In John 14:18 Jesus told us that he will not leave us as orphans. He will come to us. And the most tangible way He has come to us is through the Holy Eucharist. He promised and sent us an Advocate the Holy Spirit to journey with us and still His love for us did not end with all these; He gave us another precious gift of His mother to be mother of us all. Just yesterday we celebrated the birth of our One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and today we celebrate the The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church and appropriately so. For she continues to intercede for all of us and her maternal love for us protects us from all evil as she leads us to an ever deeper relationship with her Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
She is the new Eve pure, and obedient to God our Father for love of Him. She is the model of holiness for all of us to emulate. She who is a creature just like each and everyone of us, formed by our loving creator shows us the way to His bosom. In her lifetime she endured hardships, sorrows, challenges and so is no stranger to our very own painful sufferings. And so we can be assured that loving mother that she is, she will be there to comfort and pray for us. She who is spouse will send the Holy Spirit to us as needed.
O loving Mother Mary, Mother of the Church an mother of mine be with and pray for me. Glory and Praise be to your Son Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen
First reading
Genesis 3:9-15,20 †
‘The offspring of the woman will crush your head’
After Adam had eaten of the tree the Lord God called to him. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden;’ he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.’ ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ he asked ‘Have you been eating of the tree I forbade you to eat?’ The man replied, ‘It was the woman you put with me; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman replied, ‘The serpent tempted me and I ate.’
Then the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this,
‘Be accursed beyond all cattle, all wild beasts. You shall crawl on your belly and eat dust every day of your life.
I will make you enemies of each other: you and the woman, your offspring and her offspring.
It will crush your head and you will strike its heel.’
The man named his wife ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all those who live.
Gospel
John 19:25-34
‘Behold your son. Behold your mother.’
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’ And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.
After this, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed, and to fulfil the scripture perfectly he said, ‘I am thirsty.’
A jar full of vinegar stood there, so putting a sponge soaked in the vinegar on a hyssop stick they held it up to his mouth. After Jesus had taken the vinegar he said, ‘It is accomplished’; and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.
It was Preparation Day, and to prevent the bodies remaining on the cross during the sabbath – since that sabbath was a day of special solemnity – the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away. Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then of the other. When they came to Jesus, they found he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water.
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