A MOTHER’S LOVE – 6th Sunday of Easter/Mother’s Day/Ascension, Year B
Mothers are extremely important people in our lives. They are the first to love us. That is the most important work in the world, loving people into existence. Every important study of the human person tells us being loved early in life sets us up for life. By being loved humanly we become capable of loving others. Many problems are prevented or solved if one is loved in the right way.
We can’t be very secure in our persons and lives unless we have been loved from the very beginning of our lives. That is what mothers are for, and what makes them so important for us all through our life. For what they do in our early years affects us for as long as we are on earth to some extent. Some studies show that very poor children, who are loved, are very well adjusted and happy people.
Besides introducing us to the world of people, and giving us the power to love by loving us, mothers introduce us to God. The Easter Scriptures have been stressing the love of God, as we are preparing for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
John the Evangelist is the foremost authority on the love of God and neighbor. The Church proclaims his vision especially in the Easter Season, the 50 days leading up to Pentecost. John tells us how important human love is, which originates with our mother to a great extent. “Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.” How would we ever begin to realize that God is love, without some experience of human love? He goes on to tell us we have to be loved first, before we can love. We have to be loved by people before we can love humans. Clearly mothers are the first to give us human love. This work takes specific forms from holding the child for hours and days, feeding and changing diapers hundreds of times, and picking up toys, supporting and praising them as they learn to walk, talk, pray, study, learn, play and grow. Building and growing and forming human beings is a demanding work. Mothers have a lot to do with forming bodies, minds, spirits, emotions and attitudes.
For this work, they draw from the love and formation they received from their own mothers to a great extent. Jesus revealed that His love for the human race came from the Father’s love for Him. “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.” In some ways our mothers say to us “As my mother has loved me, so I love you”. We hear parents saying they want to do for their children what their parents did for them. Some say: “I don’t want to do for my children what my parents did for me”. Or, “I want to do for my children what my parents didn’t do for me”. Many who do not receive motherly love end up in carrying out great evils against themselves and others. There is probably a connection between the devaluating of motherhood and the many evils we see in the lives of so many today.
Mothers can especially understand and carry out Jesus’ Commandment: “Love one another as I love you”. Mothers lay down large blocks of their lives for their children. They understand Jesus’ teaching. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Mothers have to lay down their lives many times in their work of raising civilized, loving human beings. Christian mothers have the work of raising their children to know, love and follow Christ, and to help others know and experience God’s love. They are chosen for the work of motherhood. And the fruit of their work endures in the finished product of a mature and loving human being, capable of forming and raising other humans.
In thinking of motherhood we naturally think of the mother of all mothers, the one who formed the eternal Son of God in His humanity. Mary was and is an exceptionally loving human being. Her parents, Joachim and Anne were too. Mary carried out her great work with the help of the Holy Spirit. She is also our mother in Christ. As we honor and thank our human mothers, we also honor and thank our spiritual mother, Mary, who continues to reveal her love. She understands better than any other the importance of motherhood and love.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.”
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