Saturday, May 29 - At the Basilica

For several of my posts, I want to include some scripture that has guided my thoughts of that day or experience. For this experience at the Basilica de Guadelupe, Galatians 3:23-29 was appropriate. Here we go.

Soon after breakfast at the hotel, our group headed to the Basilica of the Virgin Guadelupe. I had seen a few pictures before leaving for Mexico, but beyond that I didn't really know what to expect. I knew the Basilica would be a Roman Catholic experience so I expected to see something different in terms of worship and the practices and traditions of the people there. Further, I know very little about this aspect of the Roman Catholic Church so there would be a few experiences that were completely new to me.

Our tour guide shared a tremendous amount of history about Juan Diego's vision of the Virgin - from what she looked like to the significance of her clothing to what she would come to represent to the Roman Catholic faith. In the Protestant tradition, there seems to be no one else really like this figure and so I think gaining a full understanding of her significance to the Mexican people is difficult, if not incomprehensible. The Basilica was more like a complex of buildings with the old and new Basilica, several other structures that Juan Diego built as a result of his visions. (Juan Diego was the peasant who saw the Virgin four times.) We also walked up to the top of the hill above the Basilica where he saw the first three visions.

While this experience was an interesting one for us, the people of the Methodist Church in Mexico are very much against the image or icon of the Virgin of Guadelupe and what she represents...so much so that the Methodist Churches want no symbolism of the Roman Catholic Churches to appear in their sanctuaries. For this reason, Methodists don't wear cross necklaces or display crosses around their churches - even in the sanctuaries.

Despite the Catholic and Protestant differences and our inability to truly understand the significance of these differences in Mexico, the Catholics and Christians (as the Mexican Catholics refer to Protestants) are still one in Christ. I expect this lesson will prove itself over and over again throughout the summer as we encounter many different people and experiences.