The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe outside of Mexico City is one of the great pilgrimage sites in the world. The image left on the “tilma” or cloak of Juan Diego in 1531 after an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary attracts millions of visitors each year. The most remarkable aspect of the image is its reflection of the culture out of which it arose. The symbols, the clothing, the face are those of the people of Mexico. In leaving us this image Mary is saying that the only place we can find her, and by extension find Jesus, is in our own culture, among our own people, in our own circumstance. Remember the song: what if God were one of us, a stranger on the bus!
