On this day when we celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, Pope Francis reminds us that “When faith makes a place for the Mother of God, we never lose sight of the center: the Lord, for Mary, never points to herself but to Jesus; and our brothers and sisters, for Mary is mother.” We see this in the actions described by John. Whereas the Apostles, except for John, abandon Jesus in the hour of his humiliation, Jesus mother Mary, his mother’s sister Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala, who had followed him during his public life, now stay with their Master as he dies on the Cross. Saint Pope John Paul II explains that Our Lady’s faithfulness was shown in four ways: “First, in her generous desire to do all that God wanted of her; Second, in her total acceptance of God’s will; Third, in the consistency between her life and the commitment of faith which she made; and, Finally, in her withstanding this test. Only a consistency that lasts throughout the whole of life can be called faithfulness. Mary’s ‘fiat’ in the Annunciation finds its fullness in the silent ‘fiat’ that she repeats at the foot of the Cross.” When Jesus speaks to John and his mother, Mary, on the cross, his words declare that Mary is our mother. All Christians, therefore, who are represented in the person of John are children of Mary. By giving us His Mother to be our mother, Christ demonstrates his love for his own to the end.