J.M.J.
As
we recognize the service to our Diocese of Sioux Falls of one bishop and await another, we
note the connection between the Mother of God and her Bishops, who are the Successors
of the Apostles.
Mary
knew well the Apostles, who were the friends of her Son, Jesus, and the first
Bishops. After the Ascension of Christ to His Father, Mary and the Eleven
Apostles joined in the Upper Room. “All
these (the Apostles) with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together
with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.” (Acts of
the Apostles 1:14)
Before
the period between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday, there was Good
Friday. From the Cross, the dying Jesus commended His Mother to Saint John the
Apostle and vice versa. “When Jesus saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing near,
He said to His Mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the
disciple, ‘Behold, your Mother!’” (Saint John 19:25-27) This
entrustment was not merely a courtesy, but instead had lasting implications. “And from that hour the disciple took her
to his own home.” (27)
One tradition is that Our Lady lived with Saint John
for some years in Ephesus, which is situated in modern-day Turkey. (Others
assert that Mary lived in Jerusalem.) Many believe that the “House of the
Virgin Mary” in Ephesus, which is a place of pilgrimage, was where she and John
resided. Ephesus was also the location of the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus,
held in 431.
We can imagine that the Mother of the Lord loved
and supported John. She must have shared details from her life with Jesus and
Saint Joseph. John, in turn, undoubtedly loved Mary and treated her as his own
mother.
What a scene it must have been when Mary attended Mass
celebrated by Saint John! In his True
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort
(1673-1716) cited the learned Jean Charlier de Gerson (1363-1429), the
Chancellor of the University of Paris, who asserted that Our Lady often
repeated the Magnificat, especially
as a thanksgiving after she received Holy Communion (see 255).
Still today, the Bishops of the Church—and all of
us—rely upon the prayers of Our Blessed Mother as we progress along the
challenging road to Heaven.
