Dear Parishioners,
As a parish, we have received many blessings over this past week, and so we have many reasons to give thanks to God. We give thanks to God for our students who received their First Holy Communion last Sunday. We give thanks to God for our confirmandi who received the Sacrament of Confirmation at the Cathedral last Thursday. Finally, today, we give thanks to God for our mothers. The great Pope St. John Paul II so beautifully pointed out that mothers play an indispensable role in showing all of humanity the tremendous value of every human person. Through the gift of life, bringing us into this world, and nurturing us, a mother can bear witness to the gift of human life in a profound way. If you are so blessed with the opportunity to do so, take a moment today and thank your mother!
With that said, I am well aware that that Mother’s Day can be a painful day for some. For example, there are some among us who had absent mothers, mothers who passed away when we were young, or mothers who did not love us as they should have. Painful as those situations may be, there is still hope because, on this day, we can still give thanks to God for our second mother. I am referring, of course, to Mary. One of the beautiful things about the story of Pope St. John Paul II was that he experienced the pain of losing a mother when he was around nine years old. However, knowing that our Mother Mary is always with us, his father entrusted his young son to Our Lady of Kalwaria, telling the future pope in front of the image of Our Lady, “From today on, she will be your mother.”
Friends, whether we were blessed with mothers that were present and loving or not, we know that Mary is our mother as well (Jn 19:27). She desires to care for us as she did her own child. On this Mother’s Day, we especially give thanks to God for that!
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Bill Duffert