SPEAKER_00: Today, the church celebrates the memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.
SPEAKER_00: There's something very beautiful about this feast day that many Catholics do not know.
SPEAKER_00: The church places this memorial the day after Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday we celebrated the birth of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Fire comes down.
SPEAKER_00: The power of the Holy Spirit descends upon the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: They go out, the mission begins.
SPEAKER_00: And today, immediately after the church is born, the church gives us a mother.
SPEAKER_00: This is not accidental, because every family needs a mother.
SPEAKER_00: This feast was added to the universal calendar by Pope Francis in 2018.
SPEAKER_00: But the truth itself is ancient.
SPEAKER_00: The church has always believed Mary is not only the mother of Jesus, she is the mother of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because she is present at the two great moments of the church's birth.
SPEAKER_00: She's there at the incarnation when Christ takes flesh, and she's there at Pentecost when the church receives the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: She's at the beginning always.
SPEAKER_00: And she takes us to today's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is dying.
SPEAKER_00: The world is collapsing around him.
SPEAKER_00: The cross stands before Mary.
SPEAKER_00: And in that one final act, that one final act of his earthly life, Jesus looks down and says, Woman, behold your son.
SPEAKER_00: Then he turns to John, behold your mother.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice something.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does not say, John, take care of my mother.
SPEAKER_00: He gives her.
SPEAKER_00: He entrusts her.
SPEAKER_00: The fathers of the church saw John here not simply as John.
SPEAKER_00: John represents every disciple, every baptized Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning at the foot of the cross, Mary becomes mother to all who follow Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then something fascinating happens in the first reading.
SPEAKER_00: We hear Adam after the fall.
SPEAKER_00: God asks, Where are you?
SPEAKER_00: One of the greatest questions where are you?
SPEAKER_00: Adam hides.
SPEAKER_00: Sin enters, fear enters, shame enters, humanity breaks.
SPEAKER_00: Then God says something extraordinary to the serpent.
SPEAKER_00: I will put enmity between you and the woman.
SPEAKER_00: The woman.
SPEAKER_00: The church has always read this as the first whisper of Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Eve brought death into the world through disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: Mary brings life through obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Eve says yes to the serpent.
SPEAKER_00: Mary says yes to God.
SPEAKER_00: Eve becomes mother of the fallen, Mary becomes mother of the redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: The first Eve stands near a tree and humanity falls.
SPEAKER_00: The new Eve, Mary, stands near the tree of the cross and salvation enters the world.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the beauty?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible begins with a woman.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel begins with a woman.
SPEAKER_00: The church begins with a woman.
SPEAKER_00: Mary is there every time God begins something new.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's the teaching for us today.
SPEAKER_00: Because maybe many people think devotion to Mary takes attention away from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00: It does the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: Mary never keeps anything for herself.
SPEAKER_00: At Cana, what does she say?
SPEAKER_00: Do whatever he tells you.
SPEAKER_00: At the cross, she receives us.
SPEAKER_00: At Pentecost, she prays with the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: Her whole life points away from her and towards Christ, her son.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe somebody today listening to this needs to hear this.
SPEAKER_00: The church has a mother, which means nobody walks alone.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody suffers alone.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody carries the cross alone.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because a mother notices, a mother prays, a mother stays.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone ran from Calvary.
SPEAKER_00: Mary was there.
SPEAKER_00: That is why Catholics have loved her for 2,000 years.
SPEAKER_00: Not because she replaces Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Not because she takes us, but because she takes us to him.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to end there.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday we prayed, Come, Holy Spirit, come.
SPEAKER_00: Today the church whispers, Take your mother home.
SPEAKER_00: John did.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel says, from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
SPEAKER_00: The question today is, have we?
SPEAKER_00: Not in theory, not in theology, in life.
SPEAKER_00: Because perhaps one of the most beautiful things a Christian can say is this Jesus gave me his mother, and she has never stopped leading me back to her son.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.