a brown madonna

This reflection was not written by me, it is from Father Richard Rohr’s daily meditations at the Center for Action and Contemplation.   I believe it reflects and fits in well with our series “There’s something about Mary.”  For more on Father Rohr and the work of CAC, visit https://cac.org

In one generation after 1531, under the mother symbol of the Lady of Guadalupe, almost all of the native peoples of Mexico accepted Christianity. Such a quick and massive “conversion” had never been recorded. A new kind of Christianity unfolded in the New World precisely at the time it was fighting and dividing in the Old World. I believe that Christ takes on the face and features of each people God loves. In this case God knew that the face and features had to be feminine and compassionate, after centuries of a tyrannical Sun god and a new Catholic-Spanish machismo. The Lady of Guadalupe is clearly an archetype of the eternal feminine—the heart, hope and strength of all new life revealed in a marvelous brown and pregnant woman—to people who could not read. Her image is the real operative “flag” of Mexico!

She believed in a little one, Juan Diego, who could not believe in himself.  She spoke sweetly to him in his native Nahuatl language, and not the Spanish language of the new oppressors. She encouraged him beyond his shame, and made him special and beloved in a love that he could understand. She empowered him to face again and again the distant father (bishop), and finally revealed the inner and transcendent woman on his own chest. The disbelieving bishop finally kneels at the young Indian’s feet. No logic is offered, no theological subtleties—only December roses given and received. The symbolism is not attractive to any conquistador mentality, but only to a feminine soul.

Maybe it is only “the Eternal Feminine” who will be able to heal the wars, the oppression, the mistrust and the status symbols that divide the children of God. (We have only begun to see women at international peace talks in very recent years. Could that be why they seldom succeeded in the past?)

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reflection available at:  http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Daily-Meditation–A-Brown-Madonna—-Foundation—-March-16–2013.html?soid=1103098668616&aid=grxiPe56QGg