Our Lady of Guadalupe and the preparation of the Americas for Christ

By Dr. Jeff Mirus (
biography –
articles– E-mail ) | February 16, 2024

Providential preparation for the Christian message has been studied much in the Holy Land and Europe, but little in other regions. Of course, the entire Old Testament is a kind of historical, cultural and spiritual chronicle of God’s preparation for the coming of the Messiah to his chosen people. Despite the widespread Jewish rejection of Christ, the long period of preparation was the subject of considerable thought and analysis. This sacred story and the subsequent reflections of Christians around the world have brought awareness to God’s long preparation so that, when the time comes, His personal revelation in Christ can be accepted and experienced by those who hear the Gospel. .

Moreover, this same type of providential analysis has been very carefully and consistently applied to the decisive rise of Christianity in the Mediterranean region as a whole (where it did not necessarily persist) and in Europe in particular, both Western and Eastern. For centuries (perhaps to the present day), gospel preparation in the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome has been an essential part of European self-awareness. The gist of a very strong argument is that the European ground was prepared for a kind of fulfillment in Christ of the understanding of God and virtue developed by the best of the Greek philosophers and communicated over a wide geographical area to through Roman conquest, organization and creation. law. And of course, this civilizational heritage has been preserved and presided over in many ways by the Church itself.

In other words, we can partly explain the explosive growth of Christianity in both Eastern and Western Europe and then North America, where indigenous populations were gradually displaced by immigrants from ‘Europe. It may also be that we can find in European colonization in Africa, as well as a tremendous European and American missionary drive, a general explanation for the explosion of Catholicism and other forms of Christianity in Africa to this day. For although Africa certainly had its own tribal cultures, it is generally agreed that the Western culture that was introduced to Africa over the last three hundred years was at least widely considered a more developed and powerful culture, to certain respects. similar to what European tribes experienced under the influence of Rome. (But there may certainly be more specific African factors that I’m simply ignoring.)

Missing stories?

On the other hand, it is difficult to find a corresponding account that identifies clear reasons for the rapid growth of Christianity in what we call the East – in India, China and Japan, for example – for the simple reason that it there was no explosive growth. of the Church in these regions. But another region that has actually seen explosive growth in Christianity, without simply displacing the original population, is America located south of the United States. Therefore, if we can observe striking providential preparations for the reception of the Gospel in Israel, in much of the Mediterranean world and in Eastern and Western Europe, and if we can explain to some extent preparation for the dramatically widespread reception of Christ in the 19th and 20th centuries in Africa, which has continued to the present day, one wonders: whether there appears to have been any providential preparation for the dramatic explosion of Catholicism in the 16th century in the Americas south of the United States – Mexico, Central and South America?

I ask because these areas had fairly sophisticated Mesoamerican cultures, and although the number of indigenous peoples was greatly reduced both by the practice of human sacrifice and the subsequent spread of European diseases, indigenous peoples did not were not simply moved because they found themselves further north. . Furthermore, while European missionaries, especially Spanish ones, came to these areas in large numbers and worked tirelessly to convert the local populations, they were singularly unsuccessful in convincing large numbers of converts and were already seriously discouraged. In fact, just before Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego, the European missionaries in that area were on the verge of calling it quits.

So we might ask: what was it about Juan Diego’s so-called experiment that persuaded millions and millions of people living in this region to very suddenly and quickly convert to Catholicism? What caused them to instantly join the Church in numbers that more than compensated (if such compensation is ever possible) the losses due to Protestantism as Europe fractured politically and religiously over the course of the same period? Why did this happen? What made this possible?

The short answer is simple: it was the magnificent profusion of flowers of glorious freshness that poured from the tilma of Juan Diego, onto the floor of the episcopal office in Mexico City, In the middle of winter.

And herein lies another significant study of providential preparation for the reception of the Gospel, a preparatory development every bit as significant as the superiority of military power, Roman organization, or Greek philosophy.

