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Presently a movement is in progress
to nominate
Blessed Juan Diego as Patron of Lay Apostles.
Blessed Juan Diego
By John M. Samaha
God’s plan for salvation needs the cooperation of us all. In the Guadalupe event God chose to give the miraculous image of Holy Mary, his Mother, to a humble, lonely widower. The engaging, simple story of Our Lady giving her picture to Juan Diego touches hearts, and disposes them for the grace of baptism. This is a special chapter in the evangelization of the world.
Today we find stirrings of new interest in the unchurched, the alienated, and the disenchanted. Faster travel and easier global communication portend a new fullness of time in spreading the gospel. Since the beginning God has depended on his creatures to fulfill his plan. Today there is a desire for unity among Christians. The work of the Holy Spirit is uniting them in prayer, love, and in works of charity.
In our century Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII began to re-emphasize the importance of the role of the laity. Long before John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council to renew all in Christ, the lay apostolate was a point of emphasis and concern.
One of the sixteen documents of Vatican II is the Decree on the Laity (Apostolicam Actuositatem, 1965), and the role of the laity is treated in several of the other documents. Some years later Pope Paul VI sounded a prophetic call to evangelization with the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi. Our present pontiff, John Paul II has preached a new evangelization and following a Synod of Bishops issued an apostolic exhortation on The Lay Members of Christ’s Faithful People (Christifideles Laici, 1989).
The Handmaid of the Lord, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, who first brought forth the Savior for us, will play her part in bringing his Good News to all. The nineteenth century apostle of Mary, Venerable William Joseph Chaminade, is among the strongest voices still reminding us of our baptismal obligation to participate in the apostolic mission of Mary. Like Juan Diego, all the faithful are called to spread the fragrance of the roses of Tepeyac wherever we are, whatever we do.
“Thy Kingdom come,” the daily petition of the Our Father, has always needed for its fulfillment the work and collaboration of the laity. To all Christians is given the commission to make Christ and his teaching known, loved, and lived. “The Spirit breathes where he wills” (John 3:8), and the people of God have always had the charisms to help spread God’s kingdom on earth.
Our times need strong and dedicated Christian lay persons more than ever before. All fields of human progress are directed by the laity. Competence in the social, commercial, and political spheres is in the hands of the laity. Only they can bring the spirit of the gospel into these arenas. In the words of Paul VI, lay persons are “the bridge to the modern world.”
Recognizing the ancient truth and the new need, Vatican II issued a decree on the apostolate of the laity. For the first time in the history of the Church a conciliar document expounded the concept that the lay person is indispensable to the mission of the Church, that to be a real Christian is to be an apostle.
The Vatican II Decree on the Laity sets forth as the perfect example of the spiritual and apostolic life of the Virgin Mary, Queen of Apostles. “While leading on earth a life common to all, one filled with family concerns and labors, she was always intimately united with her Son and cooperated in the work of the Savior in a manner altogether special. Now that she has been taken up into heaven, with her maternal charity she cares for the brothers and sisters of her Son” (n. 4).
Consequently, it is appropriate that the Model for the Laity and the Patron of the Lay Apostolate be one who will lead others to Mary, who in turn will lead them to Christ. She is the perfect example of life on earth united to Christ and joined to his work.
To choose Juan Diego would stress the motherly concern of Mary, and highlight a special chapter in the loving care of the Queen of Apostles for her children. Juan Diego’s life story exemplifies the meaning of the lay apostolate. He leads with singular and irresistible charm to our spiritual mother.
Juan Diego’s story continues today as something living and enduring. It lives in the long lines of pilgrims, the most numerous for any shrine. It lives in the faith of a whole nation, and is celebrated in the entire western hemisphere. It endures in the continuing portrait not painted by human hands, but as Pius XII explained, “by brushes not of this world.”
Vatican II taught that “union with those whom the Holy Spirit has assigned to rule God’s Church is an essential element of the Christian apostolate.” Juan Diego received the charism. He was called by Mary. She sent him to the bishop: “Go to the Bishop of Mexico and tell him that I sent you.” The Spirit breathed on Juan, but judgment and command were reserved to the bishop, as it still is today.
