St. Juan Diego

Such a charming feast day today! Our morning prayers were led by a Mexican-American sister, and included a narration of Mary's words in the original Aztec language. We followed along, of course, with a translation! Among Juan Diego's protests of inadequacy for his mission was something I had never heard before. To emphasize what a "nothing" he was, Juan called himself "a tail, a weed, a harness." Powerful images. And I got to thinking: if Our Lady were to appear today, she would choose (just as Paul said of God's choices) "those who were lowly, who count for nothing." She would choose someone like Juan Diego, who had to go to the Bishop and (think of it) stammer out a message in a language (Spanish) that he could barely speak. That first announcment of Our Lady's appearance and desire was conveyed in halting baby talk, full of mispronounced words and mangled grammar. What if someone were to come to me, here and now, with a message from heaven delivered in severely broken English? I am afraid that my tendency would be to assume that the messenger was some poor, deluded soul jabbering away. I'm not sure I would listen very attentively. Maybe I would try to pay attention out of courtesy, but not in genuine receptivity to a message. (Since I have a lot of experience living with persons who barely speek English, I know what I am talking about! And I've also been on the other side of the picture: living in another country and being treated like a child because I could only express myself primatively in the local language.)
Anyway, this coalesces with the message of Advent. God comes to us in easy-to-dismiss smallness.