Happy Mother’s Day!

From the Pastor:    Happy Mother’s Day!
 
    A very happy and holy Mother’s Day to all mothers reading this! Mother’s Day is such a valued secular holiday that there is no way that it can be ignored within the Church, even though it is not on the liturgical calendar. On this day, we honor our biological mothers, our Godmothers, our adoptive mothers, and even the special women of our lives who may have “filled in” for our mothers if our own were missing. Today, I wish to highlight one additional mother who, simply because calling her “mother” has fallen out of favor, is rarely, if ever, honored on Mother’s Day. Let us never fail to honor our Holy Mother the Church.
    A quick search online for the term Holy Mother the Church or simply Holy Mother Church shows that the Catholic Church was called “Mother” over and over in Church documents and other spiritual writings of the distant past, but did you know that it shows up even in current Church documents? For example, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church under the Chapter titled, “God’s Salvation: Law and Grace,” we find the heading, “The Church, Mother and Teacher.” I will quote the two paragraphs directly under that heading:
    2030 It is in the Church, in communion with all the baptized, that the Christian fulfills his vocation. From the Church he receives the Word of God containing the teachings of “the law of Christ.” From the Church he receives the grace of the sacraments that sustains him on the “way.” From the Church he learns the example of holiness and recognizes its model and source in the all-holy Virgin Mary; he discerns it in the authentic witness of those who live it; he discovers it in the spiritual tradition and long history of the saints who have gone before him and whom the liturgy celebrates in the rhythms of the sanctoral cycle.
    2031 The moral life is spiritual worship. We “present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,” within the Body of Christ that we form and in communion with the offering of his Eucharist. In the liturgy and the celebration of the sacraments, prayer and teaching are conjoined with the grace of Christ to enlighten and nourish Christian activity. As does the whole of the Christian life, the moral life finds its source and summit in the Eucharistic sacrifice.
    Doesn’t that show how the Church can truly be called “Mother”? Just as our mothers generally love, nurture, and teach us, just as our mothers sustain us, encourage us, and strengthen us, just as our mothers urge us to live up to the fullest of our potential, so does Holy Mother the Church. The paragraphs following those quoted continue along the same path. They explain how our Holy Mother the Church teaches us the moral life and always encourages us to stay holy and grow in holiness. Paragraph 2040 continues the motherly language, “Thus a true filial spirit toward the Church can develop among Christians. It is the normal flowering of the baptismal grace which has begotten us in the womb of the Church and made us members of the Body of Christ. In her motherly care, the Church grants us the mercy of God which prevails over all our sins and is especially at work in the sacrament of reconciliation. With a mother's foresight, she also lavishes on us day after day in her liturgy the nourishment of the Word and Eucharist of the Lord.”
    What blessings our Mother bestows upon us! Just as the Fourth Commandment tells us to honor our earthly father and mother, so it similarly would apply to our Holy Mother the Church. For just as surely as we honor her who loves us and gives us mortal life, so should we honor her who loves us and gives us life eternal. Sadly, we do not always recognize our mother’s dignity, her intentions, or her wisdom, yet she is always ready to overlook our faults and failings and embrace us the moment we return to her. In this and in many other ways, mothers, especially Holy Mother the Church, are the most clear images of God that we have upon this Earth. (And no, I am not calling God “Mother” with this statement.) May we love and honor them all as they deserve, by following their teachings and living their love.
    Shortly before I sent this article to the printer, Holy Mother Church, who was experiencing labor pains as a conclave was being held to determine the next Pope, gave birth, so to speak. Because you will have already had much news fed to you about who Cardinal Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope, is, I don’t have to go into any more details at this time. I may have more to say about it next week.
    In the meantime, Happy Mother’s Day once again!
 
With prayers for your holiness,
Rev. Fr. Edwin Palka