Episode Transcript  

One

A Culture of Death

The Aztec people lived under the domination of demonic forces. They believed their god, Mexitli, known as the Sun God of War and Serpent God, signified by the Crescent Moon, would not rise, and the world would perish unless they fed him daily human sacrifice. Mexitli was Satan. He enslaved the Aztech people by fear as he established a religion to himself, demanding temple sacrifices not of lambs, but of people. Everyone was required to participate in the sacrifices by eating the victims in ritual cannibalism. Fifty thousand men, women, and children were killed each year, and eighty thousand in just four days in 1487.

When Cortés arrived in 1519, he found every village shaped by this culture of death. His men wanted to flee, but he became convinced God had sent him to stop the sacrifice. He scuttled the ships, leaving his 250 soldiers, outnumbered 1000 to 1 by 250,000 Aztec warriors, with no choice but to confront the evil before them. Montezuma welcomed him, believing Cortés to be Quetzalcoatl, the ancient king-priest who rejected human sacrifice and promised to return from the East. Cortés arrived light-skinned, in shining armor, on unknown ships, riding horses they had never seen. Fearing divine punishment, Montezuma submitted, and Cortés arrested him.

In April 1520, Spanish forces arrived in Vera Cruz from Cuba to seize Cortés, suspecting he was taking the gold for himself. Cortés set out to confront them. By the time he returned, Montezuma realized the Spaniards were not gods, and the empire attacked his small forces. On June 30th, the Night of Sorrow, half the Spaniards miraculously escaped, then regrouped with surrounding tribes, and defeated the Aztecs in 1521.

Conversions, however, stalled because the King of Spain replaced Cortés with Nuno de Guzmán, a wicked tyrant who enslaved the Aztecs and persecuted the Franciscans. Bishop Zumárraga excommunicated him; Guzmán attempted to assassinate the bishop. Smallpox killed a third of the population. The Aztec Astrologers declared the end of their world.

It seemed so totally hopeless that Bishop Zumárraga wrote to Emperor Charles V, “If God does not provide a solution from His own hand, the land is about to be completely lost.”

Two

First Three Apparitions 

On Saturday, December 9th, 1531, one of the few Aztec converts, 57-year-old Juan Diego, was running to Saturday morning Mass and Catechism class nine miles away. As he reached Tepayac Hill, he heard heavenly singing and saw a brilliant white cloud and a rainbow. The most beautiful young woman imaginable appeared. Juan fell to his knees, and she spoke, “Know for certain, littlest of my sons, that I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God through Whom everything lives. You must go to the house of the bishop of Mexico and tell him that I sent you and that it is my desire to have a Church built here.”

Juan obeyed, but Bishop didn’t believe him. On his way home, Mary was waiting for him again at Tepayak Hill. He begged her to send someone more important, “Because I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, I am just a leaf, the tail end, …” But Our Lady replied, “I have many servants and messengers whom I could send, but I have chosen you…Go and tell the Bishop that I, in person, the ever-virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God, sent you.”

On Sunday, December 10th, Juan Diego went back to the Bishop. This time, he asked for a sign.  On his way home, Mary appeared again. She assured him that she would provide a sign tomorrow. “I will await you here,” she said.

That night, however, when Juan arrived at hom,e he found his uncle deathly ill with smallpox. So, on Monday, December 11th, Juan skipped his appointment with Mary to find a doctor who told Juan his uncle would die.

Three

The Assurance  

Knowing his uncle was on the edge of death, on Tuesday, December 12th, Juan set off for Mexico City to get a priest for Last Rites. Having to pass by Tepayac Hill and afraid of being delayed by Our Lady, he ran around the east side of Tepayac to avoid her. But she intercepted him (the 4th Apparition). He desperately explained the situation of his uncle. And she reassured him. In fact, she was appearing to his uncle at that very moment, healing him (the 5th Apparition).

Then Mary spoke some of the most powerful and consoling words everyone needs to hear. She said, “Listen. Put it in your heart, my dear little son; the thing that frightens you, the thing that afflicts your heart, is nothing. Do not let it disturb you; do not fear this sickness nor any other sickness, nor any painful or difficult thing. Am I not here, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, the crossing of my arms? Do you need something more?”

Four

The Sign 

Mary instructed Juan to climb the hill. There he found flowers of every kind blooming, in December, on a barren hilltop in the mountains. He gathered them in his tilma. Mary arranged them and tied the tilma around his neck. Juan returned to the bishop and, in front of thirteen witnesses, opened his tilma. The flowers fell, and the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared, forming like a photograph before their eyes. All present fell to their knees. The bishop finally rose, took the tilma, and placed it in his private chapel, where he prayed for two weeks. 

Then on December 26th, 1531, the Bishop brought the Tilma to the Cathedral by procession. At the same time, a funeral procession bearing a young man who died from an arrow wound to the neck was coming into the city. When the two processions met, and the Tilma passed by the dead man, he was instantly raised from the dead.

Five

The Conversions 

Mary appeared to Juan Diego in 1531. She left a permanent, indestructible sign, the Tilma, the cloak bearing her image, and 10,000,000 Aztecs converted to Catholicism because they could read the Code written into the Image.

The woman stands in front of the sun, covering it, meaning she is greater than their sun god of war. She stands on the crescent moon, the symbol of their serpent god, appearing to crush it under her feet. She is wearing a bluish-green mantle, the color reserved for royalty. She is a Queen. She is surrounded by clouds. She came from Heaven to give her message. She is a virgin, signified by the parted hair that hangs loose. The black sash around her waist is a maternity belt. She is pregnant. 

This woman is a Queen from Heaven, who is also a virgin, yet she was pregnant, pregnant with whom? The four-petaled jasmine flower over her womb is the symbol of the One True God. The true God is in her womb. This woman is the Virgin Mother of the One True God. But she herself was not a god because she was praying to the One indicated by the black cross on her brooch, Jesus Christ. 

He came to offer His life in sacrifice to put an end to all human sacrifice and set us free from slavery to sin, the devil, and death. They read the message, believed, and the whole Aztec Nation converted. 

So what is our practical resolution? Our Lady is asking for two things: that we commit to our own deeper conversion and holiness by the commitment to daily meditation on the word of God at the school of Mary in the rosary, always with a concrete resolution, some good action we practice over and over that day. And she is calling us to build a bridge of friendship with the people in our lives to help them cross over to Christ. Our Lady needs her Juan Diegos. Won’t you answer her call? 

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