“Mary, the Disciple Who Mothers Her Son’s Disciples into the Church”
Homily for the Patronal Feast of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, Tomales
August 18, 2024
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Introduction
One of the greatest treasures in Christian art is the depiction in stone of the Virgin Mary holding her dead child Jesus in her lap, etched sculpted by the famous Italian Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo. History has given the sculpture the beloved name Pietà, and there is a peculiar detail that Michelangelo put into His masterpiece.
If we recall that Mary would have still been a teenager when she conceived God’s Son in her womb (which at the time was the typical age at which women would marry and start having children), and Jesus was thirty-three when He offered His life on the cross for us, then Mary would have been close to fifty years old. And yet, in the Pietà, Michelangelo depicts her as a young woman, close to the age she was when she brought Him into the world. He had a reason for this, of course: depicting Mary as a youth at the death of her Son was meant to represent her purity.
Mothering the First Christian Community
Mary’s purity points to her unique calling by God in His plan of salvation: by a special favor He kept her free of sin so that she could be the worthy Mother of His Son. By taking on our human flesh, God’s Son made us his brothers and sisters, sons and daughters by adoption of His Father in heaven. This also means, then, that we claim Mary as our Mother, and rightfully so and with great joy. There is another way, though, that the Virgin helps us, and this comes from the very purpose for which God brought her into the world: her discipleship. We look to her as our Mother with great affection, but she also helps us in her role as her Son’s disciple.
Let us think about this. During Mary’s earthly life between these two points, that is, the death and Resurrection of her Son, and her Assumption into heaven, she was quietly active in the first Christian community, present and helping the Church to be formed into her mission and identity as the Body of Christ. We immediately think of her presence there in the Upper Room right after her Son’s Resurrection, with the apostles and the other 120 disciples. She was there to be present to them, to console them, to mother the new Christian community into its mission to make disciples of all nations, the Great Commission which her Son had just given to them. And undoubtedly after this outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, she recounted stories to the apostles about life with her Son, stories they wrote down and have bequeathed to us in the form of the four Gospels.
Her immediate responsiveness to God’s call in her life is evident from the beginning, as we see in the Gospel reading for this Mass for the Assumption. Mary first receives the news from the Archangel Gabriel that she is to be the Mother of God’s Son, a marvel beyond human comprehension but to which she gives her assent in those words that sealed the plan that God had worked for our salvation: be it done unto me according to your word. And, immediately afterwards, she hastens to the home of her cousin Elizabeth, who is carrying John the Baptist, the precursor to the child within her own womb. She goes to visit her so that they may share the wonders God is working out through them. And Elizabeth greets her with the words that mark her ever-ready openness to the will of God in her life: “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” [Lk 1:45]).
Preeminence of Her Discipleship
Mary is, indeed, our Mother, but it is precisely because she is first and foremost a disciple of her Son – the preeminent disciple of her Son – that she is our Mother. St. Augustine makes this clear in one of his sermons where he says:
Yes, of course, holy Mary did the will of the Father. And therefore it means more for Mary to have been a disciple of Christ than to have been the Mother of Christ. … but [she is] clearly the Mother of His members, which we are. For she cooperated by charity, so that faithful ones should be born in the Church, who are members of that Head; but in the flesh, [she is] the Mother of the Head Himself.[1]
She is our Mother, then, but our Mother in order to make us disciples of her Son. Which means that the purpose of her discipleship is found in her Motherhood.
She mothered the first disciples, forming them into a community of disciples, and she continues to do so for us from heaven. She does so because discipleship can only exist in community: the Church is a community of disciples! For it is within the community that the faith is taught, nourished and strengthened, and from the community that disciples go out to fulfill the Great Commission to “make disciples of all nations,” especially by the witness of their way of life, shining the light of Christ on the world through virtuous living. This follows the pattern of the bookends of the Gospel: it begins with Christ’s calling of the first disciples and ends with the commission to make disciples of all nations: “come follow me” and “go ye therefore.”
So, practically speaking, what does this mean? For the vast majority of our Catholic people (almost all), it means their parish. The parish is the cell of the Church’s life, where disciples are formed and sent forth – this is the foundation and heart of the matter, and there can be no way to accomplish the Church’s mission without it. As a wise bishop I once worked with put it: the Church flourishes in her parishes, or she doesn’t flourish at all.
For Us Here and Now
From my perspective as a bishop, I understand better just how accurate his insight was. When our parishes are vibrant, doing well what parishes are called to do, it is immediately obvious to me. Such parishes are alive, and I see it in the faith and devotion of the parishioners. It is above all in the little, everyday ways that we fulfill the commission that Christ gave to the Church. Not everyone is called to go too far off mission lands to preach Gospel for the first time, or to preach it on street corners. In fact, few have this vocation. But we all have some vocation that God gives us, and it is in living our vocation faithfully and well that we both make progress on the path to our own salvation and shine the light of that path to others: in marriage, and family life, and live together as the community of disciples that is the parish. Here is where we have the real opportunities to display and grow the virtues that bring us to the happiness with God that He wants for us: faith, hope, charity, patience, generosity, honesty, always looking out for the good of the other before ourselves.
For me personally, too, it is one of the highlights of my many duties as the Archbishop of San Francisco to be with our people in their parishes, worshiping with them and sharing fellowship with them. I’m especially happy to be here in this little but vibrant parish of Our Lady of the Assumption, and I commend you for marking your patron will feast day with such festivity and devotion. The life of devotion deepens our love for Jesus Christ and commitment to him, helping us to be more faithful disciples and messengers of his love, truth and peace.
Of course, the quality of the life of our parishes stems directly from our pastors. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Fr. Juan Manuel for his pastoral leadership here in Tomales. Even with the great distance from the center of our Archdiocese, and in the midst of personal challenges he has encountered along the way, he has not diminished in his ever-attentive shepherding of this community of disciples. Thank you, Fr. Juan Manuel, and please know just how much I value you as loyal collaborator and fellow priest in our Archdiocese.
Conclusion
Happiest of all, we have a heavenly patron to help us in our growth as a community of disciples, that preeminent disciple and our Mother. As she did for that first Christian community on earth, she continues to do for us from heaven, mothering us into a faithful community of disciples for her Son.
It gives us great joy to celebrate her glorification today, she who by God’s choice is the first disciple to share in that glory which her Son won for us by his saving death and Resurrection. And it is a double joy for us to do so on patronal feast day of this parish. Let us rely on her maternal love for us, and seek her assistance and intercession in helping us to be ever more faithful disciples of her Son, for she will always take us to him, who is the source of our peace, healing and eternal salvation. Amen!
[1] Quoted in The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide, The Holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew Volume I Thomas W. Mossman (trans.) (Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire: Loreto Publications, 2008) p. 603.