Lord of Miracles celebration in Peru: ‘It’s not enough to attend the procession,’ bishop exhorts

“It’s not enough to come to the procession; it‘s not enough to spend these festive days gathered around the image. What we must do is open our lives to the Lord, who is capable of transforming them,” Auxiliary Bishop Guillermo Elías of Lima, Peru, said during his homily at a well-attended Mass on Oct. 28, the central feast day of the Lord of the Miracles.

The feast coincides with the second to the last procession of the “Cristo Moreno” (the dark-skinned Christ).

The original image of the Lord of the Miracles was painted by an African slave on an adobe wall around 1651 and survived the massive earthquake of 1655, which was considered miraculous given the scale of destruction. Subsequently, additional miracles were associated with the image.

Addressing the sea of ​​devotees gathered outside the Church of the Nazarenas in the historic center of Lima, where the sacred image of the Christ of Pachacamilla (another name for the image) is kept, the prelate posed a question that reached beyond the celebration itself: “Do you come for the miracles of the Lord, or for the Lord who is capable of performing the miracle of your salvation?”

Drawing from the day’s Gospel, in which Jesus…