DEBT OF GRATITUDE

Ponder the delightful Spanish proverb that says,"An ounce of Mother is worth a pound of clergy." It reminds us of what we so easily forget, that our parents especially our mothers, are the arch teachers of our religious values. We value and appreciate mother love because it is the best and most persistent example we have of how God loves us, which is unconditional.

There is another proverb that says, "God could not be everywhere; that is why he made mothers." This is one of the reasons that the Mother of Jesus has been so consistently honored throughout history of Christianity. If we ever feel that God is far away, cold and distant, Mary comes to us and reminds us of how close God is and how much He loves us.

Abraham Lincoln once said, "No one is poor who had a good mother." American author Washington Irving states, "A father may turn his back on a child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives and wives their husbands, but a mother's love never fails."

No matter what her children do, a mother stays faithful to them. She remembers the infant smiles that filled her heart with rupture. She recalls the laughter and shouts of her children. She never forgets the opening promise of youth. No one can ever convince her that her children are unworthy of love and forgiveness. What else is Raphael's Madonna but the outline of a mother's love, fixed forever on a splendid canvas?

Former opera star Beverly Sills addressed a national meeting of Educators in New York. She had one of the most beautiful voices in the world. One of her children is deaf and the other is severely mentally handicapped. One child cannot hear her voice, and the other cannot appreciate its beauty. Said Sills, "I love my two children with all my heart. Should someone offer me a thousand other children, I would never trade my two for them."

Said one mother, "Moms love in many different ways. Someday when my children are old enough to understand the logic that motivates a mother, I will tell them:

I loved you enough to ask you about where you are going, with whom and what time you would get home.

I loved you enough to make you return a Milky Way with a bite out of it to a drugstore and confess, "I stole this".

I loved you enough to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room, a job that would have taken me fifteen minutes.

I loved you enough to let you see anger, disappointment, disgust and tears in my eyes.

I loved you enough to admit I was wrong and ask for your forgiveness.

I loved you enough to let you stumble, fall and get hurt. But most of all, I loved you enough to say no when you hated me for it. That's the hardest part of all."

Thank God for our mothers who always give us the love we need to be all that we can be!

PRAYER

"Lord Jesus Christ, your love is better than life itself. May your love consume and transform my life that I may desire you above all else. Help me to love what you love, to desire what you desire, and to reject what you reject".