Every year, I
learn a little something about mothers.
Mothers truly give their children life, and in myriad, surprising
ways. This year, mother’s day taught me
yet still another way that mothers do this.
Last weekend
we celebrated First Holy Communion for fifty-four of our children; you can
enjoy some pictures in today’s bulletin.
It was great; I love that Mass, that day, and this year was no
exception. What a privilege! I get to be the hand that feeds them the
bread of life, quite the proud father and pastor. But of course I know that it is their mother,
the Church, who sees to it that they are fed.
I am only here to do it because she put me here. And while I am hardly an indispensable part
of the process, since any priest
can in his hands raise up bread to heaven, and bring down God to feed
them. She will be there, wherever they
go, to keep them alive by feeding them the Bread of Life Himself. Our Mother the Church nurtures all of us that
way. We priests just do what she tells
us, like the waiters at the wedding feast at Cana.
This
nurturing with the Bread that Comes Down from Heaven is indeed a motherly
work. Not only did the mothers of those fifty-four
children prepare them for their first and marvelous moment of Communion, but
also they continue to prepare and encourage and indeed bring their children to
the table of the Lord. This was made
most evident when I saw all of the folks at Mass last weekend who were there to
celebrate Mother’s Day. They might not
have had it in their minds to bring joy to their Mother the Church, but they
definitely knew what would make their earthly mothers happy, and so they joined
them at Mass.
This too is a
mothering work, the nudging of the negligent ones, who wander and are
distracted by other flashier, or softer, sweetnesses. Come
back to receive life that even I cannot obtain for you, from Him who gave you
to me, they seem to say. And a
crowded church is a glorious thing indeed!
Would that every Sunday sons and daughters would so strive to please
their mom.
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| The first teacher |
So it was
only fitting that in that context we honored our Blessed Mother, who is Mother
of the Eucharist and Mother of the Church.
Our procession and rosary was filled with a confident joy that comes
when children know they are loved, and that their every gift, no matter how
imperfectly made, will be received and elevated by the delight that it brings
to the mother who receives it.
And so it was
a great weekend, when this year First Holy Communion and Mothers’ Day were
thrust together by the calendar and so many happy sons and daughters of the
living God were brought by their filial devotion to communion with one another,
with Christ our brother who is one with the Father, under the watchful and
instructive care of Mary our Mother. She
taught our Lord so much; she still loves watching us learn.
Monsignor
Smith
