Memory of the Mother of the Lord

Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of the Church.

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John 19,25-34

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, 'Woman, this is your son.' Then to the disciple he said, 'This is your mother.' And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. After this, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed and, so that the scripture should be completely fulfilled, he said: I am thirsty. A jar full of sour wine stood there; so, putting a sponge soaked in the wine on a hyssop stick, they held it up to his mouth. After Jesus had taken the wine he said, 'It is fulfilled'; and bowing his head he gave up his spirit. It was the Day of Preparation, and to avoid the bodies' remaining on the cross during the Sabbath -- since that Sabbath was a day of special solemnity -- the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away. Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then of the other. When they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

After celebrating the great feast of Pentecost, which marked the beginning of the Church in the world, the liturgy invites us to contemplate Mary with the title of mother of the Church. We could say that this maternity is evident already under the cross, when Jesus himself says to Mary: "Woman, he is your son" and to the disciples:" Here is your mother." These words of Jesus speak to each of us, we who are so inclined to be safe, to avoid problems and to distance ourselves from suffering and not to deal with the challenges of evil. May be on that day Mary understood the truth pf the words she had heard from Simeon: "A sword will pierce your own soul too" (Lk 2:35) the same way the sword had pierced Jesus' side. We could say instead that wherever a community of disciples is formed under the cross, the sign of all human suffering, there the Church is. It is necessary to stand and pause on the many calvaries of the world, beside so many crucified, to receive the consolation of finding a mother and a son, to have brothers and sisters, who do not abandon and do not leave alone. "From that moment" the Gospel says, "the disciple took her into his house." To take Jesus' mother in our house and in our heart means to be with her under the many crosses of the world as a sign of hope and beginning of a new life, of a new family which is forming. The icon of the crucifixion, with Mary and John under the cross, becomes the model of the Church ad of every Christian community.