St. Juan Diego Statue, Mexico City (2003)
Consider Your
Own Calling
Optional Memorial of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin
Piety
Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were powerful; not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” Matthew 11:28-30
Study
Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?
It is hard for me to get through today without thinking of Mark and Louise Zwick and their connection to St. Juan Diego.
St. Juan Diego is one of the “poor” saints who shine the path for our faith that calls us to a harsh and dreadful love in action. However, growing up a cradle Catholic in the deep suburbia of the Jersey Shore, neither Juan Diego nor the Virgin of Guadalupe figured prominently in the liturgical parish life at St. Mary’s in New Monmouth, NJ. That was not the case when I moved to Houston, Texas, in 1982.
Mother Mary, the mother of Jesus, now known in Mexico and throughout the world as Our Lady of Guadalupe, appeared to Juan Diego as a brown-skinned Aztec princess and spoke to him in his native tongue, the forbidden language, Nahuatl. She had a mission for Juan Diego.
This appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe changed the face of the Church and radically renewed it. The choice of a Native American as God’s messenger meant that all Native Americans are important. There was a new-found, unheard-of dignity for the indigenous and the poor. Juan Diego was given the role of going to the local Bishop to tell him of the importance of the indigenous people.[i]
Shortly after taking a job with the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast, we encountered a family that needed food and shelter. Back then, people in Houston gave more than $40 million a year to United Way. If you know little about United Way, suffice it to say, the organization does not provide DIRECT service to people in need. Local United Way organizations raise money and give it to charities that provide direct assistance.
So, to find a way to address the family’s needs, set me on the path of contacting local charities. That is how I met by phone for the first time, the late Mark Zwick at Casa Juan Diego, a Catholic Worker house of hospitality nearby.
Imagine how
incredulous Mark’s voice might have sounded getting a call from the $40-million-plus
budgeted United Way to his little charity to provide help and hope to yet
another family in need. However, on a shoestring budget, he welcomed that
family and many more every day since then. In the tsunami of needs met over the years, he may have long ago forgotten that call. I did not.
His calling in direct service differed markedly from mine as a fund-raiser and “marketeer.” Mark and his wife Louise founded Casa Juan Diego in 1980, following the Catholic Worker model of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, to serve immigrants and refugees, and the poor. In 1980, something very profound was happening in our community. Homeless refugees were pouring in from Central America with nowhere to go. Mark and Louise believed then, and the ongoing work puts into action that as Catholics that we must go to our roots and our value system to respond person-to-person. They had recently lived in Central America and seen the tragedy occurring there. Thus, they began the Casa Juan Diego House of Hospitality at the end of 1980 and the Houston Catholic Worker newspaper in May of 1981.
From one small house, the Houston Catholic Worker community has grown to ten homes today. Casa Juan Diego publishes a newspaper, the Houston Catholic Worker, four times a year to share the Catholic Worker movement’s values and the immigrants’ and refugees’ stories uprooted by the global economy’s realities.
Although Mark died in 2016 of complications from Parkinson’s disease, Louise and the rest of the team carry on the pilgrimage to the next Juan Diego who might walk through the doors. Who knows when they might be entertaining angels?
Action
In today’s readings, we encountered the expression “Boasting (about oneself)” -- a term used by St. Paul referring to the radical sin, the claim to autonomy on the part of our ego. Such boasting leads to the illusion that we live and are saved by our resources. “Boasting in the Lord” (1 Cor 1:31), on the other hand, is the acknowledgment that we live only from God and for God.
The needs of organizations like Casa Juan Diego abound. The constant demand for food for hungry families grows each day. Casa Juan Diego needs volunteers to come on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to prepare bags of food for the many who are coming to seek help.
The shopping list may differ little from what you bring to the Giant or Safeway. Maseca, rice in two-pound bags, eggs, powdered milk, frozen fish or chicken, canned vegetables, fruits, and tuna. Candy canes for Christmas food bags. Shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, men’s deodorant. They also need “underpads” for the bed for paralyzed and ill people. Wheelchairs, rolling walkers, and narrow chests of drawers are always required to furnish the rooms.
They also need full-time Catholic Workers at Casa Juan Diego to live and work in these ten hospitality houses to share in the Works of Mercy. It seems that there is always a new wave of refugees arriving.
How can your love-in-action help? Consider your calling. Visit the website linked above or consider sending a check to Casa Juan Diego or a program in your community doing the same work.
St. Juan Diego, presente!
St. Mark Zwick, presente!
Virgin of Guadalupe and patron of the Americas, pray for us.
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