On December of the last year my mom came to San Antonio to visit me, and during those days I had an interesting conversation with her. It was night and the two of us were driving back from the Christmas celebration, and she asked something like, “Do you think we will recognize each other in the next life?” “Oh, yes, mom” I said. I was about to explain my [theological] theory that the recognition would require effort because no one can take his false self into heaven, but before I could formulate my thoughts, she said, “I miss my mother.” I decided to say nothing. My grandmother had been dead for almost forty years and my mom still ached to see her again.
That desire to see departed loved ones seems to grow with time. I miss a lot of friends whom passed away, and yet I know there is just one path back to them: by unity with Christ.
Today’s Gospel affirm that only love matters: whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Only by unity with our Lord do we achieve our proper relationship with each other. That applies both here and hereafter.
We celebrate today Mothers day, so let’s not forget that our mother, in whatever state she may be, is our responsibility to care and love. We have to be united with her, even thoug she had a different point of view or even a different way of life. We cannot and should not run away from that obligation of ours. It is not our money, gifts and food that she yearns for but for something priceless -our company, reassurance and love.
Look, to a mother there is nothing more comforting than to see her children in good health and happiness. As children if we can convince her that she was the source and inspiration for our success and happiness in life, she would be the happiest mother today.
And of course we cannot forget that Jesus has given us a beautiful help on our way home. In what was practically his final gesture, he said, Behold, you mother![1] What a wonderful gift! A gift no only for Christians but for all mankind because our blessed Mother interceed for everyboby
So, on this day we honor our earthly mothers, let us honor too the Mother of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, why? Because she is a woman who loves. We sense this in her quiet gestures, as recounted by the infancy narratives in the Gospel. We see it in the delicacy with which she recognizes the need of the spouses at Cana and makes it known to Jesus. We see it in the humility with which she recedes into the background during Jesus’ public life, knowing that the Son must establish a new family and that the Mother’s hour will come only with the Cross[2]. When the disciples flee, Mary will remain beneath the Cross[3]; later, at the hour of Pentecost, it will be they who gather around her as they wait for the Holy Spirit[4].
Today we can say: holy Mary, Mother of God, you have given the world its true light, Jesus, your Son – the Son of God. You abandoned yourself completely to God’s call and thus became a wellspring of the goodness that flows forth from him. Show us Jesus. Lead us to him. Teach us to know and love him, so that we too can be apostles and disciples full of true love and be fountains of living water in the midst of a thirsting world ■
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