As the Fifth Sunday of Easter approaches, here are some reflections on the national holiday of Mother’s Day.
1. Mother’s Day is a relatively recent holiday, attributed to Julia Ward Howe, who began the holiday after the Civil War celebrating the inherent pacifism of mothers in her Mother’s Day Proclamation (1870). In popular terms, the holiday is now a celebration of motherhood. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother’s Day. (This information courtesy of en.wikipedia.org.) What might it mean to be peacemakers in the name of our Lord Jesus?
2. A friend of mine who is a huge NASCAR fan tells me that this is the only weekend in the season without a NASCAR race, so that none of the drivers’ mothers lose their child in a crash on Mother’s Day. Perhaps this practice gives us a chance to mourn with all mothers who have lost a child through death at any age.
3. In Holy Scripture, mothers feature prominently. The most famous mother is Mary, Mother of our Lord, who nourished the Christ child in her womb and gave birth in a humble stable. In many parts of the church, Mary bears the title Theotokos: God-bearer. She is also known as “Mother of God.” This wonderful title has always been understood to be a word about Jesus Christ: that in addition to being truly divine, he was also truly human, born in the flesh, born of a woman.
4. The church throughout history has been described alternatively as our Mother (Have you ever heard the phrase “Mother Church”?) and the womb in which the Baptized are nourished in the Faith, particularly through the sacraments. How can the church, especially particular congregations, be communties where the faithful are nourished?
5. The Hebrew word for womb (raham) in its verb form means “to have compassion, to love deeply, to show mercy” (see Deuteronomy 13:17). What a wonderful thing: God has “womb-like” compassion for us!