Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin
“Do listen to me, my littlest one, honorable Juan. I truly want it, very much desire it, that here in this place there be raised an honorable temple, at this site here I will reveal myself, here I will come down from above, here I will give myself to you, all my love and affection to you, my compassion to you, my help to you, my blanket of protection for you. Because I am your compassionate mother. In company of all people who are here throughout this land together, in company with other various and different people whom I also love, who call out to me, who seek me, who place their trust in me.
“Climb up, my littlest one, to the top of the small hill, and to the place where you first saw me, when we were together and I gave you orders. There you will see spread about a variety of flowers. Cut them, collect them, gather them together: then right away come down, and here in front of me do bring them. My littlest one, these various flowers are themselves the proof, that sign you are to carry for me to the Bishop.
On my behalf you are to say that in them he should see my will, with them truly is placed my will, my desire. And you I am sending as my messenger because you are so trustworthy.
…And at that moment when he was opening his white tilma in which he had wrapped the flowers, and they began to fall down, all the various Castillian flowers, then suddenly right there her image was made on it, revealing the beloved likeness of the perfect Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God that is so honored today, which itself is now so reverently kept at its beloved home, its temple of Tepeyac, which has been given the honored name of Guadalupe.
From the Nican mopohua
…at that very moment when imperial conquerors imbued with religious absolutism…were meting out death and defeat to indigenous peoples considered “pagans”…this marian revelatory event signals the birth of a new reality, a new humanity…God breaks through – with flower and song! This is no longer an exterminator God but is, rather, the God of pleasure and harmony. …Then one discovers that God is on the side of the poor, the raped, the defeated, the exploited, pouring out compassion and challenging consciences. The figure of Guadalupe is a living locus of the experience of the compassionate God in female form.
Elizabeth A. Johnson
