Behold Your Mother Dilemma

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So in the passage about the Crucifixion, we read how Jesus put Mary in John’s care. Is there any historical precedent from early Christianity concerning the interpretation that Jesus is commanding Christians to take Mary as their mother?
 
James817 said:
So in the passage about the Crucifixion, we read how Jesus put Mary in John’s care. Is there any historical precedent from early Christianity concerning the interpretation that Jesus is commanding Christians to take Mary as their mother?
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Jn 19:26-27
26 When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son.
27 After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.
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Lumen Gentium 58
… After this manner the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan,(294) grieving exceedingly with her only begotten Son, uniting herself with a maternal heart with His sacrifice, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this Victim which she herself had brought forth. Finally, she was given by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross as a mother to His disciple with these words: “Woman, behold thy son”. (295) (11*) …
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St John needed to take care of Our Lady because women in those days could not own property. She had no other sons. In taking her as his mother, John was protecting her from homelessness. Christ, like any good Son, was thinking of her first…and likewise was giving her to us as a mother and protectress.
 
Vico said:
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James817:
From early Christianity?
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Early is Jn 19:26-27, not commanding.
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Clearly you didn’t understand what I was asking. Let me state my inquiry again: Did any of the Fathers of the Church see this doctrine from the verses mentioned above?
 
James817 said:
So in the passage about the Crucifixion, we read how Jesus put Mary in John’s care. Is there any historical precedent from early Christianity concerning the interpretation that Jesus is commanding Christians to take Mary as their mother?
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I don’t know about the word “commanding”. Jesus is revealing that Mary is the mother of all believers and this is confirmed in Rev 12:17.
 
Replying to your post, but directed at the OP:

The “woman” in Revelation 12 shows up very suddenly when John stops writing at the end of chapter 11 about the (lost) Ark of the Covenant seen in heaven. It seems clear enough that there is now a new Ark of the new covenant. Many choose to limit the “woman” as representing either Israel or the Church. It cannot be the Church strictly, as Christ birthed the Church, not the other way around. And even though our Lord is descended from David, the woman as Israel does not parse well, as Israel is not the mother of all Christians.

That woman gave birth to a single male child, destined to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Let’s rewind to Psalm 2, verse 9, a Messianic Psalm of David.
Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, and shalt break them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
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How else is one to take this? The woman is at enmity with the serpent, fulfilling the prophecy of Genesis 3, and is given the wings of an eagle. Hmmm. The symbol for the Apostle John is the eagle. Hmmm. John received the Revelation. Double hmmm.

And, John’s mother was both alive, as well as present at the crucifixion!
Matthew 27:56 Among whom was Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
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What else are we to make of this, given only the written record? Add in the consistent tradition of the Church and it is unassailable.

OP: I would work on your faith, as you “seem to be” demanding proof, Thomas-like, before you will believe.
 
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No passages from the Church Fathers come to mind where they explicitly say that John represents all of us, or that the entrusting of Mary to John represents an entrusting of Mary to all of us. I did a quick search using the Church Fathers Search Engine, and several passages came up where they comment on that verse, but in none of the ones I checked did they explicitly make something universal out of the particular. Of course this doesn’t mean they never did that; I just didn’t find anything after a quick search, that’s all.

I did find a website where a guy lists passages from the Church Fathers where they say that Mary is our mother: http://www.staycatholic.com/ecf_mary,_mother_of_the_church.htm But a few of those passages don’t seem to actually say that, and none of them appear to be about the “behold your mother” passage. I wonder what would be the best way to find out more info on this?
 
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How is asking for a precedent mean lack of faith? I’m going to ask again: Where is the precedent from the Fathers of the Church that John 19:26-27 means that Mary is the mother of the Church?
 
James817 said:
So in the passage about the Crucifixion, we read how Jesus put Mary in John’s care. Is there any historical precedent from early Christianity concerning the interpretation that Jesus is commanding Christians to take Mary as their mother?
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This seems like an odd question. We think of the Church being born from the blood and water that flowed from Christ on the cross. Are you asking if something happened PRIOR to that?

If you are referring to the writings of the early Church, it was significant that the writer did not identify the disciple who was standing at the foot of the cross - as if His mother were given to all disciples who were willing to stand at the foot of His cross. There is also the witness of the book of Revelation.

13-17 When the Dragon saw he’d been thrown to earth, he went after the Woman who had given birth to the Man-Child. The Woman was given wings of a great eagle to fly to a place in the desert to be kept in safety and comfort for a time and times and half a time, safe and sound from the Serpent. The Serpent vomited a river of water to swamp and drown her, but earth came to her help, swallowing the water the Dragon spewed from its mouth. Helpless with rage, the Dragon raged at the Woman, then went off to make war with the rest of her children, the children who keep God’s commands and hold firm to the witness of Jesus. Rev. 12

Here Mary is portrayed as the mother of all who keep God’s commands - the disciples of the Man Child.
 
James817 said:
Clearly you didn’t understand what I was asking. Let me state my inquiry again: Did any of the Fathers of the Church see this doctrine from the verses mentioned above?
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You are right, I was not clear what you were asking. Yes, but most of the Fathers talked about Mary as the New Eve, following on the writings of Paul. Since Eve was the mother of “all living”, in Christ, Mary is the Mother of all who live in Him.

Saint John gives Mary the title “woman” in order to show us that Mary is the New Eve, the woman whose child would defeat the dreaded dragon. As early as the second century, the Church Fathers concluded that since Jesus is the “New Adam,” Mary is the New Eve. Saint Irenaeus said, “[T]he knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience: what the virgin Eve had bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith.” It is worth noting that Saint Irenaeus was a disciple of Saint Polycarp who was a disciple of Saint John, the beloved disciple. Thus this patristic teaching of Mary as the New Eve goes straight back to Saint John himself. Mary is the true Eve, the true “mother of the living” (cf. Gen. 3:20).
 
We know John taught Polycarp and Ignatius, and Polycarp taught Irenaeus. Is there any evidence that they espoused this interpretation from the passage?
 
James817 said:
We know John taught Polycarp and Ignatius, and Polycarp taught Irenaeus. Is there any evidence that they espoused this interpretation from the passage?
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They are the evidence. The Catholic faith is one of paradosis - the truth is handed down from those who are ordained to be the custodians of it. Ideas that did not come from the Apostles were immediately recognized as heresies.
 
You want sources saying that Mary is the mother of all the faithful, or of a specific commentary of this man being representative of us all?
 
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