The meaning of the feast of Mother of the Church

From the address of Pope Paul VI, in the Conclusion of the Third Session of the Second Vatican Council (November 21, 1964).This is a title [Mary, Mother of the Church], Venerable Brothers, certainly not unknown to Christian piety. On the contrary, the faithful and the whole Church like to invoke Mary chiefly by this designation of Mother. This name is certainly in keeping with a true devotion to Mary, for it is firmly grounded in the dignity with which Mary was endowed as Mother of the Word of God incarnate.Indeed, just as divine Maternity is the cause why Mary has a relationship absolutely unique with Christ and is present in the work of human salvation accomplished by Christ, so too, above all, in divine Maternity, the relations that exist between Mary and the Church persist. For Mary is the Mother of Christ, who, as soon as he assumed human nature in her virgin womb, joining it as Head to his Mystical Body, which is the Church. Therefore, Mary, as Mother of Christ, must be considered also the Mother of all the faithful and Pastors, that is, of the Church.This is the reason why, though unworthy and weak, we raise our eyes to her with a confident soul and kindled by filial love. She who one day gave us Jesus, source of supernatural grace, cannot fail to direct her maternal office to the Church, especially in this time when the Bride of Christ is proposing to carry out with greater zeal her salutary mission.To nourish and strengthen this confidence we are led by the very close ties that exist between our heavenly Mother and humanity. Although she has been enriched by God with very generous and wonderful gifts to make her a Mother worthy of the Word incarnate, Mary is close to us. Like us, she is also a daughter of Adam and, therefore, our sister by our common human nature. By the future merits of Christ she was immune from original sin, but to the divine gifts she received she added personally the example of her perfect faith, to the point of meriting the evangelical praise: “Blessed are you who believed.”In this mortal life, she embodied the perfect form of a disciple of Christ, reflecting all virtues and fully embodying the beatitudes proclaimed by Christ Jesus, such that the whole Church may receive from the Virgin Mother of God the example by which Christ should be perfectly imitated.After these words of Paul VI, we can add that the Immaculate Conception presents Mary as the “principle of the Church.” Her Maternity, as Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church, already incorporated in Christ with the fullness of grace from her conception. At the moment of her motherhood, Mary enters into a more vivid contact with the source from which she had already secretly drawn nourishment. The Church, already constituted, though limitably and invisibly, with the Immaculate Conception, finds in this point a more vivid foundation. Jesus and Mary are not merely a society of mother and son, but a society of the saving God and the redeemed humanity. It is the divine will that all men be called to this incorporation. As Mother of Christ, head of the Mystical Body, Mary acquires a special relationship with all members of this Body. She becomes their Mother in a radical sense.The always Virgin Mary, whom we venerate as Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church, is a new title in relation to the documents of the Magisterium. Chapter VIII of Lumen Gentium deliberately avoided this title. It was necessary to specify the exact perspective from which to attribute this title to Mary, since it is also a figurative use. Indeed, if it is the Church as a whole, the image is correct. If, on the other hand, it is the Church as a community that preexists individuals, then the Church is Mother. Mary is only a figure of this.A solemn title proclaimed by Paul VI on December 21, 1964, in his closing speech of the third session of the Second Vatican Council: “Mary, as the Mother of Christ, is also the Mother of the faithful and of all shepherds, that is, of the Church.” On December 8, 1975, the eighth anniversary of the conclusion of the Council, he reaffirmed: “If Mary is indeed the Mother of Christ according to the flesh, and Christ is the Head of the Church, His Mystical Body, Mary spiritually is the Mother of this Body, to which She herself belongs, in an eminent way, as daughter and sister.”Paul VI started from the consideration of the organic unity of the Mystical Body of Christ: Mary, generating the Head, in a certain way also generates all the members, a doctrine already present in the preaching of the Fathers.St. Augustine expresses it in these terms: “She is truly Mother of the members (of Christ), because She cooperated with charity in the birth of the faithful of the Church, who are the members of that Body” (De Sancta Virginitate, PL 40, 339).St. Leo expresses the same doctrine: “The birth of Christ is the origin of the Christian people, the birth of the Head is also the birth of the Body.”Lumen Gentium, without giving Mary this title, confirms it indirectly when speaking of her motherhood regarding grace: “Conceiving Christ, generating Him, nourishing Him, She collaborated in restoring the supernatural life of souls. Therefore, She was Mother to us in the order of grace.”This vision of the Marian mystery is present in the “

Maria is the image and the beginning of the Church symbolized by Jerusalem, in the midst of which the Lord dwells. In this perspective, the Mother of Jesus is prefigured by the city of Jerusalem, the spiritual capital of all who believe. Everyone can say, turning to Jerusalem: All my springs are in you. And of each one it can be said: This man was born there. As in Jerusalem, the historical center of God’s works, every believer can also affirm this about Mary.

A final aspect of the relationship between Mary and the Church. We experience her intercession, for it is through her that we receive the Author of life. The Second Vatican Council also states: This motherhood of Mary in the economy of grace continues uninterruptedly from her consent at the Annunciation, which she faithfully gave and maintained unshaken at the Cross, to the eternal completion of all the elect. Indeed, after her assumption into heaven, she did not abandon this salvific mission but, through her multiform intercession, continues to obtain for us the gifts of eternal salvation. In fact, no creature can be compared to the incarnate and redeeming Word. But, just as Christ’s priesthood is participated in various ways by ministers and the faithful people, and just as God’s goodness, being one, is diffused in various ways among created beings, so the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather fosters diverse cooperations on the part of creatures, which participate in this unique source. (Lumen Gentium 62.)

Every prayer of the Church, invoking Mary, appeals to her motherhood, acquired by giving birth to the Author of life. Each prayer asks for her continued maternal help. There is a hymn in the Church’s tradition that has a particularly insightful phrase that may illuminate this path of discovering Mary as Mother of the Church: the Ave Maris Stella, which proclaims: Show thyself, Mother, reminding everyone of the ways in which each one can become sister and mother of her Son.

Let us read:

Ave maris stella, Dei Mater alma, atque semper Virgo, félix cæli porta.	Ave, star of the sea, Fecunda Mother of God, Who remained Virgin, Sweet gate of Heaven
Sumens illud Ave Gabrielis ore, funda nos in pace, mutans Hevæ nomen.	You who heard that Ave From Gabriel’s mouth, Found us in peace, Change the name of Eve.
Solve vincla rei, profer lumen cæcis, mala mostra pelle, bona cuncta posce.	Loosen the chains of kings, Proclaim light to the blind, Show the evil as good, Ask for all that is good.

Set free the sinners from their chains,Send light to the blind,Drive away all evil from us,And obtain for us all good.
Show thyself to be our Mother, Hear our prayers through you, Who, for our salvation, became Your Son.	Show that you are our Mother:By you, let our prayers be heardThose who, to save us,Wished to be Your Son.
Unique Virgin, Gentle among all, Set us free from our sins, Make us meek and chaste.	O Virgin without equal,The sweetest of all,Setting us free from our sins,Make us gentle and pure.
Grant us a pure life A safe journey, That, seeing Jesus,We may always be with Him.	Concede us a pure life,Make our paths safe:That, in the presence of Jesus,We may exult eternally.
Praise be to God the Father, Greatest honor to Christ, Glory to the Holy Spirit, One honor to the Trinity.	Let God the Father, Son and Holy SpiritBe praised and glorified.Equal honor be given to the three divine Persons.