Msgr. Beaulieu – Mary, Mother of the Church

Mary Mother of the Church—Monday after Pentecost

The phrase “Women, behold your son! /Behold your mother!” refers to a moment in the Gospel of John (John 19:26-27) where Jesus, while on the Cross, entrusts his Mother, the ever-Virgin Mary, to the care of John the beloved disciple, and conversely, entrusts John to Mary. This act is often interpreted as Jesus establishing a new family, a spiritual family, with Mary as its Mother. The phrase is a key element in Marian tradition within the Catholic Church, wherein Mary is venerated as Mother of the Church. The late Pope Francis, on March 3, 2018 issued a decree establishing an annual liturgical observance entitled The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church (Lat. B. Mariæ Virginis, Ecclesiæ Matris) and the accompanying biblical texts that were assigned for the memorial includes the aforementioned expression about the exchange wherein the dying Jesus entrusted Mary His Mother to the care of John the beloved disciple (Jn 19:26-27) as part of the Gospel for that day (Jn 19:25-34).

The decree establishing the mandatory memorial honoring Mary as Ecclesiae Matris includes a citation or two on prior testimony to Marian theology, both in the Church’s liturgical tradition and in the writings of the Church Fathers. The decree states that Saint Augustine and Pope Saint Leo the Great both reflected on the Virgin Mary’s importance in the mystery of Christ: “In fact the former [St. Augustine] says that Mary is the mother of the members of Christ, because with charity she cooperated in the rebirth of the faithful into the Church, while the latter [St. Leo the Great] says that the birth of the Head is also the birth of the body, thus indicating that Mary is at once Mother of Christ, the Son of God, and mother of the members of his Mystical Body, which is the Church.” The decree depicts Mary at the foot of the Cross (cf. Jn 19:25). There she became the Mother of the Church when she “accepted her Son’s testament of love and welcomed all people in the person of the beloved disciple as sons and daughters to be reborn unto life eternal.”

Excerpted from http://www.vaticannews.va. Devin Watkins. “Pope institutes new celebration of Mary, Mother of Church.”