By Fr. Glenn Jones:

I saw a rather disturbing post the other day. It was relaying a story of a man who married a single mother and was (by that mother’s own testimony) being an excellent father to her child. And yet some comments criticized the mother in “taking advantage of” her husband and that he was a “fool” for raising another man’s child. I could scarcely fathom the heartlessness of it. Any man or woman acting as a good parent to a child not his/her own should be praised, not criticized. After all, is that not the ideal when people adopt? Have we become so heartless that we cannot have natural human care for the child of another?

No, I think not. Such comments I’m sure are outliers. But they do raise red flags of how our society may be going and showcase attitudes which we are obligated to combat.

But remembering the tenderness of parents—biological or not—is what we remember as we come to our annual Mother’s Day celebration and rejoice in our mothers (or the memory of them). As George Elliot wrote: “Life began with waking up and loving my mother’s face.” What a privilege you ladies have in being able to bring forth new life … new little images not only of yourself and your husband, but of God: “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’ … So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27)

Thus, Scripture reminds us to: “…not forget the birth pangs of your mother. Remember that through your parents you were born; and what can you give back to them that equals their gift to you?” (Sirach 7:27-28) Who can repay the gift of life itself and the generous long-term commitment to nurture that life? Therefore, God commands: “Honor your father and your mother…” (Exodus 20:12). St. Paul reminds us that this is the first commandment with a promise: “… that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you…”—indicating its importance and the obligation (privilege) of repaying even a small portion of the debt we can never fully repay.

Now we Catholics and many other Christians also reverence the memory of Jesus’ own mother: Mary. Some mistake this as “worship”, though it is not; Mary is only human, although we believe she was imbued with exceptional and special graces in preparation for her being the Mother of God. For Mary—called the “Mother of God”—is, of course, not the source of Jesus’ divinity, but she IS the source of Jesus’ humanity, just as from the mother comes the flesh of any other person while the soul is created by God.

But, acquiescing to be the mother of Jesus, she becomes the mother of all Christians as well. St. Paul writes: “[Jesus] is the head of the body, the church…” (Colossians 1:18) and, “… we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Romans 12:5) So, the head and the body being one, the mother of the head is also mother of the body in a divinely mysterious way—something Jesus Himself affirms as He hangs near death upon the cross: “When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” (John 19:26-27)

Well, the “beloved disciple” is very commonly believed to be the apostle John, and Jesus’ words are meant for all who are faithful to Him. The home that we give to Mary, the mother given to us with Jesus dying breath, is love, honor and reverence. After all, how can we not love and honor this “blessed among women” (Luke 1:42) whom Jesus Himself would have so loved and honored as her Son? After all, we glimpse the deference and obedience He gives her at the wedding of Cana when she asks Him to rectify the exhaustion of the wine at the banquet even though “my hour has not yet come” (John 2:1-9) to reveal His divinity. And we see an analogy in King Solomon—a faint foreshadowing or “type” of Jesus—honoring his own mother Bathsheba: “…the king rose to meet her and bowed down to her; he sat on his throne, and had a seat brought for [her] and she sat on his right. Then she said, ‘I have one small request to make of you; do not refuse me.’ And the king said to her, ‘Make your request, my mother; for I will not refuse you.’” (1 Kings 2:19-20) Thus our trust in Mary’s prayerful intercession for us with her divine Son. After all, what mother does not pray for her children?

There are other wonderful examples of motherhood in scripture. We remember Rebekah’s concern and care for her son Jacob in Genesis, Moses’ mother in saving her son from the slaughter of infant males in Exodus, Hannah’s love and prayerful care of her son Samuel in 1 Samuel, and grandmother Lois’ and mother Eunice’s influence with their child Timothy in leading him to faith (2 Timothy 1:5), and many others.

As Jesus honored His mother, so we honor our own … overlooking and forgiving faults, for who among us does not have enough faults of our own to try to correct? If you want(ed) your mother to be perfect, strive to be perfect yourself through fidelity, kindness and charity. That IS what she herself would have hoped for you.

So today let us honor the women, our mothers and grandmothers, and those wonderful ladies who have cared for us in our lives. Let us pray for them, as they have prayed for us, asking the Lord to grant them wisdom, endurance, and joy. Most of all, let us thank God for the gift of motherhood, an earthly reflection of His own eternal, nurturing love. A blessed Mother’s Day to all!

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“Mother’s love is peace. It need not be acquired; it need not be deserved.” –Erich Fromm

Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.