Monday after Pentecost: Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church

O Mary, Mother of the Church, Pray for us

Readings: Acts 1:12–14; Jn. 19:25–34

On November 21, 1964, at the conclusion of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, the Blessed Virgin Mary was declared the “Mother of the Church, that is, of all the Christian people, both the faithful and the clergy, who call her the most loving Mother”.

Therefore, the Holy See, on the occasion of the Holy Year of Reconciliation in 1975, proposed a votive mass in honour of the Blessed Mary, Mother of the Church, and subsequently included it in the Roman Missal. The Holy See also gave the faculty to add the invocation of this title in the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1980.

Carefully considering how the promotion of this devotion can favour the growth of the maternal sense of the Church, as well as of genuine Marian piety, in 2018, Pope Francis directed that the memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, be celebrated on Monday after Pentecost, which is today.

Indeed, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of the Church, the Mother of Christians. In the gospel reading of today from Jn. 19:25–34, while Jesus was hanging on the cross, He handed His mother over to John and the Apostles — the men he gathered and instructed to carry on his mission to the entire world — to be their Mother.

Then, the first reading of today from Acts 1:12–14 showed us Mary playing the role of a Mother to the early Church that gathered in the upper room and waiting prayerfully for the descent of the Holy Spirit promised by her son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is, however, strange and unfortunate that the people who are ever ready to address the wives of their ‘men of God’ or their female pastors/prophetesses as “Mummy” of their Christian communities are the same people who become enraged when the Mother of Jesus, their Lord and Saviour, is referred to as the Mother of those who follow His ways on Earth. It is even more unfortunate that those who believe that the respect they owe their pastors should be extended to their wives are offended when Catholics honour the woman who gave birth to Jesus, the woman who was greatly favoured by God, the woman whose praise the angel Gabriel sang.

Whatever one’s feelings about the Blessed Virgin Mary are, the fact that she is Jesus’ mother remains unchanged. And if she is Jesus’ mother, she is also our mother and deserves the highest level of respect from us, because any disrespect to the mother of Jesus is disrespect to Jesus.

As we continue our May devotion, let us continue to call on the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Church, to intercede for us, for our families and for the Church. Amen

Fr. Isaac C. Chima