HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY

ecce mater tua

MOTHER - It was no accident nor coincidence that Our Divine Lord had a human mother. He could have come to earth out of thin air, being a Divine Person.  As God He could have created His human nature without the assistance of a mother since He did so without the help of a biological father anyway. YET, Jesus Christ WAS born of a woman. He HAS a human mother. Her motherhood did not end when she gave birth. It was not a nine month assignment. Motherhood BEGINS at conception, continues through gestation and birth and really kicks off once Jr. starts to cry and needs food, shelter and plenty of LOVE.

On this Mother's Day, we honor those special women who have been given the same vocation shared by the Virgin Mary. Not only did these women bring us INTO the world, they also LOVED us. Children know and learn about the love of God by first experiencing it from MOM and DAD. Jesus felt the warm caress of Mary's cheek against His as she cuddled Him as an infant. She lovingly and tenderly rocked Him in her arms. She nursed Him, bathed Him, kissed Him, hugged Him and held His hand.

Since Christ was TRUE GOD and TRUE MAN, His human nature was as real as ours. Even though He had a divine nature hypostatically united to His human nature in His one Divine Person, Jesus had the same human emotions any son would have for His mother. Since His humanity never ended once the Incarnation took place, His relationship, His LOVE for His Mother can never cease, either. As God, He is her Lord but as Man, He is her Son. 

God blesses us with our own dear mother's who sacrifice so much for their children and who love us unconditionally. My Mom endured the death of three of her five children. One was an infant of three days (my sister Mary Jo). The other was a victim of Muscular Dystrophy (my brother Michael) who died at the age of 26. The last was a victim (my brother Joe) of an underage drunk driver. Six months after his tragic death, my dad died just before he and my mom could celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Now, she lives with my last surviving brother (Mark) who (Deo gratias) is in remission from leukemia and she suffers with horrible back pain. More than 40 years of nursing as head of the Trauma Center and Emergency Room ruined her vertebrae, disks, spine, etc.  Still, when possible, she enjoys a visit to Alabama to see the Poor Clares and Franciscan Friars at EWTN. Before Mother Angelica suffered her stroke, the two of them would chat and I would be a spectator thinking that this is what it must have been like when Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth. Two 'mothers' in conversation about, whom else, their sons?

Today, I thank God for MY mom, Elizabeth Trigilio; for Mother Angelica; for the Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary; and for Holy Mother Church. God is GENEROUS not stingy in His love for us that He has given us all these mothers to show us the breadth, length and depth of divine love.

I also pray for the repose of the souls of my two grandmothers (Anna and Mary) and for the health of my godmother (my mom's sister), my Aunt Rita.

Having been blessed with so much motherly love and affection, I find it incredulous when any human being cannot accept the fact that Jesus must love His own mother even more than we can our own. While God, He is also Man. His humanity is not overwhelmed nor eclipsed by His divinity. She was there for His birth and for His death.  She was His most faithful disciple.