Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

Lectionary: 572A

The man called his wife Eve because she became the mother of all the living.

From the day the Lord rose from the dead Christians have searched the Hebrew Scriptures to make sense of what happened. We find innumerable connections – or links – to people, incidents, images, teachings, and themes of the “Old Testament.” These points of reference assure us the Lord of History saw and intended everything that happened, even the crucifixion of Jesus.

The eyewitnesses of Jesus’s resurrection knew immediately this was a Gospel for the entire world and every nation. And they knew early on that, if Eve is the mother of all the living, Mary is the Mother of the Church. The Church should announce her adoptive maternity to every creature on earth.

The title Mother of all the living is unfortunately stained by the sin of Adam and Eve; and the patriarchal tradition has been particularly lazy and irresponsible in blaming the woman. John Milton, author of the epic Paradise Lost, went so far as to suggest Adam’s sin was actually marital fidelity to his reckless wife. Rather than disowning Eve, the first husband ate the forbidden fruit so that she would not face God’s wrath alone.

How can I live without you, how forgo
Thy sweet converse and love so dearly joined,
To live again in these wild woods forlorn?
Should God create another Eve, and I
Another rib afford, yet loss of thee
Would never from my heart.

What a guy!

The English poet ignored the intentional irony of the text. The Divine Author of Genesis clearly demonstrated Adam’s greater sin as he blamed both God and Eve for what he had done. We heard it again this morning: “The woman whom you put here with me; she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”

[Milton’s interest throughout the poem is to celebrate the English Empire, white supremacy, and male dominance. It is a view especially blind to irony. Samuel Johnson said of it, “Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again.”]

Mary's title, Mother of the Church, emphasizes the incarnational, corporeal relationship of Christians to our Savior. It is not simply a spiritual relationship. We have died to ourselves in baptism; we have eaten his flesh and drank his blood; we have been forgiven by the compassionate touch of the priest; we have been healed by consecrated oil. Our sacraments do not recognize a divide between physical and spiritual experience. The medical sciences are proving the distinction is extremely artificial. As Jews always knew, the Christian belongs heart, mind, body, and soul to Jesus and his church, as he insisted.

The Gospel of Mary’s Motherhood delights us. Her appearances in scripture are few but vastly important. Her presence throughout our history, with shrines in every country, reinforces God’s deathless presence. Her assumption body and soul into heaven, like the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, has reassured us of our destiny. We shall be with her and the saints forever.

Her sorrows also comfort us. Whose can compare with hers, who stood at the cross as her only begotten son died? I was ordained at her shrine in Carey Ohio and witnessed the comfort Mary gave to thousands of pilgrims.

During this time of stress and grief we thank God for Mary, the Mother of the Church. And we pray with her Church:

Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of the Angels and Mother of the Americas.
We fly to you today as your beloved children.
We ask you to intercede for us with your Son, as you did at the wedding in Cana.

Pray for us, loving Mother,
and gain for our nation and world,
and for all our families and loved ones,
the protection of your holy angels,
that we may be spared the worst of this illness.

For those already afflicted,
we ask you to obtain the grace of healing and deliverance.
Hear the cries of those who are vulnerable and fearful,
wipe away their tears and help them to trust.

In this time of trial and testing,
teach all of us in the Church to love one another and to be patient and kind.
Help us to bring the peace of Jesus to our land and to our hearts.

We come to you with confidence,
knowing that you truly are our compassionate mother,
health of the sick and cause of our joy.

Shelter us under the mantle of your protection,
keep us in the embrace of your arms,
help us always to know the love of your Son, Jesus. Amen.

From the USCCB website