Do you know what it takes to build a shrine? It’s no simple task; a lot has to be done in order to turn a shrine into a reality. You have to choose the site and raise the money and draw up plans—plans tediously revised and approved. And once construction begins it can go on, and on, and on, sometimes lasting a lifetime. Then the structure has to be cared for, maintained, and cleaned. But all of this work is for a good reason. A shrine gives glory to God and serves as his dwelling place.
When we consider this monumental work, we can understand how Saint Juan Diego must have felt when the Blessed Mother appeared to him at Tepeyac Hill (present-day Mexico City) in 1531 and requested that he go to his bishop and tell him to build a shrine in her honor. The bishop was dismissive of Juan Diego and in disbelief when he initially made his request. Of course, in this case, Our Lady was able to convince the bishop by miraculously imprinting an image of herself on Juan Diego’s tilma, now the image of our veneration today.
What is unique about the apparition is that Our Lady appears, not as a poor Israelite, but as a pregnant mestiza, woman, that is someone with a mixture of indigenous and Spanish ethnicities. This is a reminder that God’s love extends to all people and that his Son, Jesus, comes to save all nations. By appearing to Juan Diego and asking him to build a shrine, our Lady announces the coming of the Word made Flesh to all peoples, protected in her womb until Christmas, “who places the peoples of the New World under His Mother’s singular protection” (Collect from The Roman Missal). The body of the Lord Jesus resides in her womb, like the Eucharist in the Tabernacle. In this way, her body is already a shrine, built for God’s glory, since it is by her flesh that the Word is made flesh. What is more, Mary’s love of God and his will has been etched into her heart by humbly allowing God’s work of redemption to be accomplished through her.
Mary makes the same request to all of us that she made to Juan Diego. While most of us are not called to construct a physical building, we are all meant, in imitation of Mary, to make a shrine of our bodies and within the depths of our hearts in order to give glory to God: “Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house” (1 Pet 2:4). Just as a shrine is built with the finest materials to accomplish this end, we too build up our interior shrine with habits and virtues that help us glorify God with our thoughts, words, and actions. Through the sacrament of baptism we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, as we read from Saint Paul, “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God” (1 Cor 6:19). And when we receive the Eucharist we, like Our Lady of Guadalupe, have the Body of Christ dwelling within us. In both of these instances, we become the house of the Lord. The sacrament of Penance allows us to maintain and clean the shrines of our hearts so that they remain a fitting place for the Lord.
Physical shrines are the result of a lot of hard work and effort over many years. Similarly building the shrines of our hearts takes a lifetime. We need not be intimidated, however, because we have materials of the virtues and the sacraments to order the shrines of our hearts for their intended purposes. We are reminded of our commission to be living shrines in the dismissal at Mass: “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” Being built up and maintained by God we glorify him as his presence in the world and serve as his dwelling place.
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Photo by Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)
