MAY 21, 2018 : MEMORIAL OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH

Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
Lectionary: 572A

Reading 1GN 3:9-15, 20

After Adam had eaten of the tree,
the LORD God called to him and asked him, "Where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden;
but I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid myself."
Then he asked, "Who told you that you were naked?
You have eaten, then,
from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!"
The man replied, "The woman whom you put here with me—
she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it."
The LORD God then asked the woman,
"Why did you do such a thing?"
The woman answered, "The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it."

Then the LORD God said to the serpent:
"Because you have done this, you shall be banned
from all the animals
and from all the wild creatures;
On your belly shall you crawl,
and dirt shall you eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
He will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel."
The man called his wife Eve,
because she became the mother of all the living.

OrACTS 1:12-14

After Jesus had been taken up to heaven,
the Apostles returned to Jerusalem
from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem,
a sabbath day's journey away.

When they entered the city
they went to the upper room where they were staying,
Peter and John and James and Andrew,
Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew,
James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot,
and Judas son of James.
All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer,
together with some women,
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Responsorial PsalmPS 87:1-2, 3 AND 5, 6-7

R. (3) Glorious things are told of you, O city of God.
His foundation upon the holy mountains
the LORD loves:
The gates of Zion,
more than any dwelling of Jacob.
R. Glorious things are told of you, O city of God.
Glorious things are said of you,
O city of God!
And of Zion they shall say:
"One and all were born in her;
And he who has established her
is the Most High LORD."
R. Glorious things are told of you, O city of God.
They shall note, when the peoples are enrolled:
"This man was born there."
And all shall sing, in their festive dance:
"My home is within you."
R. Glorious things are told of you, O city of God.

Alleluia 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
O happy Virgin, you gave birth to the Lord;
O blessed mother of the Church,
you warm our hearts with the Spirit of your Son Jesus Christ.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelJN 19:25-34

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother
and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,
and Mary of Magdala.
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved,
he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son."
Then he said to the disciple,
"Behold, your mother."
And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
After this, aware that everything was now finished,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
Jesus said, "I thirst."
There was a vessel filled with common wine.
So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop
and put it up to his mouth.
When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,
"It is finished."
And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

Now since it was preparation day,
in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath,
for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one,
the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken
and they be taken down.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first
and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,
they did not break his legs,
but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,
and immediately Blood and water flowed out.

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Meditation: Woman, behold, your son! Disciple, behold, your mother!

Why was it necessary for the Son of God to be born of a virgin mother - only to suffer rejection, betrayal, and cruel death on a cross? God's love know no bounds. He created the human race in love for love - to be united with him and with one another in a bond of unbreakable love, peace, and friendship. True love risks all and gives all for the beloved. With the gift of love and fruit-bearing life God also gave freedom and responsibility - freedom to choose for good or for evil, for community or for division, for peace or for strife, for life or for death.

God's gift of love - broken by sin and rebellion
Adam and Eve, the man and woman God created to be the beginning of a people who were made in the image and likeness of God, received everything they needed for life, happiness, and friendship with God. God provided a dwelling place specially made for them - a Garden of Paradise and fruit of his creation. God took great delight in his son Adam and Eve his wife - he walked with them daily in the garden so they could grow in the knowledge of his great love and wisdom.

God allowed the tempter, whom Scripture calls the devil and Satan, the father of lies, to test them so they could freely choose whom they would serve and obey. Satan tricked them into believing that they could be all powerful and wise, like God, on their own terms and conditions, according to their own desires and preferences. Like Satan and the fallen angels who rebelled against God, Adam and Eve thought they could be equal with God and chart their own course for happiness and life together. They choose to believe Satan's word over God's word - a choice that opened the door to sin, rebellion, and separation from God.

Their fall resulted in a grievous wound which only God could heal and restore to wholeness. God in his merciful love and wise judgment, disciplined them for their own good, to lead them to repentance, purification, and restoration of friendship with God. God did not leave them in sin and darkness - he promised to send them a Redeemer who would restore them and their descendants to fullness of life with God.

