Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
One of the boys in my classroom at St. X spoke of a time when he addressed his mother as “woman.” As in “Woman, where's my dinner?” She was not amused and he got no dinner. On two occasions in the Gospel of John, Jesus refers to his mother as “woman.” Was he being disrespectful?
Remember that the Gospels are narrative theology and that “Gospel” is its own particular and unique type of writing first promulgated by Mark. “Gospel” literally means “good news.” Stories are meant to reveal, celebrate, inspire, and promote eternal truths and not record strict biography in a 21st century sense.
The first time Mary is addressed as “woman” in the Fourth Gospel was at the Wedding Feast at Cana in response to her comment to her son that “they have no more wine.” Jesus responds, “Woman, what is that to me? My hour has not yet come.” The second time is what we hear today, “Woman, behold your son.” They serve as bookends for the rich theology of the evangelist we call “John.”
These two incidents are the only times that Mary appears in John (she is never mentioned by name). Something very significant is going on here. Today we have reached the very heart of the Fourth Gospel for which everything else has been building---the hour of Jesus' glory.
It is most appropriate to today's feast that our first reading from Genesis concerns Eve, “mother of all living,” as Mary is the new Eve of the new creation, book-ended by the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee and by that outcrop of rock outside Jerusalem called Golgatha.
The mystic author of the Fourth Gospel (or maybe “authors,” a Christian school of writers at Ephesus?) ingeniously weaves the narrative. The Greek/Eastern Rite Church calls Matthew, Mark, & Luke “evangelists,” but John they honor with the title, “the theologian.”
Indeed the author of what we call the Gospel of John was a Jewish mystic. It is an amazing work.
Jesus left us two things: the Spirit & the Church---both gifts given in today's Gospel. When Jesus delivers his spirit, a spear is thrust into his side and blood and water flow out. Remember the water turned wine at the very start of the Gospel. Enough wine is created from that water to supply endless banquets.
Both are Eucharistic actions wherein Mary is present. Here the Spirit is given over to the Church, symbolized by the mother of Jesus and the Disciple Whom Jesus Loved. The Church is born of the Spirit. This is John's version of Pentecost, yesterday's solemnity. And Mary is as significant here as she was in Luke's version of Pentecost which we heard from Acts yesterday.
At Cana, Jesus told his Mother that his hour has not yet come---the hour of glory when all is fulfilled and climaxed in him. The “six stone jars” were used in Jewish purification rituals---here they are symbols of the old covenant. The Old Covenant gave us water, the New Covenant gives us wine.
Each stone jar contained over 120 liters of water turned wine, a massive amount. The groom was responsible at Jewish weddings to supply the wine for the guests. Jesus gives us a far greater wine. And as bridegroom of the new covenant he supplies it still. This wine is the highest quality ever tasted and will never run out.
It is from the pierced side of Jesus that all sacraments flow---the water of baptism and the wine of the Eucharist. The wine of the banquet that was the wedding at Cana marks the arrival of the Kingdom---the end time eternal banquet. First century Jewish wedding banquets could last for several days. The messianic wedding banquet is never ending.
Mary and the Beloved Disciple represent those who see, those who respond, those who are transformed. Both are born of the Spirit sharing in the new life that Jesus comes to bring. They are ultimate disciples.
Both figures symbolize the whole church---faithful to the end, awash in baptismal waters and in the blood of the Lamb.
An Easter message extraordinaire on this first day of summer Ordinary Time.
Mary, New Eve, first disciple, and Mother of the Church, pray for us!
Timothy J. Cronin