MARY OUR MOTHER

Mary has many titles. Some of them are nationalistic titles, showing the pride the nation has for Mary having appeared in their country. So, there is Our Lady of Lourdes, the pride of France, and Our Lady of Fatima, the pride of Portugal.

And Mary has titles depicting her mysteries and privileges, for example, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. These are of great importance because, by these mysteries, she demonstrated to us how she lived up to the teachings of her Son.

But her more popular titles are based on her role in the Church. And her main role is to be a MOTHER to us. . .and everything else that comes along with the role of being a mother. So, the Redemptorists call her Our Mother of Perpetual Help; the Salesians, Mary Help of Christians; and St. Francis de Sales calls her Our Lady of Kind Deliverance.

Her role can be summarized in her title as Mother of the Church. The fact that  she was assigned by Christ to be our mother (and we make up the Church with Christ as the head of whom she is also the mother) makes her the Mother of the Church. And what is a mother's role? Isn't it to help her children?

It is because the Protestants had denied her role as a great help that St. Teresa of Avila lamented their having lost the greatest aid to salvation. This is sad, considering that Martin Luther stood in awe before Mary. He wrote: "In this work whereby she was made the Mother of God, so many and such great good things were given her that no one can grasp them. . .not only is Mary the Mother of Him who was born, but of Him who, before the world, was eternally born of the Father." The virginity and motherhood of Mary remained unquestionably imprinted in the mind of Luther. He saw Mary as the figure of the Church: "This undoubtedly means that on earth, the Christian Church remains the spiritual Virgin Mary, and that it will not be destroyed." 

(05-22-03)