Pain and Glory

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  I recently spoke with a Powers Catholic High School graduate who played hockey for Powers Catholic when he studied there.  He has since graduated and, as part of his life, helps train kids who play hockey.  In our recently conversation he mentioned that some of the kids he trains have the drive to excel, and just need work with particular skill sets.  But he struggles with other kids who want the trophies and the medals, but don’t want to put in the work to excel.  They, like so many, have fallen prey to the cultural milieu that one can have it all without working for it and suffering for it.
    St. Paul mentions in the epistle that he suffers for the Ephesians, which is their glory.  Of course, St. Paul’s sacrifices for the spreading of the Gospel also meant his own glorification by God.  But whether the Apostle directed the sufferings towards the people or towards himself, the sufferings yielded the results, not the ease of sitting at home.
    To know Christ, in His expansive love, is to know suffering.  But to know suffering for Christ is to know glory.  Mothers know this when they carry a child in their womb for 9 months.  Especially towards the end, mothers often can’t wait until the child is (safely) delivered.  But the pain of childbirth leads to overwhelming joy at the birth of the fruit of marital love.  Men know this with sports or the weight room.  You cannot excel in a sport, you cannot grow muscles, if you’re not willing to push yourself beyond what you think your limit is and endure pain as muscle fibers break and repair.  But when you win the championship, or when you are able to bench 225 lbs. or more, you recognize how much the sacrifices contributed to your success.  Or for students when it comes to a class or test.  Studying often does not feel good.  The brain gets fatigued from going over again and again the material that you need to learn or be able to produce for a class or an exam.  You put other fun activities on the back burner to make sure that you can truly comprehend the material and reproduce it for a teacher or professor.  And when you pass the class or the exam, you feel a sense of relief and accomplishment.  

    Christ demonstrates for us, as do the saints, that the cross is the only road to victory.  We think it would be better to get to heaven without the cross, but that’s not possible.  Christ’s glorification only comes about because He willingly suffered for us.  Our glorification only comes about when we suffer with Him and in Him.  We like to think, as Christ mentions in the Gospel, that glorification happens when we seek and take the highest place of honor.  But our exaltation comes when we take the lowest place, which is a way of putting our ego to death, which often feels painful.  Our glory comes from our cross.
    That is true in my vocation as a priest and as your spiritual father.  You are my cross and my glory.  That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy being with you and serving you.  I love being at this parish and being your pastor.  I am blessed beyond measure to be at such a beautiful church and serve wonderful people striving for holiness.  But sometimes some of you drive me up a wall.  And you may not be doing anything wrong or sinful, but I suffer for you to help you grow as best as I am able, though I myself am also subject to sin and driving you up a wall, I’m sure.  You are my cross, but you are also my glory.
    For spouses: you are each other’s crosses and glory.  Again, it’s not like marriage should only be suffering through, like you grin and bear it.  But every couple I know has moments where they don’t like each other, even while they love each other.  Sometimes some idiosyncrasies manifest at just the wrong time.  Or a word said in jest hurts especially because of what happened earlier in the day.  Or the kids have decided that today is the day to get out all excess energy and fight with each other and ask a million questions, all while mom and dad are trying to provide and keep a good house.  Your suffering for each other and your children is the way you’ll go to heaven.
    If we wish to have true glory, we cannot seek after earthly honors and the highest place at the table.  If we wish to have true glory then we cannot be all about having our will be executed by all.  If we wish to have glory than we take up our cross and suffer for God through the daily crosses He allows in our lives.  Because our cross is our glorification, just as it was for Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever.   

