A sermon/reflection for Mothering Sunday, the Fourth Sunday in Lent – Year B
The readings for this Sunday are those of Mothering Sunday,
the Fourth Sunday in Lent:
Exodus 2. 1-10
Psalm 34.11-20
Colossians 3. 12-17
John 19. 25b-27
You might like to use the link below to find the above readings, and click on any of the reading above that you wish to use: http://www.katapi.org.uk/CommonWorship/CWLectionarySelV.php
Collect of the day
Let us first spend a few moments in silence to centre ourselves,
to gather ourselves in our souls,
to come before the Lord just as we are with our joys and sorrows,
our hopes and our fears, our loves and our pains.
Let us just focus our minds and hearts on Jesus
who is the answer for every problem.
Let us pray that the Spirit will work through our lives
to bring Christ to the world.
Silence is kept
God of love and compassion
passionate and strong,
tender and careful:
whose Son Jesus Christ,
the child of Mary,
shared the life of a home in Nazareth,
and on the cross
drew the whole human family to himself:
strengthen us
in our daily living
that in joy and in sorrow
we may know the power of your presence
to bind together and to heal;
and to watch over us and hold us
all the days of our life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Prayer before the Sermon
Loving Heavenly Father,
we thank you
for the words you have given us today.
We know they are words of life and salvation.
Open our hearts Father,
touch our souls,
help us to respond to your word
and know that you are indeed our Lord and Saviour.
May we experience in our hearts
your love and your presence always.
Amen.
A homily based on the readings of today is given below:
“Mothering Sunday”… a reflection…
Lord touch my heart and my lips that I may worthily proclaim your word.
Please refer to the list of Bible readings for today as given above. You can either click on the web link if you wish to read them that way by yourselves or you can use your own home bibles to do the readings for today. However, the gospel passage is given below:
The Gospel: John 19:25-27
25And that is what the soldiers did.
Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ 27Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
Pause to reflect and pray …
I am thinking of my mother.
I always consider that the greatest gift that I have received in life is the gift of my parents, my father and my mother. As the years go more and more, I realize how absolutely important has been their role and their influence in my life as a Christian.
We mostly have special memories of our dear mothers.
I remember memorable, intimate conversations that I had with my mother in my childhood … in the kitchen while she was busy cooking and whereabouts. When I was ordained a priest, she wrote her reflections of the event and, among other things, said that the day of my ordination was the greatest day of their marriage life. I thought that was wonderful indeed.
Do you remember the day you left your parent’s home to start studies or begin life on your own? Does it stand out as a vivid memory? Probably a tearful mother feeling the pain of separation and a brave-faced father trying to do things to reassure the child who is leaving the security of the home to face the world.
Today is Mothering Sunday
but it is, obviously impossible to celebrate Mothering Sunday without also thinking about the children who make mothers what they are.
Mothering Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent has long been a time for a momentary celebration, sometimes also known as Refreshment Sunday, Mid-Lent Sunday or Laetare Sunday, a medieval term which referred to the introit at the beginning of the Mass which included the words ‘Rejoice ye with Jerusalem’ which meant that worshippers could temporarily relax their penitential disciples in anticipation of the preparations of the Messiah to enter Jerusalem.
Traditionally on this day worshippers would remember three things:
they would perhaps visit their local cathedral as the mother church of their diocese from which their parish was a growing child, they would visit their own mother on this day and take her flowers and gifts, and they would remember the words of the traditional epistle, Galatians 4:26 which talks of the heavenly Jerusalem which is free and is taken figuratively as our mother.
All of these facets give a cause for celebration, for kindness and tenderness in the past and the anticipation of future joy, kindness and pleasure – ‘for a mother’s work is never done.’ Today stands out as the one day in Lent, which embraces the celebratory rejoicing of Easter Day.
There are two recommended gospel readings for Mothering Sunday.
Both readings are quite special, deeply thought provoking and perhaps rather unexpected. But I have selected the gospel given above at the beginning of this homily which I find especially compelling and meaningful. Let us look at the words of Jesus to Mary h is mother and to his disciple John who are beneath the cross of Jesus who is dying …
“Behold your mother!” (re: gospel of today)
This is a powerful cameo, a turning full circle of the relationship between a mother and her child. Bethlehem to Calvary! If we are to learn anything from the example of our mother’s and the emotional pain they, at times, must quietly and patiently bear, it is the spirit of tenderness and concern, a sacrificial love, the knowledge that sometimes a letting go is the more loving act to do, even when it is painful, but a letting go which is never harsh, which is tempered with a practical as well as an emotional concern.
Jesus remembered the welfare of his mother and, with his dying breaths, made a provision for it. As we read in the gospel: “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.” (John 19.26-27)
Jesus keeps on giving till the end…
In another perspective, it would appear that in his dying breath, Jesus is giving his own mother to all of humanity as represented by John.
And also that Jesus seems to be giving all of humanity to his mother as he dies on the cross! Jesus knows we all need a spiritual mother as we need a physical mother!
Some may not understand or accept this giving of his mother to us as our mother. The Eastern Orthodox Church uses the title “Theotokos” to the Virgin Mary to denote her as the Mother of God: “the love poured into the Theotokos to enable her to love so fully in her turn”
At the cross Jesus, like a mother, keeps on giving right up to his last breath! “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15.13) And as an author writes: “Love is the language of maximum possibilities, not of minimum obligations.” A mother’s heart is a heart that gives … and keeps on giving …
As we remember the love of our earthly mothers, we also remember and celebrate the mothering love of God himself who has given us everything – life, love, family, friends, home….and who has above all given us his own son as our Saviour: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
To conclude:
Today is a day for celebration, a momentary lifting from the austere days that lie ahead between now and Holy Week.
It is a day to thank God and to thank our earthly mothers for our nurturing, for our upbringing and the chances in life, which they have given for us, often sacrificially.
And it is above all a day to learn from the example of their love, and the continuing giving of Christ, even whilst he breathed his last breath on the cross.
Pause to pray …
A further Prayer you can say now:
Lord Jesus,
I believe you are the Son of God.
Thank you for becoming one of us.
Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.
Thank you for rising from the dead
to give me hope and the gift of eternal life.
I repent of my sins
and invite you into heart and life
as my Lord and Saviour.
Please grant me your Holy Spirit
so that I may know you, love you
and follow you every day of my life.
Amen.
[Revd Dr ST Mattapally, Rector, Springline Parish, Diocese of Lincoln]