Mother and Member: Mary and the Birth of the Church

Mother and Member: Mary and the Birth of the Church Today’s Readings explore the profound mystery and significance of the Blessed Virgin Mary . . . . . . as both Mother of God and Mother of the Church, whose motherhood is unlike any other. Mary is presented by God as the answer to the fall of Eve . . . a woman who, through divine grace, gives birth to life rather than death. While Eve’s disobedience ushered in sin, exile, and mortality, Mary’s faithful “yes” to God ushers in the Savior and a new family of redeemed sons and daughters. At the foot of the Cross, Jesus entrusts the beloved disciple to Mary, symbolically extending her motherhood to all believers. She is the City of God, the dwelling place where God’s people find spiritual refuge. Through her, by the power of the Holy Spirit, believers are adopted into divine life and the Church is born. Mary’s motherhood, then, is not only physical but deeply spiritual and universal . . . she is both Mother and Member of the Church, nurturing believers toward eternal life. Listen to: Mother and Member: Mary and the Birth of the Church ------------------------------------------------------------------ A Quote from the Homily To understand Our Lady, one must be willing to pause a moment and consider a pair of impossibilities because the essence of her person, the essence of how the church celebrates her, hinges on our ability to recognize that the impossible by the working of God does in fact become possible. And one of the privileged places where that happens is the life of the blessed mother. She is mother and she is virgin. She gives birth and remains a virgin. She is perpetually virgin and yet she is gloriously mother. She is a creature and yet she bears within her womb, her creator, and brings him to human birth. A creature giving birth to her creator. A mother. And a virgin, and then mysteriously as well. Our Lady is a mother of the church. The mother of the church, and yet she’s also a member of the church. Virgin and mother. Mother and member, a creature who gives birth. To her creator. Note how mysteriously wonderful. All of this is possible only because of the divine agency of Almighty God, and it is these things that are enclosed within the readings that are presented to us today on the feast day of The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of The Church. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Pentecost: Stain Glass: The Church of St. Therese of Lisieux – Roman Catholic Parish in Montauk, New York ------------------------------------------------------------------ Gospel Reading: John 19: 25-34 First Reading: Genesis 3: 9-15, 20