May is Mary’s month, a month dedicated to her in long standing tradition in the Church. There are varying sources as to where and when this excellent devotion began, nevertheless it is one that has taken great hold and is of great benefit to the faithful who hold Mary and the communion of saints dear to their hearts. And what better Sunday than this Sunday to remember our Blessed Mother since it is Mother’s Day. The Gospel for today is the Emmaus story, but I ask for your small indulgence and allow me to talk to you today about our Blessed Mother, since her heart burned for the love of God just like the apostles on the road to Emmaus.
What are the traits of a good mother? We learn this from our own mothers. The first words we usually utter are, “mommy.” Later on it becomes, “mom,” “ma,” or another affectionate term. I can’t even imagine how many times as a young child I called to my own mother, for this or that, and just about every time she faithfully responded, and on occasion when I or my brothers got on her nerves, we received a gentle south-eastern European reprimand. I didn’t realize how often I must have done this until recently observing the very young children of parishioners whom I had the opportunity to dine with in their homes. I thought, “It takes a lot of PATIENCE to be a mother.” It helped me to appreciate the work and sacrifice of my mother as well as all moms.
Reflecting on that notion, I thought about all the times I felt in trouble, or had some difficulty, and almost by instinct, and for the most part I would begin with the prayer, “Hail Mary full of grace.” When Jesus gave us Mary as our mother, the mother of the Church, it was so that we would always have a motherly advocate. This in no way means we cannot pray to Jesus, or that God the Father is mean, rather it means that we are a family, and if the communion of saints is understood as familial then there is no problem with invoking any of the saints or the Blessed Mother.
There is a natural recourse to Mary because we long for her motherly love, but we also honor her as the fairest member of our race. At every turn she remained faithful to God, regardless of the obstacle in front of her or the challenge if you will. Think of the moments where her own motherhood must have been tested.
When she and Joseph are presented with gifts of the three wise men, she would have known that myrrh was a spice to prepare a body for burial. And yet she accepts the gifts with humility and turns her attention to raising Jesus. Then when Jesus was twelve years old she loses him in Jerusalem. She and Joseph could not find him for three days. You can imagine what must have been going through her mind, a mother looking for her lost son; she must have been in a panic. Then when she finds Jesus, she asks, “how could you do this, don’t you know we have been looking for you.” Jesus responds, “I had to be about my Father’s business. Mary simply ponders these events in her heart. The final sacrifice would have been at the Cross. It is there that we see the true depth of her love, where she accepts the sacrifice of her Son and allows her own heart to pierced. Before that happens Jesus gives John to his mother and his mother to John. In doing that Jesus also gives her to us.
We know these events of Mary’s life and that is why we are attracted to her as mother. We know Jesus’ gift of Mary, even from the Cross she is given to us, to watch over us, to pray for us, and to love us as her own. Our own mothers model Mary’s motherhood. We know it through stories of the bible, but more importantly we know our own mother’s love instinctively, hard to even describe in words, the love of our moms. The same goes for our Blessed Mother, we know her instinctively, and that’s why when we are in need we say, Hail Mary full of Grace . . . .
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