Mother's Day is an old and venerable day of celebrating Mothers which started in Medieval England. The English celebrated "Lady's Day" on the first Sunday after the Annunciation in order to honor Mother Mary and all mothers.
The celebration indicated the honor which the Church bestowed upon women because of the love and devotion to Our Lady.
In the next five posts, I shall celebrate Mother's Day with a meditation on the Meditations of Newman, already referred to last week.
Mary, Our Mother had the perfect Mother-Son relationship-the perfect Mother loving the Perfect Son in a union joining the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit on earth.
But, Newman points out that Mary's last intimate moment with her Son, before the Day of the Resurrection, was at the Wedding Feast at Cana. On that day, Mary gave her Son to the world, ending 30 years and nine months of intimacy.
I can only imagine the pain of Mary's sacrifice. She started Christ's public ministry with her request for more wine, ending her own special time with Jesus.
I can feel a bit of this giving my son to the Church so far away and in a distant land. I gave Him to God when He was born and to Mary when he was older. Like the separation of Christ from His Mother, this separation has allowed my son to do what he must for the Kingdom of God to be built on this earth.
Mary had to then endure great suffering, as she had already lost Joseph, just as I lost all comfort of a home.
But, as Mary is perfect and without sin, her suffering was horrible and unjust. It is only because she loved Christ so much and understood His mission that she could give Him up to us.
Newman points out two things-one that Mary may have had to live with unbelievers in Christ, with Jewish relatives who did not believe in Christ as the Messiah, the Savior.
Secondly, Newman points out that Mary only once came to see Jesus, perhaps to see if He was alright, having heard stories of His pain and misery, trying to see Him as any Mother would.
But, He would not allow His Mother to comfort Him, not even on Calvary, where the pain of the world lay on the shoulders of His Mother as well as on Him.
She is the co-redeemer.
Newman notes this:
Mary is the "Vas Honorabile," the Vessel of Honour
ST. PAUL calls elect souls vessels of honour: of honour, because they are elect or chosen; and vessels, because, through the love of God, they are filled with God's heavenly and holy grace. How much more then is Mary a vessel of honour by reason of her having within her, not only the grace of God, but the very Son of God, formed as regards His flesh and blood out of her!
But this title "honorabile," as applied to Mary, admits of a further and special meaning. She was a martyr without the rude dishonour which accompanied the sufferings of martyrs. The martyrs were seized, haled about, thrust into prison with the vilest criminals, and assailed with the most blasphemous words and foulest speeches which Satan could inspire. Nay, such was the unutterable trial also of the holy women, young ladies, the spouses of Christ, whom the heathen seized, tortured, and put to death. Above all, our Lord Himself, whose sanctity was greater than any created excellence or vessel of grace—even He, as we know well, was buffeted, stripped, scourged, mocked, dragged about, and then stretched, nailed, lifted up on a high cross, to the gaze of a brutal multitude.
But He, who bore the sinner's shame for sinners, spared His Mother, who was sinless, this supreme indignity. Not in the body, but in the soul, she suffered. True, in His Agony she was agonised; in His Passion she suffered a fellow-passion; she was crucified with Him; the spear that pierced His breast pierced through her spirit. Yet there were no visible signs of this intimate martyrdom; she stood up, still, collected, motionless, solitary, under the Cross of her Son, surrounded by Angels, and shrouded in her virginal sanctity from the notice of all who were taking part in His Crucifixion.
So, we honor our mothers and all mothers today for the sufferings they have borne for us, including our births.
We honor our friends who are mothers.
We, also, honor our spiritual mothers, such as the mothers at Tyburn.
In this first post of the day, let us remember that the Church wants us to honor mothers.
to be continued...and see my Litany of Loreto Rosary on this blog.
There are several posts covering that meditation, which I wrote years ago.