This Sunday of course is Mother’s Day.
My mother, Rosemary, has been gone now for eight years (?). (I’ve lost track of the time.) She and my father brought three children into the world. Dad wanted more but mom said, “this is enough”.
I’ve mentioned in the past that mom was a bit different in her “mothering” style. She wasn’t known for her time spent in the kitchen (though when the pressure was on she did quite well). She wasn’t a hand holder or a big kisser, but she was quick to apply the band aid or administer the calamine lotion as needed.
What mother was wonderful at was conversation.
It was fun to talk with her. She’d ask the best questions to start you thinking and then she’d listen carefully to your thoughts. She could read people and know what they were trying to say.
Please don’t be shocked by this but I’m seeing now how, later on, I related to mom more like my “sister”. There’s not this “lean” toward her as “life giver” and “nourisher”. Rather she became a “fellow traveler”, an “observer of life”.
She had a fierce loyalty to her husband Phil. I re- member her tapping my hand as I grabbed for the biggest pork chop on the platter. “That one is for your father.”
And your mother?
Isn’t it wonderful that we all have one? And a father too. It unites us all . . . as children! You and I know what it is to know nothing; to be totally de- pendent on the safety and love and direction provided by our parents.
Women. You have this amazing thing in you. I write this as a man, in an age where it’s discouraged to make “general” statements about any group of per- sons. I don’t care. Women. You have this amazing thing in you. What tenderness, compassion, and undying hope exists in this world – – – comes mostly from two sources – – Jesus and women.
Women have civilized this world. Not only did you give us arms and legs and eyes to see . . . you saw to it that we grew strong; and you loved us into real persons. You worried and prayed about us in ways we’ll never know. You just have (it’s hard to find the words) a gravity to you that keeps us in proper or- bit. You are our home.
Yeah that’s it, you are “home”. And it’s quite a wonderful one (not perfect of course!) until we all meet up in Our Eternal Home.
One other thought about Mary, The Blessed Mother. May is the month we remember her is a special way. Remember Jesus on the cross just before he died? “When Jesus saw his mother and his disciple there (John) he said to his mother ‘woman, behold your son ’ To his disciple he said ‘behold your mother’”. John 19: 26, 27.
Jesus gave us a spiritual mother in Mary. She gave birth to us in the waters of baptism. We became a child of God, with the life of her firstborn, Jesus, poured into our souls.
Each of us is left to “find Mary” in our own way guided by God’s grace. For me I talk to Mary as I would with my mother on our screened in porch so many years ago. It’s a little different with Mary however . . . there’s no cigarette and martini.
Happy Mother’s Day.
Fr. Tim