Becoming a Holy Family

Feast of the Holy Family

    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  As we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, perhaps some of us think that holiness as a family is always just beyond our reach.  What can be difficult is that God is the ultimate judge of holiness.  He knows the inner working of our hearts, our motivations, how praiseworthy or culpable we truly are for our actions, etc.  While there are objective norms for being holy, our participation in those norms, and how close we come to them, is always an act of faith.  But today I wanted to outline a few important points, first in general and then directed at fathers, mothers, and children.
    First of all, from our Gospel today, we learn that holiness does not mean that we never make mistakes.  We know the story well, that our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph accidentally leave behind our adolescent Lord in Jerusalem, figuring that He’s with other family members.  It’s not until after a day of traveling that they realize they left Him behind in Jerusalem.  We know that Mary never sinned, and the Gospel doesn’t really put blame on St. Joseph either.  So holiness includes doing our best but sometimes not quite getting everything right.  I’m sure that both the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph felt awful about leaving Christ behind in Jerusalem, and they likely experienced the panic that any parent has when he or she can’t find a child.  But they were not at fault.
    Secondly, holiness can, of itself, seem beyond our grasp, like a goal that we can never reach on this side of heaven.  But holiness is, more often than not, continuing to do our best, even if there are falls from time to time.  An Orthodox monk by the name of Elder Thaddeus put it this way:
 

The Holy Fathers and the Saints always tell us, “It is important to get up immediately after a fall and to keep on walking toward God.”  Even if we fall a hundred times a day, it does not matter; we must get up and go on walking toward God without looking back.  What has happened has happened–it is in the past.  Just keep on going, all the while asking for help from God.

Repentance is a sign that you are seeking holiness.  It is only when we give up, when we stop trying to be as God created us to be, that we fail.  Even if you don’t think you’re holy yet, and I know I’m still working on it, keep striving for holiness.  God is the only true judge of whether or not we are being the saints that He called us to be in Holy Baptism.
    For each member of the family, there are particular attributes that help us know that we are truly trying to be a holy family.  And I want to mention just a few today.  Certainly these admonitions are not exhaustive; there are many more that help us to be saints.  But hopefully these will help you to be a holy family, like the model Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
    Fathers: your witness of living the faith is of the utmost importance.  Recent studies have shown that when the father of the family takes the faith seriously, his children are much more likely to continue practicing their faith after they leave the home.  Your love for your wife (first) and your children, a love which you often demonstrate by sacrifice, pays dividends.  By the way you treat your wife, you show your sons how a man should treat a woman, and you show your daughters what level of respect they can demand from young men when they start to date and seek a husband. 
    The words you use (and don’t use) are important; even more so the actions that prove which words you truly value.  We are in need of masculine witnesses of faith in our times when masculinity in general is under attack.  Do not be a chauvinist, but do not be afraid of being a man, willing to sacrifice for a greater good.  Make sure your family makes it to Mass each Sunday and Holyday, and that confession is a regular part of your family life, too, with your wife and kids able to see you enter the confessional, proving that you, too, have your faults that require God’s forgiveness, even as your seek to imitate the love of God the Father in your family home.  Bless your wife and children.  Entrust them to the care of their guardian angels daily.  In this way, you will be holy fathers of a holy family.
    Mothers: faith and trust so often come easier for you, which is why so many women are active in the life of faith and of the parish.  You help your husbands to continue the process of changing from a boy to a man.  A boy thinks only of himself; a man thinks of the other; a husband has been trained to value you and your children more than himself.  Your husband wants to do what is best, and you can help him see things, not only from his perspective, but also from yours.  You help him to value and support what is tender in him, especially when it comes for caring for you and your children.
    Your connection with your children is always different than your husbands, since you bore each child for nine months before their father even got a chance to connect with them.  They often look to you first for guidance, and especially for that maternal love which is gentle when comforting a husband who has the “man flu” or a child who is sick or hurt, but which love is ferocious when defending a child under attack from the outside.  Like Mary, your heart is often pierced with many sorrows, but you demonstrate how to suffer them patiently, with trust that God will make all things right in the end. 
    Your witness to the faith is also so important, and imitates the witness of the Blessed Mother who was attentive to God’s will, and pondered the working of God in her heart.  You help your husband and your children learn quiet meditation and how to listen for the voice of God in the silence.  We need holy women in today’s society, which do not seek to be the same as men, but which seek to compliment authentic masculinity with the feminine genius.  Pray for your husband and children daily.  Entrust them to the care of their guardian angels daily.  In this way, you will be holy mothers of a holy family.
    Children: you, more than your father and mother, are constantly in a state of becoming.  Your life as a child always develops, from a small life in the womb, to a baby, to a toddler, to a child, to an adolescent, to a teenager, to an adult.  You are constantly bumping into rules and limits as you discover who God made you to be.  There are so many influences in your life: first family, then friends, then a boyfriend or girlfriend.  Amid all these changes in your lives, seek God first.  Seek His guidance first.  Your parents will be good, but not perfect, examples of what God wills for you.  Learn to emulate what they do well; learn to avoid what you observe of their struggles.  Both are helpful for your growth in holiness.
    Be patient with your parents.  Just as you don’t know how to become the person God wants you to be perfectly, so they don’t know perfectly how to raise you to be that person.  You didn’t come with an instruction manual.  You will make mistakes, and so will they.  But be respectful of them and, until you’re an adult, obedient to them.  Look to them to understand when love needs to be tough, and when love needs to be gentle.  Pray for them each day of your lives, as you are not always easy to raise.  Commend your parents to St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary each day.  In this way, you will be holy children of a holy family.
    You can each be a holy family.  I can be a holy family.  It does take discipline and sacrifice.  Holy families always seek God’s will, and do their best to follow it when known.  Persevere in trying each day to be holy, as all you have is each day.  If you do your best to cooperate with God’s will, He will complete the good work He has begun in you, through Christ Jesus the Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit live and reign for ever and ever.  Amen.

