Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day. We are fortunate to have a priest that offers the traditional Mass in our parish once a month and yesterday was it. I thought the readings were especially relevant to Mother's yesterday so I thought I would share them here.

LESSON James 1:22-27
Beloved: But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass. For he beheld himself and went his way and presently forgot what manner of man he was. But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty and hath continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work: this man shall be blessed in his deed. And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation and to keep one's self unspotted from this world.

Mothers in general, and in particular those Catholic mothers that choose to sacrifice, time, wealth, social interaction, and to often respect, in the name of their families live this lesson to the fullest. I think of my wife, who in our family is the doer of the work. She lives her faith through the calling that she has accepted and by that example gives strength to our whole family. She is not a "forgetful hearer" but truly a doer of the work. She puts her whole self into our family so that our family will be strong, mentally, spiritually and physically.

We cannot as families "deceive our hearts". It is not an easy path to choose motherhood as a career. While fifty years ago families were held strong by society, and mothers were encouraged and supported in that choice, today is a very different story. We as a society put more value on career outside the home and a paycheck and take seem to take more self worth and value from the opinions of near strangers that we encounter in the workplace than we do our own families. We put more value on our work place relationships than we do on our family relationships. To me this is the deception mentioned in the Lesson. We are deceiving ourselves if we think we will be judged in anyway on the amount of money we made, or the size of house we live in or if we retire at fifty instead of sixty-five. A mother that chooses to give her life to her family is truly living without deception. Setting aside the opinions of man, for faithfulness in God.

How can we call ourselves faithful Catholic husbands if we don't hold our wives in the highest regard? If we don't look at motherhood as one of the highest callings?

GOSPEL John 16:23-30
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: "Amen, amen, I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto, you have not asked any thing in my name. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full. "These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs, but will shew you plainly of the Father. In that day, you shall ask in my name: and I say not to you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father and am come into the world: again I leave the world and I go to the Father." 
His disciples say to him: "Behold, now thou speakest plainly and speakest no proverb. Now we know that thou knowest all things and thou needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God.

Our priest in his homily yesterday asked us to consider, "when you ask something of God are you truly asking in Jesus' name or are you asking in your name?" I think this relates back to the previous lesson, how often do we deceive our hearts into believing that what we desire for ourselves is what God desires for us? Why does is seem so easy for us to look at Catholic teaching and say, well this applies to me, but not so much this, and when I am in Church I will believe but when I leave Church my life belongs to me. We are deceiving ourselves to think that God is with us any less on Tuesday afternoon than he is on Sunday morning. Which brings me back around to the calling of motherhood. A calling is exactly what it is to be a mother and to choose to dedicate your life to your family. It takes a remarkably strong person to make that choice and live that life.

Mothers give their children their first stories of Jesus, they will be the ones to show them right from wrong. They will be the loving embrace when their child falls and skins their knee, and they will be the bad guy when their teenagers are testing their limits. They guide their family's toward Christ. A mother's prayer for her children is truly prayed in Jesus' name. Being a mother is the most selfless calling. Putting aside all comfort for the sake of her family. Loving her children from babies, to toddlers, to teenagers and off into adulthood. 

Family is at the very center of our Catholic faith and Mothers are at the very center of the family. We look to our Holy Mother Mary for guidance and support in times of need. We ask Her to intercede for us to her Son because we know the value God has placed in Mary and in motherhood. We as Catholics should take that example. If we keep our wives strong and give them the support they need to live their calling, we will keep our families strong and strong families will keep the Catholic faith.