Question: Anny  Joseph

How is Mary the Mother of Church and what does it mean to us?

Answer: Mohan Doss SVD

The Holy Father Pope Francis established on 3 March 2018 a new feast for the Catholic Church devoted to Mary as the “Mother of the Church,” to be celebrated on the Monday after Pentecost,  as a way to foster genuine Marian piety and the maternal sense of the Church. The memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, will be celebrated this year on May 21.

In 1964, at the close of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), Blessed Pope Paul VI formally declared Mary as the “Mother of the Church,” and invited Catholics to invoke Mary’s help under that title. During the jubilee year of 1975, the Vatican produced a special Mass, called a “votive Mass,” for Mary under the title of “Blessed Mary, the Mother of the Church,” (Beata Maria Ecclesiae Matre) and also approved inserting the title into various prayers in honour of Mary.Thereafter, some countries, dioceses and religious congregations were granted permission by the Holy See to add this celebration to their particular calendars. With the new decree, devotion to Mary as Mother of the Church now becomes an approved celebration for the universal Catholic Church.

Honoring Mary as the Mother of the Church on the day after Pentecost also highlights for Catholics that Mary was present with the disciples on Pentecost, praying with them as the Holy Spirit descended. Cardinal Robert Sarah, the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in his explanation of the decision of Pope Francis, said that Mary “from the awaiting of the Spirit at Pentecost, has never ceased to take motherly care of the pilgrim Church on earth.” Cardinal Sarah added that honoring Mary as the Mother of the Church “will help us to remember that growth in the Christian life must be anchored to the Mystery of the Cross, to the oblation of Christ in the Eucharistic Banquet and to the Mother of the Redeemer and Mother of the Redeemed, the Virgin who makes her offering to God.”

The decree by the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, released on 3 March rightly observed that the veneration of Mary as the Mother of the Church has ancient roots in Catholic tradition, reaching back to St Augustine and St Leo the Great. The title, the document says, is rooted in New Testament accounts about Mary.

The objective of this article is to illustrate the observation of the Vatican decree that recognition of Mother Mary’s maternal care for the Church and for believers already spanned centuries.

The Maternal Sense of the Church

The offertory prayer on the feast of the Annunciation of the Lord (March 25) in the Roman Missal goes as follows: “Be pleased, almighty God, to accept your Church’s offering, so that she, who is aware that her beginnings lie in the Incarnation of your Only Begotten Son, may rejoice to celebrate his mysteries on the Solemnity, Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.” Thus, the Church has been aware and proclaiming her deep rooted faith through her worship that she saw her own humble beginnings and as well the Blessed Virgin Mary as her own mother in Mary’s free response of obedience to God.

Pope Paul VI, in his Apostolic Exhortation Signum Magnum (Part I, Par. 5) said: “Mary, as soon as she was reassured by the voice of the Angel Gabriel that God had chosen her as the unblemished Mother of His only-begotten Son, unhesitatingly gave her consent to a work which would have engaged all the energies of her fragile nature and declared: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word” (Lk 1:38). From that moment, she consecrated all of herself to the service not only of the heavenly Father and of the Word incarnate, who had become her Son, but also to all mankind.”

Just as the divine motherhood is an essential factor determining what moved the Virgin Mary to act always and in all of her life – be it at the Wedding in Cana (Jn 2:1-11) or at the foot of the Cross (Jn 19:25-27) as a humble woman and as the Mother of God, so her spiritual maternity also moves her to act always and in all matters as Mother of the redeemed because she is Mother of the Church. Her presence in the mystery of Christ and of the Church is at every moment a maternal presence, a maternal mediation.

The Second Vatican Council document, The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium, No. 61) teaches in this regard: “The Blessed Virgin … in the designs of divine providence was the gracious Mother of the divine Redeemer here on earth, and above all others and in a singular way generous associate and humble handmaid of the Lord. She conceived, brought forth, and nourished Christ, she presented Him to the Father in the Temple, shared her Son’s sufferings as He died on the Cross. Thus, in a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Saviour in restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a Mother to us in the order of grace.” Hans Urs von Balthasar, a Swiss theologian, underscores this aspect from another aspect and calls Mary as the very ‘Memory’ of the Church: ‘No one has a similar unbroken memory from the first moment of the Incarnation to the Cross, to the taking down from the Cross, to the burial and resurrection.’

From early times, Patristic theology perceived the mission of the Church as the continuation of Mary’s motherhood. For instance, Hippolytus (170-235), one of the most important third century theologians in the Church in Rome wrote: “The Church never ceases to give birth to the Logos (The Word). We read that (Mary) brought forth a man child who was to rule the nations, the perfect man that is Christ, the child of God, both God and man. And the Church brings forth the Christ when she teaches the nations.” Origen (184-253), another significant Christian theologian of the third century, in one of his Christmas sermons preached: “Hear this, shepherds of the churches, shepherds of God: All through time the angel comes down and announces to you that today, and every day, the redeemer is born, Christ the Lord.” For St Augustine, the birth of Christ in the Church, in analogy to His birth from Mother Mary, is a frequent theme.

Affectionately addressing Mother Mary as the Mother of the Church conveys also an appropriate vision of the Church, important for the contemporary time, with her over-institutional structure and work.  Joseph Neuner, an Austrian born Jesuit-theologian who spent all of his life in India, wrote: “All activities in the Church, preaching, pastoral and social care and sacramental ministry are merely channels of God’s own transforming presence and power. There can be a Church with a loud voice, organized activities and solemn liturgy, while God is absent.”

Mary who believed God’s message, responded to it obediently and heroically, gave God’s Word its earthly life and offered the Word-made-flesh to the World, continues to inspire and strengthen, as the Mother of the Church, everyone who wishes to follow the footprints of her son. Pope Francis concludes his Apostolic Exhortation “On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World” (Gaudete et Exsultate, No. 176) saying that Mary “lived the Beatitudes of Jesus as none other. She is that woman who rejoiced in the presence of God, who treasured everything in her heart, …. She teaches us the way of holiness and she walks ever at our side. She does not let us remain fallen and at times she takes us into her arms without judging us. Our converse with her consoles, frees and sanctifies us. Mary our Mother does not need a flood of words. She does not need us to tell her what is happening in our lives. All we need do is whisper, time and time again: “Hail Mary….”

Mary: The Mother of Church – A Synthesis of the Teaching of Church

The title, “Mary the Mother of the Church” sums up and synthesizes a well-known doctrine, acknowledged by the Church since the Middle Ages, and for many centuries expressly taught by the living Magisterium. From the time of St Irenaeus, and even before, Mary has been called Mother of the Church. The life and Tradition of the Church are an inexhaustible treasury of documentation and testimony, recognizing and proclaiming the Blessed Virgin Mary “Mother of the Church.” The Popes, from St Leo the Great, Blessed Pius IX, Pope Pius XVII, to St John Paul II, Popes Benedict XVI and Francis, have entrusted the life and activities of the Church to the Virgin Mary as her Mother, pleading for and asking as well her maternal protection and help in the most difficult and adverse circumstances of the Church’s history. Mary as a loving and powerful Mother has always protected the Church and Christians.

Mary as the Mother of the Church is also the model of the Church, because the essential character of a mother makes her ever an example, and for her own children potentially the most perfect example. If she has given them their very being, it is only normal her example should exert a profound influence on everything which pertains to their perfection. As the old maxim goes, ‘Children resemble their mothers’ (Filiimatrizant), it is but proper that their mother be their example and model, in the same way,  Mary, our Mother and the Mother of the Church, is our example and model.