On Mothers’ Day, our memories of our mothers bring us joy and love. Our mothers offer us important lessons of faith and repentance. They brought us to Church to encounter God’s mercy and forgiveness. They taught us to love God enough to confess our sins and live in His glory. May we live up to their expectations. May we live a life in faith and repentance.
My brothers and sisters. On Mother’s Day, our minds go to glorious memories of our mothers and it is a beautiful coincidence as I wrote in the bulletin. When Mother’s Day coincides with feasts such as the Samaritan woman, we know her as Saint Photini. And I think the beautiful thing about this morning is gospel, my brothers and sisters, is it gives us a lesson of what a good mother can be. You see, a good mother, my brothers and sisters doesn’t have to be perfect. Even in our memories we have beautiful memories I hope I pray of our mothers, but we also know that our mothers are not perfect.
Our mothers live in a world that draws them one place or another. And sometimes I have a conversation with mothers who are struggling with their children. And I remind them, I said one of the greatest lessons that a mother can teach her child is the lesson of repentance and faith. You see, my brothers and sisters, not one of us is perfect. We need examples like Saint Photini in the gospel this morning. We need examples of faithful women in our lives that can teach us not only to believe but to confess and to repent when we are wrong.
When Saint Photini entered into this dialogue with Christ, the first thing she says is, “Why are you talking to me? You’re a Jew. I’m a Samaritan. We’re not supposed to even be talking to each other.” She doesn’t even pay attention to the fact that she’s at the well at high noon. Now, my brothers and sisters, high noon in the heat of the day, nobody goes to the well to get water, except for the women who couldn’t go with their friends because they probably didn’t have any friends. And so Christ knowing that she was going to be there went to the well to meet her.
You see, my brothers and sisters, Christ knows what we need when we need it and he makes himself available to us. Now, she could very easily have walked away from him, but instead she began to dialogue with him. And this, my brothers and sisters, is prayer. Our mothers, our faithful mothers teach us to pray. We talk to God and we talk honestly from our hearts. And so she begins to talk with him all talking about the Messiah, talking about this, talking about that and confused about who he is. She says, “Are you greater than Jacob who gave us this well, that you’re going to offer me something that you don’t have any way to get?” You see, she saw that he had not even a scoop to draw the water out with. And he draws her in deeper like he draws us in deeper to him.
You see, my brothers and sisters, Christ always has what we need. And so as he drew her in closer, he said, “I am Christ. I am the one you’ve been looking for.” And her whole life changed in an instant. And then she has that beautiful moment of confession in front of God. He says, “Go get your husband.” “I don’t have a husband.” “Yes, I know you don’t have a husband. You have had five husbands.” We see now maybe why she was at the well by herself. She wasn’t welcome by her friends maybe. And he says, “And the one you’re with is not your husband.” And she rushes off after this moment of confession. I don’t know how many of you have ever been blessed to have that moment when you’re confessing to the priest, when you realize that you’ve opened up your entire heart to God and in that moment, God reaches into your heart and plunges his hand into your heart and you feel his love and his warmth in that moment and you feel his amazing forgiveness and grace in that moment. This is the moment that Saint Photini is sharing with us in this morning’s gospel.
And how many times can we offer that lesson to our children? And so she goes and calls the entire city, “Come and see the man who told me everything I ever did.” Could this be the Christ? Now, she’s still wondering even though he admitted to her. You see, my brothers and sisters, it is this interaction with Christ and this willingness to open up our hearts to him and to confess to him and to be touched by him. This is the greatest gift our mothers have ever given us. Our mothers may have dragged us by our ears to church and we must thank them even in their exhaustion, even after taking care of how many children they may have had. I know some of you come from quite large families and yet our mothers were always in church praying for us and teaching us how to have faith and teaching us how to have repentance.
Now I know, like me, some of you no longer have your mothers on earth. It doesn’t mean our mothers are not still praying for us. Our mothers are alive with God. Just because they have left this earth does not mean that our mothers are not praying for us. Now without the frustration of life praying for us nonstop in front of God, this is the joy of Mother’s Day, faith and repentance and prayer and love. So thank you to our mothers. Thank you for insisting that we have a church. Thank you for dragging us to church even when we didn’t want to be in church. Thank you for showing us Christ and even in their imperfection. Thanking our mothers for showing us how to confess and to repent and to love God because with that love, others come to see Christ.
Now it’s our job to follow in their footsteps and to go share after we have opened our hearts to God, to go share with our friends and our neighbors. Come and see for yourself. Come and see the God that has touched my heart and has opened to me the gates of paradise. This is that great gift that they have given us as mothers and now that we can give others in our love for Christ. Happy Mother’s Day. May all of our mothers that have gone before and are still with us and our future mothers, may all of us continue to grow closer to God for his glory.
