Mother’s Day: Peace and Mothers
Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 9, 2010
Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23 John 14:23-29
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory to you, Lord.
Peace – His gift to us
Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 9, 2010
Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23 John 14:23-29
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory to you, Lord.
Peace – His gift to us
Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever loves Me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love Me does not keep my words. Yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent Me. I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you. Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give to you, a peace the world cannot give. This is my parting gift to you.
Set your troubled hearts at rest and put away your fears. You have heard Me say, ‘I am going away, but I will come back to you.’ If you really love me, you will be very happy for Me, for now I can go back to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe [in Me].”
Set your troubled hearts at rest and put away your fears. You have heard Me say, ‘I am going away, but I will come back to you.’ If you really love me, you will be very happy for Me, for now I can go back to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe [in Me].”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction:
5th Sunday of Easter & Mother’s Day
In the church’s calendar, today is the 5th Sunday of Easter. As in last Sunday’s gospel, the note of Ascension Thursday (May 13) is again being struck: “I am going away.” Struck also is the note of Pentecost Sunday (May 23): “But I will come back to you.”
Mother’s Day: A day honoring peace
But in the nation’s calendar, today (2nd Sunday of May) is also Mother’s Day. The commercial world stamps its spirit on all our national and religious holidays, and we lose feel of their original inspiration. That’s certainly true of Christmas and Easter. It’s also true of Mother’s Day. It wasn’t invented by the Florists’ Association or by the Telephone Co. Historically, it originated in mothers protesting the killing of their sons in war! Historically, Mother’s Day began as an anti-war movement.
Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), famous especially for authoring the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, would yearly organize Mother’s Day meetings in Boston, Mass., and encourage mothers to rally for peace; she believed that mothers bore the loss of human life more painfully than anyone else. In 1870 she issued a Mother’s Day Proclamation which, at heart, was a day honoring peace. It reads in part:
Arise then, Christian women on this day! Arise, all women who have hearts. Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender towards those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.” From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!”
At the end of the day, Mother’s Day was originally about honoring peace –that gift which the world cannot give but which is Jesus’ parting gift to us. (Jn 14:27)
Mother’s Day: a day honoring mothers
Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), famous especially for authoring the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, would yearly organize Mother’s Day meetings in Boston, Mass., and encourage mothers to rally for peace; she believed that mothers bore the loss of human life more painfully than anyone else. In 1870 she issued a Mother’s Day Proclamation which, at heart, was a day honoring peace. It reads in part:
Arise then, Christian women on this day! Arise, all women who have hearts. Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender towards those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.” From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!”
At the end of the day, Mother’s Day was originally about honoring peace –that gift which the world cannot give but which is Jesus’ parting gift to us. (Jn 14:27)
Mother’s Day: a day honoring mothers
It was, however, Anna Jarvis (1864-1948) who got Mother’s Day inscribed on the calendar as a national day honoring mothers. She had an extraordinarily selfless and compassionate mother named Ann Jarvis (1832-1905) who lost eight of her twelve children before they reached adulthood. Ann organized Mothers’ Work Day Clubs in several towns in 1858, which provided money, medicine and housekeeping assistance for mothers who were ill. She urged her clubs to remain neutral during the Civil War, hoping to form oases of peace in a land devastated by a terrible war. After the war, she organized Mothers’ Friendship Day to help reconcile a nation torn apart.
Anna, her daughter, who never married, was intensely devoted to her selfless and compassionate mother. Two years after her mother’s death, on May 12, 1907 in her mother’s Methodist church, she conducted a service honoring her mother. She passed out 500 white carnations - one for each mother in the congregation. That seeded our present day tradition of mothers wearing carnations or roses on Mother’s Day -- a red one for a living mother or a white one for a deceased mother.
The daughter then embarked on a mission to establish a national holiday honoring all mothers. Through her efforts the first official Mother's Day ceremonies were held in Philadelphia on May 10, 1908. Six years later, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a Congressional Resolution setting aside Mother’s Day as a national holiday to be celebrated on the second Sunday in May. That’s how Mother’s Day ended up emphasizing mothers instead of peace.
Gifts truly sacramental
o on this Mother’s Day 2010, as we pay tribute not so much to peace as to mothers, we wonder what gift we can give them. The commercial world has a long list of suggestions: cards, flowers, phone-calls, chocolates, money, etc. At the end of the day, these gifts are either sacramental, or they’re not. That is to say, either they signify something more profound than the gifts themselves, or they don’t. When they don’t, the gifts are simply substitutes for the profound thing, and they’re given mostly to calm a guilty conscience.
