Bonus Post: An Advent Lesson in Humility at Work from Juan Diego

(Originally posted December 11, 2012, with slight edits)

Humility comes hard for some of us men. We work hard everyday, and a lot of our motivation comes from perfectly understandable but nevertheless earthly motivations: money, recognition, accomplishment, maybe even acquiring power. We're supposed to be confident and assertive in pursuing our material, earthly success. Humility sometimes seems out of place.

Of course, it's not. Maybe Saint Juan Diego can help us understand this. In case you missed it, his feast is December 9th, most appropriately the day after the glorious Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Remember, Saint Juan is the one who saw Our Lady as he was going about his business one day.

That morning Juan Diego was headed to Mass, because at that time December 9 was the date for the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception throughout the Spanish Empire.

He told his bishop about his vision. The Bishop appropriately reacted with reserve, even skepticism, about Juan's story, Our Lady provided "proof" that she had indeed appeared and had indeed declared herself to Juan Diego as the "Immaculate Conception."

Bishop Zumarraga was a saintly man, very just and compassionate. He built the first hospital, library and university in the Americas. He also was the Protector of the Indians, entrusted by Emperor Charles V to enforce his decree issued in August 1530, stating, "No person shall dare to make a single Indian a slave whether in war or in peace. Whether by barter, by purchase, by trade, or on any other pretext or cause whatever." (Note that in 1537 Pope Paul III condemned and forbade the enslavement of the Native American Indian.)

(Well, so much for the propaganda about the Church being an oppressor of the native Americans by forcing them to accept Christianity and supporting those Spanish colonists who treated the Indians poorly!)

And so Our Lady provided "proof" that she had indeed appeared and had indeed declared herself to Juan Diego as the "Immaculate Conception." She instructed him to return to the Bishop:

Juan Diego proceeded again to Bishop Zumarraga's house. After waiting a while for an audience, he repeated the message to the bishop and opened his tilma to present the roses. The bishop saw not only the beautiful flowers but also the beautiful image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Bishop Zumarraga wept at the sight of the Blessed Mother and asked forgiveness for doubting. He took the tilma and laid it at the altar in his chapel.

We don't know a lot about the life of St Juan, but from what we do know we can learn much, especially as we go about our business today. We can certainly learn the virtue of persistence in performing good works, as he did in returning to the Bishop, as Our Lady requested, in spite of his natural reluctance.

But I think he's an especially good person to teach us the value of humility. Our Lady chose this humble man as her messenger, just as she chose other humble servants of God, like the children at Fatima or Bernadette of Lourdes. In fact, just look at the sorts of people to whom Our Lord and Our Lady have appeared in history. For the most part, they aren't the rich, or powerful, or even the especially accomplished sorts. They're mostly obscure unknowns, frequently poor. They lack all the advantages so many of us seek everyday. Those are the types Our Blessed Lord and His Holy Mother chose to convey their messages to us.

Why wouldn't Jesus or Mary chose smart, eloquent, influential people? We might as well ask why Our Lord chose Mary to be His Mother and why He chose to be born in a stable too. (If you're not sure why, it might be a good meditation for you this Advent.)

With all this in mind, let's, seek the grace to be humble - like St Juan Diego and all those other saints who were privileged to receive a visit from Our Lord or Our Lady.

So as we go about our business this day as men in the world, let's try not to be so much men of the world. With the special graces available to us during this Advent Season, perhaps we can raise our eyes a bit higher than the next task at hand, or our ambitious goals focused on earthly success. We might even pray that the virtue of humility grow in us rather than taking a back seat to confidence and assertiveness. Saint Juan performed the duties of his state of life well in all humility. He served others with little recognition. His influence and standing in this world was so insignificant - and he knew it -  that it was a real chore for him to convey Our Lady's message to the bishop.

We only know about him because Our Lady chose him, and I suspect he would understand and agree with that assessment.

To honor St Juan Diego helps us not let motivations like money, recognition, accomplishment, power - whatever earthly motivations drive you in your daily work - overwhelm our spiritual lives as we look forward to the coming of the Lord at Christmas.

(You can read more of the wonderful story of St Juan Diego by clicking HERE.)

Divine Infant of Bethlehem, come and take birth in our hearts.