The Holy Spirit usually breathes in less dramatic ways. But the experience of Juan Diego shows that the inspirational grace for a great work may first come to a lay person, and that the chosen person then cooperates with the competent authorities.
Juan Diego’s humble compliance with an unwelcome and embarrassing mission paved the way for an abundant bestowal of God’s blessings. In addition the event clearly indicates that a layman pushed his point with a hierarch. The bishop needed convincing, and Mary herself told Juan to go back and try again.
Mary told Juan Diego that he was necessary for the execution of heaven’s plan. When he protested his inability and urged the Holy Mary to send a person better known and respected, her answer was: “Listen, least of my sons. You must try to understand that I have many messengers and servants whom I could charge with the delivery of my message and cause to do my will. But it is altogether necessary that you yourself should undertake this entreaty and that through your own mediation and assistance my purpose should be accomplished.”
The importance of the most humble person carrying out the divine plan can hardly be more clearly exemplified. Mary did not go directly to Bishop-elect Juan Zumárraga and inspire him. Nor did she choose the messenger most suited according to the judgment of human standards. Mary chose one particular, unknown, middle-aged widower who would have preferred to be left alone. She told him that he was to be the instrument of Divine Providence for these poor people. This unlikely layman was the key to unlocking graces destined for a nation, and later for many nations.
Juan Diego was wholehearted and without guile. He was a living example of sincerity and simplicity. Where children and adults hear about him they are fascinated, and love to hear the story retold. Juan Diego’s conversations with Mary have a rare quality of tenderness, immediacy, genuineness, and uniqueness. Translated into any language they will possess a special appeal. In the Aztec Indian idiom Mary called Juan her xocoyte, her favorite son, the least of her sons. He addressed her as xocoyata, his littlest daughter, his lady, and his child. Hearing this conversation one cannot help loving both Juan and his Lady.
Peoples of the emerging nations are able to identify very easily with Juan Diego. He was humble and poor, not enmeshed in political or cultural history. With improved and increased communication, we can expect the Church will proclaim its primary message more widely and wisely. And lay persons should be the primary field workers. Juan Diego, who has universal appeal, would be an inspiration for them and an example for those with whom they work.
Whom would you choose as Patron of the Lay Apostolate? Why not Juan Diego? His life story is a perfect example of how God’s plans often require lay apostles, and how far-reaching the results can be. Our Lady promised, “I will make you worthy of the trouble you have taken.” On January 9, 1987, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared him Venerable Juan Diego in acknowledgment of his heroic virtue. When visiting Mexico City in 1990 Pope John Paul II beatified him on May 6. Presently a movement is in progress under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Mexico City to nominate Blessed Juan Diego as Patron of Lay Apostles.
Juan Diego remained faithful until death. The results of his work remain with us. Juan Diego was childlike and humble in his relationship with the natural world and the supernatural order. He was very ordinary and natural, and he felt at home with Our Lady. His simple and human qualities touch us all. He is truly worthy to be Patron of Lay apostles, for he was the only person on earth to whom the greatest laywoman of all time gave her own picture.
The actual result of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s message, in which Juan Diego played the key role, brought belief in Jesus Christ and the grace of baptism to countless native Indians of Aztec heritage. In the seven years following Mary’s appearance at Tepeyac (1532-1538) eight million Indians were baptized into Christ.
During that period Blessed Juan Diego lived near the marvelous picture, quietly caring for it as Joseph had cared for Mary herself. He is part of the story of the magnificent Lady, her representative, a living proof that heaven had smiled on the poor and the lowly. As with St. Joseph, we do not know all the details. But we do know the quality of this layman’s charity was magnetic. “By this will all know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). He was Mary’s “singing eagle” telling her story over and over to his fellow countrymen.
Brother John M. Samaha, S.M., belongs to the Pacific Province of the Marianists, and is currently working at Villa St. Joseph in Cupertino, Calif. Previously he was engaged in high school and adult education in the western states and Lebanon. He is a member and officer of the Mariological Society of America. His last article in HPR appeared in the August-September 1998 issue.
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