Collect
God of compassion, whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary, shared the life of a home in Nazareth, and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself: strengthen us in our daily living that in joy and in sorrow we may know the power of your presence to bind together and to heal; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
or
God of love, passionate and strong, tender and careful: watch over us and hold us all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Post Communion
Loving God, as a mother feeds her children at the breast you feed us in this sacrament with the food and drink of eternal life: help us who have tasted your goodness to grow in grace within the household of faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Readings
First reading
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Second Reading
Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
Mothering Sunday
As they used to say, are you comfortable, so let us begin, as we “listen with mother” today, Mothering Sunday.
“Woman, here is your son.” What a verse we have from the gospel this morning! Jesus looks down upon the Mary’s gathered at the foot of his cross and speaks these enigmatic words. These words give all of us a great deal to think about, don’t you agree?
What strikes you as the meaning of these words? There seem to be a number of obvious meanings – but, I feel none are right and none are wrong. But we do have to hunt for them as we read the verses, or hear them as they are declaimed from the lectern. We do have to engage with these words somehow, don’t we? Don’t we have to make sense of them?
In our reading, Jesus is talking to the disciple whom he loved and his own mother. We are told that, from that hour, the disciple took Mary into his own household.
This fact seems very curious to us today, doesn’t it? Why did the disciple take this woman into his home? – Was it because it is Jesus’ mother? Was it because these words Jesus uttered from the cross were his last? Why take in a woman whose son has just been executed in such a horrific manner?
Was it guilt – the guilt of a survivor? Did the disciple feel responsible in some way for Jesus’ death, or guilty that he survived the man who loved him? Or, more likely, did the disciple feel that this woman now had no family to care for her – after all, her son had just been killed in excruciating pain. Who was now to care for her? She had no one to support her. There was no welfare system then. Widows and orphans were on their own, as they have always been until universal social care began. They usually starved unless they were lucky with friends and family, or they were able to pursue some sort of trade.
Widows surviving on their own were unusual in the ancient world; after all, the west’s nuclear family was not part of that society’s norms. Families were large and integrated. So, we should think that the disciple whom Jesus loved must have been like a brother – why else would they become part of the same household? Wasn’t he a beloved brother to Jesus and so it was natural that he should care for Mary and Mary’s care devolved upon him?
Another possibility is that Jesus shamed the disciple into such action. Jesus “blackmailed” him, as it were – a gentle coercion to be sure, the metaphorical twisting of the arm as it were.
Perhaps the words, “Here is your mother” were even addressed to Mary – what if Jesus was actually telling his mother to regard that disciple as her son? – Not to coerce the disciple, but to draw Mary’s attention to another young man to take his place. The disciple would have adopted this woman as his mother, if she recognised that the disciple could act as her son. Is Jesus enabling his mother not to become obsessed with these last moments, that she should not think of him only, and of his death at the hands of murderers, those Roman legionnaires. Jesus wanted to heal his mother in extremis, for he knew it was possible that she might never move on from his death, like so many mothers mourning their dead children.
Could these be the only scenarios to make sense of these words of Jesus as he drew his last breath? I don’t think so. I think Jesus was referring to himself as he spoke to his family, friends and disciples gathered there to witness his last few moments on earth. I think Jesus was saying to Mary that her son was hanging on a cross, there were no angels or armies to rescue him from the hands of the hated Romans.
I think Jesus was re-establishing the loving interdependence which exists all around us. On the one hand he was taking himself out of the equation, and, on the other, he was pointing people towards the living. As he was being lifted out of life, he pointed down to those who loved him and those whom he loved, to hold the living precious, and to love one another. Even at the last, the one commandment which he handed on to us is directing his whole being.
I don’t think these thoughts are anything new. But I think they all arise from the text we have heard and read so many times. Why does he call Mary (whichever one he was talking to doesn’t matter) “Woman”? It is a stark address to one of those who were so attached to him. Imagine you yourself looking at your mother and saying, “Woman,” to her. Is this a universalisation of these last few words Jesus spoke from the cross? Are we supposed to be addressed directly in such a declaration? If I were that woman, Jesus would have been challenging me to take care of this man standing beside me – I am being told that I have to care for this man as if he were my son. And, as a man, I am to take this woman – any woman – as if she were my own mother. This is an affront to all normal sensibilities. But Jesus always did strike at the heart, didn’t he? I have talked about the sleepy-headedness of the crowd, their unthinking and uncaring attitude toward the world in which “they” live with “their” “normal” everydayness.
This final episode with his mother and the beloved disciple turns our normal world on its head. When Jesus utters these words, doesn’t every single one of us become someone of importance? The disciple takes the woman to his own home, she becomes part of his family. I would like to say that the disciple “appropriates” this woman, he makes her his own, as he takes her under his wing and into his home.
If we hear and act on these sayings to the people gathered at the foot of the cross, Every man becomes a son – and every woman becomes a mother. Sons and mothers without the tie of blood – I would say that is the core of Jesus’ message to us – we are all part of this family torn apart by death, but a new family reconstructed by Jesus’ only commandment, “Love one another.” This tie of love is what distinguishes the christian community.
Everyone can experience this compassionate care of absolute love when they enter the doors of a church. The building can offer the place where the silent brooding of our God can be experienced in a new creation – if we are open to it. The busy fussing of God can be given when the congregation welcomes the stranger of a morning, just as the Holy Spirit agitates with those so very valuable gifts for every one of us.
Love should define us, especially in those last moments of life, which the philosopher says is every moment of life. The sayings, “Woman, behold your son,” and “Behold your mother,” should regulate all our actions, from that moment, like a heartbeat.