Our Mother - The Church

"Sweet mother, I no go forget you. For the suffer wey you suffer for me o." First lines from a popular Nigerian song by Prince Nico Mbarga.

And truly most mothers, if not all, suffer for their children. Some of the suffering comes from trying to take care of their children and provide for them, some of the suffering comes from the hurtful actions of their children.

The Cathechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that the church is our mother.  St. Paul sees the church as 'the Bride of Christ, the Mother from whose womb of grace each of us was born to a new life a life of Sonship'. 

How many of us Catholics truly see the church as our mother? And for those that do, do we treat her accordingly? Do we love, cherish, respect and bring her honour by our words and actions? Do we
obey her and listen to her wise counsel? Do we defend her and protect her from those who insult, libel and castigate her? Or do we betray her - by our words and silence, actions and inactions?

An excerpt from an article written by Mother M Angelica founderess of EWTN titled 'My Mother--The Church' is as follows

"The Church is a Mother because she is a Bride who is forever bringing forth children of light, pillars of holiness, sources of inspiration, challengers of truth, and defenders of the Faith. 

Yes, she has structures, laws, treasures, authority and human frailties mixed with Divine power, but we must look at the whole Church and not just part of her. What son of an earthly mother tells his friends that his mother is nothing but an ugly skeleton covered over with muscle and skin? What kind of son picks apart every fault and weakness in his mother and broadcasts it to everyone willing to listen? A child who concentrates only on the authority a mother has to correct and punish and refuses 
to see the deep love and concern behind the reproaches, leads an unbalanced existence a life of self-pity and childish peeves.

A true child of this God-given Mother is not one who is blind to her faults, weaknesses and wounds, but one who is discerning enough to see her need for improvement for healing for greater zeal and for generosity; loving enough to see her virtues, grace, truth and power and zealous enough to do something positive to help rather than something negative to destroy."

You can read the full excerpt of this article on https://www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/churc2.htm

I think it's important that we always remember that the church is our mother and it behooves us to treat her well and make her proud. As a mother, she welcomes all her children, Saints and sinners alike, loving the sinner while hating the sin and praying that all her children 'Be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect' (Matthew 5:48).

It is so easy to get carried away by the things 'of the world' and so we must be on our guard. Let us be counted among those who are building up the church and not be found to be one of those bringing her down.