 
 
Who is the devil, why do we do we have to fight the devil?  Satan is called a thief, who comes only to steal, kill and destroy [xiii] and he is called a roaring lion that prowls the world, seeking the ruin of souls. [xiv] “The devil, or Satan and all his wicked, who are ever seeking to draw us into sin and always seeking, by temptation and by work or example, to carry us along with them in the broad road that leads to damnation so that we may be damned with them.” [xv]
 
How does the Mass help in our battle against the world, the flesh and the devil?  Christ is our Victor!  It is at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that we re-present this final victor over the world, the flesh and the devil.  Christ, the head of the Body, has won the victory, the members of the Body of Christ, the faithful, are still fighting.  “We should approach the Son of God in Holy Communion with a sort of admiration, burning to have some small courage of the One humiliated beyond imagining, and showing our gratitude by humbling ourselves courageously and continuing the same struggle, to taste the same victory.” [xvi]  It is at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that we are reminded of our victory, but also given strength to join in that victory.  We have to ask ourselves, “Will we join the winning team, the team of Christ, Our Lady, the Saints and Angels and all the Church Triumphant in Heaven?”  The Priest during the Mass prays, “What shall I render to the Lord for all He hath rendered unto me?  I will take the Chalice of Salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord and I shall be saved from my enemies.” [xvii]
 
How do we know if we are the offspring of Mary and if we are at war against Satan?  Revelation goes on to define who exactly the offspring are.  The offspring are “those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus”

1. Are we baptized and practicing member of the Church?  If so, Mary is our Mother, because she is the Mother of the Church and the Mother of Jesus.  Jesus, as He hung on the Cross said, “behold your mother” [xviii], thus given his mother to us to be our mother.  This is why at Mass and in scripture, the faithful are called “brothers and sisters”.  The opening prayer tells us that Mary, our mother, wants to unite all of her children.  “May her prayers help all men and women to accept each other as brothers and sisters” [xix]  It was through the apparition on Tepeyac hill that Mary expressed her motherly wish to bring two cultures of her children, the Spanish and the Aztecs, into one family.  We are part of one family, and we offer ourselves, our lives, for the good of our family and for all of God’s people.  At the Holy Sacrifice of Mass, we gather as a family to worship God, Our Father.  We do this through the Sacrifice of our brother, Jesus Christ, who offered Himself most perfectly to the Father.  We offer the Sacrifice alongside our Mother Mary, and all our brother and sisters, the Saints in heaven, the souls in purgatory and the Church militant, those on Earth.  “I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship” [xx].  We are babies in hands of our loving Mother Mary, who brings us to her son; we are “like newborn infants, long for pure spiritual milk…,” [xxi] and it is in the Liturgy, the prayers, the Sacraments and all that the Church gives us that feeds us nurses us with this spiritual milk.  The Church mirrors, Mary, who is Mother of the Church.  “Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the Son of the eternal Father.  And blessed are the breasts which nourished Christ the Lord.” [xxii]  The Church is both the womb, in which we the baptized are born, and the Church is the source from which we are nourished.

2. Do we keep the commandments of God?  Namely the Ten Commandments, but, also, all the teachings of Christ and His Church.  Jesus tells us, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven…everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon rock.” [xxiii]   Are the commandments of Christ the same as the commandments of God?  Yes, Christ is God!   Are the commandments of the Church the same as the commandments of Christ?  Yes, Christ founded the Church [xxiv] which is the “pillar and bulwark of the truth” [xxv]  The Church is also the Body of Christ, it is impossible to separate Christ and His Church, they are one in the same.  Christ is the head of the body, the faithful are the members.  “Christ ‘is the Head of the body, the Church’ ( Colossians1:18). The Church lives from him, in him and for him. Christ and the Church make up the ‘whole Christ’ (Saint Augustine); ‘Head and members form, as it were, one and the same mystical person’ (Saint Thomas Aquinas).” [xxvi]   
 
3. Do we bear witness to Jesus?  The theme of World Youth Day 2008, in Sydney, Australia was from taken from Acts 1:8.  “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”  The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI asked the youth and asks us, “Dear young people, let me now ask you a question.  What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations, building something that will endure? Are you living your lives in a way that opens up space for the Spirit in the midst of a world that wants to forget God, or even rejects him in the name of a falsely-conceived freedom? How are you using the gifts you have been given, the "power" which the Holy Spirit is even now prepared to release within you? What legacy will you leave to young people yet to come? What difference will you make?The power of the Holy Spirit does not only enlighten and console us. It also points us to the future, to the coming of God's Kingdom.” [xxvii]
 
What are our weapons?  San Juan Diego’s greatest weapon was virtue.   What virtues does Juan Diego model for us?  Juan Diego was a man of faith; he walked 9 to 15 miles to go to daily Mass.  He trusted in Our Lady and in her message.  He was courageous in that he did not fear going to the Bishop and giving the message of Our Lady, even if this meant being made fun.  He also showed courage because he was one of the first of His people to convert to Christianity.  He was patient; he had to go to the Bishop several times before the message was accepted.  Perhaps his greatest virtue was humility.  Juan Diego reminds us of the humility of Our Lady who said, “He has looked with favor on his lowly servant” [xxviii]  As his mother Mary did 1500 years prior, Juan Diego echoes the words of Our Lady, which are prayed in the Angelus, “Behold the handmade of the Lord, be it done unto me according to Your Word.” 
 