A Mother's Love

Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God

Of all other humans on earth, Jesus has a special kind of relationship with His mother, Mary.  This probably doesn’t surprise us, as mothers and their children often have a special connection, that a father and his children will never exactly have, because he didn’t carry them in himself for 9 months.  Mary was the perfect disciple, saying yes to God always, and that gave her a unique relationship to Jesus, Himself God-Incarnate.  But Mary also had a special relationship with Jesus, because He is her only Son.  Mothers generally love all children, but their love their own children more.  Mary loved Jesus as her only Son, but also as her God.

If we are members of Jesus’ Mystical Body, the Church, then we should also have a special love for Mary.  And that is why we are here today: not because it’s New Year’s Eve/Day, but to honor and show our special love for our mother.  But, if we are members of Jesus’ Mystical Body, the Church, then Mary also has a special love for us.  And sometimes, that love is made manifest in a particular way.

Fr. Tom Butler is originally from Texas, but he became a priest of the Diocese of Lansing.  His most recent assignment, before he retired a few years ago, was Sts. Charles and Helena in Clio.  He told me this story after he retired and was living in Blissfield in Lenawee County.

Some years back, Fr. Tom’s brother died at a young age, and his mother had the sad duty of burying her son.  Some of you may have had to go through that terrible trauma.  My paternal grandmother did not too long ago.  In any case, Fr. Tom went back down to Texas, around Dallas, where his brother was being buried.  It was an unusually cold, winter day, and at the end of Mass, Fr. Tom, walking with his mother behind the casket, decided to stay inside the church building and not weather the elements.  As the casket was being put into the hearse, Fr. Tom’s mother turned her head, and then started to lose her footing.  She steadied herself, but Fr. Tom said, “Mother, are you okay?”  “Yes, I’m fine,” she said, and Fr. Tom figured that she was overcome with grief at that very powerfully sad moment.  

At this point, Fr. Tom explained that his mother, though a convert to Catholicism, had a hard time giving up some of her Baptist roots.  In particular, she always struggled with the role Catholics gave Mary.  She believed Mary was the Mother of God, but was always afraid that by giving too much of a place to Mary, she would not give enough to God.

A few months after the funeral, Fr. Tom’s mother called him.  “Tom,” she said, “do you remember at your brother’s funeral, when the casket was being placed in the hearse?”  “Yes, mother,” he replied.  “Tom, do you remember me getting a little shaky?”  “Mother, is there something wrong?” Fr. Tom asked as he was getting a little nervous.  “Everything’s fine.  But I need to tell you what happened.  When the casket was being placed into the hearse, I felt someone tap me on my shoulder.  I thought it was you, but then I noticed you were holding my hand.  So I turned, and I saw Mary standing next to me.  And she startled me a little.  But then she said, ‘I’ll take care of your son for you until you come to join him.’  And then she disappeared.  But I knew everything was going to be alright.”  

First, I apologize for those of you who don’t have a kleenex or a handkerchief with you.  Second, while many of us won’t have those extraordinary experiences of Mary’s love, Mary loves us no less, and her care for us is that powerful.  May we show our love for Mary, and may we be receptive to the love of Mary, “now, and at the hour of our death.  Amen.”

