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"Tradidi " "Tradidi Quod et Accepi " No. 179, June 2009

      MOTHER OF THE CHURCH

  It was Pope John Paul II who in 1980 added the invocation "Mother of the Church" to the Litany of Loreto. He was not the first Pope of the 20th century to add to the Litany. Already Benedict XV had added "Queen of peace" and Pius XII, "Queen assumed into heaven”. Since the Blessed Virgin is Mother of Christ, and Christ is the Head of the Mystical Body, which we call the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, it follows that Our Lady is Mother of the Church.

  In his history of this invocation Pope John Paul II notes: "Pope Paul VI would have liked the Second Vatican Council itself to have proclaimed Mary Mother of the Church[...]. He did so himself in his speech at the end of the Council's third session (21 November 1964), also asking that "henceforth the Blessed Virgin be honoured and invoked with this title by all the Christian people " (AAS 1964, 37).

  There is some history behind this proclamation as Michael Davies relates in Chapter 10 of ‘Pope John's Council’, a chapter entitled: ‘Mother of the Church’.

  The non-Catholics and ecuмenists at Vatican II did not want Our Lady to be proclaimed "Mediatrix of all graces " nor "Mother of Church". Thus, a special schema, entitled: ‘On the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church’ was rejected by the majority of the Fathers. Instead, it was decided this schema would be put at the end of the schema on the Church, ‘Lumen Gentium’. However, while much of the schema remained in the last chapter of ‘Lumen Gentium’, the title was changed to: "On the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God in the mystery of Christ and of the Church”. In the new text Our Lady was not called directly ‘Mother of Church’.

  It was here that the International Group of Fathers spearheaded by Archbishop Lefebvre and the Polish bishops, led by Cardinal Wysynski (the future Pope John Paul II) joined forces by separate petitions to beg the Pope to proclaim Our Lady as Mother of the Church. When Paul VI made the proclamation in the aula, it was greeted with a standing ovation and the Pope was interrupted by applause seven times within his address. The progressives had suffered several other reverses during this week of the council and it has come to be known as "Black Week" in their mythology.

      THE TITLE

    The title "Mother of the Church " expresses Mary's maternal relationship with the Church. It was not a new teaching of Vatican II, rather it is stems from traditional theology. Already, in a docuмent of 1748, Benedict XIV, describes the filial sentiments of the Church, which recognizes Mary as her most beloved Mother, indirectly proclaims her Mother of the Church.

  It is true this title was rather rarely used in the past, but has recently become more common in the pronouncements of the Church's Magisterium and in the devotion of the Faithful. Catholics first called upon Mary with the title "Mother of God", "Mother of the faithful" or "our Mother ", to emphasize her personal relationship with each of her children.

  Later, because of the greater attention paid by the Church and to Mary's relationship to her, the Blessed Virgin began more frequently to be invoked as "Mother of the Church". Well before the Second Vatican Council, this expression was found in Pope Leo XIII's Magisterium, in which it is affirmed that Mary is "in all truth Mother of the Church" (Acta Leonis XIII, 15, 302). Although the title "Mother of the Church ' was only recently attributed to Mary, it expresses the Blessed Virgin's maternal relationship with the Church as shown already in several New Testament texts. It would be good if we had these in mind when we speak with Protestants.

  Since the Annunciation, Mary was called to give her consent to the coming of the Kingdom of God, which would take place with the formation of the Church. When at Cana Mary asked the Son to exercise his Divine Power, she made a fundamental contribution to implanting the faith in the first disciples, and she co-operated in initiating God's kingdom on earth, the Catholic Church.

  On Calvary, Mary united herself to the sacrifice of her Son and made her own maternal contribution to the work of salvation, which took the form of labour pains - the birth of the new humanity. In addressing the words "Woman, behold thy son" to Mary, the Crucified One proclaims her motherhood not only in relation to the Apostle John but also to every disciple. The Evangelist himself, by saying that Jesus had to die "to gather together in one the children of God, that were dispersed" (Jn 11:52), indicates the Church's birth as the fruit of the redemptive sacrifice with which Mary is maternally associated. The Evangelist St. Luke mentions the presence of Jesus' Mother among the Apostles and first Catholics in Jerusalem (Acts 1:14). In this way he stresses Mary's maternal role in the newborn Church, comparing it to her role in the Redeemer's birth. On Pentecost Sunday, Our Lady is among them when the Church is born.

        TEACHING OF THE CHURCH FATHERS

    Following Sacred Scripture, patristic teaching recognizes Mary's motherhood in the work of Christ and therefore in that of the Church.

  According to St Irenaeus, Mary "became a cause of salvation for the whole human race”, and the pure womb of the Virgin "regenerates men in God". This is re-echoed by St Ambrose, who says: "A Virgin has begotten the salvation of the world, a Virgin has given life to all things ", and by other Fathers who call Mary "Mother of Salvation”.

  In the Middle Ages, St. Anselm addressed Mary in this way: "Thou art the Mother of justification and of the justified, the Mother of reconciliation and of the reconciled, the Mother of salvation and of the saved", while other authors attribute to her the titles "Mother of Grace" and "Mother of Life".

    The title Mother of the Church thus reflects the conviction of the Fathers, who see in Mary not only the Mother of the person of Christ, but also of the Faithful. She who is recognized as Mother of salvation, life and grace, Mother of the saved and Mother of the living, is rightly proclaimed ‘Mother of the Church’.

MARY'S MOTHERHOOD

  Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. This union of the Mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death. It is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion: Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: "Woman, behold your son”.

  After her Son's Ascension, Mary aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers. In her association with the apostles and several women, we also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Holy Ghost, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation. Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians:
    "In giving birth thou didst keep thy virginity; in thy Dormition thou didst not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. Thou who didst conceive the living God and, by thy prayers, will deliver our souls from death. " (Byzantine Liturgy.)

      MOTHER IN THE ORDER OF GRACE

  By her complete adherence to the Father's will, to his Son's redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Ghost, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of faith and charity. Thus she is a preeminent and wholly unique member of the Church; indeed, she is the "exemplary realization" (or type) of the Church.

    Her role in relation to the Church and to all humanity goes still further. In a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace.

  This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation .... Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix of all graces.

  Mary's function as mother of men in no way diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. The Blessed Virgin's salutary influence on men ... flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it. No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source.

      IMAGE OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT

    In the Blessed Virgin Mary we contemplate what the Church already is on her own pilgrimage of faith, and what she will be in the homeland at the end of her journey. There, in the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity, in the communion of all the Saints, the Church is awaited by the one she venerates as Mother of her Lord and as her own Mother. In the meantime the Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise she shines forth on earth until the day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to each pilgrim on earth.

      CONCLUSION

  By pronouncing her "fiat" at the Annunciation and giving her consent to the Incarnation, Mary was already collaborating with the whole work her Son was to accomplish. She is mother wherever He is Saviour and head of the Mystical Body. This is one of her most glorious titles.

  "We believe that the Holy Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ" (Paul VI, Credo of the People of God # 15). This encourages us to battle for Our Mother in the Rosary Crusade.