A reading from Revelation 12:
A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day is observed on Dec 12. I've written a reflection about her here.
Our Lady is not so well known among Protestants, but I think she has one critical lesson to teach us this Advent. The Woman of the Apocalypse, described in Rev. 12, is commonly associated with Mary. She comes at the end of time, bearing a child - the Messiah, who is to defeat the dragon, associated with Satan.
And in the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mary comes as an Aztec, a member of a tribe that has just suffered genocide, a tribe that is now enslaved by the Spaniards. Mary is Indigenous. As denoted by her maternity band in the image, Mary is pregnant. Therefore, her Son, Jesus, is Indigenous.
My sisters and brothers, God is decolonizing us, preparing us for the kingdom of God. Watch and pray.
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