Dia de La Virgen (Luke)

December 15, 2008

This newsletter comes at a deeply profound time of the Christian calendar. As I write this,
many Mexicans here are returning home to rest from their celebration and reflective pilgrimage on December 12th, which was the first appearance of La Virgen de Guadalupe back in 1531.* The Christian community remains in the midst of the anticipatory season of Advent, preparing for the birth of the Christ child. For this reason, I would like to share with you an experience I had recently in Mexico City which, for me, touches on the faithful response, hope, patience, celebration, expectation, renewal, and challenges through God incarnate that come during this time of year.

I share my experience at the Basilica in Mexico City on the day before La Dia de La Virgen de Guadalupe, keeping in mind my work with No More Deaths and providing humanitarian aid to migrants crossing the brutal Sonoran Desert and U.S.-Mexico border.

A group of ten people – seminary students, pastors, professors, and I – traveled to the Basilica on December 11th to witness the faithful act of millions of Mexicans. As one local paper reported, the faithful pilgrimage to, and celebration of, La Virgen is to not to make requests, but to remember everything that La Virgen has done for the people. Upon our arrival to the Basilica grounds, the profound meaning of La Virgen de Guadalupe became apparent.

The day that we made our visit, 250,000 people were expected to make the circuit. On December 12th the crowd was expected to swell to 2 million faithful pilgrims. The experience became deeply personal, yet global for me once we passed through the Basilica building and made our way up the hill to the chapel. I found myself shoulder to shoulder with several dozen people within the mass of 250,000. The sights and sounds connected directly with the hundreds of Mexican and Central Americans whom I encountered during my time as a volunteer with No More Deaths, and reminded me of the hundreds of thousands who continue to make the trek to El Norte annually.

As we collectively walked up the hill, it was hard to miss several people making their pilgrimage on their knees. We walked up cement stairs – about 15 stories in all – and along the way people remained on their knees. The grimaces from the pain reminded me of the faces of migrants in the Sonoran desert with deadly blisters on their feet and cactus spines embedded in their skin.
Some of the faithful pilgrims had large framed glittered pictures of La Virgen strapped to their backs with rope, some carried wooden crosses, others carried candles, others carried their small children, while still others carried backpacks strapped with rolled up blankets and food supplies. At first I thought many of the items were simply symbolic, especially the food stuffs. After a brief conversation with a gentleman from Puebla, Mexico, however, I learned that many people walked for days before arriving at the Basilica. The man from Puebla explained that he and his six companions had left two days prior and walked the entire way. The travel, along with the supplies chosen for this pilgrimage mirrored those found in the desert: people tired from traveling for days on end, empty water bottles and cans of meat, dirty diapers, blankets, backpacks, and small images of La Virgen in the form of wallet-sized photos and rosaries.

From atop the hill outside the smaller chapel, people rested and looked down into the crowd, watching as the mass slowly flowed through the sacred space. On the slow walk down there were areas where people had set up camp. Families rested together – ten to fifteen to twenty in a row – sharing blankets and tarps. The images of the families reminded me of the powerful moment of finding a group of migrants in the desert in the midst of their long journey. Often times these groups were lie in arroyos, dry river beds, covered not in blankets, but black plastic garbage bags, seeking to stay hidden and warm.

A final comparison to the borderlands that I noted during my walk through the grounds of the Basilica were the faces in the crowd, especially the people resting. As I walked and observed the faithful I noticed the looks I received. People stared at me, wondering what I, a gringo, was doing at a Mexican holy observance. The looks and eye-to-eye contact reminded me of the same wide-eyed looks of migrants who were face to face with a gringo in the desert.

These were the images the struck a deep chord with me. There were other aspects to this experience that were not seen, but felt. Many times in the desert, especially while working with migrants in distress, there is a great sense of fear. Fear of the travel, fear of an encounter with the very people that they are trying to hide from, fear of what might happen next along the rough terrain.

There was no fear involved in this journey to remember La Virgen’s activity in the lives of many. The time at the Basilica was full of another sense for these people making their pilgrimage. The bags, blankets, crosses, pictures, and grimaces were not out of necessity, but out of love, joy, faith, hope, and gratitude.

Just as in speaking with migrants crossing the desert, there was a palpable sense of profound faith in the crowd of 250,000 people this early evening. A migrant’s faith carries them into the desert and into the land of unknown. The presence of faith remembering La Virgen seemed to be one out of response to how God has been, and is present, in people’s lives.

This advent season we prepare by hearing the prophetic words of Isaiah and the coming Immanuel, God with us. We prepare, just as the Mexicans do on their holy pilgrimage, to remember how God has been, and is present, in our lives. We celebrate the Christ child who came not as a king, but as the child of a family seeking refuge. We celebrate the promise of a new year and go forward. We are renewed by our faith to face the challenges ahead, and to anticipate how God will be present on our journeys.

* For a full account of the appearance, please visit, http://www.mexconnect.com/mex/guadalupe.html, http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/december06-02/virgin.htm, or any decent history book about Mexico.