X Mystery: Mary, Mother of the Church at Pentecost

When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.  Acts 1:13-14

The Church or the Kingdom of God?
"Jesus announced the coming of the Kingdom of God, but what came was the Church." -- Alfred Loisy (1857-1940)

There is a discontinuity between Jesus of Nazareth and the Church; in fact, whereas the word "Ekklesia" appears only twice in the gospels, and only in the Gospel of St. Matthew, (16:18) and (18:1), in two very debatable texts, the expression Kingdom of God, or Kingdom of Heaven as Matthew prefers, appears 127 times.

There is, therefore, a striking contrast in the New Testament between the word CHURCH, which appears 112 times and almost only in the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters, and the word KINGDOM which appears 162 times, and of these, only 35 times in the book of Acts and in the Letters while the remaining 127 times are found in the gospels. This demonstrates how important the Kingdom of God was for Jesus and how of little importance this same Kingdom was for the nascent Church founded by Christ.

The Church, as the mystical body of Christ, can have no other purpose than to continue the work of Christ. Therefore, the purpose of its existence is not to implant itself in every corner of this earth, but to take the Good News of the Kingdom to every corner of the earth.

The main objective is not to produce more and more Christians, to increase the number of its members, but rather to unite all men and women of good will, whether they are from other religions, or atheists or agnostics, so that together they work towards the building of a better world, a more just and fraternal society, where justice, peace, harmony and love reign among all peoples. If this had been the true objective of the Church from the very beginning, as it was of its founder, there would have been no fundamentalism such as the Inquisition, nor holy wars such as the ones driven by the Crusades.

The Church, the leaven of the Kingdom of God
The Church is the way that Christ prepared to be with us in the here and now, in all the "here(s)" and "now(s)" of human history. Christ could have only one human life, but his Word is eternal for all times and all cultures; He himself was not only the Way, the Truth and the Life for the people of his time, but also for the whole human race till the end of time; for this to be so, he had to leave someone to continue his work.

It makes no sense for the eternal Word of God to become incarnate, that is, the only begotten son of God to acquire human nature, the creator to become a creature, just to save those who lived during his time on earth.

It is true that the word Church, as we have said, appears only twice or even just once in all the gospels, but the fact that Jesus chose, from the very beginning, his own collaborators for the work of the Kingdom shows that Jesus wanted to leave a structure that could and would continue his work. Already in his lifetime, Jesus sent his disciples to cities and towns where He himself thought to go, (Luke 10:1), and then sent them out into the whole world (Mark 16:15-18).

The proof that these disciples of his would be his representatives on earth is the fact that he equipped them with the same powers and faculties that he had, (Matthew 21:21; John 14:12). In this last text from John, Jesus also tells the reasons why he passes all his powers and faculties to his disciples: "because I going to the Father".

Furthermore, although he was leaving, he also assured his disciples that he would be with them until the end of time (Matthew 28:20). In fact, when Saul was persecuting Christians, Jesus did not ask him "why do you persecute my disciples?", but rather, "why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:4). Finally, in his priestly prayer, Jesus prays not only for his disciples, but also for those who would believe in his testimony (John 17:20).

The Church does not exist for itself nor should it preach itself, because its Master and founder did not preach himself: the Church exists for the Mission, that is, to continue the work of its founder and the purpose of the Mission which is the Kingdom. The Church is what we are, it is our identity, the Kingdom is our mission, what we do. The Church is the yeast that leavens the world until the world becomes the Kingdom of God.

Mary and the Kingdom of God
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.  Luke 1:51-53

Almost all the images of Mary, represented both in statues and paintings, show a woman reserved in words and actions, humble and even submissive, serene, peaceful and sad... they do not reflect this facet of Mary, the Mary of the Magnificat, or at least the part of the Magnificat that I quoted above.

Whenever I read, recite or meditate on this part of the Magnificat, the image of Mary that comes to mind is that of the bare-chested woman waving the flag of the republic in her hand, at the command post, leading the people in the French Revolution. This image does more justice to the content of the prayer of the Magnificat.

It does not seem plausible that the woman in the images representing Mary could have said that God is going to overthrow the powerful from their thrones, and that he will take from the rich and give to the poor. But whoever said this seems to be truly the mother of the one who did just that: Jesus of Nazareth. "De tal palo tal astilla" says a Castilian proverb, "Offspring of fish knows how to swim" says its Portuguese counterpart, or in English “Like father like son” which in this case is more appropriate to say “Like mother like son”. Mary seems to announce in these sentences the kingdom that was to come with her son; a kingdom of Justice and Peace.

Ecclesiae Mater
"Mother of the Church, that is to say of all Christian people, the faithful as well as the pastors, who call her the most loving Mother" and established that "the Mother of God should be further honoured and invoked by the entire Christian people by this tenderest of titles".  Paul VI on 21 November 1964 at the end of the Second Vatican Council

Mary is the mother of the Church because she is the mother of each and every one of her son's disciples (John 19:25-27). Since each of her son's disciples is "ipso facto" a member of the Church as well, therefore Mary is the mother of the Church.

Mary is the mother of the Church because she is the mother of its founder, because as a disciple of her son, she followed in his footsteps along with other women, and did not abandon the company of his disciples after the death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven of her son.

Christ is the head of his mystical body which is the Church; and the birth of the Head is also the birth of the Body, which indicates that Mary is, at the same time, the mother of Christ, the Son of God, and the mother of all the members of his mystical Body, that is, the Church. Mary's divine motherhood did not end with the birth of Jesus; she was throughout her life on earth, and now in Heaven, intimately united to the redemptive work of her son.

Mary is the mother of the Church because as she assisted in the birth of her son, she also assisted in the birth of the Church, for she, like the other female disciples of Jesus, was with her son's male disciples on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon them in the form of tongues of fire.

More than mother of the Church, she is "Mater ed Magistral" ("Mother and Teacher", the title of John XXIII’s encyclical) because she was already a teacher in the things of the Holy Spirit, she had already conceived by the work and grace of the third person of the Holy Trinity, so she more than anyone else could instruct the apostles on how to prepare themselves to receive Him. More than mother, she was a catechist, as she prepared the apostles to receive Confirmation. We can say that she was the Godmother at the Confirmation of each of her son's disciples.

Conclusion: Mary is the mother of the Church because she is the mother of the one who founded it, and by the will of the son expressed from the top of the cross, she is the mother of each of his disciples, members of the Church, who together form the mystical body of Christ. If Mary is the mother of Christ, the head of the mystical body that is the Church, then she is also the mother of the body.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC