Giovanni Bigotto is now Postulator for the causes of saints in the General House of the Marist Brothers.
The title, « Mary Mother of the Church » was given official recognition by Pope Paul VI when he closed the third session of Vatican II on November 21, 1964: « Mary, Mother of the Church, that is, Mother of the entire People of God, the faithful as well as their pastors. » At the same time Paul VI added, “Henceforward, may the Blessed Virgin be ever more honored and invoked by the Christian people under this very appealing title.” (AA 1964, 37).
Mary bears within her the whole Church in embryo, the Christian people’s full identity. When she bears the Messiah, she is pregnant with all those who will become sons in her Son. This truth is revealed at the foot of the Cross; there Jesus says that his mother is the mother of the Beloved Disciple. All true disciples are beloved of Jesus and have Mary as their mother.
At the first stage of salvation, Joseph hears the message, « Joseph, receive Mary into your home!». Then, at the hour of salvation, the disciple hears the Savior’s words, “ ‘Behold, your mother!’ and from that hour the disciple took her into his home!” John 19:27. Like Joseph, like the Beloved Disciple, the Church at its very beginning, welcomes the Mother of Jesus, as it awaits the Holy Spirit. Mary is present in order, as it were, to bestow her maternal privilege upon the young mother-Church about to be born on Pentecost. Two thousand years later, Mary is still Mother, one who is loved by God’s people. The Church reverently receives the one who is Mother of all the disciples, the faithful as well as their pastors.
But what meaning, what realities, what implications might this title, Mary Mother of the Church, contain for a member of the Marist family?
In its different branches, the Marist family is like a miniature church; diverse realities of the Church are reflected in the Marist family. As the entire body of the Lord is contained in a fragment of the consecrated host, so in each family raised up by the Holy Spirit there is the whole Church. Yet from the time of our Founders, we Marists have always claimed that we are the Work of Mary, that she has done everything for us, that we are her family, that she is Good Mother to each member of the family and of the whole family as well. We can attest to one truth: we are the Work of Mary; she gives us our special character; our identity is Marial.
Multiple implications lie in such a truth. By grace and by ascetical practices, we must accept the qualities that come from our Mother as a heritage, qualities which she reveals in the way she welcomes Jesus, in her openness to others, and in her maternal intercession in the Church. Mary is the one who welcomes Jesus, bears Jesus, gives Jesus, shows Jesus to others, looks for Jesus, directs people towards Jesus, reveals Jesus, treasures in her heart the words and deeds of Jesus. She stands at the foot of Jesus’ Cross; she prays with the Church of Jesus. She is handmaid of Jesus, mother of Jesus, disciple of Jesus. Here lies the entire vocational dynamism of the Church and of the Marist person, their entire apostolic outreach and the hearth where they warm their one passion which is Jesus himself.
As Marists inheriting the maternal dimensions of Mary means that, in spirit and in action we must love the Church and bring it to fuller birth in its members. We ought to experience in ourselves an intense motherly sentiment for God’s People. We ought to be people who allow Mary’s motherly sentiments to live in our hearts, our feelings, our actions done in a compassionately human way. We must develop those aspects of our Marist identity that have motherly qualities. Mary is our mother so that we might be motherly in our turn. Our perspectives ought always to be fixed upon Mary and upon the Church, upon Mary and upon the children of the Church who are always to be brought to fuller birth. Like Mary, we are in the Church, children of the Church. Yet we are also responsible for the Church. Having a soul such as a mother has, places us at the wellspring of the apostolate, and shapes the way in which our apostolate is carried out.
Preface: Mary, Mother of the Church
Father, all-powerful and ever-living God,
we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks;
we especially praise you and proclaim your glory
as we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary.
She received your Word in the purity of her heart,
and, conceiving in her virgin womb,
gave birth to our Savior
and so nurtured the Church at its very beginning.
She accepted God§s parting gift of love
as she stood beneath the cross
and so became the mother
of all those who were brought to life through the death of her only Son.
She joined her prayers with those of the apostles,
as together they awaited the coming of your Spirit,
and so became the perfect pattern of the Church at prayer.
Raised to the glory of heaven,
she cares for the pilgrim Church with a mother§s love,
following its progress homeward
until the day of the Lord dawns in splendor.
Now with all the angels and saints,
we proclaim your glory
and join in their unending hymn of praise:
Holy, holy...
|
