 The readings we just heard proclaimed for this mass, the votive mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, are brief excerpts of Scripture, but yet we see in this a reflected what is really the whole movement of salvation history. The first reading, of course, we are all familiar with this, the fall of our first parents, when the original sin entered into the world. Up until this point, though, the man and the woman in the garden, all was idyllic, all was in harmony. Everything was according to way that God designed it, what He intended for us. But at this point now, we see trouble is brewing. The man and the woman have gotten themselves into trouble in big time. Something really serious is going wrong here. But even at this point, already at this point, we see the mercy of God at work. Right there, right at the moment of the fall of our first parents, God promises to get them out of it. And He comes up with a plan to do so. He makes His promise, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will strike at your head while you strike at His heel. So already at the very moment of the fall, God promises to send a Messiah to pull us out of this disaster. Let's look, though, a little deeper at what's going on here. I would like to share with you some insights I gained from an interfaith symposium on the complementary of man and woman in marriage. I attended and hosted at the Vatican back in November of 2014. It was an interfaith gathering, and so we had speakers from practically every major religion in the world, certainly. The talks were all excellent and very inspiring. But the one that really brought down the house more than any other was the talk given by the Chief Rabbi Emeritus of England, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who talked about this very passage from Genesis. And he says that up until this point, the man had not called the woman by a name. When she was created from his substance, he said he gave her a noun. He called her woman, not a name, because she was derived from himself. He says that he did not yet see her as a person in her own right, but more like a reflection of himself since she came from him. Then he goes on to say that it was at this moment that the man realized that he was mortal. He had lost his immortality, so he would one day die and he would be destined to return to dust. And so there was only one way that something of him could live on after his death. And this would be if he had a child, but for this he needed the woman. He could not have a child on his own. She alone could give birth. And as he puts it, she alone could mitigate his immortality. And he said, not because she was like him, but precisely because she was unlike him. At that moment she ceased to be for him a type and became a person in her own right. And a person has a proper name. That is what he gave her, the name Chava Eve, meaning giver of life. At that moment, as they were about to leave Eden and face the world as we know it, a place of darkness, Adam gave his wife the first gift of love, a personal name. From the very deep insights that Rabbi Sax gives us from his profound Jewish learning and wisdom, it helps to cast even greater light as we read salvation history from our Christian perspective. And we can see how God truly recapitulates all things in Jesus Christ. Let us look at the Gospel we just heard proclaimed. From the cross, Jesus addresses his mother as woman. This is the new Adam addressing the new Eve. And we see a similar connection here, the connection between Jesus and his mother. The first Eve took her flesh from the first Adam. The new Eve gives flesh to the new Adam. The eternal Son of God takes his flesh from the blessed Virgin Mary. He is of the same substance. But of course the work is not yet finished here. He was still to rise from the dead. He had to take human flesh from his mother so that in his body he could offer his life on the cross and die for us. But he was still to rise again. What happens on the third day, also at the cross St. John tells us, was Mary Magdalene. The first one to encounter him after the resurrection, which was also in a garden. And what happened in this encounter? She does not recognize him at first. She thinks he is the gardener. And Jesus first addresses her, how? Woman. Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for? She did not yet recognize him. And then he addressed her by her name. Jesus said to her, Mary, she turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabonai, which means teacher. He gave her a name and therefore established a relationship. We see here too the importance of the difference of the two and the complementarity. In this sense, in this moment Mary Magdalene becomes an image of the church as the bride of Christ and the example of discipleship. Saved by the blood of Christ. But that salvation is not realized without a relationship with him. We speak about having a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. But to know Jesus Christ as a person and not just as a concept, as some sort of imaginary friend, how is that accomplished? It always requires the mediation of another. And how does it happen in families? So often it's through the mother, is it not? She very often is the one who mediates the relationship of her children to Jesus Christ. Nowadays increasingly so the grandmother. But as it is for the family, so it is for the family of faith, the church. The church is the bride of Christ, but the church is also our mother. Jesus established his church to care for us, to nurture us, to give us life and nurture us as a mother does for her children. The church generates new life for God's kingdom through the grace of baptism. The church nurtures that life with the sacramental life of the church through the forgiveness of sins of God's people by how we join ourselves to his saving sacrifice in the Eucharist. The church nurtures that new life by teaching God's children the way of truth, the truth that Christ left with his church. Yes, we can know the truth and so we can be set free. We can know and love all that is good, all that is true, all that is beautiful. And so we can know him who is goodness, truth and beauty and be happy with him forever. This is what he wants for us. This is what he created us for. And this is why the church teaches what she does, what she teaches about morals, about marriage and about everything else, about what God has revealed to us about himself and the life of the Trinity, about his son, Jesus Christ, about the life of prayer, about the social teaching, everything the church teaches us because the church wants us to be happy. In reality, it is because this is what the Lord teaches us. The Lord established the church to be the messenger of his truth and to safeguard that truth for his children. But this will not make any difference without a personal encounter. A personal encounter with Jesus Christ but one which is always mediated through another. Jesus has chosen to rely on us for this. And so there is no evangelization without a personal encounter. The social media cannot substitute for it. Yes, we need to know how to communicate through the social media and the Holy Fathers have been urging us to be very attentive to this. But not as a substitute for a personal encounter, but as a way of getting there. Pope Francis repeatedly teaches us and urges us to build up this culture of encounter and accompaniment, to enter into a relationship at a human level, valuing the person as a person. I know the world of difference it can make when the work of evangelization is personalized in this way. Not just because stereotypes and preconceived ideas about who these religious fanatics are fall away, but because people can begin to see ultimate reality in a new perspective. Most importantly because presence is the language of love. If you truly love someone, you want to be present to them. Present in every way. Physical presence whenever possible, along with mental presence, spiritual presence. It doesn't really make any difference to tell someone that you love them if you never pay attention to them. You can't be believed if you don't pay attention to them if you say, I love you. On the contrary, total presence is the sign that you love them. To know them personally, to know them by name, this is the first gift of love. Love. This is the path to true and lasting happiness. Love is the way God designed us to love. True and lasting happiness. And that, as all well-versed Catholics know, is why God made us the first and last lesson of life, right? To be happy with him in this life and forever in heaven. Let us then always turn to her, our mother, who is the highest honor of our race, that she might intercede to her son for us and shelter us with her maternal love. Keeping us within the arms of our holy mother, the church, that we may always know her son and remain in a right relationship with him. And so inherit the freedom, love, and happiness of the children of God, now and forever in his heavenly kingdom.