Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
Today’s memorial, revived recently by Pope Francis, honors Mary in her ancient title as “Mother of the Church.” The praying church chose the Wedding Feast at Cana as our Gospel of the day for this very old feast. From the Fourth Gospel we hear, once again, the words of the Crucified Christ who addresses his mother as “woman.”
The boys I taught at St. X found this tale rather intriguing, along with the Wedding Feast at Cana earlier in John’s Gospel. There Jesus also calls his mother “woman.” The boys would comment that if they ever addressed their own mother as “woman”... let’s just say that it wouldn’t end well.
But Jesus isn’t being a smart aleck in these accounts. The author of the Fourth Gospel is telling us something far more
profound than what might appear on the surface. And today, the Church, in its wisdom, also offers a reading from Genesis in our lectionary, regarding Eve. Eve, symbolically as the first woman, is mother of all the living. Mary, as the new and greater Eve, is mother of Christ through whom we have eternal life. Mother of the eternal-living!
Recall that at Cana (also found only in the Fourth Gospel) Jesus is hesitant to perform the miracle as requested by his mother, saying “Woman, my hour has not yet come.” This is at the beginning of his public ministry. She doesn’t argue with him but rather turns to the wine stewards with the words, “Do whatever he tells you.”
“Do whatever he tells you,”are the last recorded words of Mary in the New Testament. How apropos. Her last recorded words have resonated with Christians for over 20 centuries. In that spirit, let us meditate on Mary’s last words throughout these last days of May:
“Do whatever he tells you.”
—Timothy J. Cronin