Pentecost Monday May 20, 2024 – Mary mother of the Church – 10:30 Sanctuary ND du Laus – Jubilee Day
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In 2025 we will celebrate a great jubilee. Do you remember the jubilees of the year 2000, 1975, 1950. Who was able to participate? The day after the feast of Pentecost, Pope Francis established that on Pentecost Monday, we celebrate the feast of ‘Mary Mother of the Church’, the day on which in Laus we have the beautiful habit of celebrating marriage jubilees , consecration and ordination.
The title of ‘Mary mother of the Church’ unifies the double mystery of Mary and the Church. Cardinal de Lubac in his book ‘Meditations on the Church’ (page 275f) believes that for the intelligence of one the contemplation of the other is essential. We can thus notice that in tradition, the same biblical symbols are applied to the Church and to the Virgin: new Eve, ark of the Covenant, door to Heaven, tabernacle of the Most High, mystical city, the woman enemy of the serpent , etc. Very early on, Christians perceived that if Mary is the ideal figure of the Church, she is the mirror in which the entire Church is reflected. This is also the reason why when the Second Vatican Council speaks of the Virgin Mary, it does so in its constitution on the Church, ‘Lumen Gentium’, and has no specific text.
Why do we say that Mary is mother of the Church? There are two meanings, which we will see successively, then we will see how it impacts our different vocations.
Mary is mother of the Church first and foremost in the sense that she is the mother of each of the sons and daughters of the Church: “Here is your mother. » Mary’s motherhood towards Christ brings with it a spiritual motherhood towards all Christians. Saint John describes Jesus on the Cross giving us his mother. And soon after, the side opened by the spear delivers to the Church, with the water of baptism, the blood of sacrifice. If Saint John notes precisely this detail: “one of the soldiers with his spear pierced his side; and immediately there came out blood and water”, is that he wants to indicate the two sacraments, Baptism and Eucharist by which the church generates new adopted sons and daughters of God. Cardinal de Lubac notes that the motherhood of Mary on the Church is in all the image of the motherhood of the Church on Christians: Whom the Virgin gave birth, the Church still gives birth every day (p. 279s) One gave salvation to the peoples, the other gives the peoples to the Savior. One carried Life in her womb, the other carried it in the fountain of the sacrament.
Both maternities rest on the animation of the Holy Spirit: the Holy Spirit will come upon you, announces the angel to the Virgin, and on the Cross, “Jesus says: It is finished. Then, bowing his head, he handed over the spirit. » This last breath is the symbol of the Holy Spirit given to the Church and who will henceforth animate it and which it will transmit in the sacrament of Confirmation. It is also said that if Mary is a member of the Church, she is its first member, its principal member, a member in such an eminent sense, because she is also its mother. St Ephrem says that “it is the land where the Church was sown”.
So Mary is mother of the Church first and foremost in the sense that she is the mother of each of the sons and daughters of the Church.
Secondly, Mary is mother of the Church in the sense that she carried the entire emerging edifice of the Church, and still carries it: “All, with one heart, were diligent in prayer, with women, with Mary the mother of Jesus. » When Mary stood before the Cross, it was the whole Church which stood within her. Through her unshakeable faith, she constituted the Church of Jesus. Mary is constantly present with the disciples of yesterday and today.
Now let’s see how this impacts our different vocations.
Dear spouses, the link between Mary and married life is carried by her marital bond with Joseph. Saint Augustine, cited by John Paul II, writes that “in these father and mother of Christ all the goods of marriage were realized: offspring, fidelity, the sacrament (indissoluble). We know the offspring, which is the Lord Jesus himself; faithfulness, for there is no adultery; the sacrament (indissoluble), because there is no divorce. » The Pope further specifies: “When they analyze the nature of marriage, Saint Augustine like Saint Thomas constantly consider that it resides in the “indivisible union of minds”, in the “union of hearts”, in “consent” ; all elements which manifested themselves in an exemplary manner in this marriage (of Mary and Joseph). »
Dear consecrated persons, the link between Mary and Consecrated Life is supported by her exemplarity. Marie is a Source of lifestyle inspiration. She is an accomplished model of radicalism in the consecrated people’s walk in following Christ. Despite differences between the consecrated life and the Mother of the Lord, think of Mary’s spousal love for Joseph and Mary’s experience of motherhood, there is a deep consonance. In the event of the Incarnation, Mary was consecrated by the Spirit: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you. » By this consecration Mary becomes, as Saint John Paul II says: “the most totally consecrated to God” (Redemptionis donum, 17) Mary is also a woman totally faithful to her vocation, from the fiat of the Annunciation to the fiat of the foot of the cross. Finally Mary is “the first and the perfect disciple”, as Saint Paul VI will call her in his exhortation ‘Marialis Cultus’. She is truly the model of following Christ.
Dear brother priests, the link between Mary and the priest is carried by the Eucharist. As the maternal function of Mary is to give the world the God-Man, the maternal function of the Church culminates in the celebration of the Eucharist, which gives us Christ. Hence the link between the priest and Mary; Saint John Eudes saw in the priest “the image of the Virgin Mother”.
So dear jubilee friends, couples, consecrated persons and priests, may on this feast of Mary, mother of the Church, your anniversary of commitment be an opportunity to renew your confidence in Mary, but also in the Church. May it be an opportunity for you to give thanks and remember the One who inspired your vocation and never ceases to support it with his Holy Spirit, because God himself is faithful to his promises. What he did on the day of your final commitment, he does every day, to be at your side, and he sends his mother, his perfect disciple. And in this year of prayer, may it also be an opportunity to ask the Holy Spirit to renew you in your prayer, the foundation of your fidelity, which allows you to never fall into routine or activism. Like the apostles, let us be diligent in prayer, with Mary the mother of Jesus. Amen!
