ON THIS DAY, O BEAUTIFUL MOTHER

A REFLECTION FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

Today is our annual reminder that our mothers are real people.  We fall so often into a sense of entitlement when it comes to Mom. Since the day we were conceived, she has led her life around us, our needs and our demands.  When we were unborn infants, she gave up smoking and drinking, when we were born she gave up many of her pastimes and hobbies.  When we were children, she realized our dependence on her, and gave up her time, her energy, her whole life really, to making sure we were fed, clothed, educated and entertained.  Most importantly of all, she devoted her chief energies to ensuring we were brought up to know, love and serve God.

And then we grew up. How did we repay her?  In so many tragic cases, our young people turn away from the faith.  Remember, it’s not just the “Faith of our Fathers.”  Even more so, it’s the Faith of our Mothers, who so tenderly held our little hands and taught them to make the sign of the Cross, who repeated prayers over and over again so that our innocent minds would absorb the things of God. 

But now, you say, I’m 18.  I don’t need that mumbo-jumbo any more.  I have other things to do, pleasures to enjoy, avenues to explore that take me away from that God I can’t see and who means nothing to me.  But you know what, it still means something to your mother.  She didn’t teach you the faith so you could lose your soul.  Every time you miss Sunday Mass or declare your hostility to the things of God, you plunge a dagger into your mother’s heart, and she weeps for you, terrified you will never see heaven, and with the dreadful guilt that maybe she did something wrong and is a failure as a mother.

So yes, your mother is a real person and has feelings too, and by falling away from your religious duties you have chosen to ignore and even despise those feelings.  So out of love for your mother, if for no other reason, do not abandon the things she holds so dear, especially her aspirations that when she dies, you will one day be with her again in Paradise.