The Church’s liturgical calendar is a well-structured and interconnected cycle. The placement of the different liturgical feasts through the year is not done arbitrarily but usually guided by their meanings and interconnections. Today, the Church celebrates Mary as the Mother of the Church, and it is linked to the solemn feast of the Pentecost, which was celebrated yesterday.
The title was officially proclaimed in 1964 by Pope Paul VI at the Second Vatican Council in line with Scripture and ancient Church practice. But it was established by Pope Francis in 2018 as a liturgical feast in the Calendar, to be celebrated annually on the Monday after Pentecost.
As Christians rejoice in the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Church sets before them, today, another important gift of Jesus: the gift of his mother. These two gifts are needed for a successful spiritual life in the Church. In this piece, we see motherhood as both a gift and a service. Thus, Mary’s role as Mother in the Church is both a gift and a status of service to God and his people.
Mary’s Motherhood as a Gift to the Church
The motherhood of Mary in the Church is a special gift of Jesus to his Church. This gift is echoed in the Old Testament and brought to its culmination at the Cross. This is the perspective of all the liturgical readings of today. The first reading presents the account of the fall in Genesis 3, where God puts an enmity between the serpent and the woman, who is called the mother of all the living. This enmity will also extend between the serpent’s seed and the seed of the woman. In this text, which is traditionally regarded as the first Gospel (proto evangelium), the woman is a gift to humanity to confront the serpent and his nefarious activities.
This gift is exemplified in the person of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and this is elaborately expressed at the foot of the Cross in John 19:25-34, where the dying Jesus formally presents his mother to the beloved disciple as a parting gift. The beloved disciple is projected as a representative of all faithful disciples of Jesus. This is concretized in Acts 1:12-14, where the same mother of Jesus is mentioned as being with the disciples in the upper room. Her role shines out here as the Mother of the community.
Motherhood of Mary in the Church as a Service
Another important aspect of Mary’s Motherhood is the service dimension. Mary was called to be the mother of the messiah, and she accepted this role by describing herself as the “handmaid of the Lord” (Luke 1:38). Her title as Handmaid embraces her role as mother of Christ and mother of all who follow Christ. In this role Mary cares for the disciples of Jesus as her own spiritual children. The consciousness of this role encourages Christians to always run to her for patronage. It is a service she has rendered in every generation. Those who run to her with conviction and childlike affection always have great testimonies to tell.
Women as Mothers in the Church
Mary’s Motherhood in the Church has often been seen as a point of reference for the role of women in the Church today. In fact, in most local churches in Africa, women play very significant roles as mothers. Most parish activities revolve around them. The most impressive is that they usually take the parish priest as their son and contribute regularly in his daily needs in the parish community. This links up beautifully with the charge of Jesus to his mother in today’s Gospel: “Mother, behold your son, and to his beloved disciple, behold your mother.” In like manner, women usually play motherhood roles to all in need. This is why women groups are highly valued in the local church. The edifying thing is that they all take Mary, the Mother of Jesus and Mother of the Church as their model.
[Readings: Gen 3:9-15,20; or Acts 1:12-14; Ps 87:1-3,5-7; Jn 19:25-34]
