Mary of Galilee, vol. 3, The Marian Heritage of the Early Church. - book reviews

National Catholic Reporter, May 16, 1997 by Sally Cunneen

From his opening line, San Antonio-born pastor-theologian Virgil Elizondo leaves us in no doubt as to his involvement with his subject: "Besides the story of Jesus of Nazareth, no other story fascinates me more than that of Our Lady of Guadalupe." That fascination began as a child when his father took him on a pilgrimage to her shrine at Tepeyac in Mexico City. What started as an exciting adventure became an overwhelming experience of communion with other pilgrims and with the "rhythmic movement of the universe" itself.

This childhood pilgrimage has continued to inform Elizondo's life: He has probably done more than anyone else to bring the continuing theological significance of the Guadalupe event to the attention of both mainstream theologians and ordinary believers. Many of us have heard the legend, but never before has its meaning for those among whom it arose and is still vital today been explained with such depth of understanding.

Elizondo presents the Nahuatl (Aztec) poetic narrative of the Virgin's appearance to Juan Diego in 1531, which he has translated from an early Spanish version. First he sets the historical context: In 1492 two different civilizations encountered each other for the first time, with the rationalistic, powerful Europeans defeating an indigenous people who valued the interconnectedness of self, earth and cosmos. It was a clash of anthropologies as well as of religions. The Guadalupan narrative reflects this opposition and offers what Elizondo calls a new "cosmovision" that allows the two to encounter each other as equals, healing the terrible aftereffects of the conquest by deepening the spiritual views of both victor and vanquished.

Even the Franciscan missionaries were not aware of their narrow cultural assumptions. While they deplored the slaughter, humiliation and enslavement of the natives by Spanish soldiers, they believed that conversion to Christianity required the Indians to surrender loyalty to their original gods and ancestral traditions, which the missionaries considered demonic. Despite compassion for their suffering, the Spanish did not consider the Indians fully human, much less worthy to become priests.

In an extended exegesis of the setting, imagery, dialogue and characters of what he calls "the creation narrative," Elizondo illuminates the meaning to the Indians of the Guadalupan encounter. The narrative is carefully set in time, 10 years after the conquest of 1521. It begins near dawn, signifying the birth of a new era. The place is also carefully chosen, outside the center of Spanish power, on a hill sacred to the Indians. It is a beautiful story, offering a vision of church, God and humanity with the power to reverse and heal human relationships in this bitterly divided society.

The simple, dignified campesino Juan Diego represents all the indigenous people when at Tepeyac he hears the joyful song of birds and then his name in his own language. He feels no fear as a beautiful lady clothed in the rays of the sun addresses him in affectionate, respectful words. "I am the Ever-Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the God of Great Truth," she explains, "your merciful mother and the mother of all the nations that live on this earth ... who would place their confidence in me. I will hear their laments and remedy and cure all their miseries, misfortunes and sorrows." Juan Diego recognizes the lady as the mother of Jesus, often scorned and insulted herself. The two comfort one another, calling each other "most abandoned."

The lady then tells him to ask the bishop to build a church on the hill in her honor. After the request has twice been rejected, she sends flowers as well as her image on Juan Diego's cape as a sign of her identity. The bishop, Don Fray Juan de Zumarraga, is also a representative character. When he sees the image and the flowers, he falls to his knees and agrees to build the church on the sacred Indian hill. It is a moment of power reversal and conversion for the Spanish church in Mexico. But Mary's invitation was to both Indians and Spaniards -- to convert their hearts with respect for their own traditions, rejecting the sin in each.

Elizondo claims that this event gave birth to a new theology from below, one of joy in a common creator with respect for the diversity of race and tradition. In contrast to Spanish dominance and Indian submission, Our Lady of Guadalupe offered an experience of divine friendship to both groups. This message of respectful relationship with all peoples, Elizondo insists, is that of Jesus in the gospels, but it had been diluted and changed by European arrogance toward those of other races and religions.

The emergence of the mother of God in Indian flesh made it possible for the Indians to reclaim the sacredness of their values and traditions as they converted to Christianity, while encouraging a new humility among the Spaniards. Unfortunately the dialogue of this encounter, Elizondo relates, met much resistance. Because Our Lady of Guadalupe was relegated to the sphere of popular devotion, the new cosmic order her event initiated has been stalled. "Her project is just beginning, but it is indeed underway."