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Post date: May 05, 2021 2:54:59 PM

May 9, 2021 Homily by Fr. Karl Schray (Mother’s Day)

Sometimes honoring the mothers in our lives is too easy.

As a child, my mom was always there. I would hand her a card,

give her a hug and that was that. Honored. Of course, as an adult,

I always called on the phone and went to Portland on weekends and

visited my parents, especially when mom was dying from

pancreatic cancer. I buried both of my wonderful parents.

But perhaps the memory of our mother breaks our heart.

We miss her terribly, or the relationship is or was strained.

Perhaps the title of mother is one that is uncomfortable, unfamiliar,

sought after or brings with it doubt or pain.

Perhaps we did not know our mother, but we honor just the same

another woman who stepped up and into her role.

“Who is my mother?” Jesus asks. He responds:

“Anyone who does the will of my Father.” Matt 12:48-49.

Linda reminded me of one of her favorite books

from the Old Testatment—the Book of Ruth.

I hope all of you will want to read it. In short,

when Ruth becomes a young widow, she chooses to stay

with her mother-in-law who now has no family left and help her

rather than returning home to Moab. In fact, she says,

“Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you stay, I will stay.

Your people will be my people and your God, my God.”

Quite a statement of devotion!

Did Ruth know that honoring Naomi would ultimately give her a place in the

genealogy of Jesus? Definitely not.

The two of them are now back in Israel and soon Naomi introduces her to

Boaz. Ruth marries Boaz and gives birth to Obed, the future father of

Jesse, who will be the father of King David; and you know the rest of story.

Nor do we know what comes from those acts of love and commitment

we show to our mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, stepmothers,

and other maternal figures.

Let us try this day and always to love these women in gratitude and trust,

knowing that the Holy Spirit is working through them.

Today’s Scripture readings are all about love. St. John tells us to

‘love one another because love is from God;

everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.’

Here is a beautiful poem by Father Pedro Arrupe,

who was the Superior of the Jesuits for twenty years and

lived through the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

“Nothing is more practical than finding God,

that is than Falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination,

will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the

morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends,

what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart,

and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”