Weekend Wisdom - May 11th, 2025
Mother’s Day and Good Shepherd Sunday
The YES of Every Mother
This past weekend I was mindful of all the work of the mothers (and fathers!) of our First Communicants – the preparation, the banners, the clothing, the family, the photos, and the celebrations. That and the occasion of Mother’s Day seems a good opportunity to reflect on my own 86-year-old mother and her quiet, but always faithful role in my vocation.
Pope Francis wrote in his last encyclical Dilexit Nos, “The Gospel tells us this in speaking of Our Lady, who saw things with the heart. She was able to dialogue with the things she experienced by pondering them in her heart, treasuring their memory and viewing them in a greater perspective.” My mother was much the same and I can only imagine what fragments are collected in her heart, but I’m going to reflect on a few of my own. The thread of her YES like Mary’s, is woven into the lives and vocations of each one of us eight children.
Her role in my vocation was constant from the beginning, though nearly silent. It wasn’t until I was into my seminary formation that she shared with me that following a frightening birth experience and uncertain about my next moments, she had “given me back to God.” As time passed, even amidst the busyness of our young and large family life, she quietly supported me, including my lefthand-ness – something not afforded to my older siblings! I remember clearly one particular night as a child when I was not feeling well and she quietly sat with me, tended to my aches and pains, and sent me back to bed. It is always the simple things.
Mom’s YES wasn’t always easy. Raising eight children with a husband who travelled didn’t give her much time in those early years. Making ends meet and having enough cannot have been easy, but she has always had a quiet hope that things would work out. I think that is something that mothers are generally better at than fathers. She brought what time, resources and energy she had and trusted God to do with it what was needed. I remember her talking about how much she disliked grocery shopping simply because it was a task with all those kids, and one she only could do once a week, but she would return home to almost immediately discover something else that needed to be purchased.
Each of us children can name times where mom’s yes made something possible for us. After dad died, mom still had young children at home. As I completed seminary, she went back to school and formed in theology and the life of the church and spent the next 30 years serving with Fr. Dave Kasperek at my home parish of Sts. Edward and Isidore in Flintville. From that time on, mom and I found a rhythm of holidays and holy days in ministry. We couldn’t always be at the family holidays, but we were able to celebrate together.
All these fragments and so many more are how I know that Mom knows what it is to say YES like Mary did. As Pope Francis wrote, “What Mary “kept” was not only her memory of what she had seen and heard, but also those aspects of it that she did not yet understand; these nonetheless remained present and alive in her memory, waiting to be “put together” in her heart.” We must wait and have hope in the Lord. It reminds me a bit of something mom would say to me, “Just leave it alone Michael.”
Mom didn’t know how things were going to work out – for herself, for me, for my siblings – but she knew God was going to show up. She holds onto what is important like memories and relationships – no algorithm or AI can account for these things – all of these live on as precious memories “kept” deep in our hearts.
Mom said YES to life.
Mom said YES to hope.
Mom said YES to love.
Mom said YES to the Lord.
And by her quiet faith and quiet support, I came to my own vocation and my own “yes” for which I am deeply grateful every day.
Happy Mother’s Day friends.
Fr. Mike