"Inconceivable!"

Sixth Sunday of Easter

There are many great movies, but one of the great movies is “The Princess Bride.”  It’s a clean movie, a love story, with an all-star cast including Mandy Patinkin, André the Giant, Peter Falk, and Billy Crystal.  It’s a love story with action, adventure, pirates, international characters, and a little bit of kissing.  It has a cult following, and many people, especially around my age, can quote you lines from the movie like it’s nobody’s business; lines like, “Fezzik, are there rocks ahead?” “If there are, we all be dead.” “No more rhymes now, I mean it.”  “Anybody want a peanut?”; or “Hello.  My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepare to die.”; or one of Billy Crystal’s lines, “It just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead.  There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.  Mostly dead is slightly alive.  With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do.” “What’s that?” “Go through his clothes and look for loose change.”; and, saving one of the best for last, and the one that will get this homily going again rather than just a reading of quotes from “The Princess Bride”: “Inconceivable!” “You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Today we hear a word that we say a lot, but I wonder if we know what it truly means.  That word is “love.”  We heard it a lot in our second reading: 

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God….In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world…In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us.

And in our Gospel today we hear about Jesus’ love for us, how He desires us to remain in His love.  And we hear the commandment of the New Testament: “‘love one another as I love you.’”  That’s a lot of love!!  We use the word “love” a lot.  I think we need someone to say to us sometimes: you keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means.

We hear all sorts of ideas of what love is: love is a feeling; love is an emotion; love is never having to say you’re sorry; love is never wanting to be with someone else; and the list goes on and on.  There are different types of love, of course.  And maybe some of our confusion comes from the fact that in English we use one word, “love,” to express the way we feel about parents, spouses, friends, sports teams, and food.  Other languages, especially ancient ones, had different words to express the different types of love.  It doesn’t take a philosopher to know that we shouldn’t love our mothers, whom we celebrate today, with the same love we have for pizza.  

We often put love into the context of an emotion or feeling.  But love is truly an act of the will.  We can choose to love or not love.  We may not be able to choose our attractions, but we can choose to love.  When we make love simply an emotion or a feeling, we divorce love from truth, with tragic consequences.  Pope Benedict XVI wrote in Caritas in veritate, “Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity…it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion.  Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality.  Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way.”  Love becomes whatever we want it to be, and can be expressed however we want it to be.  When we try to redefine love without truth, pain comes.  How many TV shows and movies geared towards teens show a young woman who is suffering emotional torment because a young man told her that he loved her, just for a one-night stand.  Once the fling passed, he was free to go away, leaving a wake of sorrow and the death of the soul.

On this Mother’s Day, we give thanks to God that our mothers didn’t treat love as an emotion or devoid from truth.  I’m not a mother.  But I know there were days when my mother was not thrilled with my sisters’ behavior (I was always the perfect child, remember).  I’m sure there were times when she had no warm, fuzzy feelings.  And yet, the truth remained that she was our mother, and that truth carried her through when the feelings were momentarily gone.  Another example of love is when a single mother has to work two jobs just to make ends meet, and has to miss games and concerts and plays so that there’s food on the table, even though she would rather be with her children seeing them succeed.  A mother’s love is meant to show us something of God’s love, since God is the source of motherhood (and fatherhood).  Jesus Himself spoke about His love for Jerusalem in the image of a mother hen.  That love, the love of God, is connected with truth, and is not based upon the whims of culture or feeling.  Love, connected with truth, is doing what is best for the other, even when it is painful.   

Sometimes we have to make sure that we really understand what love is.  We know that Jesus calls us to love one another, but that doesn’t mean that anything goes.  Our mothers know that all too well, and have tried to teach us that.  Our understanding of love should be based on the Word of God, not on a passing culture, so that we can truly love one another as God loves us.  

Like a duckling, Like a sheep, Like a child

Fourth Sunday of Easter

           

This time of year it’s not uncommon to see ducks, especially with all the rain we’ve had, and we may even see ducklings accompanying the mother duck.  What a disarming scene when you have those tiny little ducklings following behind their mother, going whatever direction she goes.  When children first learn to walk, they can sometimes resemble ducklings, waddling along, always trying to stay close to their mother if she starts walking to a different part of the house or yard.

