20260525 I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU ORPHANS
25 May 2026, Monday, Mary, Mother of the Church
First reading |
Genesis 3:9-15,20 |
The mother of all those who live
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.
Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 86(87) |
Of you are told glorious things, O city of God!
On the holy mountain is his city
cherished by the Lord.
The Lord prefers the gates of Zion
to all Jacob’s dwellings.
Of you are told glorious things, O city of God!
Of you are told glorious things,
O city of God!
‘Zion shall be called “Mother”
for all shall be her children.’
Of you are told glorious things, O city of God!
It is he, the Lord Most High,
who gives each his place.
In his register of peoples he writes:
‘These are her children,’
and while they dance they will sing:
‘In you all find their home.’
Of you are told glorious things, O city of God!
Gospel Acclamation |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Happy are you, holy Virgin Mary, and most worthy of all praise,
for from you arose the sun of justice, Christ our God.
Alleluia!
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.
I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU ORPHANS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Acts 1:12-14; Ps 87; Jn 19:25-34]
It is significant that, except for His promise of the Holy Spirit, Jesus only told His disciples just before He ascended “not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. He said, ‘This is what you have heard from me; for John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'” (Acts 1:4f) There seems to be a lack of assurance in contrast to when Elijah ascended to heaven in a fiery chariot; at least he left his cloak behind to Elisha as a pledge of his presence and support. The disciples must have felt rather lost and perhaps even abandoned. They had only the promise of our Lord to cling on to, in faith and in hope. The Lord had told the disciples, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.” (Jn 14:18f) Indeed, Jesus assured them that He would come again in the resurrection and when He gives them the Holy Spirit.
But how do we cling to a hope that is unseen? How can we have the faith to hold on to a promise yet unfulfilled? We can only wait patiently for God to fulfill His promise in our life. We need to cling on to the faith of our forefathers. For the early Christians, they had to cling to the faith of their fathers, especially Abraham, Moses and the prophets. But all these were figures from the past. They needed someone to be with them. Indeed, today as we celebrate the Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church, we are assured, like the disciples that we are not orphans. Jesus knew that they needed His mother to be with them, to journey with them in their faith in Him.
Mary is the model of faith and hope in the Scriptures. Whilst Abraham is recognised as the Father of Faith, Mary is the Mother of Faith. She was portrayed as the woman who anticipated the glory of her Son at the Wedding at Cana in Galilee when the Lord said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” (Jn 2:4) But today’s Gospel identifies when the time came, “He said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.'” Her time had come to be the woman, the mother of the Church, to mediate and to intercede for her children as she anticipated at Cana by telling Jesus, “They have no wine.” (Jn 2:3) Indeed, Mary is that woman in the Gospel, “who hear the word of God and do it.” (Lk 8:21) That was what our Blessed Mother always said, “Do whatever He tells you.” (Jn 2:5)
So we have never been left alone, even when the Holy Spirit had not yet descended upon the Church. Her role as the Mother of the Church began in the Upper Room, as we read in today’s First Reading. She prayed with the Apostles while awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14); “All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.” That Mary, Jesus’ mother, is mentioned here (her only appearance in Acts,) signifies the important role she played in the history of salvation. Luke presents her as a model of trust and obedience to God. (Lk 1:38) Now, Luke not only underscores that Mary gave birth to Jesus but also assisted in the birth of the Church – at the passion, death of our Lord, and at Pentecost.
Indeed, Mary was there with the Apostles and the disciples to share her experiences of Son and to help them to find a deeper faith in Him. At the same time, she would have prepared them for the mission ahead: to continue the work of her Son just as she had – cooperating with the divine plan and His salvific work by remaining with Him throughout His ministry. Most of all, by standing under the foot of the cross, she gave Him the courage and strength to persevere to the end through her love and fidelity. She would do the same for the disciples, her children, and us as well.
For this reason, the Church has chosen the Gospel of John, chapter 19 to bring out the theme of today’s celebration: Mary, Mother of the Church. This is because the Church was, in principle, born at the cross through the passion of our Lord. It was there that “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.” (Jn 19:34) Water symbolises Baptism and the Holy Spirit, while blood symbolises the Eucharist. At the cross, our Lord entrusted Mary with her new office as Mother of the Church. Mary rightly assumed this role following the death and ascension of our Lord into His glory.
Her spiritual maternity of the Church is founded on her divine motherhood and by her cooperation in the economy of salvation with her Son, Jesus Christ. Just as Christ is the head of the Church, Mary – as the mother of Son – shares an intimate relationship with the Church, for the Mother also loves her Son’s brothers and sisters. Mary, then, as mother of Christ, is also mother of all the faithful and their pastors. She remained with the disciples to strengthen them, and form them in understanding her Son even more by sharing the background of His growing up years in Nazareth before the mission. No one knew Jesus as intimately as Mary, with whom He lived for thirty years; while the disciples knew Him for only three years.
Mary continues this role of spiritual motherhood today, even after her glorification in heaven, by interceding for the Church. This explains why, over the centuries, saints, theologians, popes, and the faithful have honoured Mary with various titles such as Mother of Disciples, Mother of the Faithful and of all those who are reborn in Christ – and also, as Mother of the Church. This last title was bestowed by Blessed Paul VI, on 21 November 1964. At the conclusion of the Third Session of the Second Vatican Council, he declared the Blessed Virgin Mary as ‘Mother of the Church,’ that is to say, the mother of all Christian people, both clergy and laity, and decreed that she should be further honoured and invoked upon by the entire Church.
In 2018, Pope Francis promulgated this celebration as a Memorial in the Church’s Liturgy. The Decree expresses the hope that “This celebration will help us to remember that growth in the Christian life must be anchored to the Mystery of the Cross, to the oblation of Christ in the Eucharistic Banquet and to the Mother of the Redeemer and Mother of the Redeemed, the Virgin who makes her offering to God.” Indeed, devotion to Mary, Mother of the Church, completes the spiritual life of Christians: from her, we learn to unite ourselves with Jesus’ suffering on the cross and imitate His death, thereby sharing in His resurrection as we participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice. As Mother of the Church, Mary leads us to a deeper appreciation of what it means to share in Christ’s suffering, and ultimately, in His resurrection.
Consequently, as we celebrate the memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church, let us turn to Mary as our model in living out the Christian life – sharing in Christ’s passion and doing the will of God by listening to His Word and doing all that He commands us. We are not to rely on our own strength but, like Mary, to rely solely on the grace of the Holy Spirit through expectant and persevering prayer and steadfast faith in union with the Church. As our intercessor, Mary watches over the Church, praying that we may become be true sons and daughters of God. Like John, the model of the faithful disciple who took Mary into his own home, we too must welcome Mary into our lives by cultivating a deep devotion to her. Through our devotion to Mary, we will surely grow in union with the Lord and in faith.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
