Daily Mass - the feast of the BVM as Mother of the Church

Mass was offered this morning for the intentions of S. R.

It was only about two years ago that the Holy Father Francis gave us the present feast day of Mary, Mother of the Church. This is an old dedication, certainly, but the Holy Father, in a bid to increase Marian piety in the Catholic Church, gave it a shot in the arm. What was a votive Mass in our books, he gave a fixed date, the first after Pentecost Sunday. More about that here.

And so we honour the dear Lady, through whom our salvation became possible, who accepted us as her children in the person of the Apostle Saint John, at the foot of the Cross. In that most painful moment, when her golden Child was dying in torment, she received the command to be mother again. 

"...and meanwhile His Mother, and His Mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen, had taken their stand beside the cross of Jesus. And Jesus, seeing His Mother there, and the disciple, too, whom He loved, standing by, said to His Mother, 'Woman, this is thy son.' - Gospel of S. John, 19: 25-26

And she has more than fulfilled her mandate, accompanying the Church through every generation. Here are the readings from today's Mass. The first reading is about the curse of Adam brought about as a result of a temptation to pride brought about through his love for his wife. I can feel the dread in the voice of God as he says to Eve:

"Then the Lord God said to the woman, 'What made thee do this?' 'The serpent,' she said, 'beguiled me, and so I came to eat.'" - Genesis, 3: 13

Even in that moment, God speaks of a remedy, lain in the distant future, for he says to the serpent, who had become an instrument of the Enemy of mankind:

"And the Lord God said to the serpent, 'For this work of thine, thou, alone among all the cattle and all the wild beasts, shalt bear a curse; thou shalt crawl on thy belly and eat dust all thy life long. And I will establish a feud between thee and the woman, between thy offspring and hers; she is to crush thy head, while thou dost lie in ambush at her heels.'" - Genesis, 3: 14

And that is why we often see the Blessed Virgin in pictures with a foot upon a serpent's head, undoing the pride of Eve in her own life of innocence and humility, even as her Son undid the curse of Adam. More importantly, it speaks of the offspring of the woman as enemies of the offspring of the serpent, an indication of a battle between the dark and the light, which also is present in the Apocalypse of Saint John (Revelations), the last book of the Bible.

"...in his spite against the Woman, the dragon went elsewhere to make war on the rest of her children, the men who keep God’s commandments, and hold fast to the truth concerning Jesus. And he stood there waiting on the sea beach." - Apocalypse of Saint John, 12: 17-18

And that brings it all in full circle: from Apocalypse back to Genesis. This is the painting of the Immaculate by the eighteenth-century Italian Tiepolo.