Showing Our Love

This past week, I’ve been thinking about what a now-deceased friend told me about his dear mother. Each day, he would call her to wish her a good day, share with her what was going on in his life, and then leave her with something funny that he’d heard. He then noted that their calls would always end with an “I love you” along with some motherly assurance regarding his own life: “Remember, don’t worry too much because, in the end, all will be well.” In the weeks and months following her passing, as if by reflex, he found himself reaching for the phone to call her while quickly realizing the obvious—that she was no longer there.

One of my favorite childhood memories of my mother is how she would read to me from a book entitled The Best Loved Poems of the American People. Of the many reflections contained within that book, an unforgettable one is Somebody’s Mother, written by Mary Dow Brine (1816-1913). It begins with a group of boys who are walking on a busy city street when one of them spots an old woman waiting at a busy street corner in need of assistance. Having rushed to her side, he proceeded to hold her hand and assist her across the street.

After doing so, he returned to his friends who asked him why he did that. His response?

She’s somebody’s mother, boys, you know. For all she’s aged, and poor, and slow; and someone, some time, may lend a hand to help my mother, you understand?—if ever she’s poor, and old, and gray, and her own dear boy is far away.

Later that evening, it was the woman’s turn.

Somebody’s mother bowed low her head in her home that night and the prayer she said was ‘God, be kind to that noble boy, who is somebody’s son, and pride and joy.’

I mention these stories because this is the weekend we honor the women in our lives who are mothers and those who mother us in countless other ways. Their mothering reflects a type of love that is unforgettable because it speaks to the way God loves us—sacrificially! Moreover, it makes one think that if today, Jesus resided in these United States of America, He’d likely be quite comfortable living in Missouri; for, after all, they are known as the “Show Me” state! For Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John (14:15-21) “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” To paraphrase, Jesus tells His disciples (and you and me):

Don’t just tell me you love me but rather, show me that you love me.

But, as we know, that’s not always the easiest thing to do. In our daily lives, just think about how easy it is to slide around the Commandments by telling ourselves that if we break one of them (just one time), we’re okay because we’ve been keeping the others. For more than three decades, I’ve had the opportunity to teach courses in economics to thousands of students and drilled into them the importance of the 8th (“You shall not steal”) and 10th (“You shall not covet”) Commandments. While doing so, I’ve also reminded them that as an avid news connoisseur, if I read about one of them on the front page of a newspaper, I promise to visit them in prison to remind them once more of their divinely-given responsibilities.

So, I think it is this active expression of our Faith that has always drawn me to the Acts of the Apostles that we read throughout the Easter season. For Acts follows the Greatest Story Ever Told that culminates with Jesus’ Passion, Death, and Resurrection! And it is this Easter season that those mentioned in Acts are basking in. For them, the Lord’s Resurrection is not some idea but rather, it is something they are witnesses to. As such, they are bold and joyful and unafraid to proclaim Jesus to a world not entirely interested in their message.

And another thing, those first Christians were not always successful and, as such, in need of proverbial “do overs.” Perhaps the greatest “do over” rests upon St. Peter where his three denials of Jesus during His Passion are eventually met with an opportunity for restitution. In the final chapter of John’s Gospel (21:15-17), Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Following his three affirmations, Jesus then gives Peter his mission: “Feed my lambs…Tend my sheep…Feed my sheep.”

Do you know that Jesus does the same for you and me? Each time we fall short, He is there to pick us up and ask us: Are you ready for a “do over” and to show me you love me by loving those I’ve placed in your midst?

On the 6th Sunday of Easter, as we continue to bask in the Resurrection, may we also rejoice that Our God has not left us as orphans but given us the Holy Spirit! May we thank Him for loving us into existence…for showing us how to love…for His patience and the “do overs” he extends to us…and especially, for those He has placed in our midst, especially our dear Moms. If your mother is this side of heaven, tell her you love her. And for those whose mothers have passed and live in the Kingdom with Jesus and Mary, whisper the same to them. For they also hear us and are closer than we might imagine.