and a white one for a mom in
heaven
Mother’s Day 2013
7th Sunday of Easter,
May 12, 2013
Acts 7: 55-60 Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20 John 17:20-26
Acts 7: 55-60 Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20 John 17:20-26
First reading from Acts
Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to
heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
and Stephen said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing
at the right hand of God.” But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their
ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city, and began
to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man
named Saul. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive
my spirit.” Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do
not hold this sin against them;” and when he said this, he fell asleep.
The word
of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading
from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory
to you, Lord.
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: “Holy
Father, I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me
through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and
I in you, that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory
you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you
sent me, and that you loved them even as
you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they
also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you
loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also
does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known
to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved
me may be in them and I in them.”
The
Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord
Jesus Christ.
----------------
Introduction
More about peace than about mothers
Today
is not only the 7th Sunday of Easter, it’s also the 2nd
Sunday of May and therefore Mother’s Day.
The commercial spirit puts its stamp on all our national and religious
holidays, and in the process we lose sight of their original intent and
inspiration. That’s certainly true for Christmas. It’s also true for Mother’s
Day which was invented not by the Florists’ Association
or by the Telephone Co. but by mothers protesting
the killing of their sons
in war. Originally Mother’s Day was more about peace than about mothers. Originally
it was an anti-war movement by mothers protesting
the killing of their sons
in war.
The two mothers of Mother’s Day
Julia
Ward Howe (1819-1910),
a
Boston poet and author of 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, for she believed that
mothers bore the loss of human life more painfully than anyone else.
It
was, however, Anna Marie Jarvis (1864-1948) who succeeded in getting Mother’s
Day inscribed on the Nation’s calendar. During the Civil War, Jarvis’ mother
organized women to tend to the needs of wounded soldiers on both sides. And
after the war her mother promoted a Mother’s Day’ dedicated to pacifism and
social activism. Two years after her mother’s death on the 2nd Sunday
of May, Jarvis held a memorial for
her mother on May 12, 1907. Then she went on a mission to make Mother's Day a
recognized holiday. Following an act of
Congress in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the 2nd Sunday
of May as Mother's Day. And that’s the story of Mother’s Day.
Celebrating both
Originally Mother’s Day was dedicated not
to honoring mothers themselves, but to honoring their wishes and prayers that the
killing of their sons in war be stopped. Originally
it was more about peace than about mothers. That original intent and
inspiration has been lost over the years. Mother’s Day now honors the mothers
themselves, whether they are pacifists or just simply mothers. On Mother’s Day,
however, we don’t have to choose between honoring the wishes and prayers of
mothers that the killing of their sons in war be stopped, or honoring the
mothers themselves. We can choose to celebrate both – peace and mothers – on
Mother’s Day.
A great 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 celibate life. A few days after this painful event, I had to shop for
groceries, and at the checkout counter was a young Afro-American whom everyone knew
and liked a lot. He immediately noticed my sadness, and when I told him I had
just put down my dog Tina, he suddenly reached for his wallet, opened the cash register,
and did a transaction. Not knowing what he had done, I handed him my money
which 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!
The son’s gift to his mother
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 he possibly give her than what he has already given? In his
very person he has given her an unselfish and compassionate son who pours the oil
of compassion upon someone in great need, and who will surely pour the oil of
compassion upon her as well in her hour of need. The red carnations or the
chocolates which he gives his mom on Mother’s Day (if he can afford them) won’t
be a substitute for the real thing; they’ll be truly sacramental - a sign of
the real thing.
The
mother’s gift to her son
On
the other side of the coin, what greater gift could the mother of this checkout
clerk possibly give her son than what she has already given him? An old saying says “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 this checkout clerk 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
Only single individual mothers
`Mother,’ as
a general idea, does not exist. Only single individual mothers exist. There are
mothers who are battling cancer, and still have children to rear. There are
mothers who have mentally challenged children, and who face a daunting task
with the dawn of every day. There are mothers whose sons and daughters are
estranged from each other. There are mothers whose sons or daughters are
estranged from them. There are mothers who wonder where they went wrong, for
parenting is painful and precarious, and only a few mothers do it perfectly. There
are a few mothers who do an almost perfect job of parenting, and who feel very
blessed and fulfilled in their children. There are mothers in heaven, who left
earth before their work was done, and who from the Throne of Grace and power now
do for their sons and daughters what they wanted to do here on earth but
couldn’t.
Today, on this 2nd Sunday of May
and Mother’s Day we wear a red
carnation for a living mom, and a white one for a mom in heaven
