Feast of St. Juan Diego
Vespers & Donor Reception
Baltimore Basilica & Residence
December 9, 2025
It is a joy to gather with you this evening for prayer. We find ourselves in America’s First Cathedral, a venerable structure, an architectural masterpiece, replete with history. What’s most beautiful about this Basilica is the fact that it is a living, breathing, parish community, comprised mainly of young adults, and it is a community with a heart for the poor, especially the homeless.
We come together on the feast day of St. Juan Diego, a hermit who lived in the hill country of Mexico. It was to this poor and humble man that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in 1531. Early one morning, as Juan Diego was on his way to Mass he encountered the Virgin Mary at Tepeyac Hill. He was both surprised by the apparition and captivated by her beauty. In her appearance and her dress, the Virgin Mary combined both Native American and Spanish features. Beautifully uniting in herself two disparate cultures, she was sign of unity.
In that moment of astonishment, Mary asked Juan to be her messenger, to go to Bishop Zumarraga to ask him to build a church on that spot. Juan went to see the bishop but the bishop did not believe him. Mary appeared to Juan again with the same instructions. Juan demurred, asking Mary to send a more illustrious messenger, but Mary insisted that Juan present the bishop with her request again. The bishop still did not believe him and asked him to produce a sign. By this point, Juan must have been in turmoil. His uncle, whom he was taking care of, was gravely ill, and Juan himself was reluctant to visit the bishop yet again. So this time, he went around the other side of Tepeyac Hill to evade her, but Mary ‘caught up’ with him and appeared to him again.
Mary then said to Juan Diego: “Am I not here, I who am your mother? Listen, my son, to what I tell you now. Do not let anything worry or afflict you. Do not fear illness or any troublesome happening or pain. Am I not here, I who am your Mother.” With that, Juan Diego caught sight of castellan roses blooming on Tepeyac Hill in the dead of winter. This was to be the sign that Bishop Zumarraga sought. So he gathered the roses into his tilma and brought them to the bishop. When he opened his tilma, the roses spilled out onto the floor and imprinted on the tilma was Mary’s image, Our Lady of Guadalupe. The bishop, needless to say, was convinced, the shrine was built, and the Church’s mission of evangelization in the Americas accelerated. In the coming years, nearly 8 million would become Christians.
Juan Diego’s encounter with Mary speaks to us, nearly 500 years later. Mary’s tender words to Juan give us confidence amid the storms of life. Mary is our Mother who loves us, prays for us, and accompanies us, no matter what we are facing, no matter what we are going through. So also, Mary will ask us, in ways big and small, to be messengers, to be bearers of the message of the salvation her Son has won for us, evangelizing messengers to our families, our friends, colleagues, and to anyone who might ask us a reason for our hope in Christ Jesus. With Mary at our side, whatever we do for the Church will bear good fruit, even if we do not see the results all at once.
During Advent, we prepare to celebrate Christ’s first coming so that we will be prepared for his second coming. In this time of joyful hope and expectation, we can have no better companion than Mary, the Woman of Advent. Mary embodied the hopes of the Chosen People. She waited for the Lord who prepared her heart to receive him. She accepted God’s will and brought to birth our Savior. Mary walks with us and prays with us as we seek to welcome Christ more fully into every facet of our lives. Mary walks with us and prays with us as with her Son we take up our cross and follow in his footsteps.
Let us also ask St. Juan Diego to pray for us that we may readily open our hearts to Mary’s maternal love and like him, be her faithful messengers. May God bless us and keep us always in his love!