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A Mother's Love

You can never repay a mother’s love.

While it may not occur as often as we would like, there are some homilies we never forget. For me, one of these homilies was given by Fr. Ken Omernick, pastor of St. Charles in Hartland. His opening words were: You can never repay a mother’s love.

It’s true, our mothers do so much for us that it is impossible to repay them. They give us life itself, nurture and raise us, support us, perhaps most importantly, worry for us and give us a glimpse of what unconditional love is.

That is why when I heard from Fr. Ken that I could never repay my mother for her love, a lightbulb went on in my head. Because I had been trying to repay her, I bought gifts, dinners, flowers, chocolate, all trying to repay the debt, to get even, but nothing I did ever seemed to bring me closer to that goal of repaying my mother for her love.

Mothers provide a revelation and experience of God no other person can provide: being loved by someone unconditionally and whose love I did not earn or deserve, but is freely given. A love that cannot be paid back. Mothers in a unique way give us the love of God. In this mother-child relationship they prepare us to receive the unconditional love of God himself, which can also never be repaid. Mothers prepare us for relationship with God.

Which is why it is fitting to celebrate Mother’s Day in the month of May which is dedicated to our heavenly mother Mary. Sadly, some of us may not have had a mother as we would have hoped. A broken world will have broken mothers, if we never experience the unconditional love of a mother, we will never fully receive the unconditional love of God. We will spend our life trying to repay, to get even with God. Our relationship with Him will always be transactional.

So God gives us a mother, his very own, Mary. Who loves us as only a mother can do, unconditionally, without our deserving of it. That is why Mary is so important in our Faith and in our life, she prepares us for God. The more we grow in our relationship with Mary and our love for her, the more she will lead us closer to God. Mary provides us the unconditional love of a mother we may not have had in our own life.

This is the love we celebrate this weekend. Whether we receive this love from our biological mother or our spiritual mother, the love is same. A love that is life giving, nurturing, supportive, sacrificial, unconditional, and maybe even with a touch of worry, in short, we celebrate a mother’s love, a love that can never be repaid.

The Merciful Love of God

Divine Mercy Sunday is my favorite Sunday of the whole liturgical year.

Why is it my favorite? Because it points us to the merciful love of God that lies behind the whole Paschal Mystery which we celebrated last week.

The word ‘mercy’ comes from the Latin misericordia, which comes from the two words miseria, meaning wretchedness, misery, or affliction, and cor, meaning heart. The Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God's mercy to sinners, each and every one of us.

Blood and water flow from the side of Jesus as the soldiers pierce his side as he hangs on the cross. The heart of Jesus is pierced, for you and me. The blood of the covenant forever securing my redemption, and water that cleanses me, as I die with Christ in his death and rise with Him to new life.

This Sunday’s gospel is the story of Thomas putting his fingers in Jesus’ side. He gets a pretty bad wrap but, the truth is, that’s you and me, doubting the love and mercy of God every step of the way.

Jesus really died, really rose again, and in his resurrected body he has the scars of his wounds. In Jesus, the prophecy of Isaiah 53:5 is fulfilled. “But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his wounds we are healed.”

On Divine Mercy Sunday, may we be immersed in the infinite, deep, mercy of God and be reminded no one is too far gone.

Love Your Neighbor

“We will find ourselves and come alive when we make a sincere gift of ourselves to our neighbor”

This statement is part of the mission of a local work camp called Love Begins Here, run for middle and high school students. I participated in this camp for the first time a few summers ago as a leader and it changed my life. So many times in Scripture, Christ teaches about laying down your life for another and in the Gospel this weekend we see that even more in depth as Christ speaks about the two greatest Commandments. The first speaks of loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind and second, to love your neighbor as yourself. The two Commandments are really connected together by one word, “gift.” We all have been gifted life, created in the image of God, He formed us in love to give love back to Him, especially through serving others. When we understand the true gift that we have received in simply being created, we can’t help but love the creator, God. And when we see that we ourselves are loved, created in the image of God and gifted life, we would think that it would be easy to look at our neighbors and see that same gift of life. Yet we often find it so hard to love our neighbors as Christ has asked of us. During Love Begins Here, I had the complete joy to work alongside students who made a sincere gift of themselves to love their neighbors in the multiple small tasks they did to help people they had never meet before. We all came alive with such joy in serving our neighbors because God created humanity to love Him and to serve others. As hard as it is to love every person, especially those who have hurt you or who drive you crazy, ask the Lord to help you see Him in each person and you will be amazed at how easy it becomes to love. As you go forth this week I offer you three questions that were given to me to reflect on in regards to living a more other-centered life.

1. Do I see other people in their struggles?
2. Am I moved with compassion?
3. Do I approach them to offer help?

Seeing, letting our hearts be moved, and approaching to help is a three step approach to how we can begin to give a sincere gift of ourselves to our neighbors and in turn love the Lord God even more.