Homily for the Week of May 10, 2009

5th Sunday in Easter, 2009
First Reading: Acts 9:26–31
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 22:26–27, 28, 20, 31–32
Second Reading: 1 John 3:18–24
Gospel: John 15:1–8

Many of our national and special holidays had their beginning in the last 200-300 years and are particular to the United States. If you lived in Palestine at the time of Jesus there would have been no Mother’s Day. In large part this was because the Jews social values and customs were very different from ours. The roles of men and women were highly defined. Women were in a position of having little legal status and, mostly, had to depend upon men for just about everything whether the man was the woman's father, her husband or her brother. A woman without one of these relationships was in a very tough spot. This is why Jesus used the widow and orphan to refer to the most defenseless in society.

This does not mean that women were unimportant in Jewish society. They were extremely important. Aside from caring for the home -- an extremely physical task as everything, even milling the grain to make flour, was done by hand -- they were the chief promoters of their family.

The family was the most important unit in society. And by the idea of family meant parents, grandparents, or all others often for 3-4 generations. Status in society came from your family. A person's identity was so rooted in the family that it was impossible for anyone to think of themselves as an individual. Society's sense of right and wrong was based on a system of honor and shame. The more honor a family had, the more honor its members had.

The role of a wife and mother was extremely important to the process of gaining honor. It was difficult for the man to promote himself, so the woman took care of this. A woman, be it a wife or mother, did everything she could to promote a husband or a son. This is precisely what Mary was doing at the wedding feast at Cana when they ran out of wine. She wanted to preserve and increase the honor of her son Jesus. Jesus acknowledged this as He responded to His mother with the highly respectful term, Woman instead of Mother.

As we celebrate Mother's Day we might use a term advisor that today is perhaps more descriptive of a Mother or woman at the time of Jesus. Our first reading and the Gospel passage clearly reveal the vital importance of the role of advisor or guide.

Indirectly, we see the importance of our Mother by comparing them to the events of our first Bible reading for today. The reading is from The Acts of the Apostles, written about A.D. 85. Just a few years after the death of Jesus there was a great amount of fear among those who had left everything to follow Jesus. At that time there was a war between Rome and the Jewish people. On the religious side the Pharisees had lost their control of the Jews. Like a political party in our American history, they were expelling groups from the synagogue that they thought were not following the strict laws of the Jews. Among these were the followers of Jesus. And the worse among this group was a man named Saul.

Saul was very dangerous to the early Christian community. But he had a trusted friend by the name of Barnabas. Barnabas became a trusted advisor and teacher of Saul for quite a few years. And finally Barnabas helped Saul to understand the person of Jesus and Jesus' teachings. Without Barnabas, Saul certainly would not have come to love the Lord with such understanding. Saul finally accepted Jesus, and changed his name to Paul.

One role of mothers has not changed all that much since the first century. When we think of Mother, whether you are a teenager, or in mid life or a real senior citizen, whether it is a Mother is still living or a Mother who has died, we see in our mothers a person who takes care of us, feeds us, bandages our wounds, listens to us, gives us advice, and the person whom we trust the most. For many of us, it was our mothers who, like Barnabas, who introduced us to our Catholic religion: they taught us our prayers, helped us to make our First Communion and saw to our education. They taught us the difference between right and wrong, and what we are to do when do something that is wrong.

Jesus give us an example that good grapes come from a vine which has been take care and pruned of its broken or dead branches.

A vine cannot bear fruit ''on its own.'' Not only is there the need to be connected to the main vine, truly delicious grapes need the intervention of a gardener who knows where and how to prune. By and large, mothers know their children better than anyone, and they know where and when to prune .

As we honor Mothers this weekend we must remind ourselves that Mother comes in different forms. There are many who play the role of Mom in our lives and the lives of children. There is the grandmother and the godmother, but also the step mom that is part of a blended family. And then there are the super mom helpers. These are the friends and family who always lend a hand to do bring the kids to school, or help us to keep on time for appointments. On Mothers Day we take time to thank all the Mothers: moms, grandmas, stepmom sister, aunt, neighbor, child care provider, teacher, friend. They all make the job of mother all the better.
We realize that dads get their own day next month, but Mothers Day is also a time to remember the many ways fathers endless efforts make mothers’ efforts that much easier and more successful.

Years ago St Therese of Lisieux wrote: The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother. That is why we have Mothers’ Day.