Behold Your Mother!

Monday, June 9, 2025

Mary, Mother of the Church

Gen 3:9-15, 20; Jn 19:25-34

Today, we celebrate the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church. 

The readings help us with insightful parallels between Eve, the mother of all the living, and Mary, the new Eve and the mother of the Church.

While Eve’s ‘yes’ to the serpent brought death, Mary’s ‘yes’ (Fiat – Let it be done to me according to Your Will) brings life in Christ. The protoevangelium shows that God always had the plan of salvation in mind and informed us of His plan as soon as sin entered the world (Gen 3:15). Thus, in Genesis, when God proclaims enmity between the serpent and the woman, we see the promise of a woman whose offspring will defeat evil. In John, we find the fulfillment of that promise in Mary, whose son Jesus defeats evil through his death. This is why, while we understand Eve as the ‘Mother of all the living’ in the natural order, we hail Mary as the ‘Mother of the Church’ in the order of grace, because Mary’s obedience reversed Eve’s disobedience and brought redemption to the world through her son Jesus Christ. 

The Gospel text from John further advances the idea of Mary as the Mother of the Church. The scene of crucifixion helps us understand yet another parallel between Eve and Mary. Just as Eve came from Adam’s side, the Church is born from Christ’s side. Mary’s presence at the foot of the cross shows her not merely as a witness but as a mother at the birth of the Church. For this reason, Jesus’ ‘Behold your son’ and ‘Behold your mother’ transcend a personal entrustment in that Mary is made a spiritual mother of all disciples, who are again represented by the beloved disciple. In this beautiful transfer, Jesus makes sure that Mary is entrusted to the Church and the Church to her. The feast itself, celebrated on the Monday after Pentecost, where Mary was present with all the disciples, links her intimately to the birth of the Church and honors her fidelity to Jesus at every crucial moment in his life. 

Hence, at the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church, we celebrate Mary’s spiritual motherhood and seek God’s grace to imitate her model of discipleship. 

Let us pray that we may walk in the footsteps of our Spiritual Mother to reach Jesus. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar