For most of us who have been to Karis will notice the images of the Guadalupe placed all over the retreat house. It is not a coincidence that Karis Retreat House is dedicated to the Guadalupe, which in my heart, fits the general scheme and not merely the look and the décor.
The legend recalls of the young Virgin appearing girl to Juan Diego requesting him to build a church in her honor. After a series of investigations, Juan Diego returns to the hill wherein the Virgin requests him to give roses as a sign. Meeting the local bishop, Juan Diego gives the roses, and while unfurling his tilma (cloak) miraculously discovers the painted image of the Lady which is still venerated in the Basilica till this day.
Many years ago, my family and I were blessed to have visited the Basilica of the Guadalupe, an enormous shrine attracting millions of devotees with various reasons and supplications. Honestly, I have always maintained a respectful yet detached stance with the Lady, in other words, substantial compliance: I know the Virgin Mary is there and that’s much about it. Maybe because of how the Virgin is introduced to us: wooden, almost like a lifeless statue with long eye lashes we’re all accustomed, perhaps detached and unaffected by our own exiled humanity since she is veiled from “original sin”.
Despite the vastness of the complex, I felt the intimate yet sometimes desperate supplications imploring the Virgin from each one’s heart. Especially so in a quiet part of the site is a simple chapel with hundred of candles, tequila bottles and a big book. From what I could muster to gather, the book contained the journeys, promises, stops and starts, rock bottoms and mountain highs of many souls who knelt before the miraculous Tilma and have all cried out “to thee we set up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears”.
But what impressed me most about this Mary, Virgo Guadalupe, is how much close she is to us. Not merely clothed in impeccable garb but an image of a young girl pregnant with the Son of God, who does not look different from any of us. Accordingly appears to Juan Diego speaking in a tongue the Indian convert trusts and understands, ultimately inviting us, in a way we hopefully understand.
“…The closer a person is to God, the closer he is to people. We see this in Mary. The fact that she is totally with God is the reason why she is so close to human beings. For this reason she can be the Mother of every consolation and every help, a Mother whom anyone can dare to address in any kind of need in weakness and in sin, for she has understanding for everything and is for everyone the open power of creative goodness.
…Mary thus stands before us as a sign of comfort, encouragement and hope. She turns to us, saying: "Have the courage to dare with God! Try it! Do not be afraid of him!...”*
* Benedict XVI, Feast of the Immaculate Conception (2008)
When we raise up our continual sighs to her in our own valley of tears, may the Virgin be a quiet beacon who encourages us to dare with God, to move beyond our intrinsic lack of trust & fixation with trying to understand & control, inviting us to be full of grace and be curious to the “open power of creative goodness”.
