By Fr. Denis Wilde, OSA
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has chosen the theme “Mary, Mother of Life” for Respect Life Month this year. This title is not merely poetic; it reveals a living truth that can speak with particular power to those who feel trapped by the culture of abortion—those weighed down by fear, pressure, shame, isolation, or the belief that there is no other way.
Mary’s “Yes” Was Not Easy
When the angel Gabriel announced that Mary would conceive the Son of God, her life was turned upside down. She was young, unmarried, and living in a culture where pregnancy outside of marriage could bring severe consequences. Yet she responded: “May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). In that unconditional response, Mary became the Mother of Life itself. Her example shows that saying “yes” to life, even when it is unexpected, costly or even frightening, is possible through grace. And that “unexpectedness” was an ingredient in the call of Mary as given in Luke’s Gospel. Did she know beforehand whom she would bear? We don’t know.
After Satan brought about the fall of Adam and Eve, God judges the situation and states: I will put enmity between you [the serpent, Satan] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel. This is traditionally understood by the Church as fulfilled in Mary’s instrumentality in crushing the head of Satan, though, of course, her Divine Son effects this through his death.
As Satan brought death to Eve and then Adam, closing off paradise, Mary, the “new Eve” would, in the mind of the Church’s longtime understanding, reverse and bring about an even greater “Life” in her Son’s Birth, Death and Resurrection.
Looking now at Christ’s death, John’s Gospel positions Mary in sorrow and suffering with her Son as He languishes on the Cross. Jesus speaks to Mary and the beloved disciple, John: Woman, behold your son! Then to the disciple: Behold your mother. From that hour the disciple took her into his home. At the hour of Christ’s “crushing the head of Satan” – the Crucifixion – Mary is drawn into the picture.
Today “woman” is the word promoted in the abortion world, not “mother,” which is the correct descriptor for every female human who carries a child or has “eliminated” same. We need to use the word “mother” to recapture “baby,” a word lost in the skewed conversation of controversy today. Bring the baby to light! Replacing “woman” with “mother” does that automatically – and creates needed reflection on the part of abortion-minded folks.
In the case of Jesus bequeathing his mother to John, it is the opposite. Here “Woman” is highlighted as the Mother of all, radically changing the predisposition of Eve and Adam from shame and exclusion from paradise to a new opening drawn from Calvary and the Easter Rising to new life. John is the earliest representation of the gathering that will become church, and Mary becomes strongly related to that. In Luke’s Acts of the Apostles she will be at the center of prayer as the apostles with her await the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
She has since her own conception been favored by the Holy Spirit, full of grace. Now Mary is in the midst of the apostles, John and Peter included. Mother of the resurrected Lord of Life, prayerfully waiting with the others gathered as the embryonic church will soon burst forth to evangelize the streets on a universal pilgrim-packed Pentecost.
All of this puts Mary as a confident center of trust, from death to life; from unexpected pregnancy to Christ’s living among us; from a world of original shame to resurrected joy. And she tells us over and over – whether in words at Guadalupe, LaSalette, Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe and elsewhere – what she said neither at Jesus’s birth nor Death, not at Easter, or Pentecost but at Cana: Do whatever He tells you. That is the eternal motto and meaning of her life. To be mother of life is to point to the Way, Truth and THE Life, her Son, Jesus.
Mary stands as a beacon of light and assurance to those praying for a culture wreathed in darkness to see the light of God’s “image and likeness” before the pre-born come to light at birth, as she trusted in her special “unexpected” pregnancy. Imagine the world had Mary first said no to the Incarnation, or worse if she once conceived and then ….
Many who face an unplanned pregnancy or who have already been involved in abortion feel cornered. The abortion mindset often whispers: “This baby will ruin your life.” “You have no support.” “This is your only choice.” “You are alone.” “God could never forgive this.”
All lies.
Mary, Mother of Life, answers each of these lies with maternal tenderness.
To those who feel alone, she stands as the mother given to us at the foot of the Cross (John 19:26-27). She knows the weight of sorrow and the cost of love. And she suffers the killing of her son as if it were her own death. Post-abortive grief intensifies with the real guilt of initiating the killing, to be sure. But even there Mary points to the merciful “Father forgive them for they know not what they do,” which in the context of many pressured into abortion hovers around that “know not,” or done under constraint.
To those crushed by shame, she is the comforter of the afflicted. The Church’s own litany under this title specifically asks her to gather to help them experience the mercy of her Son.
To those who fear the future, she is the mother who trusted God when the path was unclear. Her life teaches that every human life — no matter how small, vulnerable, or unexpected—is worth the sacrifice of love.
Mary’s life teaches that respecting human life is not only about opposing abortion. It is about creating a culture where every mother and every child is welcomed, supported, and accompanied, from conception to natural death. It stems from trust rather than fear. And it is about being with others on the cragginess of climbs lifted above the reconciled past.
To those who reckon there is no way out, Mary is the mother who journeyed in haste to Elizabeth, going out of her immediate needs for others, sacrificially. The Church, through pregnancy centers, witnesses to faith such as 40 Days for Life involving the on-site prevention of mothers and babies before an abortion is realized, and Rachel’s Vineyard, healing moms finding the mercy of Mary’s Divine Son in a transforming weekend, to name just a couple of initiatives working so well.
Mary, Mother of Life, pray for us. Help every person trapped by fear or despair to discover that life is a gift, that mercy is real, and that no one is ever beyond the reach of your maternal care and the infinite love of your Son.
Fr. Denis Wilde, OSA, Ph.D., is a full-time pastoral associate for Priests for Life. A concert pianist, he was formerly an associate professor of music at Villanova University.
