Just the saying the word Mother releases a torrent of
memories…the times when we were young and came racing home with a scrape to
have it kissed and made better…sitting beside and listening in fascination to her stories…the times when we misbehaved
and had to face the music.
Whatever the memories, I think in
our heart of hearts we all know that we fell short when it came to returning
our mother’s love. We knew she’d always be there in good times or bad. Those of
us who are fortunate enough to still have them with us can continue to chip
away at that deficit. But no matter how hard we try, we’ll always owe our
mothers a debt that can never be fully repaid.
It’s no accident that Catholics
speak of their Holy Mother Church with awe and reverence. Our earthly mothers
cared for us as we grew and guided us to maturity. In much the same way, the
Church nurtures and feeds our faith with her sacraments and grace. And, like a
mother, she disciplines her children, protecting them from the onslaughts of
evil that could destroy them.
Not all mothers give birth to
their children. For a variety of reasons some take them into their heart
through adoption, though they love them no less. Likewise, some members of the
Church are born into it. They’re the so-called cradle Catholics. Others, many others, come to her bereft and
needy, searching for the love that only she can give. She wraps her mantle
around them, heals their hurts and brings them into the fold, making them her
sons and daughters.
Mothers are, of course, women
and we’ve been trained to think of God as our Father. While a father can love just as deeply as a mother, it’s a
different type of love because fathers have a different role to play in the
lives of their children. Yet the Bible does not shrink back from comparing
God’s love to that of a mother.
In one of the most familiar
passages, Isaiah 49:15, God asks, “Can a woman forget her infant, be without
tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never
forget you.”
Hosea 13:8 again compares God’s
care to the protective love of a mother: “I will attack them like a bear robbed
of its young.”
In Matthew 23:37 as Jesus weeps
over Jerusalem we hear him say, “…how many times I yearned to gather your
children together as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were
unwilling!”
Anyone who has ever known the
mother of a wayward child — either son or daughter — can tell you they wake up
each morning hoping that today is the day her child comes back. While the
details of the parable of the Prodigal Son are few and far between, we can be
certain of one thing. The father must have been a widower. Were he not, the
boy’s mother would have surely shoved him aside saying, “Look out! My little
boy’s come home.”
Unfortunately, Holy Mother
Church also has her wayward children. Some push aside her protective arms and
wander in that distant country. She, like all mothers, waits in constant desire for their return. That is one of the unique attributes of Catholicism. Simply
come back and all will be forgiven. Only death can truly separate you from your
mother, the Church.
Mother’s Day is an appropriate
time to offer a prayer of thanksgiving for our Mothers and all they did for us.
This Mother’s Day, why not offer a second prayer for your Mother the Church. - Edward G. Lewis
Happy Mother's Day
PEACE & BLESSINGS.
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