Juan Diego: A Saint for a New World

Continued from page 2

Understanding His Struggles

To appreciate the virtues and struggles of Juan Diego, we must look at his times. In 1521, Cortez defeated Mexico's Aztec people, signaling the enslavement and subjugation of all native peoples. This was not simply a conquest but rather the destruction of their civilization. The native peoples began to suffer great physical hardship and cruelty, plus the deep humiliation of feeling totally abandoned by their gods. Their pain and futility were so great that many simply wanted to die.

Juan Diego came from the conquered and humiliated peoples of the New World. With the rest of his people, he suffered the deep trauma of the conquest and its resulting mass confusion.

The natives had been a deeply religious people, but now their conquerors' priests were saying the native gods had been false. How could this be true? The Aztec gods had spoken to their ancestors, as the God of the Bible had spoken through Abraham, Moses and the prophets. Their gods had provided them with life, crops and protection. How could they be false?

The missioners, perhaps the greatest of all time, tried to convert the natives to the God of love, but the lifestyle of the European Christian conquistadors frequently contradicted that love. Totally different from the conquistadors, the missioners, however, came from the same group and religion. This very apparent contradiction led the Indians to question the missioners' credibility.

The Indians had been a deeply religious people. Changing their religion meant abandoning their people. Juan Diego was one of the few who dared to accept the new religion. It must have been extremely difficult for him, yet he had the courage to begin a road toward something radically new.

Yet the nagging question remained in his heart: Did he really have to renounce all the sacred traditions of his ancestors in order to accept the new? Even though very few conversions had taken place by 1531 when the apparitions took place, Juan Diego was a baptized Indian receiving further catechetical instruction.

According to people who had heard about him from their parents or grandparents, even before the apparitions Juan Diego was a very virtuous man who led an exemplary life. People often asked him to intercede for them because of his holiness.

Growing up in a very Mexican barrio of San Antonio, Texas, I remember well elderly men and women whom we considered very saintly. Often we would ask them to pray for us; it seemed they were closer to God than we were.

Continued on page 4: »