MOVIE “Karol - A Man Who Became Pope”
Pope John Paul the Great, while he was a professor, lived in the midst of the evil of both the Nazi regime and the Communist regime, both horrible evils.  The Polish people had thought with the victory of World War II, that the evil they faced was gone.  The evil of the Nazis was just replaced with the evil of communism.  In this movie clip, the workers protested and were injured and killed by the communist government.  The pope taught his students and then the world, during his papacy, that we will win with love, not with guns.  Evil devours itself, but if love does not win out, evil will appear under a new disguise.  They won’t be afraid of your guns, but they will be afraid of your words.  We have to remember it is the Word of God and the Word made flesh that conquered Satan and sin.  The words of the Cardinal, who was imprisoned, expresses the true weapon of victory, “I have faith, a strength you know nothing about.” 
 
What is our approach, our mission?  How do we evangelize?  “The Faith does not mean an alienation from any culture for any people because all cultures await Christ and are not destroyed by the Lord. In fact, they reach their maturity.” [xxix]  In a sense, all cultures are in Advent season as all cultures await Christ.  The Church has respect for the culture and understands that within each culture, within each heart, there is goodness and preparation for the Gospel.  Even in a culture as evil as the Aztecs, goodness was not completely lacking.  Even in our current culture of death, when God is tossed aside, goodness is not completely lacking.  There is always hope!  San Juan Diego’s participation in the will of God, as sent through Our Lady, is an example of what is possible in any culture.  "The Guadalupe Event, meant the beginning of evangelization with a vitality that surpassed all expectations.  Christ's message, through his Mother, took up the central elements of the indigenous culture, purified them and gave them the definitive sense of salvation.  Consequently Guadalupe and Juan Diego have a deep ecclesial and missionary meaning and are a model of perfectly inculturated evangelization.” [xxx]
 
VIDEO - “Father Zakaria Botros”
Father Zakaria Botros, a Coptic Catholic priest from Egypt has, a satallite TV show in the muslim world and claims Christ as Lord and Saviour. He currently has a bounty on his head for his faith.  Father Zakaria Botros is a modern day “talking eagle”, a modern day San Juan Diego.  San Juan Diego was the first of the Aztecs to convert and many people would have been angry with him for this bold choice.  Just as San Juan Diego’s message brought about the conversion of millions, the same number and perhaps more are being converted through the same Gospel message that Father Zakaria is preaching via satellite TV and the internet.  We should not be afraid to proclaim the Gospel, even if it means our own death.
 

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[i] Pope John Paul II, Homily at the Canonization of Juan Diego, Mexico City, July 31, 2002
[ii] Pope John Paul II, Homily at the Canonization of Juan Diego, Mexico City, July 31, 2002
[iii] Matthew 12:30
[iv] John 10:10
[v] Our Lady’s words to San Juan Diego
[vi] Fr. John Hardon; Modern Catholic Dictionary; page 105
[vii] Penny Cathechism
[viii] Penny Cathechism
[ix] 1 Peter 5:8
[x] 1 Peter 3:11
[xi] 2 Timothy 2:22; 26
[xii] Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church; section 398 (CCC – 1866-1867)
[xiii] John 10:10
[xiv] 1 Peter 5:8-9
[xv] Penny Catechism
[xvi] 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal; Commentary; page 913
[xvii] Ordinary of the Mass (Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite); Communion of the Priest
[xviii] John 19:26-27
[xix] Opening Prayer in the Link to Liturgy packet
[xx] Romans 12:1
[xxi] 1 Peter 2:2
[xxii] Officium Divinum; Prayer after the Divine Office; Pope Leo X
[xxiii] Matthew 7:21; 24
[xxiv] Matthew 16:18
[xxv] 1 Timothy 3:15
[xxvi] Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church; section 157 (CCC – 792-795; 807)
[xxvii] Pope Benedict XVI; World Youth Day XXIII; Homily at the Closing Mass; Sydney, Australia
[xxviii] Luke 1:48
[xxix] Pope Benedict XVI; to the Chinese people prior to the Olympics in 2008
[xxx] Pope John Paul II, Homily at the Canonization of Juan Diego, Mexico City, July 31, 2002