85. The Lord gave Mary to us as our Mother.

The Lord gave Mary to us as our Mother.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 85

Ave Maria series

85  Why is Mary our mother also?

Mary is our mother because Christ the Lord gave her to us as a mother.  [963-966, 973]

Mary Queen of Heaven statue at the National Champion Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. ......photo by Don L. Bragg. .....85

“Woman, behold your son!...Behold your mother!” (John 19:26b-27a).  The second command, which Jesus spoke from the Cross to John, has always been understood by the Church as an act of entrusting the whole Church to Mary. Thus Mary is our mother, too.  We may call upon her and ask her to intercede with God.  147-149

“The more the Church models her life on Mary, the more maternal she becomes and the more a believer can be reborn of God in her and achieve reconciliation.”  Brother Roger Schultz (1925-2005, founder and prior of the ecumenical community of Taize)

[963-966, 973]

Mary - Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church

963 Since the Virgin Mary's role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church. "The Virgin Mary . . . is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the redeemer. . . . She is 'clearly the mother of the members of Christ' . . . since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head." (Lumen Gentium 53; compare St. Augustine, De virg. 6:Patrologia Latina 40,399.)⁵⁰² "Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church." (Paul VI, Discourse, November 21, 1964.)⁵⁰³ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

MARY'S MOTHERHOOD WITH REGARD TO THE CHURCH

Wholly united with her Son . . .

964 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"; (Lumen Gentium 57.)⁵⁰⁴ it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion: --CCC

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." (Lumen Gentium 58; compare John 19:26-27.)⁵⁰⁵–CCC

965 After her Son's Ascension, Mary "aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers." (Lumen Gentium 69.)⁵⁰⁶ In her association with the apostles and several women, "we also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation." (Lumen Gentium 59.)⁵⁰⁷--CCC

. . . also in her Assumption

966 "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." (LG 59; cf. Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus (1950):DS 3903; compare Revelation 19:16.)⁵⁰⁸ The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians: --CCC

In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death. (Byzantine Liturgy, Troparion, Feast of the Dormition, August 15th.)⁵⁰⁹--CCC

IN BRIEF

973 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 Savior and head of the Mystical Body. --CCC