Mexico has MANY different religious holidays. The biggest of these is December 12th – the day to celebrate the Virgin Mary.
December 12th is the day that she supposedly appeared in a vision to a poor Mexican Indian named Juan Diego several hundred years ago. Now you see images of “The Virgin of Guadalupe” all over the place.
“Danzas” (dances) and “perigrinaciones” (pilgimages) are the two main things that happen on this day. All day long, one easily finds blocked off streets that have altars set up to the Virgin Mary, and have costumed native dancers dancing to the beat of a drum in front of these altars. While interesting to watch from a cultural perspective, it is really quite sad from a religious perspective.
In Torreon, pilgrimages take place at the Catholic church downtown. In Mexico City, over 1,000,000 people make a pilgimage each year to the enormous basilica to Mary (read more here). You see them crawling in on their knees, reciting their rosaries—some do this beginning as far as a few miles away. Then, they enter the basilica to worship the shroud of cloth that contains the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe—a cloth that Juan Diego was wearing when this supposed vision took place.
When one witnesses celebrations like this, it simply becomes all the more evident how much we need to continue spreading the gospel of Christ here! Only HE is to be worshipped and adored!
Please continue to pray for God’s work here, so that the many people living in darkness may come to see the great light of our Savior Jesus Christ!
*written by Steve Lehmann, currently serving as a WELS vicar in Mexico. Learn more about Steve here.
2 comments:
Christ isn't the only holy person, nor the only person who makes a difference in this world. Please respect other beliefs and appreciate that no matter who it is, people have FAITH!
Whenever someone tells me that they have faith, I always ask them faith in what? Some say, "I believe in God." An early church leader, James, wrote, "You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-- and shudder." (James 2:19) People can have faith in many different things. Faith can be misplaced. A jailer asked the apostle Paul, "What must I do to be saved?" Paul replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." (Acts 16:31) Notice it is faith in Jesus that saves. Even Mary, Jesus' mother, had faith in God her Savior. That's what she sang when she starts out her famous song, "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." (Luke 1:46,47) The fact that Mary refers to God as her Savior shows that she recognized she wasn't perfect. She needed a Savior from sin just like the rest of us. The Apostle Paul, some 20 years after Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus admits that he still hadn't obtained perfection. (Philipiians 3:12) The Bible is filled with examples of famous believers messing up. (Peter is a great example.) Only Jesus Christ was perfect and holy completely without sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21) All who have faith in Jesus as their only savior from sin are made holy by his blood. (1 John 1:7) That's why Christians who have died are called saints. We are holy by the blood of Jesus despite the fact that we continuously mess up day after day. If you'd like to read more about how no one is holy and faith in Jesus is what matters, spend some time reading and meditating on Romans chapter 3.
- Missionary Mike Hartman
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