When did “the woman” become the mother of Christians? When Our Lord
Himself gave His mother to be our mother from the Cross itself. This we
see in the verse cited earlier from St. John’s Gospel:
“Woman, behold your son ... behold your mother” (St. John 19:26-27).
The first question that needs to be asked about this verse is why Our Lord
would instruct St. John to call the Virgin Mary “mother” when St. John’s
own biological mother (Salome) was still alive and standing nearby at the
foot of the cross (St. Mark 15:40). Prima facie, Our Lord is entrusting His
mother into the care of St. John, for St. Joseph himself had long passed
away and the Virgin Mary had no other children remaining now to care for
her. However, there has always existed the deeper understanding that St.
John was given to the Virgin Mary as a son, not in the capacity of a simple
individual but as an Apostle and Disciple representing the entire Church. If
there is no symbolic significance in this passage then why is the term
“disciple” used instead of John’s own name? Furthermore, why did Christ
use the term “woman” rather than “mother” when first addressing the
Virgin Mary? As we have seen, the term “woman” has strong prophetic and
symbolic connotations. The woman prophesied in Genesis 3:15 as the
enemy of the serpent and who was present at the beginning of Christ’s
public mission is now made mother of the Church at the consummation of
Christ’s mission. This certainly did not escape St. John, which is why he
would record that the “woman” he saw in Revelation 12 is the mother of
“those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of
Jesus” (v. 17).
To crown all of the above, the Virgin Mary’s motherhood is not only a
spiritual motherhood of the Church but also a royal one. Christ is King of
heaven and earth and according to the Jewish Davidic tradition the King’s
mother occupied the role of Giberah, or “great lady.” The “woman” in
Revelation 12 is adorned with a “crown of twelve stars” (v. 1) which
obviously conveys queenship. The twelve stars in Mary’s crown means that
she is queen of the people and kingdom of God, for the Old Testament
people of God were founded upon the twelve tribes of Israel and the New
Testament Church was founded upon the twelve Apostles.
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