Keeping Mums - All Three of them

I'd like to begin this Mothers' day post in the only way I really can, with a 'shout out' to Jenny, my most wonderful mother. I will be loving and thinking of you today, all the way down in Cornwall - where I hope you will be somewhat out of the way of this virus! [Can I echo the advice of the local Cornish politicians, imploring people not to go to Cornwall? It really doesn't have the infrastructure to cope.]

To be honest, I'm afraid my poor Mum is well used to not seeing me on Mothers' Days. As you can gather she and my dad are in the West Country, and I live and work in London. And, given that I am a priest, and Mothers' Day always falls on a Sunday in Lent [could you get a busier clerical day apart from Christmas or Easter?] it is pretty likely to stay that way.

I know for many, however, getting together with mums on this day is 'just what we do'; and not being able to it, this year, is going to be perhaps the first really poignant moment in this unfolding Coronavirus saga. Further, as this country sits on the edge of an expected surge in the number of cases, and a crisis greater than many of us have ever known in this country hangs over us, we experience the cruelty of this situation in the fact that we must repress that most natural, human instinct to draw those whom we love the most, close to us.

So many Catholics are feeling profoundly, also, at this time, the separation from Holy Mother Church. As Christians in a time of trial, our deepest impulse is to want to draw together in prayer; and yet we are not able to. Yesterday evening, a handful of people had gathered for Mass in our Church, forgetting or not realising that there would be no public Mass. It was heartbreaking to have to ask them to leave, especially as I was about to offer the Mass privately, myself. And yet it must be so.

With every forced changed in circumstance, there comes to the fore, however, the opportunity for human growth and development. We have seen people find more and more ingenious ways to keep in touch with one another - even real technophobes learning how to keep in touch using modern means. At the same time, when our normal means of being together is interrupted, it brings home the importance of it, and we find ourselves giving more priority to being with each other in the ways that we can. I have phoned home more in the last week than I had in the year, until now.

In this, perhaps we can see that these dark days might contain the seed of hope for the future. That in having now to make a real effort to ensure we can see or speak to our mothers on this, their day, we might learn its value. In a world that has begun to feel so global, and yet so disconnected, we might begin to see the importance of being connected, being rooted among the people we call home.

If it’s true of our relationship with our earthly mothers, then please God, it will be true also of our spiritual Mother, the Church. In many ways  the ecclesial experience has, in recent years, perhaps had little too much of an easy, consumer feel. We come to Church for the 'service', put some money in the basket  and we receive Communion, and then go on our way. Then all of a sudden, Catholics have been told to survive on 'spiritual communion', something of which they have no experience, at all.

Perhaps, not unlike with reaching out to our mothers on Skype or FaceTime, what is called for is innovation in maintaining our connection with Mother Church. This could be a time for families to form of new habit of gathering for prayer - the domestic Church. Though we cannot receive Holy Communion, this might be the occasion to learn to pray silently in our Lord's Eucharistic presence in the tabernacle, for our Churches are still very much open. Or, indeed, this might be the moment in your life, perhaps for the first time in a long while, to really sit and give yourself some time and space to reflect on your relationship with our Lord and His place in your life. Though we cannot offer you the Eucharist, priests are still available for Confession and spiritual counsel [whilst sat at a 2 metre distance, obviously].

By taking greater responsibility for our relationship with our earthly and spiritual mothers, we can be changed; and, though across distance, the relationships actually made deeper. And wouldn't it be marvellous if we could emerge from our hibernation with a stronger relationship with both mum and the Church?

In this effort, we can and must, of course, turn to the unfailing assistance of our third Mother - Our Blessed Lady, the mother of Jesus. She, who at the foot of the Cross, was made by her Son, Mother of us all - She knows how great good can come from great evil. And if we are willing to turn to Her, to learn from Her, She will teach us. She will teach us what it is hope in God and to be disciples of Her Son. She will show mothers how to be mothers, and sons and daughters how to be devoted children. And whilst amidst this vale of tears, she will surely show unto us the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus, and where is He moving among us and within us, even now.

O Clement, O Loving, O Sweet Virgin Mary
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ!