Fr. Roger Vandenakker, CC – Companions of the Cross
Homily Summary – St. Mary’s in Ottawa, June 9, 2025

It’s very fitting that we honor Mary as Mother of the Church because she gave birth to Jesus, who is the head of the Church, and we, as his members, are members of the mystical body of Christ. Mary gave birth to the head of that body, and so she is now the mother of us all. We see in the Gospel that Jesus, in fact, entrusts Mary to John, who represents the faithful, beloved disciples of all ages, so she’s given to us as a mother.

We have the great solemnity, Mary the Mother of God, on January 1st, but here we honor her as the Mother of the Church. In the book of Genesis, we read that in the beginning, Eve is the mother of all the living, the first mother, and all descendants trace themselves to her. But because of original sin and that loss of grace, just like Adam, who was the first Adam, there needed to be a new Adam, and we find that in Jesus. St. Paul says Jesus is the new Adam, just as sin entered the world through one man, so now justification and righteousness have come through one man. If there is a new Adam, there is also a new Eve, a new mother of all the living. One of the early titles of Mary in the early Church was that she was the new Eve. As Christ is the new Adam, Mary is the new Eve. 

In terms of our devotion to Mary, there are three aspects to that devotion: Mother, Queen, and Model.

We honor her as Mother, as on this Memorial, Mother of the Church, Mother of God, and our spiritual Mother. 

We honor her as Queen because she is the mother of the King, and in the Jewish tradition, the Queen was not the wife of the King, because they often had several wives, so it was always the mother of the King who was the Queen. Mary fits that role perfectly, as the mother of her son, and so we honor her as Queen.

The final devotion we are called to have to her is as a model. Model meaning we honor her and we are devoted to her as one who represents the perfect discipleship, the perfect following of Jesus, the perfect model of virtue, of holiness, of response to God, of docility to the Holy Spirit. She’s a model, so we look to her as our model, as our Queen. In other words, we are her subjects, we are under her royal authority, and as a mother. But the most intimate one, of course, is Mother. She is a model, she’s a mother to us, and she wants us to see ourselves as her children, and to really be very free to approach her, to entrust our hearts to her like a young child would to their own mother. 

Let us honor Mary and pray for the Church that it would truly be faithful to Jesus, her Son, and let us then continue to celebrate this Memorial in honor of Our Lady.

Prayer from Pope Francis (Encyclical Letter, Lumen Fidei) –
Mother, help our faith!
Open our ears to hear God’s word and to recognize his voice and call.
Awaken in us a desire to follow in his footsteps, to go forth from our own land and to receive his promise.
Help us to be touched by his love, that we may touch him in faith.
Help us to entrust ourselves fully to him and to believe in his love, especially at times of trial, beneath the shadow of the cross, when our faith is called to mature.
Sow in our faith the joy of the Risen One.
Remind us that those who believe are never alone.
Teach us to see all things with the eyes of Jesus, that he may be light for our path. And may this light of faith always increase in us, until the dawn of that undying day which is Christ himself, your Son, our Lord!