Denver Catholic

22 MAY 13-26, 2017 | DENVER CATHOLIC Mary and the meaning of Mother's Day I have celebrated eight Mother's Days so far, being on the receiv- ing end of not quite a decade of handmade cards and hinted-at gift suggestions from "the kids" ( but perhaps purchased by daddy). I struggled early on with the fact that Mother's Day, of all days and for all its charms, was not actually a day o› for mother. That I was still needed for nursing, for disciplinary action, for snuggles and for diaper changes. I expect the fi rst couple decades of motherhood to hold to a similar pattern. "Mommy, we made this for you. And we trashed the kitchen in so doing." The moment I started to enjoy my motherhood more deeply was the same moment I began to realize that it wasn't actually about me. And it is a lesson I learn anew, over and over again. There is a battle that rages in my heart from the moment I wake up to someone's early morning cries until the fi nal stretch of bedtime chaos. I can loosely plan for little respites of relaxation and prayer with a cup of co› ee or 20 minutes of stillness if all the nap times line up accordingly, but I cannot rely on it. In short: my days are not my own, and my time belongs to others. In giving life, I have given my own life away. Mary had a radically di› erent experience of motherhood from the rest of us, at least on the surface. Only one baby, and what an exemplar model at that! A saintly husband who silently supported her decisions (she was perfect, after all), a child who never so much as rolled his eyes at her in sass, and God's assurance that her domestic toils would merit an unfathomable heavenly reward. Mary didn't have to worry "am I doing this right?" or "will I mess him up?" And I bet she never felt like fl eeing the house at Nazareth when Joseph came back from the wood shop at night. And yet, I look at Mary's histo- ry-altering fi at at the Annunciation and I see that her surrender was not death by a thousand diapers. Her consent to surrender was immediate, it was immense, and it was ongoing. That fervent and fruitful "yes" at the very outset of her motherhood would encompass the remainder of her life on earth and chart the course for her role in eternity. And in her surrender, she opened up the course of human events to a divine interruption such as the uni- verse had never seen. Mary's heart was su¯ ciently open to receive the full power of the Holy Spirit's love, a force so powerful that from her virgin womb, God the child would come forth nine months later. That's the kind of love the world's greatest mom is made of. And her life with Jesus, however steeped in divinity, was not without heartache and toil. I think of the anx- iety of the three days she and Joseph searched for tween Jesus, having lost sight of him on a family road trip to Jerusalem; of the radical trust and courage it took to launch him into his ministry at Cana, knowing full well the road to Jerusalem would dead end at Calvary. And of course, it is impos- sible to think of Mary without calling to mind an image of Michelangelo's Pieta, a crushed and grieving mother holding the battered, lifeless body of her beloved Son. In short, Mary saw it all. And that makes her the perfect model for us all, no matter how few or how numer- ous our children, and no matter how great or how hidden our crosses. This Mother's Day, let's ask Mary to show us the radical power of sur- render, and the beauty of a heart fully available to live one's vocation. Perspectives The fi fty-day party I f you can fi nd it in your attic, open your old, pre-Vatican II missal, and look at the Sundays between Easter and Pentecost, which are titled "Sundays after Easter." Now look at a contempo- rary Missal, or your cur- rent issue of Magnifi cat, and note the di› er- ence: those Sundays are now styled "Sundays of Easter." Three letters were lost in the transition from after to of, but that subtraction represents a great recov- ery of liturgical insight. I've had occasion to express my discontents with the post-conciliar liturgical calendar; anyone interested can fi nd my complaints, and proposed fi xes, in the chapter on liturgy in my book, Evangelical Catholicism. But in this instance, the postconciliar reform got it exactly right when the 1969 General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar explained the Easter season in these terms: "The fi fty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day, or better as one 'great Sunday.' These above all others are the days for the singing of the Alleluia" (22). The idea of the Easter season as one, great, fi fty-day- long Sunday traces its origins to the eastern doctor of the Church, Athanasius; its recov- ery today ought to help us appreciate the Easter season, and indeed the entire liturgical year, at greater depth. The shift from Sunday's after Easter to Sundays of Easter is so evocative because that small change in preposition tells us that "Easter" is not something that happens for twenty-four hours and ends when the leftover ham and chocolate bunnies are put away after dinner. Rather, "Easter" is one continuous fi fty-day feast, one "great Sunday," and it should be lived that way, with as much revelry as possible. The fi fty-day party, properly cat- echized and preached, also gives the Church an annual opportunity to refl ect on its own birth. For the Church is born of Easter faith, which begins with the encounter with the Risen One. And that encounter changes everything. Meeting the Risen Lord, the Church begins to live the life of the Kingdom within his- tory, as the Resurrection restores his- tory to its proper course. Recognizing the Risen Lord in the breaking-open of the Scriptures and the breaking of bread, the Church experiences the New Life — life in the messianic era, here and now. Receiving the Holy Spirit, at the "Johannine Pentecost" recounted on Divine Mercy Sunday and on the Fiftieth Day of the "great Sunday," the Church is sent into the world on mission, proclaiming the Gospel and the forgiveness of sins. In the ancient Church, these fi fty days were the time of "mystagogical catechesis," during which the newly baptized catechumens were drawn deeper into the Church's sacraments and their full meaning, which could only be grasped after the sacrament of "illumination," baptism. And if Lent (the last lap for the ancient catechumens) is an annual opportu- nity for each of us to "re-enter" the catechumenate and ponder anew the basics of the faith through the three great catechumenal Gospel readings (Jesus and the woman at the well; Jesus and the man born blind; the raising of Lazarus), then Easter, considered as one fi fty-day "great Sunday," o› ers each of us the oppor- tunity to refl ect on the commission to be missionary disciples we were given at baptism, and to which we pledged ourselves anew at the Easter renewal of baptismal promises. How many Catholics imagine that the liturgical year is a kind of happen- stance, things occurring when and how they do in a more-or-less random way? Too many, perhaps, and that's especially true of the Easter season, which also gets cultural short shrift because of the dominance of Christ- mas and "the holidays." All the more reason then, for preaching during the "great Sunday" to stress the fi fty-day party as the pivot of the Church's entire year of grace, to which all that comes before points, and from which all that follows fl ows. Substituting the Apostles Creed for the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed on the Sundays of Easter, for which the rubrics provide, is another good way to highlight the distinc- tiveness of the Easter season. For the Apostles Creed is the baptismal creed of the Roman Church, and the fi f- ty-day party is, preeminently, a cele- bration of the saving grace of baptism. Party on. The Catholic Di¨ erence George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. GEORGE WEIGEL Guest Column Jenny Uebbing is a freelance writer, speaker, and a blogger for Catholic News Agency. Her blog, Mama Needs Co¨ ee, covers topics like faith, sex, cultural issues and motherhood. JENNY UEBBING

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