The promised Redeemer who comes to restore our fallen humanity
How did God fulfill his promise to restore a broken and fallen humanity? The prophet Isaiah foretold that God himself would send his people a Redeemer, born of a virgin mother from the house of David (Isaiah 7:14), who would willingly undergo affliction and chastisement to the point of shedding his blood to make atonement for their sins (Isaiah 53:1-12, and Isaiah 50:4-8; 52:13-15). 

In the wonderous cross of Christ, who shed his blood for our sins, we see God's unfolding plan of restoration for the human race. Through his obedience to the Father's will and the willing sacrifice of his own life for our sake, he reversed the curse of our first parents' sin and won for us pardon and abundant life. John tells us in his Gospel account that "God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, humbled himself by taking on human flesh in the womb of the virgin Mary, so he could become one with us in our humanity and offer himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins and the sin of he world. 

Christ is the new Adam - who creates a new humanity through his cross and resurrection
Paul the Apostle tells us that Jesus Christ is the new Adam who begets a new humanity and a new creation (Romans 5:12-18, 2 Corinthians 15:7) through his victory on the cross and his resurrection. That is why Jesus explained to Nicodemus that we must be born anew (John 3:3) - of water and the Spirit (John 3:5,8).

Woman, behold, your son! Disciple, behold, your mother!
As Jesus hung on the cross at Calvary, he looked down and saw his mother and John the beloved disciple standing at the foot of the cross. Jesus said, "Woman, behold your son," and then to John he said, "behold, your mother” (John 19:26-27). John takes Mary as his spiritual mother, and Mary takes John as her spiritual son. 

Why did Jesus address Mary as "Woman" rather than "mother" (see also Jesus addressing Mary as "Woman" in John 2:4). Jesus may be alluding to the beginning of creation in Genesis when Adam addressed Eve first as Woman, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man" (Genesis 2:23). Adam later called her "Eve" because she became the "mother of all living" (Genesis 3:20).

Mary's mission is inseparably linked with the mission of her Son, the Lord Jesus
Mary's mission as the bearer of the Son of God  (theo-tokos which means God-bearer in Greek) is inseparably linked with the mission of her Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the grace and gift of the Holy Spirit Mary becomes the first disciple and a spiritual mother of a new humanity who are born again through her son, the Lord Jesus.

To become the mother of the Savior, Mary was enriched by God with the gifts of the Holy Spirit to enable her to assume this awesome role. A number of early church fathers saw Mary as a new Eve who cooperated with her Son's mission through her faith and devotion to God's word, and her prompt "yes" to God's will.

Irenaeus, an early second century bishop of Lyons (130-200 AD), described Mary's role in the service of her Son's mission: 

"The Lord, coming into his own creation in visible form, was sustained by his own creation which he himself sustains in being. His obedience on the tree of the cross reversed the disobedience at the tree in Eden; the good news of the truth announced by an angel to Mary, a virgin subject to a husband, undid the evil lie that seduced Eve, a virgin espoused to a husband...
As Eve was seduced by the word of an angel and so fled from God after disobeying his word, Mary in her turn was given the good news by the word of an angel, and bore God in obedience to his word. As Eve was seduced into disobedience to God, so Mary was persuaded into obedience to God; thus the Virgin Mary became the advocate of the virgin Eve...
The knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience: what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith" 
(quotes from Against Heresies (Lib. 5, 19, 1; 20, 2; 21,1: SC 153, 248-250. 260-264)

Throughout her life Mary remained steadfast and faithful to the call and mission God entrusted to her, as the mother of the Son of God who took flesh in her womb. She is the first Christian because she accepted the Gospel and gave her "yes" to God's plan of redemption. She followed her son to the cross and she prayed for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all the disciples at Pentecost.  She is a model for us of faith and obedience, hope and perseverance, and love and fidelity. Are you ready to take up your cross and follow the Lord Jesus in his way of love and sacrifice?

God gives us the grace to say "yes" to his will and to his transforming work in our lives
What is the key that unlocks the power of God’s kingdom and his abundant life in our personal lives? Faith is the free gift of God for all who accept his Son as Lord and Redeemer. Our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus opens the door to all the promises of God who find their fulfillment in Christ. God gives us all the grace and strength we need and he expects us to respond with the same willing obedience and heart-felt trust as Mary did. When God commands he also gives the strength, and means to respond. We can either yield to his grace or resist and go our own way. Do you believe in God's promises and do you yield to his grace?

