A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Jesus said to the crowds, what comparison can I use to describe this breed? They are like children squatting in the town square, calling to their playmates. We piped you a tune, but you wouldn't dance. We sang you a dirge, but you did not wail.
In other words, our lord is speaking. John appeared, that is John the baptizer, neither eating nor drinking, and people say, he's a madman. The The son of man appeared eating and drinking. And then they say, this one is a glutton, a drunkard, a lover of tax collectors, and those outside the law. In other words, sinners.
Yet time will prove, our lord concludes, where wisdom lies, and this is the gospel gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. I shall never forget my first visit to our Lady Of Guadalupe, which is, as you know, right on the kirts of Mexico City. And it's part of the grand tour, which takes you to the pyramids. I won't try to pronounce that Mexican word.
Where these pyramids are and which are truly astounding. I mean, that they're within an hour's automobile drive of the heart of Mexico City, and there is as mammoth and as impressive as any you'll see in the whole of Mexico, including Chichan Itza. We got there on a misty morning and rather early. First thing that I noticed was I was smelling charcoal the basilica, scattered all around a vast courtyard or plaza or whatever square or whatever you'd call it, where people dimly seen through the mist, over little charcoal fires preparing their breakfast. But some light was coming out of the main door of this church, which was sort of lopsided because it was falling, and had been falling for several years.
And straight across this plaza, stretching on down into the little town, you might say, were people on their knees, mostly women, but a lot of men too, and many of them assisted by young children, holding them up, holding their arms so they could to go get along, but they were creeping on their knees over these rough stones. It wasn't smooth cement. And I would say that they started maybe two blocks away before they even got into the church. Well, was our entire tour party number four. Two women, as I recall, from Oregon, a young man from Germany, myself.
We were the English speaking people. At least we tried to speak English. I didn't know them. They didn't know me. Of course, I had a Roman collar on.
No, I didn't because you're not allowed to wear it to Mexico. So they didn't they didn't know who I was either. But anyway, here was this site. And we had just left a pretty decent hotel, not the best, but it was in the in the what they call the pink section. And here we are plopped down into an eerie kind of situation, with the smell of the charcoal and the and the glow of these little fires, and these people in rows on their knees, and the mist coming up on on their knees now, entirely on their knees, not using their hands, shuffling along on your knees.
Try that sometime. What do you make of this? You know, it looked terrible. So I asked the guy who spoke very good English, you know, what what this was all about. And I'm really telling you what he said, because he didn't say at all what I thought he was going to say.
I've said this before from the pulpit, so if it's repetitious, I do not apologize. It can bear repetition. Believe me, if you saw it, you you wouldn't mind repeating it either. Here's what the young here's what the young man said to god. He said, these people are all coming to to thank the blessed mother for something they have received from her.
They weren't coming. I mean, that's what he said. And I must have expressed a little bit of astonishment because I was astonishment. Because, you know, the virtue of gratitude may be the queen of virtues, but it's one of the least virtues practiced. And I don't know what I said, but he turned to me again and and I remember this very distinctly.
He said, what else can they do? These were mostly poor Indians or mixed, whatever. What more could they do? But that's what the man said, that they were there to give thanks to our lady for some benefits, for some gift that they had received, and they'd made a promise. And they were keeping it.
And with what effort? Because most of these people didn't come from Mexico City, most of them. And to be there that morning creeping on their knees on the wet stones into the church was no mean feat, and they were doing it out of gratitude gratitude to Our Lady. In other words, they thought she had gotten them something they badly wanted, and they were trying to give thanks, to say thank you. Well, of course, the people I was they were astonished too.
Then we went into the church, and I and over the church, you have this famous garment. Now one one thing about this Our Lady of Guadalupe, just remember, when this incident happened of the roses, you know, the and it was a man of these weren't he wasn't a little child. He wasn't a little girl, with all apologies to the feminists. This is no Portugal. This is no lady our allure.
This was a man of 50 years of age who was told to go and pick some roses in wintertime, at least in New Mexico's winter. And when he got up on the hillside, there were roses. So he picked them and put them into his mantle, and he was told to take them to the archbishop. Now, this was about 1530. The archbishop was no dummy.
These were highly educated Europeans. They were men who knew a lot about miracles and false miracles and psychological illusions and all that. These were not people a bunch of ignoramuses. So he went to the archbishop, and he was received. And as he stood before him, he dropped this his the front of his garment, and the roses fell out, and they left impressions on this cloth.
And that's what's over the main altar. That as I say that when I was there, the church was leading because it was sinking. This was all, you know, a big lake once not so many 100 years ago. So a new new basilica has been put in place. I don't I haven't seen it since it was finished.
I saw it while it was being, built. And when Mexicans put their mind to building something, it gets built. Believe me. They had it ready when they wanted it. The point I wanna make is gratitude.
I met him. Again, I'm quoting. I have no way of verifying this. But this gentleman told me that he had paid, he was not anonymous, for over a dozen young men's college education. They knew him.
And here's what the man told me. He never received as much as a postcard from one of them. Not one. And he was not surprised. He was truly a man of the world.
He knew this is the way it goes. Gratitude is not a commonplace virtue, believe me. Some people cannot find it in themselves to say thanks. Or they'll say, well, you know I'm grateful. Well, maybe they are, but you'll never know it unless you have some kind of a manifestation of it.
But of all the impressions, and believe me, I got a lot of impressions from my visit to this Basilica Of Guadalupe, And let me tell you that most of them are good, absolutely good, because this this whatever happened in in around 1530 in the in the next few years, something very, very astounding happened, and it's well documented. I said documented, the written word. And all kinds of tests have been made on the on the garment. First of all, nothing negative has been discovered, and everything that they could verify has been verified, that it's an authentic garment from that period. It's only 1531, you know.
So on this feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, where there is so much fervent devotion to her in Mexico and in other parts of South America, America. Let us join with them. She is also our lady. And, of course, you you know, some of our separated brethren, when they see all this attention to our lady of Guadalupe, they interpret that, you know, as simply a form of paganism. See?
They say, you well, look. You say you have a god, but here you've got a goddess too. I I freely admit that's possible to get that impression. But it's a very superficial impression. Believe me.
That's a very superficial impression. There's no Mexican who thinks the blessed mother is a goddess. I don't care how ignorant you you may think he is or she is. And as I've said many times, the destruction of the best is the worst. It doesn't mean that the best is not the best.
It means just that the worst can destroy the best. Let's keep that little thought in mind. And so coming back to our lady of Guadalupe, to our blessed mother who, in this country, has been, in many places, forgotten and on purposely ignored, Not just incidentally forgotten, but ignored on purpose. And yet she is, in a word, the mother of god. Can you exaggerate that honor?
In the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit. Amen.