Devotion for today: Mary, Mother of the Church

Scripture for meditation: John 19: 25-27

Near the cross of Jesus there stood his mother, his mother’s sister Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. Seeing his mother there with the disciple whom he loved, Jesus said to his mother, “Woman, there is your son.” In turn he said to the disciple, “There is your mother.” From that hour onward, the disciple took her into his care.

Fr. Robert Barron tells us:  Catholic theology has drawn a further implication from Mary’s status as Mother of God, namely, her role as Mother of the Church. If she is the one through whom Christ was born, and if the Church is Christ’s mystical body, then she must be, in a very real sense, the Mother of the Church. She is the one through whom Jesus continues to be born in the hearts of those who believe. This is not to confuse her with the Savior, but it is to insist on her mission as mediator and intercessor. At the close of the great prayer the Hail Mary, we Catholics ask Mary to pray for us “now and at the hour of our death,” signaling that throughout one’s life Mary is the privileged channel through which the grace of Christ flows into the mystical body. Here again, the principle of God’s noncompetitive transcendence is apposite. God is not threatened by his creation. On the contrary, he delights in drawing secondary causes into the dense complexity of his providential plan, granting to them the honor of cooperating with him and his designs. The handmaid of the Lord, who is the Mother of the Church, is the humblest of these humble instruments – and therefore the most effective. Hans Urs von Balthasar has argued that the Marian form is the matrix of all Church life and mystery. He means that her fiat (be it done to me according to your word) opens up the creaturely space within which God can work. Mary’s freedom, surrendered utterly to God, becomes the condition for the possibility of all forms of mission and outreach in the life of the Church. The Petrine ministry of office, the Johannine ministry of prayer and contemplation, and the Pauline ministry of theologizing and evangelization – the kingly, priestly, and prophetic offices, if you will – are all finally reducible to the Marian form. This is why in much medieval and early modern Christian art Mary is often depicted gathering all manner of life under her protective mantle. This is not sentimental piety, but a robust presentation of Mary, the Mother of the Church (Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith, Fr. Robert Barron, Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, 2011).

Prayer: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.

My thoughts: The Catholic Church today is under great attack, just as it has been throughout history. Caring only to bring all people to Christ, the Church has faithfully followed God's commands and teachings. It has always had opposition, since the world's ways are not necessarily God's ways. How wonderful it is to know Mary, our Mother, is the guardian of our way. Again, out of his unfathomable mercy, Jesus gave us his Mother as guardian of the Church. She covers us with her protective mantle, gives us strength and courage, and reminds us that none of us was put on this earth to fulfill our own plan, but to fulfill the plan of God. Just as a good earthly mother encourages her children to always have the strength to stand up against the temptation to "be like everyone else" and cave on doing the right thing, Mary encourages the Church leaders to follow her Son and "Do whatever He tells you." Just as Rome and other self-obsessed civilizations passed away, so, too, will ours. The Catholic Church, however, has always, and will always, stand firm. With Christ as our head, and Mary as our Mother, we need never be afraid.

Our prayer to God: Today, let us pray for Church leaders who are facing phenomenal opposition in speaking the truth. Let us ask Mary to hold them close to her motherly heart and give them the strength to continue to speak out on issues in opposition to the will of God. Then, let us ask her to do the same for us. When times were bad for God’s people in the Old Testament, He sent messengers and prophets to bring them back to him. He is doing that for us today. His own Mother has appeared so many times in so many places to ask her children to turn away from evil and come back to her Son. Let us ask Mary to find the way for us to become a beacon for the people around us, a beacon of light and love.