At Santa Marta, on 21 May, Pope Francis celebrated Mass for the first time in the memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of the Church: as of this year, in fact, the feast day in the general Roman calendar is celebrated on the Monday after Pentecost, as ordered by the Pontiff in the decree Ecclesia mater of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (11 February 2018), precisely to "foster the growth of the maternal sense of the Church in pastors, religious and the faithful, as well as of genuine Marian piety".

"In the Gospels every time Mary is spoken of, it is the 'mother of Jesus'," Francis immediately pointed out in his homily, referring to the Gospel passage from John (19:25-34). And if "even in the Annunciation the word 'mother' is not said, the context is one of motherhood: the mother of Jesus," said the Pope, emphasising that "this motherly attitude accompanies her throughout Jesus' life: she is mother". So much so that, he continued, "in the end Jesus gives her as mother to his own, in the person of John: 'I am going away, but this is your mother'". Here, then, is "the motherhood of Mary".

"Our Lady's words are mother's words," the Pope explained. And they are "all of them: after those, at the beginning, of availability to God's will and praise to God in the Magnificat, all of Our Lady's words are the words of a mother". She is always 'with her Son, even in her attitudes: she accompanies her Son, she follows her Son'. And again 'first, in Nazareth, she raises him, educates him, but then she follows him: 'Your mother is there'". Mary 'is mother from the beginning, from the moment she appears in the Gospels, from that moment of the Annunciation until the end, she is mother'. Of her "one does not say 'the lady' or 'Joseph's widow'" - and indeed "they could say that" - but always Mary "is mother".

"The Fathers of the Church understood this well," the Pontiff affirmed, "and they also understood that Mary's maternity does not end in her; it goes beyond". Again the fathers "say that Mary is mother, the Church is mother and your soul is mother: there is feminine in the Church, which is motherly". Therefore, Francis explained, 'the Church is feminine because she is "church", "bride": she is feminine and she is mother, she gives birth'. She is, therefore, 'bride and mother', but 'the fathers go further and say: "Your soul is also Christ's bride and mother"'.

"In this attitude that comes from Mary who is mother of the Church," the Pope pointed out, "we can understand this feminine dimension of the Church: when she is not there, the Church loses its true identity and becomes a charity association or a football team or whatever, but not the Church.

"The Church is "woman"," Francis relaunched, "and when we think about the role of women in the Church we must go back to this source: Mary, mother". And "the Church is 'woman' because she is mother, because she is capable of 'giving birth to children': her soul is feminine because she is mother, she is capable of giving birth to attitudes of fecundity".

"Mary's maternity is a great thing," the Pontiff insisted. God in fact "wanted to be born as a woman to teach us this way". What is more, 'God fell in love with his people like a bridegroom with his bride: this is said in the Old Testament. And it is "a great mystery". As a consequence, Francis continued, "we can think" that "if the Church is mother, women will have to have functions in the Church: yes, it is true, they will have to have functions, many functions they do, thank God there are more functions women have in the Church".

But "this is not the most significant thing," the Pope warned, because "the important thing is that the Church be a woman, that she have this attitude of bride and mother". With the knowledge that 'when we forget this, it is a male Church without this dimension, and sadly it becomes a Church of spinsters, living in this isolation, incapable of love, incapable of fruitfulness'. Therefore, said the Pontiff, 'without woman the Church does not go forward, because she is woman, and this attitude of womanhood comes to her from Mary, because Jesus wanted it that way'.

In this regard, Francis also wanted to indicate 'the gesture, I would say the attitude, that most distinguishes the Church as a woman, the virtue that most distinguishes her as a woman'. And he suggested recognising it in Mary's 'gesture at the birth of Jesus: "She gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger"'. An image in which we find "precisely the tenderness of every mother with her child: caring for him with tenderness, so that he does not injure himself, so that he is well covered". And 'tenderness' is therefore also 'the attitude of the Church that feels woman and feels mother'."St Paul - we listened to him yesterday, we also prayed to him in the breviary - reminds us of the virtues of the Spirit and speaks to us of meekness, of humility, of these so-called 'passive' virtues," the Pope said, pointing out that instead "they are the strong virtues, the virtues of mothers". Here it is that, he added, 'a Church that is a mother goes on the path of tenderness; it knows the language of such wisdom of caresses, of silence, of a gaze that knows compassion, that knows silence'. And "a soul, a person who lives this belonging to the Church, knowing that she is also a mother must also go down the same path: a meek, tender, smiling person, full of love".

"Mary, mother; the Church, mother; our soul, mother," Francis repeated, inviting us to think "of this great richness of the Church and ours; and let the Holy Spirit fertilise us, us and the Church, so that we may also become mothers of others, with attitudes of tenderness, of meekness, of humility. Sure that this is Mary's way". And, in conclusion, the Pope also noted how "Mary's language in the Gospels is curious: when she speaks to her Son, it is to tell him about the things that others need; and when she speaks to others, it is to tell them: 'do whatever he tells you'".

[Pope Francis, St Marta homily, in L'Osservatore Romano 22/05/2018]