God has a Mother (Elizabeth Scalia / Pope Francis)

He died before my eyes, ripped apart,
jeered at, gambled over. And at the moment,
the earth trembled in anguished sorrow,
and the sword sliced into me, impaled my heart,
although no one could see.

 --Elizabeth Scalia,
When Mary Met the Sword of Simeon’s Prophecy 

    Holy Mother of God! This was the joyful acclamation of the holy People of God echoing in the streets of Ephesus in the year 431 when the Council Fathers proclaimed Mary the Mother of God. This truth is a fundamental datum of faith, but above all, it is a marvelous fact. God has a Mother and is thus bound forever to our humanity, like a child to its mother, to the point that our humanity is His humanity. It is an amazing and consoling truth, so much so that the most recent Council, which met here in Saint Peter’s, stated that, 'by His incarnation, the Son of God has in a certain way united Himself with each individual. He worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, He acted with a human will, and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, He truly became one of us, like us in all things except sin'. 

--Pope Francis, Homily, August 22, 2023

Image source 1: Sandro Botticelli, The Virgin and Child, or The Madonna of the Book, (ca. 1480-1481), https://mymodernmet.com/madonna-and-child-art-history/
Image source 2: Miriam McClung, Jesus in the Arms of Mary, pastel on board, https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/miriam-mcclung/artwork/the-pieta-jesus-in-the-arms-of-mary