            That image of a child (or a duckling) following its mother, is also the image that our Collect set out for us today as we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday.  In that prayer at the beginning of Mass we asked God to “lead us to share in the joys of heaven, so that the humble flock may reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before.”  Our prayer reflects Jesus’ desire, made known to us by our Mother, the Church, to follow Him, to stay close to Him.  Because Jesus is leading us, not to the safety of the nest or a pond, but to the home that was prepared for us, the “eternal pastures” which our Prayer after Communion will speak.  Jesus wants us to go to heaven, and the way He has set out for us to go there is to follow Him.

            Jesus is the one who leads us to heaven, but He’s not just one teacher out of many.  Jesus is also the gate of heaven, “the gate for the sheep” as He said in the Gospel.  And only if we enter through Him will we find those eternal pastures, the salvation we hope for.  Buddha will not save us.  The Qur’an will not save us.  The Law of Moses will not save us.  Eastern Religions will not save us.  Our horoscope won’t save us.  Only Jesus is worth centering our life around.  Only Jesus saves.  Yes, it is possible for those who, through not fault of their own do not know Jesus, to be saved.  But if they are saved, it is only by Jesus and His Passion, Death, and Resurrection.  Jesus is the only way of salvation, which is why it is so important for us to spread the Gospel and encourage others to be baptized and live their lives as followers of Jesus.

            Baptism brings us into a relationship with Jesus so that we can follow Him, like sheep, or like a child and its mother, or like a duckling and a duck.  The Gospel helps us to recognize that path, and where Jesus is leading us.  Simply being spiritual doesn’t cut it.  There are lots of paths, but they don’t all lead to the same place.  If we take Jesus at His word, that “whoever enters through me will be saved,” then it’s important to go beyond just liking spiritual stuff, or acknowledging that there is a divine being out there somewhere.  It is important that we get connected with the Good Shepherd who walks ahead of us so that we can recognize His voice and follow Him.  Otherwise, if we do not recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd, we are likely to follow other shepherds, who are not good, and who will not lead us to pastures of joy and peace and love, but are only thieves and robbers.

            Peter, in our first reading, preached to the Jews and proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah because he was convinced that his people, the Chosen People of God, needed to recognize in Jesus their Lord and Christ, and to be baptized and saved “from this corrupt generation.”  Peter didn’t tell them that as long as they were spiritual they were doing just fine.  He didn’t even say that if they just continued on as they were they would be good.  He told them to repent from their sins and be baptized, so that they could receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  He was telling them to begin a relationship with Jesus, to be baptized, so that they could follow Him, listen to Him, and conform their lives to Him.  He acknowledges in our second reading from his first epistle, that we had gone astray, like sheep, but Jesus brought us back to Himself.

            Also in our second reading, St. Peter gives us a couple of examples of how we can be like Jesus.  He tells us to be patient when we suffer for doing what is good, just like Jesus suffered for us, and did not open His mouth.  Peter reminds us not to return insult for insult, or to return a threat for suffering.  Those are two ways that we follow Jesus.

            Another great way to follow Jesus is to honor and respect mothers, as we do today as a country.  Following Jesus means promoting the vocation of being a mother as a way of holiness.  Mothers sacrifice so much of themselves: sharing their body with a tiny, new human life through conception; nursing their infant; waking up at all hours of the night to care for their child; spending countless amounts of money so that their child can have what it needs and wants, even though the mother often goes without.  Mothers often ensure that their child receives the gift of new life, and begins to know the voice of the Good Shepherd from a young age through having the child baptized, and teaching the child about Jesus.  And it’s hard enough with a father to assist in the ways that he can.  Too many mothers today find no support from their husbands and, whether legally or just practically, have to raise their children by themselves.  Following the Good Shepherd means assisting mothers and fathers in raising their children, and when only the mother does the work of raising the child, assisting her all the more.

            Today we are invited to stay close to Jesus, like a duckling and a duck, like a child with its mother, like a sheep with the shepherd, so that we can enter through the only means of salvation: Jesus Christ.  May our “kind Shepherd…be pleased to settle in eternal pastures the sheep [He has] redeemed by [His] Precious Blood.” 

