Nothing on Earth More Glorious than Motherhood
6th Sunday of Easter – Mother’s Day
My brothers and sisters, thanks to Jesus we know what love is. Thanks to Him, we also know WHO Love is. The very fact that each of us exists and is the work of God’s hands also shows us how God loves us in a particular and very personal way. In fact, when God gave the Jews and gentiles the gift of the Holy Spirit and baptism, He knew that two thousand years later, each of us would receive the very same gift of faith through our families or the grace of conversion. This is proof that God’s love astoundingly reaches into all ages and eternity.
As we hear in this Sunday’s Gospel, to love means to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Jesus is our best Friend, Who not only willed us into existence, but also laid down His life for each of us. We, as Catholic Christians, are called to imitate Christ by sacrificing our lives for others, especially those entrusted to our care: children, parents, siblings, relatives, parishioners, and neighbors.
One person in particular embodies what it means to lay down her life for others and who we celebrate in a special way this Sunday: our mother. When reflecting on the beauty and exalted nature of motherhood in his book The Mother, Servant of God Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty states: “The most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. No! She need not. She has built something much more magnificent than any cathedral—a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body. The angles have not been blessed with such a grace. They cannot share in God’s creative miracle to bring new saints to heaven. Only a human mother can do that. … Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any human creature. God joins forces with mothers in performing His act of creation… What on God’s earth is more glorious than this: to be a mother.”
On this Mother’s Day, I would like to invite you to contemplate God’s Love, which is manifested in the very fact that He has brought each of us into existence with the cooperation and through the sacrifice of our mothers. I would like to invite you to thank God for the gifts of life and faith, which we received through God’s foresight and the fidelity of our ancestors and parents. We are so blessed simply to be alive, to be loved by God, and to have a mother. And let us not forget, especially those who do not know their mother or who have a difficult relationship with their mother, that we have Our Heavenly Mother, Mary. Thanks to Her “yes” to God, we have spiritual life and an advocate in Heaven who tenderly loves us, fiercely protects us, and never ceases to pray and intercede for us.
Yours in Christ,
Father Arthur
Readings for the Sixth Sunday of Easter: Lectionary 56
Tags: #arthurmarat, #blessedvirgin, #frarthur, #frarthurmarat, #frmarat, #holymother, #mothersday, #olw, #olwparish, #reflection
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