The Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, May 24, 2021

John 19, 25-34

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, 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 into his home. After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.  There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth.  When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.”

And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.  Now since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and they be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately Blood and water flowed out.

In 2018, Pope Francis ordered this memorial to be added to the Church calendar on the Monday after the Feast of Pentecost, which celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the Blessed .Virgin Mary, and the beginning of the Church’s ministry to the world.

After the Death of the Lord Jesus, St. John the Apostle took the Blessed Virgin into his care, although immediately after the Lord’s Death she seems to have stayed with the women, such as Mary of Clopas and Mary Magdalene, who followed him.  Tradition tells us that the Lord appeared to her first after his Resurrection, and that he was announced to her by an Angel just as an Angel had announced to her that God had chosen her for the Mother of his Son, years before.  This tradition inspired the ancient prayer, the Regina Caeli.  At Pentecost and afterwards she lived in Jerusalem with John, perhaps in the house that Jesus had used for his Last Supper, and which the Apostles also used as a meeting place.  Since we find John at Jerusalem around the year 48 A.D. when the question of circumcising Gentile converts to the Faith was decided, Mary would have still lived there.  A few years afterwards, John left the city to preach the Gospel in Asia Minor.  One tradition holds that John eventually settled in Ephesus, and that the Blessed Virgin’s earthly life ended there.  Another tradition has it that she remained the rest of her life in Jerusalem and that John only went to Asia Minor after she had departed this life.  It is said that as long as she lived in Jerusalem, she regularly walked the way on which her Son had been led to Golgotha and that every day she prayed at his tomb.  Whether in Jerusalem or in Ephesus, she prayed for the Church, and her prayers obtained great graces for the Apostles in their labors.

In recognizing the Blessed Virgin as the Mother of the Church, we recognize her as our own Mother, the Mother of all the faithful.  In giving her John the Apostle as her son, the Lord commended all the Apostles to her as her children, and all subsequent believers as well.  Caring for us from heaven with her prayers, she also inspires us with the perfection of her virtues, especially that of her purity, which enables her to love God as no human has ever loved him and to experience his infinite love as no other human could.  On the occasion of this feast, we ask her to pray for the Church: for the conversion of sinners, the defeat of her enemies, and the spread of the Faith.