By Tom Venzor
“You are my messenger, in you I place my absolute trust.”
These were the words spoken by Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego nearly 500 years ago in 1531.
These are the words spoken to each of us in the year 2018.
These words are spoken to our heart that yearns for Christ, the One who calls us to experience His love and proclaim it to the ends of the earth.
The message that we have been asked to deliver is the Gospel of Life: the fundamental fact that each of us are made in the image and likeness of God and that each of us are to be loved and respected because of this most beautiful and sublime aspect of our existence. This fact must be carefully observed and safeguarded in a culture which leans toward death and that which undermines human dignity, especially as it applies to the unborn child and those who are sick and vulnerable at the end of life.
Our Lady’s message, first given to Juan Diego and now to us, is at the core of this year’s Respect Life Program theme: “Every Life: Cherished. Chosen. Sent.” The theme encapsulates what must be internalized by each of us in our journey with Christ, so that we can be “fully alive” in the way God intended us to be, most especially as missionaries for the Gospel of Life.
Introduction to the Respect Life Program. The Respect Life Program is designed by the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C. The Pro-Life Secretariat is where our good and dear friend, Greg Schleppenbach works. Greg worked for the Nebraska Catholic Conference for nearly 25 years, serving as the pro-life director and executive director.
The Respect Life Program is a year-round event that occurs nationwide and is intended to help Catholics understand, value, and become engaged with building a culture of life, a culture that respects the dignity of every human life. The 2018-2019 Respect Life Program kicks off with Respect Life Month which takes place in October and is especially celebrated on Respect Life Sunday (Oct. 7). A variety of resources are typically distributed through parishes and can also be found at www.usccb.org.
Juan Diego’s Story Yesterday and Today. The following text is reproduced from the Respect Life Program and briefly recounts Juan Diego’s encounter with Our Lady and how this indigenous man’s experience from 500 years ago reverberates throughout time and instructs us in the fundamentals of the Gospel of Life:
“In 1531, when the indigenous peoples of Mexico were subjugated and the practice of human sacrifice was still a recent memory, the Mother of God appeared to St. Juan Diego as a pregnant native woman, now known as Our Lady of Guadalupe.
She sent him with miraculous flowers in his cloak to tell the bishop to build a church where people could receive her Son and her loving, tender care. When St. Juan Diego opened the cloak before the bishop, an image of Our Lady was revealed that remains to this day. The chapel was quickly built, millions embraced Christianity, and the Church increased its protection of the indigenous peoples.
By embracing the mission entrusted to him, St. Juan Diego helped bring Christ’s transforming love to cultures gripped by oppression and death.
Today, we again see the dignity of human life disregarded. Unborn children are destroyed through abortion, and ill people are encouraged and assisted to take their own lives. How do we respond?
The essence of our identity is that we are created in God’s image and likeness and loved by Him. Nothing can diminish the priceless worth of any human life. Every person is cherished.
God creates every person for eternal union with Himself and continually invites us to embrace a loving relationship with Him. Every person is chosen.
We are called to be messengers of God’s love, treating one another as cherished and chosen by Him. In doing so, we help build a culture that respects all human life. Every person is sent.
Like St. Juan Diego, let us embrace our daily mission to help others encounter God’s transforming, life-giving love.”
