Father Nolan's Homily - May 10, 2009 (Mother's Day)
 

“Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?  Even should she forget I will never forget you.”  IS 49:15 

The first reading from today’s Mass is taken from the Acts of the Apostles.  Paul was a man of great personal strength and commitment.  He was a strict Pharisee who saw Jesus and His followers as a threat to the Jewish faith.  So he persecuted the followers of Jesus Christ casting them into prison and even having them put to death.  Yet Paul was not beyond the reach of Christ’s transforming love which changed him radically.  He wrote so much about Christ and his transforming love.   

In the second reading taken from St. John’s 1st Epistle reminds us that there is no room for self sufficient individualism in the Christian faith.  Our faith is centered in love and love always builds up and is centered on community.  It consists of a way of life that binds people together.    

In the gospel Jesus gives a wonderful image of our connectedness to Him and to one another in his parable of “I am the vine and you are the branches.  Apart from Me you can do nothing.” 

Today we celebrate Mother’s Day when we remember and celebrate the sacrificial love of our mothers for us.  The celebration of Mother’s Day has a long and interesting history.  According to the Encyclopedia Britannica it originated with the custom of mother worship among ancient Greeks.  Throughout Asia Minor the Ides of March was a day designated to honor Rhea, the “mother of the gods.”  With the coming of Christianity the honor shifted to “Mother Church” and the day was celebrated themed Sunday of Lent.

Here in America the history of Mother’s Day is more clearly defined.  It started in 1872 when Julia Ward Howe suggested that June 2^nd be designated Mother’s Day and be dedicated to the cause of peace, as she had sons fighting on opposite sides of the Civil War.  I think that was very appropriate because mothers spend a lot of time keeping the peace in their homes!!  For several years she personally led such a celebration in the city of Boston.  In 1904 a convention of the Fraternal Order of Eagles meeting in Kansas City, Missouri launched a campaign for a national “Mother’s Day”.  Three years later Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia took up the cause suggesting that the 2^nd Sunday of May should be designated Mother’s Day.  Her efforts succeeded in 1914 when both Houses of Congress passed resolutions recommending that Mother’s Day be proclaimed a national observance.  The following year President Woodrow Wilson made that proclamation (1915).  Thus, for the last 92 years in our nation the 2^nd Sunday of May has been designated Mother’s Day.   

The question might be raised “Why should we set aside a special day to honor mothers?...a very dangerous question to ask!!  The answer is because mothers are very special people who most of the time are taken for granted. All of us have a special place in our hearts for our mothers.  A very beautiful Irish song very popular in my youth in Ireland said it all.   

A mother’s love’s a blessing no matter where you roam. 

Keep her while she’s living for you’ll miss her when she’s gone.

Love her as in childhood though feeble old and gray

For you’ll never miss your mother’s love till she’s buried beneath the clay. 

We all understand very well what those words mean.  My mother is dead and our Irish home is no longer home to me since she died.   

Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying “All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother!”  That is a very nice tribute but we need to remind ourselves that mothers are first of all people not angels, not saints – just people like you and me.  Intellectually we know that but emotionally we tend to forget it.  “Mother” is probably the most sentimental word in our language, therefore, we are inclined to idealize mothers and paint mothers bigger than life.  In a sense this is understandable.  A little child first gets to know ‘mother’ as a person who meets all his needs. If he is hungry, mother is the one who feeds him.  If he is hurt, mother is the one who consoles him.  If he is frightened, mother is the one who holds him close and makes him feels secure again.  If he does something wrong, mother is the one who corrects him and also the one who forgives him.  That is how you and I met our mothers – the person who met our needs.  It is a necessary and beautiful relationship.  But the problem is that some of us are slow to learn that mothers also have needs.  They get lonely and need friendship. They get hurt and need comforting.  They make mistakes and need forgiving.  Mothers are people just like the rest of us.    

Isaiah from the Old Testament raises a question.  “Can a mother forget her infant?”  and the next sentence clearly implies that “yes” she could.  He continues “Even though she could forget I will never forget you.”  The Bible is a very realistic book.  It recognizes what we all too often forget – that mothers are people just like the rest of us.   

Why did Isaiah the prophet ever bring up the question about a mother forgetting her baby?  It was because he wanted to illustrate the love of God.  So he pointed to the highest form of human love that he knew of – the love of a mother for her child.   And then he goes on to say that God’s love for us is even greater than the love of a mother for her child.   

But there is another thing that needs to be said, which is equally true and that is that mothers are special people not angels or saints but special people.   

My guess is that, as a group, mothers are the world’s most unselfish people.  They may not want to be but they have to be.  For nine months a mother shares her body with another person.  Then in pain and travail she brings that person into the world.  The pain, I am told, although severe is soon forgotten but her problems have just begun.  That mother has now on her hands a totally dependent and totally selfish little creature.   

In the early years of life that child will have many needs and he will always demand immediate gratification.  More often than not it will be the mother who meets those needs.  In the middle of the night, in the most inconvenient of times, he will demand attention.  For the sake of her won sanity a mother must learn to subordinate her needs to the needs of her baby.  So as a group mothers must be the world’s most unselfish people. 

So we set aside this day to honor mothers.  They are not saints.  They are not angels.  They are people, but they are very special people.  We are indebted to them.  We are grateful for them.  On this special weekend we salute you.  We love you.  May God bless you all and those of our mothers who have departed this life – may they be rewarded with eternal life for their lives of unselfish love. 

Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.