Proudly Scarred
COALED LIPSon fire
| “ … live coal…has touched your lips…“ Isaiah 6 |
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TO ALL OUR MOTHERS:
On this Mother’s Day, we acknowledge and honor our extraordinary mothers who have borne permanent scars from the countless sacrifices they have made for their children, families, the Church, and the glory of God. We implore the Almighty today, through the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to uplift and console them in this earthly journey, bless their spouses and children, and grant them the grace of unwavering faith and perseverance in the Lord, through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. 🙌
CONGRATULATIONS!!! 🎉
A message from Rev Fr. Chinonye Ezema, Parish Priest, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Dodan Barracks to his parishioners on their WhatsApp platform
I don’t know if this had ever been, but postponing the Feast of the Annunciation and it’s concomitant celebration of Mothering is something I had never witnessed before now but this year, falling on the holy week, liturgical rules dictate the feast is either suppressed or postponed for the overriding celebration of the passion of Christ. I suppose that so as not to miss it at all, due to its importance, the second option was picked and so it is that the Annunciation was celebrated on the 8th April, the very day after the octave of Easter instead of its original date of 25th March and then the accompanying Mother’s Day celebration, on the following Sunday.
Although the major theme of the day as reflected in the gospel reading is the difficulty in the acceptance of the truth of Christ’s resurrection even by his disciples who had not yet understood the prophesy and were viewing the event as inconceivable because of the backdrop of their Jewish cultural world view that sees such phenomenon as alien but this was also likely the case in all other known cultural world views as exemplified by the Athenians, Acts 17:32 “Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
So scripture records this and the church places it’s liturgical reading shortly after Easter to reinforce the truth of the realness of the resurrection and to build faith as can be seen in the doubts of the apostles, especially Thomas clearing when Christ brandished the scars and so, in his total submission and belief they go on his knees and declaring of Jesus “my lord and my God”, the first time anyone one ever proclaimed their faith in the truth of the hypostatic union of Christ. Quite an amazing way to strengthen their faith for the task ahead of them!
However, in his homily at Mass, Fr. takes advantage of the celebration of our mothers to establish a novel but welcome perspective to this age old interpretation of scripture; correlating a major element from the passion of our Lord, with one of the essential elements that mothers incur at the birth of a child; scars..
The significance of Mothers readily and unabashedly carrying child birthing scars wherever they go is thus dovetailed with that of the scars from our Lord’s paschal birthing of the whole world into a new life of grace,; love, faith and hope.
Haven noted the above however, the question is, how does this perspective impact on our faith?
• is the celebration of our Mothers based on just the biological and physical?
• are we not all mothers, in a more expansive way, birthing both physical and spiritual children in the various capacities we find ourselves?
• don’t we all have scars when we faithfully and fruitfully carry out our duties as:
- Father
- Mother
- Child
- Boss
- Subordinate
- Teacher
- Learner
- Student
- e.t.c?
The point is that as Christians, we all incur scars in the course of carrying out our duties and obligations in life and haven faithfully carried these duties on earth, the scars are the gate pass or witnesses that admit us into God’s presence at the end of time.
Sometimes big, coming from deep wounds and sometimes small coming from superficial wounds, the common factor in them is that they as are a result of birthing which every one is called upon to partake of in order to expand the possibility, both physically and spirituality, of the coming of the kingdom of God here on earth.
Another question however is whether, apart from the usual small scars we have, we are ready to respond positively to the call to bear very big and visible scars and if so, whether we would bear them in such a way as to impact on and influence others for good?
From sheer disregard to being tone deaf and attempts to dodge this call, many are found wanting in this.
What then is the implication of our mode of response? “Ikoko tio je ata, idi re a gbona”, according to the yoruba proverb which translates into ‘no cross, no crown’, Christ’s scars, purposely, are from the deepest wounds that could ever have been inflicted on a person and there’s an important message in this; they are emulable for St. Paul says,”.. I bear mark of Christ…”
For an instance, the tasks of a mother bringing up a girl child these days is onerous and may leave a scar on the mind and heart which may be carried beyond the dying day to the great beyond, much worse than the childbearing ones, but does she dodge them because
- even grandchildren have the penchant to want to ‘teach their grand mothers the art of child bearing’; wanting to dictate and stick to everything in their novice heads from dressing, outing time e.t.c.
- attempts at putting children on the right track being countered by government laws which are based on modern day secularism that at the end, lead no where but destructive human tendencies.
- of risks of being accused by government standards of running foul of the law and possibly convicted for being overbearing, troubling, abusive or trespassing ‘child’s’ rights even when such rights are anti-biblical.
- you may have to helplessly watch the life of your child obnoxiously controlled by government administered amoral laws.
- you may have to suppress the temptation to abandon one’s child to their self destructive ways due to secularism based laws backed by modern day governance methods.
- even she may not have the perceived capacity for proper upbringing of a child.
Examples of scar leaving situations, apart from the aforementioned, abound and it is said that there are different sizes of crowns in heaven and by extension, the deeper the wound and the resultant scar, the bigger the crown. Do you remember David saying he would give nothing to God that costs him nothing? That’s one way of incurring a scar which would always be rewarded. So who is ready, to take a cue from Christ who has the biggest of scars ever in order to save mankind and also, from Mary, His Mother whose scars, like her son’s, after her death, won her immediate admission into heaven, body and soul?
Mary of course being the epitome and touchstone of motherhood on whose honour the celebration of our yearly mothering Sunday is based, is a woman who, for no laxity on her part, sacrificed the utmost, teaming up with her son from his conception, birthing, upbringing to giving him all up at his death for our salvation and thus, worthily bore the mothering scar, not only on her belly but forever in her heart, confer Luke 2:35
From this perspective, a mothering scar that testifies of sacrifices here on earth is a sine qua none for entering heaven. Who is able to boast of one?
Have a Happy Mothering Sunday, all.
