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The Ascension and Mother’s Day
Our Lady of Grace (9:00 & 11:30)
May 13, 2018
Being a Good Mother
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
A Mother’s Raising a Child
Around this time of the year, when I was a teenager, I’d ask my mother, “Mom, what can I get you for Mother’s Day?”And her reply was always the say, “Honey, don’t get me anything, just behave and do as I ask?”To which I’d respond,“But I’d rather just get you a gift!”
You can probably guess, I wasn’t always the perfect child, actually I was pretty mischievous.
Mothers raise their children so they can go out into the world and succeed. To accomplish this daunting task, they teach them from their earliest years, things like sharing their toys, delaying gratification by saving the candy bar till after dinner, applying themselves to schoolwork, being good team members, working hard, beginning a family, and ultimately contributing to society.
You might say their love is “missional,” that is, there is a bond of love between them and their child, and they work hard at being a mother in order to influence their initial little “bundle of joy” to go out one day, as someone who is happy and has a mission to make the world a better place.
The Heart of Being a Good Mother
In honor of our mothers, I’d like to suggest that being a good mother is about providing3 things for a son or daughter that will equip them well for whatever comes their way.
THE FIRST is to give their child STABLE CENTER. By that I mean to give them an anchor that will get them through any storm, any fear, any mishap.
I remember well the day my mother did that for me.
My dad had just lost his job and the future looked dim. I learned the news that evening, when I was supposed to be asleep upstairs, but instead I was listening through the grate in the floor between the 1stand 2ndfloor of our home and I could hear him.
Through tears, he was saying that he didn’t know what to do or where to turn and he was failing our family.
My mother was sitting across from him at the kitchen table holding his hands and saying, “We’ll get through this. We’ll spend less; eat simpler meals. We’ll get through this.”
That incident of love and commitment and my mother’s words, against the impending doom of no income for several months gave me a firsthand experience of a stable center that would serve me well in my own future storms.
SECOND,mothers are important for providing a safe place where sins are forgiven. One of my many bad choices as a kid in high school was to join a New York street gang. We were called the Imperial Spades.
I remember the day I came home from high school wearing my new black leather jacket with a big white spade on the back and the words “Imperial Spades” emblazoned over the spade.
My mother was devastated. She began to cry and, of course, I kept trying to console her repeating, “Mom, I’ll be all right; honest.” Fast forward six months, and I began to get into serious trouble with my so-called “new buddies.”
With the repeated revelations of my “gang activities,” my mother was so understanding, so forgiving. It was clear that she abhorred my sins, but she loved the sinner.
FINALLY, mothers are able to help their son or daughter realize that they have a bigger purpose in life. They are sent to serve others.
When I finally gave up the gang and spent two years rebuilding my high school academic life if I was to graduate, I realized I wanted very much to become a teacher. However, it wasn’t something I was getting support for from outside my immediate family.
Neighbors, relatives and friends spoke of teaching disparagingly, as not being a real paying job and lacking glamor or notoriety. And who would want to teach kids like us!
Yet, is was my mother who kept assuring me that if it was something that made me happy and would help others, it was worth doing, no matter what the salary would be.
So after years and years of college and graduate school, I went from teacher to preacher to author, and here I am today.
The Heart of Jesus Preparing His Apostles
Today we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus to his Father’s right hand. And I remember well the day I stood on the very Mount of the Ascension just outside of Jerusalem.
There before his followers Jesus was missioning them in the same way many of our mothers missioned us, to go forth and make a difference in the lives of others.
And over the three years he had spent with them, it was obvious that he too had provided his followers with (1) a stable center, (2) a place where their sins were forgiven, and (3) and now a sending them forth to mission, to serve, to make disciples of others.
The STABLE CENTERcame in their experience of God their Father and the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus had shared with them.
In our first lesson from Acts we read, “He enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for ‘the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’”
SINS FORGIVENseemed to be a way of life in their relationship with the Lord. There were infidelities, bad choices, and missed opportunities throughout the years of their walking with the Jesus.
Those missteps and failures can be seen in James and John pushing to be first, in Matthew’s extorting extra taxes from his own people to send to Rome, in Peter’s 3-time denial, Thomas’ unbelief, Judas’ betrayal, and the entire lot abandoning Jesus at the end. And those are only the missteps we know about.
It seemed that each of the Apostles had fallen short of the mark in some way and yet, they remained his beloved and chosen ones. Yes, it was this band of imperfect, rough, and ragtag bunch of guys that he had chosen. There IShope for us!
SENT TO SERVEbrings us back to today on the Mount of the Ascension and Jesus’ final assurance before he leaves them.
Again, in Acts we were assured, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus’ love for the Apostles was “missional” inasmuch as it was missioning or sending them out into the world — to the very ends of the earth — to serve by making disciples of others.
Conclusion
And from today’s Gospel the charge is unequivocal: We’re to “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature and whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”
So whether it is the experience of our leaving home and our mothers, or whether it is Jesus on this Mount of the Ascension, the words of the first reading ring true.
“As they were looking on, Jesus was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, "Men [and women] of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
Yes, perhaps it’s time to stop looking at the sky; perhaps it’s time to come down off the mountain, for it time to be assured that we do have a STABLE CENTER,that we havebeen FORGIVEN OUR SINS, and that we are ready to SERVE OTHERS by making disciples.
Today is not only about the women we honor as mothers, nor is only Jesus’ missioning his disciples.
It is perhaps more about you and me and this community of Our Lady of Grace missioned to go forth and take the Good News to others.
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