John 19
Today, we celebrate the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. This title, Mother of the Church, is nothing new to the Catholic faithful. Since the time of the Church Fathers, the Church has been teaching Mary is the mother of all the members of Christ. But this obligatory memorial is designated very recently in 2018. We celebrate this memorial on the Monday after Pentecost.
I like to turn your attention to where she became our mother. Traditionally, the Church has quoted St. John’s gospel passage we just heard in today’s gospel. It was under the Crucifix of Christ Jesus, the tree of life. In the meantime, the first reading today from the book of Genesis shows how the mother of all living, Eve, fell into the first sin. It was also under a tree where this first woman, Eve, the mother of all living, brought death to all living. Isn’t that so intriguing?
These two women were under trees but under two different trees. One woman was under the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The other one was under the tree of the Crucifix. The former tree’s fruit looked “good for food” and was “a delight to the eyes”. In contrast, the latter tree was deadwood and its fruit, Christ Jesus, was so painful to look at. But what those two trees brought to the human race were opposite to their appearances. The former tree brought death. The latter brought life.
We know there was also a tree of life in the Garden of Eden. I wonder why Eve was not around the tree of life. We don’t have any description of the tree of life in the book of Genesis. But I believe its fruit was not as attractive as the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I believe its fruit rather demanded discipline, obedience, sacrifice, and suffering. It was, I believe, the same tree under which the Blessed Virgin Mary was.
The Blessed Virgin lost her only Son on the tree of the Crucifix. She offered the life of her Son on the tree. And watching her Son dying, she died, too, in her spirit. Imagine a mother watching her only child dying in crucifixion – the most shameful and painful death – being naked and suffocated under one’s weight.
However, Under the tree of the crucifix, she received new children, symbolized by John. She gained all members of Christ as her children. How fruitful of the deadwood of the Cross is! Mary took the most suffering fruit of the tree of the Cross. She died with her son under the tree. However, she became more fertile than any other woman. She became the mother of all faithful, who are promised of life eternal, not like those children of Eve who had to die.