Love One Another in the Truth

Sixth Sunday of Easter

            How fitting it is that, on Mother’s Day, love is one of the themes of the readings, especially of the second reading and the Gospel.  For many people, if asked to draw a personal representation of love, that representation of love would be a mother.  Mothers, out of love for their unborn children, bear the loving responsibility of protecting the child in the womb.  Mothers are often the ones to express love when a child is injured.  Mothers just seem to exude love.

            And so today, we hear the command of Jesus, repeated by St. John in his first epistle, to love.  In the Gospel, Jesus tells us: “‘This I command you: love one another.’”  And St. John repeats it in the second reading: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God.”  Love is who God is, and love is made incarnate in Jesus, a love which mothers do their best to share with their children.

            St. Augustine is also quoted when it comes to love.  In Homily 7 on the First Epistle of John, St. Augustine writes, “Once for all, then, a short precept is given you: Love, and do what you will.”  In my life, I have heard many people use the phrase: Love, and do what you will.  Sometimes it’s used in a positive way.  Sometimes it’s used to defend any type of action.

            What does it mean to love?  If one of the most basic commandments of Jesus is to love one another, then to fulfill it we have to know what love means.  If we start with today’s Gospel, we see that Jesus explains one of the implications of love.  Jesus says, “‘Remain in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.’”  Love is rooted in obedience to Jesus and his commandments.  Love is marked by obedience to the One who is Truth.

            Truth is important with love.  Pope Benedict XVI entitled one of his Encyclicals with those two words of truth and love: Caritas in Veritate; Love in Truth.  The Holy Father points out that,

Without truth, charity [love] denigrates into sentimentality.  Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way.  In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love.  It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite.  Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content…

So what does this mean practically?  It sounds nice in a theology paper, but what does it mean for the average person?  Well, Pope Benedict is talking precisely about the abuse of the word love, especially with St. Augustine’s quote, “Love, and do what you will.”  If we do not relate love to the truth that God reveals by reason and by revelation, then it stops being love. 

            We see how love is connected to truth in the response of our mothers, and other family members.  Some would say that love means giving every person what they want; that’s the most loving thing.  But the truth is that not everything we want is good for us.  How many times have children asked their mothers in the check-out line for a piece of candy, and a mother has refused because she knows the child does not need it?  The child may even throw a temper-tantrum to try to get its own way.  But the mother who loves her child knows that she cannot give the child everything it wants, because it will be bad for the child, not only in the present moment, but even in the long run.  Or the mother who grounds her child because he or she stayed out past curfew: is that any less loving?  Of course not!  It helps a child to learn that actions have consequences, and the consequences of disobedience are not fun.  That is certainly a loving act to help the child to grow and mature into the young man or woman that God has called that child to be.

            Most parents recognize how love works in principle.  They understand that what is truly loving is not always what makes their child feel good.  And yet, more and more, parents act like the principle does not apply to their child.  Their child is the exception to the rule.  Of course, eventually everyone’s child is the exception to the rule, so there becomes no rule at all.  Now, I’m not saying that you always have to let the hammer fall.  Often times mothers are great at knowing when a punishment is most loving, and when a child has already gotten the message and needs some leniency.  But more and more our society wants to separate love from truth so that you never have to tell a person “no,” or “you can’t,” or “you shouldn’t.”

            Jesus shows us what love truly is: love is sacrifice for the other.  Love means laying down your own life so that the other can live and thrive.  Jesus laid down his own life to give His people life, even though most of the people, including his disciples, abandoned Him.  He didn’t give them the Messiah they wanted, He gave them the Messiah they needed.  It’s not easy to live that love in the world.  When I walk the halls and I have to correct a child’s behavior, it’s tough to tell them that they might have to come in to school on Saturday because they crossed the line repeatedly or in a major way.  I’d rather not have to correct a child’s behavior.  I’d rather have the kids like me.  But if I truly love them, then I have to help them to know that a person cannot always give in to their desires, that being a man or woman means having self-control, that there are consequences to actions that people have to face, no matter how well intentioned they were.  Thank you, mothers, for your love.  Thank you for your sacrificial love which carried us for 9 months in the womb and continued afterwards.  Thank you for your love in truth.