Mother of the Church

Homily for the Memorial of Mary, the Mother of the Church

At the end of the third session of the Second Vatican Council, Pope St. Paul VI officially declared Mary to be the Mother of the Church. However, that title was actually first used by St. Ambrose in the fourth century when he wrote that because Mary was the Mother of Jesus Christ, and because the Church is the Body of Christ, it follows logically that Mary is the Mother of the Church. Sixteen centuries later, the title was officially bestowed on her. Each successor of Pope St. Paul VI has referred to this dogmatic teaching in his writing and in his homilies. With regard to the title "Mother of the Church", Pope St. John Paul II used his encyclical “Redemptoris Mater” as an opportunity to explain how the Blessed Virgin Mary's maternity of Christ's faithful derives from her maternity of Christ, as well as how Mary serves as a "type", or model, of the Church as a whole.

He wrote: “Mary is present in the Church as the Mother of Christ, and at the same time as that Mother whom Christ, in the mystery of the Redemption, gave to humanity in the person of the Apostle John. Thus, in her new motherhood in the Spirit, Mary embraces each and every one in the Church, and embraces each and every one through the Church. In this sense Mary, Mother of the Church, is also the Church's model. Indeed, as Paul VI hopes and asks, the Church must draw ‘from the Virgin Mother of God the most authentic form of perfect imitation of Christ. . . The faithful first called upon Mary with the title "Mother of God, Mother of the faithful, or our Mother to emphasize her personal relationship with each of her children. Later, because of the greater attention paid to the mystery of the Church and to Mary’s relationship to her, the Blessed Virgin began more frequently to be invoked as "Mother of the Church.”

Last year, on February 11, 2019, Pope Francis included the Memorial of Mary, the Mother of the Church, in the Roman Calendar. It is to be celebrated every year on the Monday following the Solemnity of Pentecost.

Mary is known by many titles as evidenced in the Litany of Loretto. Today we gather to remember that she is not only the Mother of God but our Mother as well.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator