May 10 Easter V 8 am & 6pm
To all the mothers here today, and also to those of us who honor or remember our mothers today, Happy Mother’s Day! Even if you aren’t celebrating this day in particular, you can’t help but notice what day it is. We are surrounded by ads for everything from flowers and edible arrangements to diamonds. Countless restaurants are hosting Mother’s Day brunches. And this is clearly a big event for Hallmark.
But, contrary to popular belief, Mother’s Day was not created by Hallmark. It actually dates back to ancient Greece, where Rhea the mother of the gods, was honored in an annual festival. Later, Christians had a kind of mother’s day to honor Mary, the mother of Christ, on the fourth Sunday of Lent. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and came to be known as Mothering Sunday.
In the United States, Mother’s Day didn’t start until about 150 years ago. An Appalachian homemaker named Anna Jarvis organized a day to raise awareness about poor health conditions in her community. She felt that local mothers would be the best advocates of this cause. So she called it “Mother’s Work Day.”
A few years later during the civil war, Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” organized a day for mothers to rally for peace. She believed that mothers are the ones who feel the loss of human life the most, so they are the ones who should be spokespeople for peace.
After many different attempts over the years at what a day to honor mothers would look like, Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother’s Day as a national holiday in 1914. At first, people observed Mother’s Day by attending church, writing letters to their mothers, and eventually, by sending cards, presents, and flowers. Soon the Mother’s Day tradition as we know it was born. Given its history, the day goes far beyond easy sentimentalism, and honors the virtues of compassion, sacrifice, peace, and the formidable love of mothers for their children.
For many of us, Mother’s Day is an occasion to remember all that our own mothers did for us, and for better or worse, how they did the best they could to raise us. And it seems to be an almost universal phenomenon that as grown ups who have moved away from our mother or have lost our mother, they are still with us in many ways. There’s her voice in our heads that continues to guide us, perhaps reprimand us to get us back on track, and even comfort us in difficult times. Whenever I find myself in a difficult situation, I hear my mother’s voice in my head loud clear. “You’ll feel better when you brush your teeth.” And it’s usually true.
It seems fitting that today’s Gospel shows a rather motherly side of Jesus. He tells his disciples that he is going away, but that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will come and teach them everything, and remind them of all that Jesus said to them. It’s as if his voice will remain with them, even after he is gone. He will continue to be with them, much as a mother’s lasting influence. That voice will guide the disciples, perhaps reprimand them to get them back on track, and comfort them in difficult times.
The Holy Spirit over the years has had a comforting reputation, much like a simplified view of motherhood. But the reality of the Holy Spirit far surpasses such a simple role. The Holy Spirit provided the disciples with a continual reminder of all the Jesus stood for and did, like peace and sacrifice and compassion. Like those early advocates of Mother’s Day who found fire for their causes in the suffering of others, the Holy Spirit prompts us to do the same. It comes to us with not only a simple message of love or comfort but with a reminder to keep Jesus’ words and continue the work of all that he stood for.
This is not your typical Hallmark message on Mother’s Day. In the midst of all the commercialism, it seems important to remember the history of the day and how women worked so hard on behalf of others under the banner of motherhood.
Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing bad about cards and flowers and diamonds, which I often tell my husband. But like the prompting of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the disciples, the message of this holiday goes much deeper than any simple words of comfort or affection. The Gospel calls us into a way of life that is patterned after Jesus’ own love and action on behalf of those in need. This is a message that Anna Jarvis and the other women in the history of Mother’s Day understood. This is not just a day that comes once a year and we’ve done our duty if we’ve bought the right things for mom. This day can remind all of us that sometimes, love needs to take to the streets. Amen.