May 10, 2026~ Sixth Sunday of Easter ~ Year A
Spiritual Reflection
May 10, 2026~ Sixth Sunday of Easter ~ Year A (pdf)
“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” Jn 14:18.
The Call to Communion of Life with Mary
Jesus entrusts John
and each one of us
to His mother.
What does it signify?
[St.] John Paul II writes: “Entrusting himself to Mary in a filial manner, the Christian, like the Apostle John, ‘welcomes’ the Mother of Christ ‘into his own home’ and brings her into everything that makes up his inner life, that is to say into his human and Christian ‘I’.”
With His testament from the Cross,
Jesus calls each one of us
to build a communion of life with Mary.
The Savior wills that we may introduce His mother
into our interior life, so that she can form us.
The words he “took her into his home” (Jn 19:27) signify not only that St. John took Mary into his own house and took care of her; they also signify a completely new form of interpersonal relationship – a communion of life between St. John and the Mother of God.
The entrusting of Mary as a mother to St. John constitutes a new “intimate relationship of a child with its mother.”
The entrusting of oneself to Mary leads to a special relationship with her. Through Christ’s death, God pours His unfathomable love, fatherly and motherly love, over the world. He wants it to reach the very depths of our hearts through the heart of Mary.
This great grace requires a response.
The response that God expects
is your entrustment to Mary,
which is expressed
in living this special relationship with her.
There is a big difference between these two ‘entrustings.’ [St.] John Paul II writes: “The Redeemer entrusts Mary to John because he entrusts John to Mary.”
Christ “entrusts Mary to John,
so that he may take care of her.
On the other hand, he “entrusts” John to Mary,
in the same way God entrusts
a child to its mother.
This act gives birth to her child.
Mary lives in a singular union with him and loves him
as if he were her only child.
For this, the child with unwavering trust
can entrust himself in total abandonment of himself to her.
In entrusting himself to Mary, John introduces her into his interior life in order
to share with her everything that constitutes his inner ‘I.’
As the Pope says: “Such entrusting is the response to a person’s love, and in particular to the love of a mother.”
S.C. Biela, In the Arms of Mary, pp. 157-160
References from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
501 Jesus is Mary's only son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom indeed he came to save: "The Son whom she brought forth is he whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren, that is, the faithful in whose generation and formation she co-operates with a mother's love."
970 "Mary's function as mother of men in no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin's salutary influence on men . . . flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its power from it." 513 "No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by his ministers and the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source."
Questions for Reflection
1. In my daily life, what does communion of life with Mary signify for me?
2. In what ways can I welcome Mary into my innermost self and how can I be formed by her?
3. Mary has accepted God’s love to the end. How can I entrust myself “anew” to her in the midst of problems, difficulties, failures and weaknesses?
Prayer after Sharing
Thank you, God, for allowing me to see the truth about my weaknesses and how it calls upon the abyss of your merciful Love.
