Chrystus Zmartwychwstał
Prawdziwie zmartwychwstał!

Christ is risen
Truly He is risen! Alleluia

Because there arose no little dissension and debate

A strangle quote from scripture to say the least. But hey, it’s Mother’s Day and doesn’t that line just about capture the essence of what mom is all about.

Deacon, are you saying that mom is about dissension and debate?

Let me explain.

The Judiazers showed up in Antioch and the surrounding areas and immediately went to work upsetting the apple cart. The people of Antioch, especially the gentile converts, were being told to do all sorts of unimaginable things. They had to go and get circumcised, they had to stop eating the foods they liked, they had to follow all sorts of rules and regulations about work, hand washing, etc. The house got a little crazy.

Moms, you know how that goes. Your husband has a bad day at work, your children are frustrated with school, the television, iPod, video games, Internet, and radio are delivering all sorts of messages to your loved ones, telling them how they should act and what they should do. Maybe they even go so far as to develop ideas about how you should act, about who you should be.

So the community got together with their leaders, the ones who were speaking truth, that is, Paul and Barnabas, and they decided to get the final word. Paul and Barnabas traveled to Jerusalem. The Church convened an Ecumenical Council, the first ever, and decided the question. The Judiazers were wrong and the people received true direction.

Moms, when you see things going wrong you speak with your husband and children. You turn off the TV, the radio, and limit the video games, Internet, and iPod downloads. You call a family council and you lead the family in working things out. You set the ground rules and you indicate the way to go. Your family knows that it can come to you for advice, guidance, and love.

The Holy Church, sometimes referred to as Holy Mother Church and moms have a lot in common. Not only do they have a lot in common, but what they have springs from the same place —“ the love of God.

They both have the same mission, entrusted to them by Jesus Christ. I am the way. Show my people the way.

The vision of the life to come, which John cracks open for us, gives us this picture:

I saw no temple in the city
for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb.
The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it,
for the glory of God gave it light,
and its lamp was the Lamb.

The vision is the reality, namely God dwells in the midst of His people; the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the light among us.

That, my friends, is the present reality and the life to come.

All of us dwell in that reality and that hope. Moms especially carry that reality forward. Their vocation, however it should come to them, reflects that light and passes it on.

Moms, in their cooperation with the Holy Church, and in their vocation, stand as a bulwark against the fits of the world, against the Judiazers, the hypocrites, against all the messages that say: —Do as you please, do as we say, live today, for tomorrow we die.—

Moms have heard the message and have accepted the mission. They know that life is not just the here and now, the fads that fade, the influences that are like the grass that withers, the flowers that fade.

Moms believe in what Jesus said:

Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

When the messages of dissension and debate come, they, faithful as they are to Christ’s message and mission, live and teach the promise given to all Christians, the message that is in the best interest of those they love.

—Whoever loves me will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”

Moms, grandmothers, godmothers, may our Lord ever bless you and enrich you in the graces needed to live out your vocation, to carry forth the message of Christ, and to be His missionary and messenger, standing for good and right against the sins of the world. May our mother Mary watch over, pray, and intercede for you.

Amen.