Llandudno Catholic Church - Sunday Newsletters

NEWSLETTER - Saints Peter and Paul - The Vine in the Window - 28 JUNE 2009

Dear Parishioner,

Terry Cringle was lighting candles to the Sacred Heart. One of those candles would surely have been for herself, for she is very poorly and needs our prayers as well as her own. I sat nearby while she prayed, for I was on my way to lock the church. I am not sure that I had ever sat in exactly that position before, but from where I was sitting I had an angled view of the altar and its window and was able to see, between the pinnacles that arise from the top of the tabernacle canopy, the very bottom of the central pane of the window. Those pinnacles obscure this view from most places in the church. What I saw delighted me.

The central pane depicts the vine, laden with fruit. A few weeks ago, we spent a couple of homilies reflecting on the meaning of the our Lord’s words, “I am the Vine, you are the branches”. We came to the conclusion that the vine stands for Christ himself, but Christ united to each and every one of us, whose purpose it is to go out and bear fruit for God. The heavy bunches of grapes on the window vine remind us constantly of this. This vine in the window pane has some of its roots above ground, and this is what I noticed when Terry was saying her prayers. These roots are forming the letter M. M for Mary. The Vine is growing out of Mary.

We know that Our Lord was born of Mary, so there is no startling revelation here. But there is much food for thought and reflection, especially when you remember that according to Our Lord, the Vine stands for Christ, the “whole Christ” as St Augustine used to say, namely the Church. Our window depicts in beautiful fashion the fact that the Church has grown out of Mary, that Mary is the “Mother of the Church”.

This understanding of Our Lady’s role in the work of salvation has always be around in the Church, but it only became really explicit in recent years. As Pope Paul VI said,

“The title Mother of the Church reflects the deep conviction of the Christian faithful, who see in Mary not only the Mother of Christ but also of the faithful. She who is recognized as Mother of salvation, life and grace, Mother of the saved and Mother of the living is rightly proclaimed as Mother of the Church”.

And he, Pope Paul VI, did officially proclaim this teaching at the end of the third session of the Second Vatican Council on 21 November 1964 when he said, “henceforth the Blessed Virgin may be honoured and invoked with this title by all Christian people”.

As a young student in Rome, I was privileged to be present in St Peter’s when he said this.

Because Mary is the Mother of Christ and because we form one Body with him, it follows logically that Mary is the Mother of the Church. On the Cross, as his last will and testament, Jesus’ dying words to us were, “Son, behold your Mother”.

It follows, as night follows day, that devotion to Mary is not an optional extra, no more that honouring your father and mother is optional to your behaviour. To fail to honour your parents is a breach of the basic commandments of God; to fail to honour Mary is equally improper, possibly more so. Respect for Mary is not an optional extra to Christianity; nor is it an unimportant add-on to our Faith. It is simply part of it.

For two thousand long years, God Almighty prepared the Jewish people for his sending of his Son into the world. All that was good and beautiful in the Jewish people and the Jewish tradition reached it focal point in Mary and was summed up in her . The Jewish girl gives the world its divine Saviour. For two thousand years since, Christian people have reflected on her unique and wonderful role in God’s work of salvation.

I hope that that beautiful depiction of the vine bearing abundant fruit which adorns our central window will remind us of the root from which all of us have sprung and prompt us to give thanks worthily to God for the unique privilege of belonging to his holy Church and of being born of Mary, who is truly our Mother, for she is truly Mother of the Church.

God bless, Fr Antony Jones

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