SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER(Mother's Day)
(Acts
8:5-8, 14-17; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21)
Today is Mother’s Day, not only here but in many countries
around the world. Because mothers have played such a vital role in our lives,
it is worth reflecting on their spiritual contribution to us. By "spiritual" we mean our
orientation toward God. We want to examine how our mothers have helped us draw
closer to Him? Let’s look at the
readings we have just heard for some principles of the spiritual life and apply
them to the role of motherhood through examples from Scripture and the lives of
the saints.
The reading from the Acts of the Apostles shows Peter and
John praying for the converts in Samaria to receive the Holy Spirit. The
Apostles want them to offer the thanks and praise to God that characterize the
Spirit. In the Gospel of Luke, Elizabeth is described as being "filled
with the Holy Spirit" when Mary visits her. The mother of John the Baptist
exalts God when she declares Mary and the child in her womb
"blessed." Saint Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine, similarly
praised the Lord for her son's conversion.
She told her son: "One thing only did I desire... that I might see
you a Catholic Christian before I died. My God has exceeded this abundantly, so
that I see you now even despising earthly happiness and consecrated to His
service." Our mothers taught us how to give thanks and praise to God when
they taught us the Lord's Prayer.
In his letter, the Apostle Peter counsels his readers to be
"ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your
hope." As Christians, we seek to evangelize others with truthful and solid
explanations. This reminds me of the Canaanite mother who gave the Lord a
compelling reason to cast the demon out of her daughter. Saint Perpetua was a
mother when she was arrested for being a Christian. In her diary she wrote how
she explained to her father that she preferred to suffer martyrdom rather than
apostatize. Our mothers taught us how to defend the faith when they answered
our earnest questions, such as: "Where do we go when we die?"
Today's Gospel urges us to love Christ by keeping His
commandments. His first commandment is to love God above all things. In the
Second Book of Maccabees, we read about a widowed mother who watched each of
her seven sons be martyred. She consoled her youngest and last to be killed:
"The Creator of the universe... will in his mercy give life and breath
back to you again, since you now disregard yourselves for the sake of his
laws" (II Mac 7:22-23). In the last century, Saint Gianna Beretta Molla,
an Italian physician, refused a treatment that would have saved her own life
but destroyed the life of her unborn baby. It was an act of selfless love for
God as much as for her daughter. For many of us, our mothers were the first to
teach us to follow God's will by obeying our consciences. They would tell us: "Let your conscience
be your guide."
When the children of one family asked their mother what she
would like for Mother’s Day, Christmas, or her birthday, she invariably responded:
"Good children." It is true. To please our mothers, we need only
develop virtue so that we live justly amidst the evil of this world. We may add
that living virtuously includes the Fourth Commandment: "Honor your father
and your mother."
