Mary, Mother of the Church-Memoria

Today we celebrate the memoria of Mary, Mother of the Church, a title conferred on her by Pope Paul VI in 1964.

 It is not by coincidence that, just the day after we celebrated the outpouring of God’s love into the human heart, we now celebrate the memoria of Mary, the mother of the church. Well that’s not surprising, because Mary always appeared in every high point of our faith. When the divine word, Jesus was to take flesh and dwell amongst us, we saw Mary, who, as a mother laid aside her own comfort, and said yes to God’s plan for our salvation. At Cana when the wine finished, again as a caring mother, she exercised an unprecedented faith in Jesus’s true identify as the Messiah with whom nothing shall be impossible. She calls the stewards to listen to Jesus. And then called Jesus to attend to them as brothers and sisters. And this was Mary simply being a true mother who cares for and brings together her children. As we heard in Today’s Gospel, at the peak of our salvation history, on the cross when all that was written about Jesus had been accomplished, again, we saw Mary being given to us as our mother. In the words of Jesus to John the beloved, Son behold thy mother.  And to Mary, Jesus said, Mother behold thy son. John the beloved, as it were represented all of us who in Jesus are also the beloved of the father before the foundation of the world Eph 1: 3:14. As John 3:16 tells us, for God so love us that he sent his only begotten son, that through him we might be saved.

And on the Pentecost day, that great day when the consuming love of  God was poured into the  human hearts to seal the new covenant and to unlock in hearts the unquenchable well spring of life, Mary was there, see Acts 1:14. It must have been a wonderful experience for Mary seeing the children she had begotten by grace now filled will the same spirit and power that had come upon and overshadowed her in Luke 1:35. You remember when Angel Gabriel said to her,” the Holy Spirit will come upon you and power of the most high will overshadow you”.

The beauty of this Pentecost experience shines more brightly when we look at it from the eyes of a mother, who in her very presence, her children are experiencing an awesome love and joy as if they were about to explode.

So, today, we turn to Mary, whose yes to the eternal plan of the Father, made all this possible, and say to her, you are indeed the mother of all the redeemed. According to Saint Augustine, she is truly the mother of the church because, with charity she cooperated in the rebirth of the faithful into the church. If Jesus is the head of the body, the church as Colossians 1:18 tells us, Saint Leo the great said, the birth of the head is also the birth of the body, the church.

Although this title after due reflection was conferred on her only recently in 1964, but this understanding has always been present in the mind of the church. Since we are the church and she is our mother, we therefore venerate her as the mother of the church.

Now that we have been imbued by the power from on high, with her we continue in prayer on just like the apostles did in the Acts. We were told that they devoted themselves in one accord to prayer with Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The first reading from Genesis that “Adam named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all those that live”. Mary is the New and faithful Eve.  And being the new Eve, like the former, she has also become the mother of all those who live. 

Like John the beloved, we are left with two choices: make a place for Mary in our home in our hearts as John did in today’s Gospel or ignore Jesus’ Gift of her mother to us from the cross.

However, I am aware that this might not all feel this way towards Jesus’ mother. So what I would invite you to do now, is to take few seconds in prayer, ask the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth to confirm what you have heard. Be open to him and patient with yourself. But you can be sure that he hears our prayers and will fulfil them in his time.

Let us pray,

O God, Father of mercies,  whose Only Begotten Son, as he hung upon the Cross, 
chose the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Mother, to be our Mother also;  grant, we pray, 
that with her loving help, your Church may be more fruitful day by day, and exulting

in the holiness of her children,  may draw to her embrace all the families of the peoples.
Through Christ our Lord.

O Mary mother of the Church---- pray for us