Mothers are special

“…and a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:35)

Luke 2:33-35 (Year B: Fourth Sunday of Lent, 11^th March 2018)

Have you remembered?  Flowers, card or even a meal out?  Or, as many do in Ireland, perhaps a flower and a chat in the cemetery with granny when nobody is overhearing one for the theologically unscrupulous?

 

Our hyper, commercialised and digitalised world will not let us forget it that this Sunday is ‘Mother’s Day’ at least in English-speaking North-West Europe. In some places and traditions, it is referred to as ‘Mothering Sunday’ and it falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent each year. While the origins around this particular day are a bit obscure, we know that it provides a type of half-way mark during our Lenten journey and it is linked to a special remembrance or appreciation of our mothers.

Mothers are held in high regard across the world and nobody can deny the very special and unique experience of a mother’s love at least for most of us who have been blessed and lucky enough to have had loving mothers. I realise that it is not always that perfect and even far from it in a minority of cases.

I remember my own mother with fondness and appreciation. Although deceased some years ago, I often remember her and recall with gratitude the many things she did and said over that part of her long life which spanned 97 years which I had the grace of knowing.  Indeed, it was sometimes the things that she did not say or do when she might have had good reason to that I remember with particular gratitude! Silence allied to a loving patience is a wise policy when better alternatives are lacking.

What is it that makes a mother’s love so special and central to our human experience? In the first place, we come forth from our mother in the womb. We are bonding with her as we are knitted together in that sanctuary as it says in Psalm 139:13. And then we are fed, clothed, cuddled, carried, talked to, listened to and loved as we move through the natural stages of growing up. She was there when we had our first day at school. She was there when we celebrated birthdays and special treats. She was there when we cried. She was there when we were bold and needed to be corrected. We learned to speak our ‘mother’s tongue’ in the first years of our life. And, for most of us, she was there when we left home to study or work or get married as the case may be.

The love of a mother is generous, unconditional and sustained. This is why, when we hear the words of scripture we associate a motherly love with that boundless love that God has for each one of us. Though we always address God as Father, there are many places in scripture where the love of God is spoken of in motherly terms. For example, the prophet, Isaiah, declares the Word of God in these terms:

Can a woman forget her nursing-child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?  Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. (49:15).

As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. (66:13)

In both cases, God acts towards us as a mother would. Even then, if it were to be the case that mother and father were to forsake us, God would still be there for us as Father and as Mother as David declares in Psalm 27:10.

But, motherhood is far from being all joy and happiness. In today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke we hear a hard saying of prophecy spoken by Simeon:

This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.

Simeon saw and affirmed what others could not see in this child.  He saw beyond this moment of great joy to a time when all would be hardship and pain because a sword will pierce our souls.  And why? ‘the inner thoughts of many will be revealed’ and the truth will be told and that ‘sign that will be opposed’ will be the cause of grief. In our lives, there will be times of tribulation, sickness, possibly betrayal, conflict, doubt mixed with times of extraordinary consolation, uplifting, grace and renewal. Let nobody pretend that life is a bed or roses. Mothers know that only too well.

Sometimes people can say and do things to us that are deeply wounding. Or, we sometimes can do the same to others.  What is so wounding is the ‘thoughts revealed’ as Simeon says. We speak from what is within the heart and, unfortunately, what is there is not always to our own good or those who hear us. But, sometimes what has a wounding effect is, ultimately, for the good of the other or ourselves.

The ultimate wounding for Mary occurred in the desolation of Calvary.  There, she grieved for her son. Jesus, according to the Gospel of John, who gave his mother, Mary, to the disciple John, ‘Behold your mother’, he said to John. Many Christians see in this story an invitation for Christian disciples to experience the motherly love of God in the person of Mary who accompanies us in our earthly journey. She, too, grieves for us when we go astray as some of us do from time to time. In these moments, Mary reminds us that her son Jesus Christ, alone, is sufficient for us.

But, in addition to Jesus and Mary, there was someone else who heard what Simeon said. This was Joseph.  Fathers and fatherhood are often overlooked in modern culture.  I look forward to a liturgy focussed on fathers later this year! J

But, there is a question we might consider today and at this time in Ireland.

How do we regard and treat mothers? When it comes to rights in the workplace as well as rights to housing, healthcare, training and community support for families, are we as good as we say we are or should be?