b) OUR MOTHER

"Let us look at our Mother's countenance"

We are sons and daughters of the Catholic Church.  Should not this thought alone stir us?  Let us look at our Mother's countenance and be ashamed we have done so little for her till now.

Who is she?  She is the fruit of a miracle.  In fact, she is a miracle herself, a stupendous miracle in her origin, a singular miracle in her growth, a permanent miracle in her duration.  As a matter of fact, how was she born?  She was born, one might say, by dint of miracles, without the slightest human help, nay despite the efforts of all hell raging around the crib, despite immense and incredible obstacles that could not be overcome by created powers alone.  She is sustained solely by the arm of God.  Despite all the powers, all the prejudices, all the passions, all the errors of the world ‑- all of which have joined forces against her ‑- despite persecutions of every kind inflicted on her by barbarity, cunning, and pride, the Church, like lightning that flashes from east to west, spreads spectacularly and extends to the farthest corners of the world.  In the midst of the most ferocious assaults, in the midst of the most vicious attacks, she advances peacefully and serenely.  She walks majestically across the countless centuries.  She stands tall and straight.  She does not surrender.  She has kept herself incorrupt and gloriously triumphs over enemies of all kinds (...).

This is a chain of indescribable miracles, miracles that make us see with our own eyes that the Eternal One is acting here, Christ's power is at work here, God's force, might and omnipotence are active here and that all this power is communicated and imparted to the Church

and incarnated in the Church.  We should bow and reverence this immortal Queen of the ages, this immaculate Spouse of Christ, this Lady, sovereign of all kingdoms, ages, and peoples.  We should be proud to belong to her and to work for her glory.⁸

"The Church is truly our Mother"

My dear sons and daughters, fix deeply in your mind the great saying of St. Cyprian: "He who does not have the Church as a mother cannot have God as a father."

The Church is truly our mother, beloved brothers and sisters of mine.  This is not an oratorical expression.  It is an eminently dogmatic teaching.

Between us and God stand our parents and the series of our forefathers and mothers, through whom we are united to the first man, Adam.  Likewise, writes a great man, in the supernatural order of faith and grace, between us and Jesus Christ stands a mother, who is a virgin, namely the Church.  Through the uninterrupted series of spiritual generations she goes back to the apostles and to Jesus Christ.  Just as the wave of natural life flows from God to all creation through the necessary mediation of our parents according to the flesh, in the same way, the wave of divine, supernatural life flows from Christ to all believers through the equally necessary mediation of the Church.  She his Spouse and therefore our mother.  She was chosen to nurse us with the milk of her teaching, to bring us up in the spiritual life of grace, to enrich us with all the treasures of heaven, and to lead us to the fullness of the stature of Christ.⁹

"Let us love this Mother"

Let us love this mother!  We must not forget that whoever does not love the Church is outside the love of Jesus Christ and therefore outside the only love that can ennoble us, exalt us, and make us love properly everything that is worthy of love in the universe.  Let us love the Church living and present in our days, the Church that speaks through her august Head and her bishops, that lives and suffers for us, that prays and hopes with us.  Let us love her as the most precious and cherished thing in the world after Jesus

Christ.  Let us love her like our family, like our mother, who is at once most beautiful and most loving.  Let us love her as the one who best reflects and expresses in herself the infinite beauty and goodness of God who is our whole love.  Let us trustingly abandon ourselves into the arms of this mother.  "My mother told me so," exclaims the child; and with these words he goes confidently on his way.  Each one of us should say the same thing: "The Church has spoken and that is enough!"¹⁰

"We shall always love you with the love of sons and daughters"

Hail, 0 Catholic Church! 0 daughter of heaven!  How beautiful are your tabernacles!  How luminous your ways!  Mother of saints, image of the heavenly city, eternal preserver of the incorruptible Blood, hail!  You love us with the love of a mother, and we will always love you with the love of sons and daughters.  Like our brothers and sisters who have already earned their palm of victory, we too will make every effort to sanctify ourselves on this our earthly pilgrimage so as not to be unworthy of you.  We will docilely follow your teachings and always stand at your side, knowing well that outside you there is no salvation.  We will fight with you on earth in the hope of being victorious with you in heaven through the merits of Jesus Christ our God, to whom be honor, wisdom, dominion, thanksgiving, benediction, power, might and glory forever and ever.  Amen.¹¹