Monday after Pentecost Sunday is Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church (Beatae Mariae Virginis, Ecclesiae Matris). This was incorporated into the liturgical calendar by Pope Francis in 2018. Henceforth, the Roman Catholic Church has been honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Ecclesiae Matris liturgically with the following readings: Genesis 3:9-15, 20 or Acts 1:12-14 (First Reading); Psalm 87:1-2, 3 and 5, 6-7 (Responsorial Psalm); John 19:25-34 (Gospel Reading).
Though this Marian feast in the liturgical calendar is
relatively new, Mary has been revered as the Mother of the Church since St.
Augustine and St. Leo the Great. In the Decree on the Celebration of the
Blessed Virgin Mother of the Church, Cardinal Robert Sarah writes:
The joyous veneration for the Mother of
God in the Church of these times, when it reflected on the mystery of Christ
and its nature, could not ignore that Woman (cf. Gal 4:4), namely the Virgin
Mary, who is at the same time the Mother of Christ and the Mother of the
Church.
This was already present in a sense in the
sense of the Church in the preceding words of St. Augustine and St. Leo the
Great. For the first says that Mary is the mother of the members of Christ,
since she cooperated with her love so that the faithful might be born in the
Church; but the other, when he says that the birth of the Head is also the
birth of the Body, indicates that Mary is at the same time the mother of
Christ, the Son of God, and the mother of the members of the mystical body,
that is, the Church. These considerations flow from Mary's divine motherhood
and from her union in the work of the Redeemer, which reaches its climax at the
hour of the cross.
Indeed, Mary is both the mother of the members of
Christ (John 19:27) and the birth mother of Christ (Luke 1:26-38), who is the
head of the Church (Colossians 1:17-18). Therefore, she is the Mother of the
Church. As the Mother of the members of Christ, Mary was with them when they
were together and receive the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to give birth to the Church
(i.e. Acts 1:14).
The members of the Church are, namely, the disciples
of Christ. In fact, we, who have been baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:27).
This also means to be incorporated into the Church (i.e. Acts 2:41), as many
parts of one body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). And it is Christ the Son,
who shares his mother with us as ours (John 19:25, 27) so that we are one with
him as he is one with the Father (John 17:21-23).
By virtue of our Baptism, we are to be one with
Christ, as his disciples and as his Church’s members. And the mother of Christ,
who is the head of the Church, is also our mother, as we are members of Christ’s
Church. Therefore, Mary, the Blessed Virgin, is the Mother of the Church.
Pope Leo XIII wrote in 1895:
The mystery of Christ's immense love for
us is revealed with dazzling brilliance in the fact that the dying Saviour
bequeathed His Mother to His disciple John in the memorable testament:
"Behold thy son." Now in John, as the Church has constantly taught,
Christ designated the whole human race, and in the first rank are they who are
joined with Him by faith. It is in this sense that St. Anselm of Canterbury
says: "What dignity, O Virgin, could be more highly prized than to be the
Mother of those to whom Christ deigned to be Father and Brother!" With a
generous heart Mary undertook and discharged the duties of her high but
laborious office, the beginnings of which were consecrated in the Cenacle. With
wonderful care she nurtured the first Christians by her holy example, her
authoritative counsel, her sweet consolation, her fruitful prayers. She was, in
very truth, the Mother of the Church, the Teacher and Queen of the Apostles, to
whom, besides, she confided no small part of the divine mysteries which she
kept in her heart. “Adjutricem
populi”, paragraph 6
This title of Mary, the Mother of the Church, was
officially declared by St. Paul VI on November 21, 1964, during the Vatican II
Council. And we have been celebrating Mass in her memory as the Mother of the
Church, on the day after Pentecost Sunday, since 2018.
Perhaps, because this is still relatively new to the
liturgical calendar as of 2024, not many Catholics do not seem to know that Monday
after Pentecost Sunday is the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin to honor her as
the Mother of the Church. It would be nice if more priests address this in
their Pentecost Sunday homily so that more faithful Catholics will venerate her
also as the Mother of the Church and understand why so.
Lastly, primary option for the First Reading (Genesis
3:9-15, 20) reminds us that Mary is regarded as the New Eve. Eve is the mother
of all humans, but, as declared by Christ himself (John 19:27), Mary is the Mother
of all the members of Christ, who was incarnated in her womb by the power of
the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35) and was born of her (Luke 2:7). And the head of this
membership is Christ (Colossians 1:18). And this makes us offspring of Mary,
together with Christ the Son, to fight and defeat Satan (Genesis 3:15). Therefore,
the Church’s mission is to fight all the evil until destroying Satan (i.e.
Revelation 20:7-9) for the salvation of souls. This is why “salute animarum,
quae in Ecclesia suprema semper lex esse debet” (the salvation of souls is
always the supreme law of the Church) (Canon 1752).
Thus, Glorious things are said of you, O city of God! (Psalm 87:3- Refrain of the Responsorial Psalm).
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