Pope Francis' recent trip to Mexico focused the world's attention on the Guadalupe event. The most evocative image of the trip was, by the way, the Pope's long silent prayer in front of the most venerated Marian image in the world, which was mysteriously formed in the poor tilma of the Indian Juan Diego.
To look at Mary, Virgin of Guadalupe, and to let oneself be looked at by her: this is what the Pope did. To bend down over his people, whom that mestizo image guards in her lap: this is what he invited the bishops of the country to do, caring for everyone, but especially for those who suffer in body and spirit, for the victims of poverty and violence.
Francis himself had said it before his departure: the trip to Mexico was for him, in the first place, the possibility of praying in front of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Virgin whom twenty million people visit every year, to go to her lap, the home, the "little house" of all Mexicans (and Latin Americans). With her, Francis, the first Pope of this continent, wanted to stop to look at her and let himself be looked at, to talk like a son with his mother. The image of the Pontiff seated in the camarin, the small room in which it is possible to contemplate from up close the image that was mysteriously formed in the tilma of the Indian Juan Diego, is the icon of the trip. Faith is a matter of looking, seeing and touching. It is Mary's gaze on a Pope who recognizes the infallible "sense of smell" of the holy people of God and who draws from that gaze the strength of tenderness towards the wounds of this people. Sores that must be touched in order to be able to touch the "flesh of Christ".
At the end of the trip, during the press conference on the plane, the Pope invited us to study the Guadalupe event. He told us that the faith and vitality of the Mexican people can be explained only because it is based on this event. The Virgin of Guadalupe thus becomes an interpretative key, a hermeneutic for understanding the roots of the faith of the people, which cannot be understood without the Mother's lap.
In the homily of the Mass celebrated at the shrine of Guadalupe on Sunday, February 14, Francis explained: Mary "tells us that she has the 'honor' of being our mother. This gives us the certainty that the tears of those who suffer are not sterile. They are a silent prayer that goes up to heaven and that in Mary always finds a place in her mantle. In her and with her, God becomes our brother and companion on our journey, carrying our crosses with us so as not to be crushed by our sorrows".
