Today is June 9, Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.
We read at today’s Mass, “But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately Blood and water flowed out” (Jn 19:33-34).
Today, we celebrate a relatively new but deeply meaningful feast: the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, instituted by Pope Francis in 2018. I have a special affection for this celebration — I’ll never forget offering this Mass for the first time in the Clementine Chapel, deep beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, just steps from the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles.
There are two key points I’d like to reflect on with you today, especially in light of our ongoing meditation on the Sacred Heart this month.
First, this Gospel scene brings us to the foot of the cross. As Jesus is dying, he entrusts his mother to the beloved disciple and the beloved disciple to her. In that moment, Mary becomes not only John’s mother but the mother of all disciples, the Mother of the Church. We are each represented in John. And from that moment on, we are meant to look to Mary as our mother, our intercessor, our model of faith.
But immediately after this tender exchange, John tells us something astonishing: “One soldier thrust his lance into (Jesus’) side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.”
The new Adam
This brings us to the second point: the Church is born from the pierced Heart of Christ.
The Church Fathers saw in the blood and water a sign of the sacraments — especially Baptism and the Eucharist. The Catechism teaches that the Church is born above all from Christ’s total self-gift, consummated on the cross. His Sacred Heart, opened by the soldier’s lance, becomes the very source of sacramental life.
And here’s something even more profound: Just as Eve was formed from the side of Adam, so too the Church is formed from the side of the new Adam — Christ himself. The Church, the Bride, is taken from his Heart. That means that our life in the Church, our sacramental grace and our very identity as believers come from the side of the crucified Jesus.
So today, let us thank God for Mary, the Mother of the Church, who always leads us to her Son. And let us marvel at the love flowing from Christ’s Sacred Heart — the fountain of mercy from which the Church is born and nourished.
Let us pray,
O God, Father of mercies, whose Only Begotten Son, as he hung upon the Cross, chose the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Mother, to be our Mother also, grant, we pray, that with her loving help your Church may be more fruitful day by day and, exulting in the holiness of her children, may draw to her embrace all the families of the peoples. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