A Mother’s Day story
On April 26, 1997, I had to put down my dog Tina who for many years filled in the lonely spaces of human existence for me. Despite my grief, early in the morning a few days later I had to shop for groceries – a very mundane task for me at that moment. After gathering the food for which I had no appetite I went to the one-only-opened checkout counter where a clerk was waiting to check me out. He was a young Afro-American (color is part of the story). His name was Vernon, and everybody knew and liked him. Immediately he noticed my glum countenance. Tearfully I told him I had just put my dog Tina down. Suddenly he reached for his wallet, opened the cash register, did a transaction and then returned the wallet to his pocket. Not knowing what he had done, I handed him my money. He refused saying, "I've taken care of it!” Think of it! Here was a young black man, a blue-collar worker, who didn’t make fifty dollars an hour, and he was paying for a white man’s groceries!
What greater gift…?
Though that happened a good 13 years ago I remember it vividly, and I recount it as a great Mother’s Day story. Every year Vernon, a check-out- clerk in a supermarket, wonders what he should give his mother on Mother’s Day. What greater gift could he possibly give her than what he has already given her?! In his person he has already given her a son who is an unselfish and compassionate human being -- a son who poured the oil of compassion upon me in my need -- and a son who will surely pour the oil of compassion upon her as well in her hour of need. Whatever gift he gives her on Mother’s Day will be truly sacramental; it will signify something more profound and more expensive than the gift itself.
On the other side of the coin, what greater gift could his mother possibly give Vernon than what she has already given him, for `the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’ Vernon, good fruit that he is, has come from a good tree. (Mt 7:17) On Mother’s Day we cry out to Vernon what the woman in the crowd cried out to Jesus one day: “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you.” (Lk 11:27)
On the other side of the coin, what greater gift could his mother possibly give Vernon than what she has already given him, for `the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’ Vernon, good fruit that he is, has come from a good tree. (Mt 7:17) On Mother’s Day we cry out to Vernon what the woman in the crowd cried out to Jesus one day: “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you.” (Lk 11:27)
Another Mother’s Day story
On December 6, 1984 a bus full of school kids was going west on Wisconsin Ave, in Milwaukee, WI. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon and only l0 degrees above zero. A tattered and torn woman entered. She was pregnant, and what’s more, she was barefoot! When the bus pulled up to 124th and Bluemound Road, a kid stepped up to get off. His name was Francis, and he was about 14 years old -- the typical age when kids supposedly have no brains in their heads and are utterly selfish. Strange to relate, he, too, was barefooted, and he had his shoes in his hands! Then in front of all his peers, who were laughing at the barefoot pregnant woman, he said to her, ”Here, M’am, you need them more than I do!” And then he stepped out barefoot into 10 above zero weather.
It was later reported that the kid’s mother was really ticked off when he showed up shoeless that evening. He had pestered his parents for the sneakers, and they had cost a good $70. Her immediate reaction was anger when he came home without the costly sneakers. But at the end of the day, both mom and dad were so proud they nearly burst!
It was later reported that the kid’s mother was really ticked off when he showed up shoeless that evening. He had pestered his parents for the sneakers, and they had cost a good $70. Her immediate reaction was anger when he came home without the costly sneakers. But at the end of the day, both mom and dad were so proud they nearly burst!
What greater gift…?
When five months later Mother’s Day rolled around, what greater gift could Francis possibly give his mother than what he had already given her? In his person he had already given her a son who is an unselfish and compassionate human being -- a son fearless of peer who had poured the oil of compassion upon a barefoot pregnant lady on a bitterly cold winter day -- and a son who will surely pour the same oil of compassion upon her as well in her hour of need. Whatever gift he gives her on Mother’s Day will be truly sacramental; it will signify something more profound and more expensive than the gift itself.
On the other side of the coin, what greater gift could his mother possibly give Francis than what she has already given him, for `the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’ Francis, good fruit that he is, has come from a good tree. (Mt 7:17) On Mother’s Day we cry out to Francis what the woman in the crowd cried out to Jesus one day: “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you.” (Lk 11:27)
On the other side of the coin, what greater gift could his mother possibly give Francis than what she has already given him, for `the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’ Francis, good fruit that he is, has come from a good tree. (Mt 7:17) On Mother’s Day we cry out to Francis what the woman in the crowd cried out to Jesus one day: “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you.” (Lk 11:27)
Conclusion:
Honoring peace and mothers
Today, we honor mothers who beget unselfish and compassionate sons like Vernon and Francis. Today we honor also mothers who seek peace -- mothers who do not want their sons “to unlearn all that they have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience” -- mothers who don’t want their sons “to be trained to injure others.” (Howe’s Proclamation) Today, Mother’s Day, May 9, 2010, with Julia Ward Howe we honor peace, and with Anna Jarvis we honor mothers.
