A Mother's Day Message

Dear Friends,

Happy Mother’s Day!

All of us at St Teresa salute and pray for all mothers, both living and deceased on this special day – and given the circumstances, perhaps one like no other!

You may recall that Mother’s Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at Saint Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. Her campaign to make Mother’s Day a recognized holiday in the United States began in 1905, the year her own mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, died. Ann Jarvis had been a peace activist who cared for wounded soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War and created Mother’s Day Work Clubs to address public health issues. Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her mother by continuing the work she started and to set aside a day to honor all mothers because she believed a mother is “the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world”.

Interestingly, although Jarvis was successful in founding Mother’s Day, she became resentful of the commercialization of the holiday. By the early 1920s, Hallmark Cards and other companies had started selling Mother’s Day cards. Jarvis believed that the companies had misinterpreted and exploited the idea of Mother’s Day, and that the emphasis of the holiday was on sentiment, not profit. As a result, she organized boycotts of Mother’s Day, and threatened to issue lawsuits against the companies involved. Jarvis argued that people should appreciate and honor their mothers through handwritten letters expressing their love and gratitude, instead of buying gifts and pre-made cards. Jarvis protested at a candy makers’ convention in Philadelphia in 1923, and at a meeting of American War Mothers in 1925.

Perhaps this year Jarvis will get her wish. While this annual celebration of the work and worth of mothers has become both a religious observance and a most profitable commercial occasion, the regular scene of stores filled with eager shoppers, striving to find something unique, or accustomed gifts and cards and flowers will certainly be different.

Perhaps this year, in gratitude for so many blessings from our mothers, including their role in caring for us in this pandemic, we will have to settle for a hand-written note or a homemade card, or a Facetime call, or a family Zoom session to tell mom how much we love and appreciate her. Perhaps this year, rather than sharing a meal together, some children will prepare and cautiously drop off a meal or a beautiful and delicious cake and take and post photos of the remote event. Perhaps this year, rather than being able to actually visit the graves or mausoleums of our deceased mothers, we will have to offer a spiritual bouquet in quiet prayer for her for now!

Needless to say, however we express our love for our mothers, with precaution and safety, the feelings are still the same and perhaps even deeper this year!

When I was a kid, growing up in my parish at Saint Paul of the Cross in Jersey City, the organist Cas Rakowski always sang this song as a Communion reflection on Mother’s Day:

M is for the MILLION things she gave you. O is only that she’s growing OLD. T is for the TEARS she shed to save you. H is for her HEART of purest gold. E is for her EYES, with love-light burning. R is RIGHT—and right she’ll always be.

Put them all together and they spell mother, the word that means the world to me!

Happy Mother’s Day to all, including my own mother Frances, who I have come to love beyond all understanding over my years on this earth!

Blessings! -Fr Bob [Thanks and credit to: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day]

We are All Shepherds for One Another

Dear Friends:

This week we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday!  While the imagery can be somewhat lost on today’s believer, there was a good reason why the illustration of a shepherd with his sheep was used so often in biblical times ... it was an illustration people could easily identify within their cultural context.  Surely we can build on this biblical image and adapt it to our times taking into consideration our role in being shepherds to and for one another. 

Illustrations are most effective when they are understood easily by the culture in which we find ourselves and where God has sent us to minister.  Middle eastern cultures understood what shepherding was all about.  It was about feeding the lambs and the sheep, bringing them to good pasture lands and fresh water, grooming and clipping them, leading them and teaching them to stay together, going after the wandering lost ones, and protecting the sheep in the field and in the fold. 

By virtue of our baptism, we are all shepherds for one another, with Jesus Christ as our Good Shepherd.  We are invited first to be loved by the Good Shepherd and then challenged to share that love in caring for each other.

Feeding

A shepherd feeds his sheep.  Jesus feeds us with his Word and the Eucharist which gives us guidance and food for the journey.  As shepherds we too are called to feed the lambs and care for the sheep.  So many have not heard the Word of God nor partake of his Body and Blood.  Our word, example and invitation can inspire our brothers and sisters to be inspired and fed by the Lord. 

Watering

The shepherd gives the sheep fresh and pure water so that they may live.  In baptism we are configured to Christ. As shepherds, filled with the gifts of the Spirit, we are called to lead one another to water regularly.  So many have been baptized, but the water has dried up and the impact forgotten. Our fresh and living faith can refresh and restore the grace of baptism in others so that the light of God's written Word can shine through and be evidenced in prayer and living joyfully in the example of Jesus Christ.

