19/05/2017
REASONS WHY WE CALL THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY OUR MOTHER, HONOR HER AS A MOTHER AND ALSO SEEK FOR HER MOTHERLY HELP AND INTERCESSION.
1. WHY DO WE CALL MARY OUR MOTHER?
At the foot of the cross where Jesus was crucified. After he has been crucified:
“25Standing close to Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so he said to his mother, “He is your son. 27Then he said to the disciple, “She is your mother.” From that time the disciple took her to live in his home. (John 19:25-27. GOOD NEWS BIBLE_BSN)”
At the scene Jesus gave us his mother as our mother. The disciple he loved most at that moment represent every other disciple of Jesus, this disciples represent the body of Christ “The Church”.
Who is/are the church?
We are the church, we are the present day believers and disciples of Jesus. We became adopted sons and daughters of God through sacrament of Baptism who are the members of the body of Christ “The Church”.
What is Baptism?
According to THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (Revised Edition) Part 2; Section 2; Chapter 1; Article 1; 1213 pg. 281:
“Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua),4 and the door which give access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made shares in the mission: “Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word”5.
Here we are made to understand that by virtue of Baptism we have become members of Christ’ Body (The Church), we are the present day disciples of Jesus whom he calls “beloved”. Through Baptism we became adopted children (Sons and Daughters) of Mary, whom Jesus Christ himself adopted for her at the foot of the cross after he has been crucified.
2. WHY DO WE HONOR THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY AS A MOTHER?
By virtue of Baptism we became adopted sons and daughters of God the Father and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ (God the Son) he first and second person in the Trinity. The Father and the Son are one, Jesus Christ is God himself who by the power of incarnation became man (the greatest of all mystery) just to save the human race by reconciling man to God. He is our father and our brother, because he is God (Our Father) and he is Christ (Our brother), True God and True Man. In reference to THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (Revised Edition) Part 1; Section 2; Chapter 2; Article 3, III_464, pg. 121:
“The unique and altogether singular event of the incarnation of the Son of does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part Man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused Mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true Man.”
He who is God and Man has given us his Mother as our Mother. He as God (Father) gave us the Ten Commandments, which the fourth commandment of it reads:
“Respect your father and your Mother, so that you may live a long time in the land that I am giving you. (Exodus 20:12; GOOD NEWS BIBLE_BSN)”, “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (Exodus 20:12; HOLY BIBLE_Centre Reference)”
If God himself has given us a commandment that we should honor/respect our father and mother, why then should we not honor/respect his own mother whom he has given to us as our mother in the person of the “Blessed Virgin Mary”.
3. WHY DO WE SEEK FOR THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY’ MOTHERLY HELP AND INTERCESSION?
We seek for the Blessed Virgin Mary’ motherly help and intercession because Christ is no longer our friend just as he used to address his disciples before his crucifixion, but he became our brother at the point he gave us his mother to be our mother in which John the disciple he loved most was our representative. We seek for the Blessed Virgin Mary’ help and intercession as her children, because she is our mother by virtue of Baptism; we ask her to intercede on our behalf to God our father who is also her son in the person of Jesus Christ (the incarnated God who became man) who is also our brother.
As humans, we know that no matter how we beg our father or brothers for anything, even if they initially do not want to give, once our mother intercedes on our behalf, our father or brother will surely give that which we ask of to us, even if they do not have, they will try their very best to get it for us.
According to the Gospel of John 2:1-12. There we have the story of how the Blessed Virgin Mary saved the couples at Cana from been put to shame on their Wedding day when they ran out of wine. The Blessed Virgin Mary interceded on their behalf to her son, even though they didn’t ask for her assistance; how much more do you think she will help intercede on our behalf (We her children) to her son, our brother and father when we seek for her intercession.
“When then wine had given out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “they have no wine left”. “You must not tell me what to do,” Jesus replied “my time has not yet come”. (John 2:3-4. GOOD NEWS BIBLE_BSN)”
Even at the response Jesus Christ gave to his mother, he still did what the mother requested of him. We can still see this in the same Gospel of John:
“7Jesus said to the servants, “fill these jars with water. “They filled them to the brim, 8and then he told them, “Now draw some water out and take it to the man in charge of the feast.” They took him the water, 9which now had turned into wine, and he tasted it. He did not know where this wine came from (but, of course, the servants knew); so he called the bridegroom 10and said to him, “Everyone else serves the best wine first, and after the guests have had plenty to drink he serves the ordinary wine. But you have kept the best wine until now! (John 2:7-10; GOOD NEWS BIBLE_BSN)”.
This shows that there is nothing we seek from Jesus Christ that when we call on our Blessed Mother Mary who is also the mother of Jesus Christ our brother and father that we will not get.
CONCLUSION
By virtue of Baptism we became adopted sons and daughters of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we now have full right and claim to her motherly care and protection. We honor her because no sensible human will not honor his/her mother. Let us seek for her motherly intercession in time of need. I pray that as we honor and seek the intercession of our beloved Blessed Mother, she will always and forever continue to show to usher motherly care and protection, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
REFERENCES
GOOD NEWS BIBLE_with Deaterocanonical Books/Apocrypha: The Bible Societies/Collins, a division of the HarperCollinsPublishers. ©2008. ISBN 978 0 564 09584 1.
THE HOLY BIBLE; King James Version – Copyright @2010 by Claretian Publications – ISBN 978-99937-735-3-5.
THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH; Revised Edition 2002, Reprinted 2008. ISBN 978-32239-6-8.
Written by; VINCENT BENEDICT AMEDARI
