Here’s To The Mothers Who Have Touched Our Lives
In our second reading today from the first letter of Saint John, we read something rather profound. It might have slipped by you as it was read. So let me read it again. John tells us “if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in God and receive from him whatever we ask because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.” And his commandment, John says, is this: “we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them…”
Perhaps the essence of this remarkably powerful statement is simply that God put us on this earth to learn how to love. As the author of life, God asks us to love God and love one another. If we do this, we receive what we need from the Lord. Maybe not always what we want, but always what we need. We learn how to love in two ways. First, through the model of Jesus’ life on earth. Second, through the many people we encounter in this world that try to live that life, utilizing the gifts God gives all of us through the Holy Spirit.
This rather straightforward but utterly important teaching from St. John applies to all of us, men and women alike. And it seems most appropriate as we honor our mothers today at Mother’s Day. Recently, my sister-in-law who lives in Shoreline sent Lois and I a picture of five little girls standing hand-in-hand on the shore at the ocean as the waves rolled inward. My sister-in-law Sharon is a loving and strong woman who is my wife Lois’ both closest sister and friend. She lost her husband a few years ago when he was only 56. The caption at the bottom of the picture says: “Alone they might be washed away, together they stand strong.” Thank you for holding my hand somewhere along the way, when I was facing a wave of my own. I hope you will reach for my hand when your own wave threatens.”
Our mothers have stood in the way of many waves in our lives. When we were weak, they stood strong. They held our hands when those waves seemed on the verge of washing us away. And perhaps as they grew older, or reached the end of their time on earth, we held their hands as the waves of life ebbed away and the promise of new waves of joy in the next life was just above the horizon.
Mothers, like fathers, and indeed all of us are called to emulate the Lord of love. For Jesus also calms the storms of life. His word, his sacraments, the model of his service, the perfection of his prayers that he beckons us to emulate are with us always if only we reach for His hand. Jesus in our Gospel according to the same John who wrote the wonderful letter I referred to earlier, tells us that if we remain in Jesus and Jesus’ words remain in us, we will bear much fruit.
Mothers by definition are very fruitful in a way that resembles the divinity of God. Indeed, mothers, through the miracle of God’s creative power, give us life. Our Gospel this weekend says that the Lord is the vine, and we are the branches. When we are inside our mothers she is the vine, and we are her branches. Before we enter this world, we draw our breath from our mothers, in much the same way that the entire earth came to life through the breath of the Holy Spirit.
Like men, the creative force given to women builds up the body of Christ much like the work of the early apostles we read about in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Building up the Body of Christ was not then and is not now easy. For men or for women. And so mothers understand that they will face challenges. There is diversity of life, and also imperfections. Women will see others who are prettier. They will see women who are smarter or had better opportunities to advance. Some women will have a bigger house than others. Some will drive a better car. Their children will not do as well in school as some others will. Somebody else’s husband may be able to fix more things around the house. Or some women will lose their husbands when they see others living in joyful retirement with their spouses.
But through it all, mothers and fathers alike can learn to accept the unevenness of life even as we work with God’s help to smooth out the worst edges. With God’s loving guidance, and that of our Blessed Mother, mothers and fathers learn to let go. They learn to accept their circumstances when through prayer and discernment they began to realize it is time to fight another day or simply accept what cannot be changed. This also helps us to recognize that what we have is far more important than what we don’t have.
For the prettiest woman in the world can have a troubled heart. Those who are smart and successful may also not be able to have children. The richest woman may be the loneliest. And as St. Paul reminds us in that famous reading so often read at church when men and women marry, if I do not have love, I have nothing.
So on this Mother’s Day let us offer a word of thanks to God for to all those mothers who touch us everyday of our lives. And let me say to all mothers present, and for that matter to their families: Love yourself. Love who you are. For God clearly loves you. All of us are too blessed to be stressed. Too anointed to be disappointed. God gives us what we need and what we need above all things is love. For Jesus understood mothers as well, beginning with His own. He understood that what we believe and how we behave is far more important than how the world sees us. To the world a mother might mean ONE PERSON. But together our mothers remind us that loving God and others means the WORLD.