The tilma of St. Juan Diego was never meant to last. Woven from rough maguey cactus fiber, it was the clothing of a poor, Indigenous farmer—simple, fragile, and expected to fade within a few decades. And yet, for nearly five hundred years, the tilma bearing the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has endured.

God chose not only a simple material, but a simple man.

Mary did not appear to a bishop, a scholar, or a person of influence. She chose Juan Diego—humble, poor, and easily overlooked. Through him, God revealed a truth repeated throughout Scripture: God works through the lowly to accomplish His greatest purposes.

Mary herself proclaims this in the Magnificat: “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly.” (Luke 1:52)

The proud often rely on power, status, or certainty. But God chooses trust, humility, and openness. Juan Diego had none of the world’s credentials—yet he had a listening heart. And that was enough.

This is the heart of the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The miracle is not only the image on the tilma, but that God entrusted His message to the poor, allowing the lowly to carry what would change history. What should have perished—both the tilma and the man who wore it—became a lasting sign of God’s presence.

This message speaks especially to Advent. Advent is the season when we remember that God does not arrive with force or spectacle. He comes quietly—in a manger, to a young woman, among the poor. Just as Christ comes wrapped in human fragility, Mary’s image comes wrapped in fragile cloth. What the world dismisses, God fills with glory.



The tilma invites us to see our own lives differently. We may feel ordinary, worn, or inadequate. Yet Advent reminds us that God draws near precisely there. When we make room for Him—like Juan Diego, like Mary—our simplicity becomes the place where God chooses to dwell.

On this feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, may we trust that God still works through the lowly, still lifts up the humble, and still comes quietly to those who are willing to carry His presence into the world.