Mother’s Day is a great opportunity to recognize the uniquely special role that mothers play in our lives and to thank them for the gift of their motherhood and love. But we mustn’t forget the other 364 days a year. While it’s nice to have a day devoted to recognizing all that moms do, remember that we don’t have to save up our “thank you’s” and “I love you’s” for Mother’s Day alone! May the Lord bless with all of his grace and love all of our mothers, living and deceased, on this special day.
During the month of May we also honor a very important mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ. In our Christian faith, we call Mary the Mother of God. And she is that. But she was also a human mother of a son who had a human upbringing. Mary loved her son as any mother loves her son. Our Lady was more than merely the biological mother of the Lord Jesus. Her task in the Incarnation was not over after the event in the stable at Bethlehem. Birth was followed by education. Although there are not many specific references to the upbringing of the Lord Jesus in Sacred Scripture, the Gospels do relate that it was the blessed Mother and St. Joseph who raised Jesus though out his childhood. It is important to remember that Mary exercised a continuous formation of the young Jesus as he grew from infancy to young manhood.
Just as Mary knew how to be a mother of Jesus, she knows how to be our mother, too. And it is Christ’s will that she is as well. He gave her to us from the Cross, one final act of love to the world after giving himself on the Cross for our salvation; he gave us his mother to help us to accept that salvation. Because of this, we should be always eager to have Mary’s maternal care. As she mothered Jesus with such special attention and love, so too will she mother us with the same care and love. The development of a strong and healthy devotion to the Blessed Mother, and especially praying the Rosary, is a great help to coming closer to her divine Son.
God bless you,
Father Joseph Byerley
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