As instituted by Pope Francis in 2018, we honor Mary as the Mother of the Church, on Monday following the Solemnity of Pentecost, which is the Eighth Sunday of Paschaltide.
The First Reading (Genesis 3:9-15, 20) describes Mary
as the New Eve.
Upon Eve’s fall to the temptation by Satan, God
prophesized the coming of Christ through the New Eve, Mary, to crush the head
of Satan (Genesis 3:15). This signals that Mary was predestined to be the
mother of Christ the Son. So, Pope Pius IX wrote in his Apostolic Constitution,
Ineffabilis Deus (1854):
From the very beginning, and before time
began, the eternal Father chose and prepared for his only-begotten Son a Mother
in whom the Son of God would become incarnate and from whom, in the blessed
fullness of time, he would be born into this world. Above all creatures did God
so love her that truly in her was the Father well pleased with singular
delight. Therefore, far above all the angels and all the saints so wondrously
did God endow her with the abundance of all heavenly gifts poured from the
treasury of his divinity that this mother, ever absolutely free of all stain of
sin, all fair and perfect, would possess that fullness of holy innocence and
sanctity than which, under God, one cannot even imagine anything greater, and
which, outside of God, no mind can succeed in comprehending fully.
This explains that Mary was predestined to be the
Immaculate Conception, full of grace, absolutely free from any effect of
Original Sin committed by Eve and Adam, in order to be the Mother of the Son of
God, Christ. So, Archangel Gabriel announced Mary’s role as the Mother of the
Son of God, which she humbly accepted as God’s handmaid (Luke 1:26-38). And as
the Mother of the Son of God, Mary gave birth to him, the incarnated Christ (Luke
2:7).
In the Gospel Reading (John 19:25-34), we hear Christ
dedicating his mother, Mary, also as the mother of the disciples, from the
Cross, through these words:
Behold, your mother
(John 19:27).
Jesus said this directly to John, who was standing at
the foot of the Cross with Mary, upon telling her to behold her son (John
19:26).
The Gospel Reading capture a pivotal moment of Mary
becoming the Mother of the all disciples, represented by John, faithful enough
to follow Christ to his Cross, in addition to being the Mother of the Son of
God.
Why did the incarnated Christ, the Son of Mary, made
his Mother also the Mother of ours?
It is obvious that he wants to draw us closer to him
(John 12:32) and to the Father through him (John 14:6), as his brothers and
sisters (i.e. Hebrews 2:11), to be in him and he in us, as he is in the Father
and He in him (John 14:20; 17:21). And he entrusts his Mother to direct our
attention to him, as she did at Cana (John 2:1-11) so that we are attached to
him securely as the fruitful branches are so to the vine (John 15:1-17).
The optional First Reading (Acts 1:12-14) and the
First Reading of the Solemnity of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11) remind us that the
Church was born out of the assembly of the disciples with Mary as the Holy
Spirit descended and filled them. Therefore, Mary became the Mother of the
Church, which has been growing out of the assembly of the disciples on
Pentecost.
On November 21, 1964, at a Vatican II Council session,
Pope St. Paul VI invoked and honored Mary as the Mother of the Church for being
the Mother of all faithful and their pastors. As to reflect this, the Vatican II Council
dogmatic constitution, Lumen Gentium, which was promulgated on that day,
by Paul VI, states:
Redeemed by reason of the merits of her
Son and united to Him by a close and indissoluble tie, she is endowed with the
high office and dignity of being the Mother of the Son of God, by which account
she is also the beloved daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy
Spirit. Because of this gift of sublime grace she far surpasses all creatures,
both in heaven and on earth. At the same time, however, because she belongs to
the offspring of Adam she is one with all those who are to be saved. She is "the
mother of the members of Christ . . . having cooperated by charity that
faithful might be born in the Church, who are members of that Head." Wherefore
she is hailed as a pre-eminent and singular member of the Church, and as its
type and excellent exemplar in faith and charity. The Catholic Church, taught
by the Holy Spirit, honors her with filial affection and piety as a most
beloved mother.
Paragraph 53
The maternal duty of Mary toward men in no
wise obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows
His power. For all the salvific influence of the Blessed Virgin on men
originates, not from some inner necessity, but from the divine pleasure. It
flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on His
mediation, depends entirely on it and draws all its power from it. In no way
does it impede, but rather does it foster the immediate union of the faithful
with Christ.
Paragraph 60
For Mary, who since her entry into
salvation history unites in herself and re-echoes the greatest teachings of the
faith as she is proclaimed and venerated, calls the faithful to her Son and His
sacrifice and to the love of the Father. Seeking after the glory of Christ, the
Church becomes more like her exalted Type, and continually progresses in faith,
hope and charity, seeking and doing the will of God in all things. Hence the
Church, in her apostolic work also, justly looks to her, who, conceived of the
Holy Spirit, brought forth Christ, who was born of the Virgin that through the
Church He may be born and may increase in the hearts of the faithful also. The
Virgin in her own life lived an example of that maternal love, by which it
behooves that all should be animated who cooperate in the apostolic mission of
the Church for the regeneration of men. Paragraph 65
Therefore, Mary, indeed, is the Mother of both the
Redeemer and the Church to be redeemed. In order to ensure the redemption of Christ’s
Church, us being born from above (John 3:3) by being baptized with the Holy Spirit
(Matthew 3:11), into the Church (Acts 2:2-4), the Mother always keeps us the
Church to her Son and keep on the right path to the Father.
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