“The man called his wife Eve because she became the mother of all the living”. These are the last words of the first reading. After the disobedience of Adam and Eve, after their shame and the punishment received by God, there is a signal of redemption. The offspring of Eve will win against the deceitful serpent. However, Eve’s motherhood has something wrong. In a mysterious way every man and woman, sons of Eve, experience the disobedience and the sin. There will be the need of a new Eve, a new mother, obedient to the project of God, mother of virtues. This is the Virgin Mary, mother of God. Through her convinced “yes”, God entered the humanity to redeem everybody.

Today in the Gospel we find the Virgin Mary at the feet of the cross. She challenged the authorities of that time to stand under the cross of her Son, so that he would not remain alone in that moment. The Virgin Mary also challenged the other “pious” people who in the name of religion had clapped every blow of the hammer.

Paul VI said, regarding Mary: “The Mother … who stood by the cross, accepted the testament of love of her Son and welcomed all men, personified by the beloved disciple, as children to be regenerated to the divine life.  She became a loving nurse of the Church that Christ on the cross, emitting the Spirit, generated. … in the beloved disciple, Christ elected all his disciples as vicars of his love for his Mother, entrusting her to them so that they would welcome her with filial affection”. Mary, being the Mother of Christ, the Head of the mystical Body, is also the mother of the members of the Body of Christ, which is the Church.

Certainly this is very fine theology. But what does it mean that Mary is a mother? We all have experience of what a mother does, of what a mother is. Proclaiming that Mary is our mother means to place her in the right place in our life. A mother is an essential point of reference, the one who understands our mistakes and encourages us, the shoulder to cry on when we are desperate, the confidant to whom we reveal our secrets.

I was thinking about what happened yesterday in Ondo State. Precisely on the day of Pentecost, on the day when the disciples full of the Holy Spirit, find the courage to proclaim the Gospel, a cowardly attack killed many, too many people precisely at the moment in which they received strength from the Word of God, from the Eucharist, from the Holy Spirit. A real persecution is now the reality of this country and who could doesn’t do anything; a few people try to change the reality.

I was thinking of Mary in front of her son who was dying innocent on the cross; I was thinking that she, Mother of the Church, is the mother of all the crucified in history, she is the mother who collects the screams of pain and despair of the oppressed, of the humiliated, of those persecuted for justice and faith. She is the woman who walks beside the women of our time who know exploitation and violence. She is the Mother who weeps for her children who die in search of a dignified life without wars.

There are no words for what happened yesterday, blind violence seems to prevail and hope fades. It is the occasion to invoke the Virgin Mary, our Mother. When the darkness seems stronger than the light, when we feel alone, only her maternal embrace consoles and reassures us.

Mary is the Mother who gives us courage to start walking again after her Son, Master and Lord, especially when the witness of Christian life becomes dangerous.

Mother Mary, teach us to become true disciples of Jesus. Mother Mary, teach us to follow him on the harsh path to Golgotha ​​and with him and like him to give our lives for our brothers and sisters.