Father Christopher Zugger

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the national feast of Mexico, patroness of North and South America, and patroness for the safety of unborn children. Why the last one? Because in the “miraculous image not-made-with-hands” as we call it, the Virgin Mary is shown clearly as a pregnant woman, wearing the special rope favored by pregnant Aztec women. Appearing at the site of a former Aztec temple where thousands were offered as living sacrifices in order to keep the universe in order, Mary appeared while the native population of Mexico was in deep shock. Their empire had been overthrown, the Spanish were ruling, the Aztec nobility was leaderless, and their religion had failed them.  Now here was the “little brown one”, their color of skin, appearing at the former temple of their mother goddess, speaking their language, and calling one of them “my little son”.  Through this apparition, eight million became Catholics in a few years, while half of Europe was busily adopting Protestant doctrines. It is a great triumph of Our Lady, and of peaceful missionary work — preaching the Gospel backed by swords never works.

It also was the forty days for the commemoration of the martyrs in Iraq last Friday. The Syriac Catholic Patriarch led the Liturgy at Our Lady of Deliverance Cathedral, where 44 laity and two priests were so viciously slaughtered by jihadists. Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III, said in his sermon: “We came here in order to pray to God for Iraq to be better. God will never give up on you. God will make the sons of this country united.” After that, he spoke in  English and French to foreign statesmen saying that Iraq was not a land for economic exploitation, but a country of living people who deserve peace.

The walls and doors are still torn apart in the cathedral. Forty-four parishioners and two priests were killed. I think the most famous one is the little boy, Adam, who told the jihadists for two hours “Enough, enough” while they walked around killing people, including his parents. Then they turned on him and killed the boy.

Brave warriors of Islam! Slaughtering in a church and killing a baby boy because he spoke the words of God to shame them: Enough. Of these men, the patriarch said: “We cannot deny the reality that the hands of those who committed this crime were controlled by minds full of hatred. Their (victims’) blood will purify the biggest mistake in the world — people who kill because of differences of religion.”

Enough! Will the leaders of Islam rise up around the world and say “Enough” in echo of little Adam?