Wednesday, August 07, 2019

Apocalyptic Guadalupe

Here's a sequel to my recent post on Guadalupe:


According to the story, Mary commanded the local bishop, via Juan Diego, to build a shrine in her honor. Now the location of the shrine is striking. The shrine is situated in what became Greater Mexico City–one of the largest metropolitan population centers in the world.

Why do I say that's striking? Because the Valley of Mexico is a naturally hazardous location for a major population center. Mexico City lies on an ancient lake bed, which makes it unstable. The region is prone to devastating earthquakes. And it sits in the shadow of an active volcano (Popocatépetl).

If the apparition is authentic, and Mary has the preternatural knowledge that Catholic Mariology ascribes to her, why did she command the bishop to build a Marian shrine in a deathtrap? Why not warn the inhabitants to evacuate the area and relocate to a safer region? Why not point them to a safer region?

Back in 1531, people didn't have the knowledge of geology, seismology, or vulcanology to appreciate what a reckless location that would be for a massive urban center. If Mary warned the inhabitants of the danger zone and redirected them to safer location, the prescient wisdom of the admonition would provide corroborative evidence for the apparition. That's something we could recognize in retrospect, with our scientific knowledge. That would be harder to explain naturalistically, for people who didn't have our scientific awareness. 

4 comments:

  1. I've also read Mexico City suffers from floods as well as (seemingly paradoxically) water scarcity. To be fair, maybe this wouldn't be the case if the lakes hadn't been drained.

    On another note, if the Marian apparition is real, I wonder if it's an evil spirit. Perhaps the same spirit behind Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent deity of Tenochtitlan.

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  2. Do you have discussion on Fatima?

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    1. Steve has good posts on Fatima here:

      http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2007/01/miracle-of-sun.html

      http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2017/12/our-lady-of-fatima.html

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    2. Thanks Hawk. Hawkeye. Mr Hawk ;)

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