MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH

MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP 

 Gen 3:9-15,20; Ps 87; Jn 19:25-34

Woman, behold your Son

We celebrate the memorial of Mary as the mother of the Church. The readings chosen by the Church for this celebration point to the mystery of the motherhood of Mary. She is the mother of all the redeemed. As the first reading from the book of Genesis shows, she entered the picture at the fall of Adam and Eve, our first parents. The tragedy of the fall gave the evil one opportunity to enslave our nature to sin, which gave birth to death. God, to whom nothing can happen as a surprise, immediately unveiled his plan of salvation for the human race. As we have noted many times in our reflections, whatever God utters by his word is already in existence, for the word of God creates reality. The delay in the materialisation of the entities brought to existence by the word of God is due to the faith of the people. Thus, the Woman and her Seed was already existence in God and given to us as the sign of our salvation. “I will make you enemies of each other: you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.” This is the passage the Church refers to as the ‘Proto Evagelium,’ that is, the first Gospel. 

It is the first Gospel because it is the first divine expression of salvation for man. It was not just a plan but a spiritual reality that started operating immediately for the salvation of man. The word of God calls things into existence, as we already mentioned, but their physical appearance awaits the faith of the people. Hence, in the expression of human salvation above, the woman and her seed form an integral whole. The divinely created enmity is first between the Woman and Satan, and then between the offspring of the Woman and that of Satan. The offspring of the evil one is sin he planted in Adam and Eve and subsequently found in all their seeds. Since Jesus Christ is the only man without sin, the Church, following the authority of this scriptural passage, posits that Mary was conceived without sin. This is a reasonable conclusion given the enmity God put in place by his divine word. The cosmic struggle between light and darkness in the salvation of mankind has Mary and her Son Jesus Christ at the centre on one side, and Satan—the primeval serpent—and sin his offspring at the centre on the other side. Each human person takes a side depending on his choices and allegiance. Nobody is allowed to sit on the fence.

The gospel reading chosen for the celebration brings the decisive point of victory over darkness and evil into focus. We see the realisation or materialisation of the promise of salvation given by the word of God at the fall. “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’ And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.” From the way the Evangelist presented this passage, it is obvious that it was meant to show the fulfilment of the Genesis passage; the two figures are clearly outlined, Mary standing with her Son to crush the head of the serpent through her profound humility, the sacrifice of herself and her Son Jesus Christ; and the evil one striking the heel of her Son by the death he inflicted on his human nature. The humanity of Jesus Christ is, as it were, the foot with which the eternal Word crushed the head of the serpent and trampled upon sin and death. A gesture of great ecclesial importance is that of Jesus Christ handing his mother to his beloved apostle John, who represents the Church at the foot of the cross and handing John to his mother. This gesture gave rise to today’s celebration; Mary is the mother of the Church. 

Let us pray: Grant us, Father of mercies, the grace to fulfil the dying wish/command of your beloved Son on the cross, by taking the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Mother, to be our Mother also; so 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.