In these weeks after Easter, scripture readings include passages from Acts of the Apostles. This book is Luke’s second work, and it takes up where his Gospel left off. Namely, he’s now showing how the Holy Spirit moved the first Christians to spread the word of God—revealed in Jesus—to the ends of the earth (Rome—symbol of the world this empire ruled). In a way, this second work could just as well be titled the “Activities of the Apostles,” and we could even say that this work is not as yet finished. We’re simply in Chapter 2025—and WE are the apostles whose behavior will be handed down to posterity.
What would YOUR paragraph in this Chapter 2025 tell of YOUR activities as a child of God, a brother or sister in Christ?
What’s interesting about today’s reading from Acts is that it tells of the early followers encountering Gentiles. This audience was not particularly familiar with the Hebrew scriptures—so the apostles were forced to SOMEHOW communicate who God was, and who Jesus was in revealing “our Father who art in heaven.” The interesting aspect of this is that we are in the same position as those apostles were.
In America and the world at large, countless people are really uninformed about what Jesus means—thus making our role the very same one we read of today. It’s WE who must preach to the Gentiles in our families, neighborhoods, country, and world (even those modern Gentiles who SAY they’re Christian—but who espouse beliefs and behaviors that are not at all what Jesus taught.
This past week’s readings reported the death of Christianity’s first martyr (i.e., first after Jesus was martyred). This week we read of Stephen being stoned to death for preaching the Word of God. What jumps out at us when reading his story—is a reference to who was present at the stoning. Namely, we are told that Saul was present in his role of rounding up Christians in order to jail them. He may even have picked up a stone and threw it at Stephen.
What hits us where we live, however, is what HAPPENS to Saul later on when he’s traveling to Damascus (Syria). This Saul guy, the persecutor of Christians, had a “conversion experience.” He realized what he had been doing and believed was all wrong. Instead of persecuting Christians, the newly awakened “Paul” commits himself to up-building the faith community. It is this part of his story that should speak to your experience. How? Read on.
If you ever have an experience of realizing you did something that you are not proud of, you are experiencing what Saul did. He seems to have confronted the reality that he “committed the unforgivable sin.” And so it is with us. We realize that we’ve been traveling in the wrong direction. But we are somehow made aware of God’s forgiveness being the strong force that can motivate our becoming a great apostle (as occurred with Saul/Paul).
As occurs throughout the Bible, ordinary or unlikely people are called to accomplish great things. Who would have thought that this guy who watched Stephen die would one day be a martyr like him? And so it is with OUR story. God over-rides our past and leads us into a new beginning.
As for Mother’s Day, it’s hard to believe that this national holiday was originally part of a protest movement. In 1858, Anna Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia organized people in West Virginia and elsewhere in Appalachia to protest the poor water sanitation that was harming or killing people. Come the Civil War, she got women to care for the Civil War wounded on both sides. She was aided in her effort to stop wars by Julia Ward Howe (author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”). Too many women were losing too many sons in war, so it was women who protested war—their effort then evolving into protests against working conditions for young and old who were being taken advantage of in the work place.
As the 19th century was coming to an end, writers like Charles Dickens in England and Upton Sinclair in the U.S. exposed the abuse of workers, women, and children (think of Mr. Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and others). Come the 20th century, big business saw it could make a killing on Mother’s Day by selling flowers, candy, and other niceties for “mothers.” Sure enough, in 1913, “Mother’s Day” came into being throughout Congress.
Industries supported the idea of a Mother’s Day that saw people spend their money, but the story deserves more than just a jaundiced view of economics favoring owners versus workers. Mother’s Day symbolizes what people can do to change society—the right to vote for women being one more offshoot of what was originally a social issue. Jesus himself would have “marched” with Anna Reeves Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe.
When I think of mothers, I’m always reminded of my experience of “mothering.” In my case, it took place with my raising a boxer puppy. He was with me 24 hours a day for the most part—in my office at Nouvel Catholic Central for 5 years, and in my presence many hours each day of 8 years and 2 months in total. I taught him what a good dog did and what bad dogs do—teaching him like mothers teach so many things to their little ones.
When he died, I cried my eyes out. But I also thanked God for giving me a glimpse of what mothers feel when raising their children. We honor mothers, or anyone, who embodies the great virtues of motherhood. Caring for their young, they symbolize how we should regard others. So thank you, moms. Your contribution has been much appreciated.