Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers of the parish and the mothers of all our parishioners! We all know how important our mothers have been to us as we grew up and so we join with our nation in honoring them today. And, as we are still in a stay-at-home state due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we become even more aware of the essential role they play in our homes in ways that we may have taken for granted in the past.
So often I hear Mother’s Day derided by cynics as a day that was invented by Hallmark to sell more cards but it has long and ancient roots; allow me to offer a little historical background. The earliest tributes to mothers dates back to the annual spring festival that the ancient Greeks dedicated to Rhea, whom their religion considered to be the mother of many of their gods and goddesses. The ancient Romans had a spring festival dedicated to Cybele, their great mother of the gods. Early Christians transformed this pagan celebration into an opportunity to honor Mary, the mother of Jesus; this was first done on the fourth Sunday of Lent. In England, this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and is still called Mothering Day. In the United States, the Mother’s Day that we celebrate today has its roots in the efforts of Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, who organized a day 150 years ago to raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community. She called it “Mother’s Work Day.”
When Anna died in 1905, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life and work of her mother. She lobbied prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her efforts to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of her first services organized at her church in West Virginia in 1908, Anna handed out her mother’s favorite flower, the white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on Mother’s Day. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother’s Day as a national holiday.
Mother’s Day is not part of the Church’s liturgical calendar. In fact, liturgical directives state that “this secular observance must in no way diminish the primary focus of Sunday as the celebration of the paschal mystery.” Yet, this national holiday allows an opportunity to reflect on the essential role of a mother in everyone’s life, so allow me to offer some food for thought. Every human being has a mother. No one is born except through a mother’s nurturing and labor. Even Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, had a mother. In fact, as Saint John Paul II wrote so eloquently in his apostolic exhortation, The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World, “God then manifests the dignity of women in the highest form possible, by assuming human flesh from the Virgin Mary, whom the Church honors as the Mother of God” (§ 22). He went on to say that:
There is no doubt that the equal dignity and responsibility of men and women fully justifies women’s access to public functions. On the other hand, the true advancement of women requires that clear recognition be given to the value of their maternal and family role, by comparison with all other public roles and all other professions. Furthermore, these roles and professions should be harmoniously combined, if we wish the evolution of society and culture to be truly and fully human. …Therefore, the Church can and should help modern society by tirelessly insisting that the work of women in the home be recognized and respected by all in its irreplaceable value (§ 23).
Yes, women, and mothers in particular, play an irreplaceable role our lives. I’m delighted to see a return to the respect that stay-at-home mothers are enjoying once again in our society. Although their presence in the workforce is also very helpful to society at large, their work at home is of such great value that no one else can ordinarily do it as well. Let us take time today to honor our mothers, thanking them for their many sacrifices as they have brought us into the world and cared and nurtured us throughout our lives! As we celebrate Mother’s Day in new and innovative ways this year, let us thank God for giving them the sacred vocation of motherhood, through which all of us have come to life.