Grooming

A shepherd grooms his sheep and keeps them clean and free of contamination from the bad things in the world.  Jesus tells us of his love and generous mercy.  As shepherds we are called to share this message of love and mercy with our friends and family.  Many feel unloved and alienated from our faith in Jesus and even from one another.  Sharing our story can welcome people back to Jesus, our source of love and mercy.

Shearing

At times sheep must be sheared.  This is a useful and profitable process for both the sheep and the shepherd.  This is an offering to the Good Shepherd.  For the benefit of all, the sheep must be sheared, disciplined, encouraged and rebuked.  At times we know we too have gone astray and are in need of shearing  to keep us fit for service to the Lord.

As shepherds we too can humbly correct, rebuke and encourage one another— but only with great patience and careful instruction. Our correction can never be judgmental and without compassion, but always attuned to truth and charity.

Leading and Teaching

The shepherd leads the sheep.  Jesus is the way that leads us to heaven.  As shepherds are also first to be aware of the distractions and pitfalls of the world.  We are called to lead by example and contribute to building up our community of faith and working to stay together in unity.

Wandering Sheep

True shepherds make an effort to look for wandering sheep. Jesus seeks those who are lost.  The Bible is clear that many people have and will continue to wander from the faith. As shepherds we need to help the return of the people who have wandered. 

Protection

The shepherd brings the flock home to the fold at night.  He then lays down in the gate physically to protect the sheep from wolves coming into the sheepfold.  He literally put his life on the line for the sheep.  Jesus does the same for us.  As we have seen his example, we are called to do the same, bringing one another into the fold, caring for each other and protecting each other.

Conclusion

The illustration of the Good Shepherd reminds us that we are called to be obedient to the Lord and shepherds in the body of Christ and that we must take that responsibility seriously.  We have all seen far too many who claim to be called to servant leadership but demonstrate clearly that they are not qualified to be shepherds according to God's criteria.  

This weekend’s readings remind us that just as we are the sheep of the Lord, we are also his shepherds. We need to be feeding the lambs and the sheep, bringing them to good pasture lands and water, grooming and clipping them, leading them and teaching them to stay together, going off after the wandering lost ones, and protecting the sheep in the field and in the fold.

It's surely the project of a lifetime, but given what the Lord has done for us what could ever be greater or more important?

Blessings!

RSM

Post-Covid Radical Rethinking

Recently, I was reading a reflection by San Diego Bishop, Robert McElroy, who wrote: 

"… in these days of pandemic and social distancing … I have been amazed by the energy, creativity, optimism and resilience that have emerged in the collaborative actions of priests, lay leadership, pastoral staffs, school communities and religious women and men. Faced with the searing deprivation of direct sacramental encounter and community necessitated by the demands of public health, the Catholic people are imagining dramatically new pathways of participation in the most important elements of the life of the church."

Clearly, these days are like no other I have ever seen in my lifetime, and there is no more such thing as business as usual. Further, as we move ahead, quickly approaching the apex of the virus in our part of the country (NY/NJ Metropolitan area), we will never be able to go back to ministry as we once knew it.  The impact on the ecclesiastical, emotional, financial and institutional aspects at every level will have to be re-evaluated and in many places re-constructed and/or replaced.

McElroy writes that:

"Parishes, schools, dioceses and social service agencies are attempting to carry out their missions in a vastly transformed culture in which we cannot wait for men and women of faith to come to us and our churches because it is impossible for anyone to come. Every single pattern of pastoral service, sacramental life and the proclamation of the Gospel has to be rethought and reconfigured in a radical manner."

At this point, I’m not sure exactly what that radical rethinking means, but it will surely involve:

1. Better and more timely communication with our people;

2. Utilizing more creative resources for sacramental and other instruction;

3. A deeper, more inclusive, and collaborative sense of mutual responsibility and accountability for all aspects of our Church;

4. Letting go practices and models that have not worked for a long time now.

5. Ministering to those most severely affected by the pandemic.

These days have afforded me the opportunity to share thoughts, ideas and anxieties with brother priests across the country.  A growing number share the opinion that many people will not return for different reasons, and those that do will have a heightened sense of expectation, one that looks at and lives more closely to Gospel values.  

Perhaps as we all have some more “at home” time these days, we can begin that process of creative thinking so that as a Church, we will be ready to continue to spread the Good News of Jesus to a post-corona world in ways that are effective, transformative and life-giving.

Blessings!

RSM