"Heavenly Father, you offer us abundant grace, mercy, and forgiveness through your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Help me to live a grace-filled life as Mary did by believing in your promises and by giving you my unqualified "yes" to your will and your plan for my life."

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: God borrows Mary's flesh to lead humanity to glory, by an anonymous early author from the Greek church

"The virgin mother, when wine was lacking, wanted Jesus to do a miracle. She was at once answered, 'Woman, what have I to do with you?' as if to say plainly, The fact that I can do a miracle comes to me from my Father, not my mother. For it was from the nature of his Father that he could do miracles but from the nature of his mother that he could die. When he was on the cross, then, in dying he acknowledged his mother whom he commended to the disciple, saying, 'Behold your mother.' And so, when he says, 'Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come" (John 2:4). he is in effect saying, In the miracle, which I did not from your nature, I do not acknowledge you. When the hour of death shall come, however, I shall acknowledge you as my mother, since it is from you that I can die." (excerpt from LETTER 10.39.27) 

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LECTIO DIVINA: MEMORIAL OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH

Lectio Divina: 

 Monday, May 21, 2018

Ordinary Time

1) OPENING PRAYER

Father,
keep before us the wisdom and love
you have revealed in your Son.
Help us to be like Him
in word and deed,
for He lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) GOSPEL READING – JOHN 19:25-34

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I thirst." There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, "It is finished." And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit. Now since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and they be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately Blood and water flowed out.

3) REFLECTION

• Jn 19:25-29:  Mary, the strong woman who understood the full meaning of this event, will help us cast a contemplative glance at the crucified. The fourth Gospel specifies that these disciples "stood by the cross" (Jn 19:25-26). This detail has a deep meaning. Only the fourth Gospel tells us that these five people stood by the cross. The other Evangelists do not say so. Luke, for instance, says that all those who knew him followed the events from a distance (Lk 23:49). Matthew also says that many women followed these events from afar. These women had followed Jesus from Galilee and served Him. But now they followed Him from afar (Mt 27:55-56). Like Matthew, Mark gives us the names of those who followed the death of Jesus from afar (Mk 15:40-41). Thus only the fourth Gospel says that the mother of Jesus and the other women and the beloved disciple "stood by the cross". They stood there like servants before their king.

• Jn 19:30-34:  They are present courageously at a time when Jesus has already declared that "it is fulfilled" (Jn 19:30). The mother of Jesus is present at the hour that finally "has come". That hour was foretold at the wedding feast of Cana (Jn 2:1ff). The fourth Gospel had remarked then that "the mother of Jesus was there" (Jn 2:1). Thus, the person that remains faithful to the Lord in His destiny, he/she is a beloved disciple. The Evangelist keeps this disciple anonymous so that each one of us may see him/herself mirrored in the one who knew the mysteries of the Lord, who laid his head on Jesus' chest at the last supper (Jn 13:25). The mother standing beneath the cross (cf. Jn 19:25), accepted her Son’s testament of love and welcomed all people in the person of the beloved disciple as sons and daughters to be reborn unto life eternal.

• Jesus takes an active part in His death, He does not allow Himself to be killed like the thieves whose legs were broken (Jn 19:31-33), but commits His spirit (Jn 19:30). The details recalled by the Evangelist are very important: 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.” (Jn 19:26-27). These simple words of Jesus bear the weight of revelation, words that reveal to us His will: "this is your son" (v. 26); "this is your mother" (v. 27). These words also recall those pronounced by Pilate on the Lithostrotos: "This is the man" (Jn 19:5). With these words, Jesus on the cross, his throne, reveals His will and His love for us. He is the lamb of God, the shepherd who gives His life for His sheep. At that moment, by the cross, He gives birth to the Church, represented by Mary, Mary of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene, together with the beloved disciple (Jn 19:25).

4) PERSONAL QUESTIONS

• How has Mary given you a model for parenthood, discipleship, and love? What of these have I applied in my own life?

• Mary exemplified humility and obedience, yet she also led (as at Cana). How do I lead others, in what ways, while also being truly humble and obedient myself?

5) CONCLUDING PRAYER

The precepts of Yahweh are honest,
joy for the heart;
the commandment of Yahweh is pure,
light for the eyes. (Ps 19:8)

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