Mother of All Nations

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for May 13th, 2014
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Opt. Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima

Our Lady of All Nations

THE unity of Christians, indeed all peoples, is the heartbeat and infallible vision of Jesus. St. John captured Our Lord’s cry in a beautiful prayer for the Apostles, and the nations that would hear their preaching:

…that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. (John 17:20-21)

St. Paul calls this salvific plan “the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past”… ^[1]cf. Col 1:26

…a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph 1:9-10).

In today’s first reading, we see how this plan, again, slowly comes into view for the early Church, not by human wisdom, but by the action of the Holy Spirit. The Gentiles were not only converting but receiving the Spirit too! Jews and Gentiles were turning to Christ, and thus, this mysterious unity was given a name: “Christians.” A new people was being born.

And here the mystery deepens. For we see that the Church is conceived, not only through Christ’s open side, but through Mary’s pierced heart as well. ^[2]cf. Luke 2:35 For the Virgin Mary’s role in salvation history was echoed from the very beginning::

The man gave his wife the name “Eve,” because she was the mother of all the living. (Gen 3:20)

Christ is the new Adam, ^[3]cf. 1 Cor 15:22, 45 and by virtue of her obedience and purity through the merits of the Cross, Mary is the “new Eve,” the new Mother of all nations.

At the end of this mission of the Spirit, Mary became the Woman, the new Eve (“mother of the living”), the mother of the “whole Christ.”As such, she was present with the Twelve, who “with one accord devoted themselves to prayer,”at the dawn of the “end time” which the Spirit was to inaugurate on the morning of Pentecost with the manifestation of the Church. —CCC, n. 726

Do not think then that the Good Shepherd in today’s Gospel gathers the flock alone. There is a Mother whose heart beats in unity with her Son’s for the redemption of all her children. If the Church teaches that she became the “new Eve” at the dawn of the “end time”, will she not also be present at the twilight of the end times? The Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary united to conceive Jesus; now, they continue in the Father’s plan to give birth to the “whole Christ”—the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past.

And there you have the answer as to why this “Woman clothed with the sun… in pain as she labored to give birth” ^[4]cf. Rev 12:1-2 is making—and going to make—her maternal presence felt, in these, the end times…

And of Zion they shall say: “One and all were born in her; And he who has established her is the Most High LORD.” (Today’s Psalm)

Prayer from the apparitions of Our Lady of All Nations,
with Vatican approval:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father,
send now Your Spirit over the earth.
Let the Holy Spirit live in the hearts
of all nations, that they may be preserved
from degeneration, disaster and war.

May the Lady of All Nations,
the Blessed Virgin Mary,
be our Advocate. Amen.