A WOMAN IN TRAVAIL

 A SERMON FOR MOTHERS' DAY

A very blessed Mothers’ Day to all you mothers.  And to those of you who are not mothers, let us not forget that we all have mothers.  They may be with us today, or they may have passed on to eternity, but there was a day long since obliterated in our infant memories when that mother gave birth to us.  She conceived, she carried us in her womb for nine long months, and then she delivered us into this world.  It took those nine months of arduous devotion to her unborn child to ensure our birth was safe and as worry-free as possible, not to mention the care she took to prepare a place in her home where we could be kept safe and worry-free.  And at the end of all those months of preparation, her time of expectation was complete, and she went into labor.  She labored for us.  

When our first mother, Eve, bit the apple and committed the first human sin against Almighty God, swift was the retribution meted out to her.  Along with Adam she was banished from the Garden of Eden, and sentenced to the great pains and sorrows of childbirth.  God said unto the woman “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.”  Ever since that day, it has been a painful and sorrowful experience to give birth.  And we would not be here this day if our mother had not gone through that pain, discomfort and sorrow it took to bring us into this world.

Ask any mother though and she will tell you that it was worth it.  So great is the love of a mother for her baby that, as our Lord describes in today’s Gospel, “a woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.”  This joy that every mother experiences at the birth of her child is surely a joy unlike any other.  The fact that it came at the cost of such physical pain only serves to increase the rejoicing that follows.  The battle is fought and won.  The fight is over and we stand at a new beginning, ready to take home a new baby, a new member of the family.  Life will never be the same again.  Life will be better in so many unimaginable ways.

We men can never comprehend the depth of this joy that a mother feels.  But we can surely appreciate the love that our mothers have shown us.  On this Mothers’ Day, we are able to repay a little of that love by showering on our mothers our appreciation of all they have done for us.  For those fortunate enough to live close enough to our mothers, we give them flowers, other gifts, take them out to dinner, serve them as once they served us.  And if we are not so fortunate and have lost our mothers through the passing of time, we will always remember them, we still have our blessed memories of childhood, and are still able to show our appreciation to our dear departed mothers by our prayers and acts of penance for the repose of their souls.

We should always remember that first great sacrifice our mother made for us when she accepted her maternal role with the expectation of all those pains of childbirth that went with it.  The best way we can show our appreciation goes far beyond a bouquet of roses on Mothers’ Day.  Our most fitting gift to our mothers is by imitating their example.  How?  By doing what all good mothers do and putting ourselves last, and by putting the happiness and welfare of others ahead of our own.  She did that for us, so let’s pass it down so that others may move forward.  The opportunities to do this are endless—everything in this life that is worth going after takes fortitude and perseverance and sacrifice to get there, and the more worthwhile the outcome, the greater amount of sacrifice it takes to achieve it.  Our mothers taught us that little secret when they brought us into the world, and what better way to show them we understand their sacrifice for us than by sacrificing ourselves in turn for others, and ultimately, for God.  No one did it better than the Blessed Mother herself, when she acceded to God’s will and gave up her own.  Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum—Let it be done unto me according to thy word.  What terrible sorrows she had to endure during her life, and yet here we are today, crowning her Queen of Heaven and Earth.  Follow her example, and like her “Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.”