The
white and red carnations
of Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day: about Peace & Mothers
Sixth Sunday of Easter & Mother’s Day, May 13,
2012
Reading from 1 John
Beloved, let us love one another, because
love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is
without love does not know God, for God is love.
In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through
him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent
his Son as expiation for our sins.
The Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading
from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory
to you, Lord.
Jesus said to his disciples: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another."
The
Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord
Jesus Christ.
----------------
Introduction
2nd Sunday of May - Mother’s Day
In the Church’s calendar today is the Sixth
Sunday of Easter. In the Nation’s calendar, this 2nd Sunday of May is
Mother’s Day. Tradition calls for the wearing of a red carnation on Mother’s
Day, if your mom is living, or a white carnation if she is deceased.
Mother’s Day originally - about peace
Mother’s Day was not invented by the florists' association nor by
the Telephone Co. Historically, it originated in
mothers protesting the killing of their sons in
war. At the end of the day, it began as an anti-war movement. Julia Ward Howe
(1819-1910), famous especially for authoring the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, was a
pioneer in the anti-war movement. Yearly she would 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. The Proclamation read 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!”
So Mother’s Day originally was about peace. This original aspect
of Mother’s Day is not much emphasized today.
Mother’s Day today - about mothers
Two years after Ann’s death, her daughter Anna
Marie (who never married, and who was intensely devoted
to her mother and her selfless spirit) conducted a small tribute to her
mother in her mother’s Methodist church on the second Sunday of May, 1907. On
that occasion she passed out 500 white carnations (her mother’s favorite flower) - one carnation for each mother in the congregation. (That
seeded our present day tradition of mothers wearing carnations on Mother’s
Day: a red one for a living mother,
or a white one for a deceased mother.) Then Anna Marie
embarked upon a mission to make Mother's Day a recognized holiday. Following an act of Congress in 1914,
President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. So
Mother’s Day today is about mothers.
A Mother’s Day story
Mother’s
Day always puts me in mind of a great mother who begot a great son. Years ago I
had to put down my dog Tina which for many years filled in the lonely spaces of
my life. A few days later, despite my grief I had to shop for groceries. After
gathering the food for which I had no appetite, I went to the checkout counter.
The man there was a young Afro-American . (Color is an important part of the
story.) His name was Vernon. Everyone knew and liked him a lot. He immediately
noticed my sadness and asked, “What’s wrong?”
I told him I had just put down my dog. 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!
At
the end of the day, that’s a great Mother’s Day story. No doubt, every year
this young man wonders what he should give his mom on Mother’s Day. What
greater gift could Vernon possibly give her than what he has already given? He
has given her a son who is an unselfish and compassionate human being. He has
given her a son who knows how to pour the oil of compassion upon someone in
need, and who will surely pour the oil of compassion upon his Mom as well in
her hour of need. The red carnations or the
chocolates which Vernon will give his mom on Mother’s Day (if he can afford
them) will not be a substitute for the real thing; they will be truly sacramental
- a sign of the real thing – a sign of something more profound and expensive
than the carnations or chocolates themselves.
On
the other side of the coin, what greater gift could Vernon’s mom possibly give him
than what she has already given him, for “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Good fruit that he is, he has come from a good tree. (Mt 7:17) Mother’s Day cries
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)
Conclusion:
About a good son and a good mother
Mother’s
Day is about a good son like Vernon; the chocolates and flowers he gives his mom
on Mother’s Day are not substitutes for, but signs of, the real thing. Mother’s
Day is also about a good mom like Vernon’s mother; she begot a wonderful son who
`didn’t fall far from the tree’ - a wonderful
son who didn’t make fifty dollars an hour but who paid for a white man’s
groceries! 
Anna Maria Jarvis (1864-1948)
The
mother of Mother's Day
