Fr. Eduard Perrone, "A Pastor's Descant" [temporary link] (Assumption Grotto News, May 10, 2015)
In a home school reading class we are reading
a book which has certain passages in Elizabethan English. Such texts are
charming to read and–at times–intriguing to decipher. I offer to you
here a text in celebration of today’s secular observance taken from a
pastor’s column from some legendary past time–first in
contemporary English for your easy comprehension, and then in its
original form. In my modern translation it reads:
To whom it may concern: Happy
Parent B Day! you birthing persons and child-care givers.
Though you were selfish in your inability to control your
desires to have offspring, and though you have, as a result,
burdened the environment and consumed precious resources of
Earth–Blessed be It!–in order to provide for them, have nice
day, all the same.
I now quote the original text:
To those irreplaceable ladies
deserving of praise: Happy Mothers Day! you who gave
birth to and loving cared for your children. How generous of you
in sacrificing yourselves to become mothers and in providing for
your children at great personal expense in feeding, clothing and
educating them with all that almighty God–Blessed be He!–gave
you. May you be specially honored and blessed for this today!
Ah, yes! It is with nostalgia that we look
back to former times when motherhood was honored, not as a means of
personal fulfillment for certain women who made that their choice, but
for the noble and indispensable role mothers have in God’s plan for the
human race.....
In a more sober vein, I will have a word about
Holy Mary, our spiritual mother and Mother of Christ, about Her own
indispensable part in God’s plan for the human race, precisely as a
mother–not only in the obvious sense of Her divine maternity through
consenting to what was revealed to Her by the Archangel, but also in the
sense of Her place in establishing, with and under Christ, the new
order, the new Testament, the new religion of Christ. I’m thinking here
of the fascinating event that took place at the wedding in Cana. Notice
that it was Mary’s astute observation which precipitated the miracle our
Lord was to perform. “They have no wine,” She said. As in the case of
Saint John’s writings, there is a deeper significance to this than may
appear at first. Our Lady was not only noticing an approaching
predicament for the wedding guests, but one for all of Israel whose
people had become spiritually depleted. The miracle of Christ made the
new and superior ‘wine’ of the New Testament: a new faith, a new
sacrifice, ceremonies and sacraments. But what concern was this of Hers?
Indeed, that’s the very question Christ put to Her, not in order
to belittle Her (as some have thought) but to indicate that She indeed
has that concern because She has claim to the graces Christ imparts. The
interceding, mediating role of Mary is one part of Her spiritual
maternity. (The greater part is being the literal Mother of Christ.) We
will meet with Her again on Pentecost Sunday where Her maternal position
in the Church is highlighted further. Although She was not one of the
apostles, She was there with them, mothering them and through them the
entire Church. This event was somewhat of a parallel to the incarnation:
Mary, by the fertility of the hovering of the Holy Spirit, brought about
a conception and a birth: the first time to Christ; at Pentecost to the
Church, His mystical body.
If even in today’s radically secularized world
we have a remnant of recognition for the indispensable place of mothers,
we Christians ought not to forget as well the necessary place of Holy
Mary (by God’s choosing) in bringing about the salvation of mankind.
Today, at the noon Mass, we will celebrate
First Holy Communion for some of our children. How much we wish this to
be a memorable day for them with their beloved Jesus, and the first of
many devout receptions of the Holy Sacrament! In an image from the Book
of Revelation, one can see a dragon ready to devour the offspring of the
woman–the evil one scheming to snatch these innocent ones from the hand
of God. May Holy Mother Mary keep them ever near Christ through His
sacraments!
Fr. Perrone
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