Our Lady of Guadalupe

This morning we were sharing about the Mass readings and Leo, who works with me at ChristLife shared a great connection between today's feast and our evangelization efforts in bringing Jesus Christ to others:

Today, December 12, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Mary under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In Mary we have a model for evangelization.

She appeared to a simple Mexican peasant, Juan Diego, to share God’s love with him and to ask him to go to the bishop of Mexico and request him to build a church in her honor on Tepeyac hill. The bishop asked for a sign. Mary sent Juan Diego to the top of the hill in the middle of winter to pick flowers for the bishop. The flowers were Castilian roses, flowers from his native country, Spain. Juan took the roses to the bishop wrapped in his tilma. When he opened it, the roses fell out and the bishop dropped to his knees. There imprinted on his tilma was an image of Mary. The bishop built the church and within 6 years, 6 million Aztec Indians converted to Catholicism. Prior to Mary’s appearance, missionaries had labored for years among the Aztecs with very little success.

Mary appeared to Juan as an Aztec princess clothed in native garb. She did not appear as a Jewish maiden from the Middle East. Around her waist she wore a sash or belt that indicated that she was pregnant. She spoke to Juan in his native dialect. She met him where he was in his culture and brought Jesus to him. The lesson for us as we go out to share God’s love with others is to meet them where they are, recognize their culture and adapt our words and actions to them in their culture.

How have you adopted the language or culture of others to bring Jesus Christ to them?

I personally think we are called to do this all the time. Several months ago I was at a local evangelization course and we were eating dinner with the guests and the election came up and we were all sharing our views... Now, I currently vote Republican - and it was clear a few others were not - but as we all were sharing - I "seasoned" my words not wanting to get into an argument with the guests (since I was about to give the talk on why we need Jesus as our Savior). I could have "pressed into" the argument, but I tried to meet them where they were and develop a relational connection - hoping that my words in the talk would bring conversion to Jesus.

Now, some would say I relatized my political view - and they would be somewhat correct... It was relatized in light of a much greater opportunity and command - to bring Jesus to this person. In an entirely different situation, I may have engaged the political discussion fully... But this was one opportunity where I adapted a bit in hopes to bring Jesus to this person.