NO GREATER LOVE: MARY AND THE CHURCH
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The Lord’s last act before His death on the Cross is recorded in St. John’s Gospel. “When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, ‘Woman behold your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” (Jn 19:26-27) Thus, Mary lived in the home of the “beloved disciple” as his mother. Scholars believe that this disciple was John, the author of the last Gospel.
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The three Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that the name of the mother of Jesus was Mary. However, John’s Gospel never refers to the mother of Jesus as Mary. She is referred to by a title such as “Woman” or the “Mother of the Lord”. This makes sense, since we do not refer to our own mothers by her first name. Rather, we use a title such as “mother”, “mom”, or “my mother”. John knew it would be very disrespectful to refer to the woman whom the Lord gave to him as his mother by her first name.
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On the Cross, Jesus addresses Mary as “woman”. Earlier, at the marriage feast at Cana, Mary tells Jesus that the wine had run out. Jesus tells her, “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” (Jn 2:4) Why did He call her “woman” and not “mother”?
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The book of Genesis tells how God had given Adam the power to give names to God’s creatures. (Gen 2:19-20) However, none of the creatures was a suitable helper for him. Then God formed Eve from one of the Adam’s ribs. (Gen 2:21-22). Adam says, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (Gen:2-23)
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Next, the fall of Man, through the wiles of “the serpent” is described. (Gen 3:1-19) In this description, Adam is called “the man” or “her husband” and Eve is called “the woman” or “his wife”. Only after the Fall does Adam call his wife Eve. “The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.” (Gen 3:20)
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Jesus calls His mother by the name which Adam gave to Eve before the Fall, “Woman”. Traditionally, Mary has been called “the new Eve” since she succeeded where Eve failed. Eve is our mother according to the flesh, but Mary is our mother according to the Spirit because of her Son. Mary did not convey the original sin of Eve to her Son, Jesus, since she was not burdened with original sin. The Church teaches that, unlike Eve, Mary did not sin throughout her life. She was conceived without sin and remained without sin her entire life. When Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother, St. Ann, God broke the power of original sin by not transmitting that sin to the child in her womb, Mary. When Jesus called Mary “woman” rather than “mother”, He was not denying the she was His mother. He was making a theological statement about her sinless nature.
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The “woman” appears again in the book of Revelation. “And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another sign appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; and she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.” (Rev 12:1-6)
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The “woman” refers to Mary, but also to Israel and the Church. The crown of twelve stars can mean the twelve tribes of Israel as well as the twelve apostles. Through her Son, Mary is the link between God’s chosen people, Israel, and the Church founded by her Son. Mary, who, according to tradition, was raised in the Jerusalem Temple, knew of the longing of Israel for the Messiah, but also knew that the Son whom she bore fulfilled that longing. Thus, the “woman” has a duel meaning both as a historical individual and as the Church. This is one reason why we use the pronoun “she” to refer to the Church.
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Pope Benedict, in Jesus of Nazareth, tells us about Mary and the Church. On the basis of the "corporate personality" model-in keeping with biblical thought-the early Church had no difficulty recognizing in the woman, on the one hand, Mary herself and, on the other hand, transcending time, the Church, bride and mother, in which the mystery of Mary spreads out into history.
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Just like Mary, the Woman, so too the beloved disciple is both a historical figure and a type for discipleship as it will always exist and must always exist. It is to the disciple, a true disciple in loving communion with the Lord, that the Woman is entrusted: Mary-the Church.
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These words spoken by Jesus as he hung upon the Cross continue to be fulfilled in many concrete ways. They are constantly repeated to both mother and disciple, and each person is called to relive them in his own life, as the Lord has allotted. Again and again the disciple is asked to take Mary as an individual and as the Church into his own home and, thus, to carry out Jesus' final instruction.
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The Lord’s final instruction before His Death conveyed a two-way responsibility. Mary is commanded by the Lord to be a mother to the beloved disciple. (St. John) The beloved disciple is commanded to treat Mary as his mother. Jesus was seeing that his widowed mother was taken care of in his absence. However, He was doing more than that. Just as Mary, as “woman”, stands for the Church, the beloved disciples, John, stands for all disciples. Just as Mary was a mother to John, the “Holy Mother Church” is mother to all disciples. The Lord recognized that John needed a mother for the tasks that He gave to him. We all need a mother for the tasks the Lord has given to us, and that mother is the Church.
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John was especially close to the Lord during His Life on earth. However, that closeness did not end with the Lord’s Ascension. John had in his home a mother, the “woman”, the Lord’s own mother, for around twenty years after the Lord’s Ascension. We do not know the influence Mary had on John’s Gospel, Epistles, and the book of Revelation. It must have been great.
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After her Assumption into Heaven, which, according to tradition, probably occurred around 57 AD, Mary has continued to act as a mother to all the disciples of her Son. For example, in 1858, Mary appeared at Lourdes, in France, to a fourteen-year-old girl, Bernadette. Mary tells St. Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” She was teaching Bernadette and the entire Church that she was conceived without original sin. Like Eve before the Fall, she was “Woman”. In addition, since 1858 there have been 72 officially recognized healing miracles from the spring of water which appeared at the site of the apparitions. At Fatima in 1917, and La Salette in1846, Our Lady asked for repentance for the sins which were offending God. She has continued to be our mother both through her apparitions and through the Church which her Son founded.
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While the Lord commanded Mary to be a mother to John and to all of the Lord’s disciples, He also commanded John to take Mary as his mother which he understood to mean that he was to take her into his home. Now, Mary’s home is in heaven, but she also has a home here on earth which is the Church which her Son founded, the Catholic Church. In the Church calendar there are many solemnities, feasts, and memorials in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary and more are continually added.
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In 2018, Pope Francis added a memorial in honor of “Our Lady, Mother of the Church”. This memorial is celebrated on the day after Pentecost and is rooted in the Lord telling Mary and John that they are mother and son. John represents the whole Church, and thus, Mary is our mother also.
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In 2019, Pope Francis also added an optional memorial, celebrated on December 10, to Our Lady of Loreto. The Holy House in Nazareth, where Jesus grew up with Mary and Joseph, was miraculously transported to Loreto, Italy during the crusades.
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These celebrations, both new and old, honor the contribution Our Lady made to our salvation which the Lord Jesus gave us. When the Protestant Reformation, in the sixteenth century, rejected the authority of the Catholic Church, it also downplayed the Church’s connection to Mary. They had to do this, since if Protestants continued to honor the Mother of Jesus, they would soon return to the Church which was so intimately connected to Mary.
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When the Lord instructed Mary to be the mother of St. John, and St. John to be a son to Mary, this reciprocal relationship is manifested when the Church refers to Mary by the title “Our Lady”. The title “Lady” seems to be modern terminology for the biblical title “Woman”. She is “Our” Lady since her home is the Church. However, is all this honor given to Mary, the woman of Nazareth, excessive?
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When we consider of Whom she is the mother, the answer must be “No”! – Jim Nugent, CfP