The Catholic Thing

'The Only Truth on Earth'


Listen Later

By Robert Royal
Since Last Friday, we've had a remarkable string of feasts: the Immaculate Conception, St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, Pope St. Damasus I (who reshaped the Western Church by asking St. Jerome to translate the Bible into Latin and by turning the liturgical language to Latin from Greek), St. Lucy (today), St. John of the Cross (tomorrow, one of the greatest mystics the world has ever seen). But above all, yesterday, Our Lady of Guadalupe. Guadalupe, of course, has great significance for us in the Americas; not least because it had the unprecedented effect of converting, with astounding speed, virtually a whole continent.
It's never happened elsewhere in Christian history. In the end, it's a mystery of God's grace. But Sophia Institute Press has just published an illuminating account by Joseph Julián González and Monique González, Guadalupe and the Flower World Prophecy: How God Prepared the Americas for Conversion Before the Lady Appeared. In short, as the subtitle indicates, there was a kind of preparatio evangelica going on in Meso-American cultures for thousands of years before the arrival of the missionaries who accompanied the Spanish explorers.
Guiding native peoples into Catholicism was difficult, as the missionaries quickly discovered. At first contact, there was enough cultural material present on both sides to put the two cultures at least on reasonable speaking terms. But there were few converts. It took a divine spark to jump the gap between very different peoples and bring what seemed impossible divisions into fruitful harmony.
Though there are many uncertainties in interpreting archeological remains, artifacts, and texts, the Gonzálezes offer a reasonable account of certain key strains in Meso-American cultures that made conversions more likely, beginning with the Olmecs, a civilization that flourished for about 1000 years (from 1500 BC to 400 BC), then the Mayans (classic period 250-900 AD), and finally the various people, among them the Chichimecas - the people of St. Juan Diego - at the time of Mary's appearance on the hill at Tepeyac.
Anyone familiar with Meso-American cultures will recall the multiple gods and goddesses, and practices like human sacrifice that seemed like insurmountable obstacles to the Christian message. And all that was certainly one strain in the cultural history. Researchers estimate, for instance, that tens of thousands of human beings were sacrificed to the gods annually in areas controlled by the Aztecs, perhaps as many as 80,000 in the dedication of the Templo Mayor in Mexico City alone.
But there was a paradoxical side to this bloodiness. The Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, no friend to Catholicism, has commented: "One can only imagine the astonishment of the hundreds and thousands of Indians who asked for baptism as they came to realize that they were being asked to adore a god who sacrificed himself for men instead of asking men to sacrifice themselves to gods, as the Aztec religion demanded."
The Gonzálezes tend to downplay this part of Meso-American cultures, with some justice because the Spaniards gradually stopped these outrages. Instead, they bring into view sophisticated theological, philosophical, liturgical, and even artistic currents in Meso-American culture. Their account has to be read in detail to be properly understood, but in broad strokes this other dimension contained several potential "bridges of understanding."
Nahuatl culture was highly sophisticated and disciplined. Children were formed in "face and heart," which like many terms in translation present difficulties and ambiguities. But this seems to mean that they were formed within and without, learning the songs and liturgies of their people so that they could reproduce them exactly, word for word. This educational feature was to become important in the transmission of the "Guadalupe Event."
Songs carried a great deal of cultural weight and, in the Gonzálezes' telling, were regarded as messag...
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Catholic ThingBy The Catholic Thing

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

28 ratings


More shows like The Catholic Thing

View all
Dr Taylor Marshall Podcast by Dr. Taylor Marshall

Dr Taylor Marshall Podcast

4,048 Listeners

The Thomistic Institute by The Thomistic Institute

The Thomistic Institute

751 Listeners

First Things Podcast by First Things

First Things Podcast

711 Listeners

Pints With Aquinas by Matt Fradd

Pints With Aquinas

6,579 Listeners

All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri by Ascension

All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri

1,343 Listeners

The Catholic Current by The Station of the Cross

The Catholic Current

383 Listeners

The Road to Emmaus with Scott Hahn by Scott Hahn

The Road to Emmaus with Scott Hahn

34 Listeners

Return To Tradition by Anthony Stine

Return To Tradition

351 Listeners

American Catholic History by Noelle & Tom Crowe

American Catholic History

821 Listeners

Godsplaining by Dominican Friars Province of St. Joseph

Godsplaining

1,232 Listeners

U.S. Grace Force with Fr. Richard Heilman and Doug Barry by U.S. Grace Force

U.S. Grace Force with Fr. Richard Heilman and Doug Barry

567 Listeners

Evangelization & Culture Podcast by Word on Fire Institute

Evangelization & Culture Podcast

202 Listeners

The Pillar Podcast by The Pillar Podcast

The Pillar Podcast

650 Listeners

Catholic Saints by Augustine Institute

Catholic Saints

1,044 Listeners

The LOOPcast by CatholicVote

The LOOPcast

728 Listeners