Guadalupe and the prophecy of the world of flowers

Despite the warring peoples in this region and the widespread practice of human sacrifice to gain the favor of the “gods”, there was also a strong element of indigenous monotheism in the belief in a “god of near and far” who was recognized as the one God above all others. There was also a strong oral (and sung) tradition, dating back to the dawn of time, describing a paradisiacal “flower world” of incomparable beauty and peace, represented by a fascinating collection of sung poetry which told this story: A man was told to pick flowers from the mysterious world of flowers and give them to nobles to usher in an era of beauty and peace, but although he dreamed that he possessed them, he never could actually find the flowers.

In addition, floral symbolism had developed and was used, among other things, to mark the entrances to caves and even tunnels located under the great pyramids built by these peoples, as these tunnels were considered potential paths to the world of the flowers. . In other words, deep in the psyche of many indigenous peoples of these regions there were dreams of a supreme being and a floral paradise, which were also associated with human dignity, perfection and to happiness – but which could never really be found. . At the heart of this mythology was the story of the quest for the world of flowers and flowers, a quest which sometimes seems to come true, but only in a dreamlike way, so that whoever is involved in the quest loses his grasp of this world and wakes up empty-handed and spiritually destitute.

This poetic tradition dates back several hundred, if not thousands, of years. Its origin dates back to the Mayan civilization, which is believed to have its beginnings dating back to 2000 BC. Moreover, the very forms of expression traditionally used to refer to God, the gods, and the paradise to which they held the key, made it difficult for 16th-century Catholic missionaries to express Christianity clearly and effectively in a way that did not would not be confusing to indigenous peoples.

But when word spread of the miracle of winter flowers cascading in vibrant profusion from Juan Diego’s tilma into the bishop’s offices in Mexico City, everything suddenly and dramatically fell into place. Juan Diego had fulfilled the prophecy of the Flowering World. Millions of natives traveled long distances over the next few years to beg and plead for baptism, refusing to be denied despite a widespread lack of adequate education. The miraculous event of Guadalupe not only refers to the apparitions of Our Lady to Juan Diego, the healing of Juan Diego’s uncle, the flowers and the image of Our Lady on Juan Diego’s tilma ( with recognizable symbols of the floral world), but with the prodigious rate of instant conversion that followed.

A remarkable book

Joseph Julián Gonzáles and his wife, Monique González, both of whom have impressive accomplishments in the arts and in Catholic evangelization, began learning about all of these things in the 1990s and decided to do the extensive research necessary to explain the details of the belief in the world of flowers and its connection with the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The result is a book published last year by Sophia Institute Press: Guadalupe and the prophecy of the world of flowers: how God prepared the Americas for conversion before the appearance of the Lady.

In approximately 280 pages of meticulous exploration and interpretation, the authors explore the conceptual keys that made these dramatic conversions possible; ancient Mesoamerican myths of the floral world; the most important characteristics of the history, culture and philosophy of the Nahua people; the conceptual framework of the oral tradition of singing about the floral world; Catholic missionary catechesis; the Guadalupe event; and the millions of indigenous conversions. The book has been organized and developed in such a way that, although it includes a considerable amount of detail from the authors’ extensive research, it is still very easy to navigate to grasp the main points of the thesis and the main grounds for its validity . There is even a complete bibliography. This is carefully considered work; Nothing in this remarkable tale is merely imaginative or speculative.

In other words, now that we can observe the almost instantaneous conversion of indigenous peoples from the southwestern United States to South America, we may wonder how this happened on such a scale. and we can see how God prepared the way. I’m sure there is much more to learn here on earth, and infinitely more to learn in Heaven, but we now have an explanation for the explosion of Christianity in this region of the world that matches what we know about God’s loving preparation for the Jews. , for Christian Europe, and perhaps at least in some respects for Africa (although I suspect a more competent writer could explore beyond mere European influence). This account of the Flower World Prophecy is a vital and striking contribution. This reaffirms our belief that God’s providence is still at work: even now, God is still preparing the way so that each people and each of us can ultimately know him.

Joseph Julián Gonzáles and Monique González, Guadalupe and the prophecy of the world of flowers: how God prepared the Americas for conversion before the appearance of the Lady. Sophia Institute Press, 2023. 288 pages. Paper: $18.95; E-book: $9.99.

Jeffrey Mirus holds a doctorate. in intellectual history from Princeton University. Co-founder of Christendom College, he was also a pioneer of Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org. See full biography.

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