Fulton Sheen & Our Lady of Guadalupe

The one great consistency in approved Marian apparations is that appearances are scrupulously given to children or the poor and innocent. There's quite a message in that. In the earthly realm, America has far more power and wealth compared to Mexico. But in the spiritual realm, Mexicans are rightly proud of their patroness and ours by adoption.

I was thinking about this in conjunction with the memorial of Fulton J. Sheen's death next month. He made a simple but fervent request of God: that he die on a Marian feast day. And that his prayer didn't seem to be answered always bothered me, surely disproportionately. One could take it as a sign of the holiness of God - a positive thing, a way to say that we can always get closer to God and that perhaps Fulton Sheen's time of purgation was lessened by his experience of being on his deathbed and seeing the great Marian day of December 8th pass by.

But one could also take it that the Church made up where Fulton Sheen lacked. December 9th, the day after Mary's great feast and the date of the bishop's death, is the feast now of Juan Diego, the humble Mexican peasant who received the Marian vision. Perhaps the powerful American prelate's prayer was answered posthumously.

One of the interesting things about the image of Our Lady of Gualalupe is its teaching potential. Though she looks glorified, with stars and rays of sun coming from her as was predicted in Rev. 12, she is no goddess. Her hands are folded in supplication, her posture indicating that she is interceding for us at the throne of the God.