8th Monday of Ordinary Time
Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
25 May 2026
Behold your Mother
There is something interesting about the way the Church places this memorial immediately after Pentecost. Yesterday we celebrated the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles. Today the Church turns our attention to Mary. That is not accidental. The Church is reminding us that wherever Christ forms His people into His Body, Mary is there as mother.
The readings today show us that this motherhood was not an afterthought. It was woven into salvation history from the beginning.
In Genesis, after the fall of Adam and Eve, God speaks to the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.”
At first glance, it seems like a passage only about judgment. Humanity has rebelled. Sin has entered the world. Death now stalks creation. Adam and Eve hide from God because shame has entered the human heart. The harmony of Eden is shattered.
But right in the middle of humanity’s collapse, God speaks a promise: The serpent will not win forever. There will come a woman. There will come an offspring. And the battle against evil will culminate in victory.
The Church has always seen in this passage the first announcement of the Gospel. Eve had become the mother of all the living according to the flesh, but another woman would one day become mother in a deeper and more lasting way. Through her would come the Savior Himself.
This is why the Church reads Genesis alongside John’s Gospel at the Cross.
Notice carefully how John describes Mary at Calvary. Jesus addresses her not by her personal name, but as “Woman.” That is deliberate. It’s not a sign of disrespect.
As a matter of fact, the same title appears earlier at Cana: “Woman, what is this to me and to you?” John is connecting these moments intentionally. From the beginning of Christ’s public ministry to its culmination at the Cross, Mary stands as the woman whose son is undoing the ruin caused by sin.
And John shares with us this astonishing moment: “Woman, behold your son.” “Behold your mother.”
Jesus is certainly caring for His mother in a practical sense. But John’s Gospel is never merely practical. Everything in John carries theological depth. Everything he wrote was purposeful.
The beloved disciple stands there representing every disciple in Christ. And Mary is entrusted not merely to John personally, but to the Church spiritually. It was at the very moment Christ pours out His life for the salvation of the world, He also gives His mother to the Church.
The recognition of this was one of those profound turning points in my conversion to the Catholic Church.
The Fathers of the Church loved to compare Eve and Mary. Eve listened to the fallen angel and brought death into the world. Mary listened to the angel of God and brought Life Himself into the world. Eve stood beside the tree of disobedience. Mary stands beside the tree of the Cross. Eve becomes mother of fallen humanity. Mary becomes mother of redeemed humanity.
And this motherhood is not sentimental language. It is deeply connected to the mystery of the Church itself.
Notice what happens immediately after Jesus dies: “Blood and water flowed out.”
The Church has always seen in that blood and water the birth of the sacramental life of the Church: Baptism and Eucharist flowing from the pierced side of Christ just as Eve was drawn from the side of Adam. The new creation is emerging from the Cross itself.
So it is fitting that Mary is standing there as mother when the Church is being born from the side of Christ.
This helps us understand something important about the Church today. The Church is not merely an institution, a bureaucracy, or an organization held together by policies and structures. The Church is a family born from Christ’s sacrifice and animated by the Holy Spirit. And like every family, the Church has a mother.
That is why authentic Marian devotion never distracts from Jesus. It always leads more deeply into His mystery. Mary never keeps attention for herself. Her entire existence points toward Christ.
At Cana she says, “Do whatever He tells you.” At the Cross she silently stands in fidelity as the perfect disciple. In the Upper Room she prays with the apostles awaiting the Spirit. She continues to do the same for the Church now.
Many Catholics struggle at times with Marian devotion because they fear it might somehow compete with Christ. But the Church has never understood Mary that way. A good mother does not replace the father or draw attention away from the family. A good mother forms her children to love rightly. That is what Mary does.
Today’s memorial reminds us that Christianity is not merely about abstract doctrines or private devotions or personal spirituality. Christ gathers us into a communion. He makes us members of His Body. And He does not leave us orphaned.
At the Cross, in the very hour of redemption, Jesus looked upon His disciples and said: “Behold your mother.”
May we be found as her faithful children, as we pray: Mary, Mother of the Church and our Mother, pray for us.