Homily: Motherhood & Femininity

[00:00:00] Welcome to our guests today on this Mother's Day. It's good to have you. Welcome. Probably most of us, I think it's safe to say, can remember when we were growing up and you're doing something you shouldn't do and your mom gives you the look, right? I got the look quite a few times. Some of us have received the look from our bishops.

[00:00:28] Yeah, I was talking with Father Joe Sachs one time during the Mass and the bishop gave us the look and when he turned around and looked at me I pointed to Father Joe and just totally threw him under the bus. Poor guy. You know you're in trouble with your mom, right? When you get the first, middle, and last name. Just, they're going to find you next to Jimmy Hoffa someplace,

[00:00:52] right? But we all have vocations and as you've heard us say before here at St. Mike's, a vocation is really different from an occupation. A vocation is a deeper calling that's written on each one of us, just like a fingerprint from the Latin vocare to call. And of all vocations, truly the deepest, I think,

[00:01:20] is motherhood. Why? Because it is the most rewarding and the most challenging of all the vocations. It's the most rewarding because as mothers, when your child does well, you feel it a hundred times more. And when your child is hurting, you feel it a hundred times more, wishing you could trade places

[00:01:45] with them. It's the most rewarding, most challenging. It's ironic, isn't it? You think about it, it's ironic that the most well-known mother in human history, we really don't know that much about. Hmm. The blessed mother. We don't really know that much about her life. John's, or Luke's gospel tells us some

[00:02:09] things. Luke knew her. We don't know that much about the most well-known mom in human history. There's a guy named Sir Kenneth Clark. If you've never heard of him, he's probably one of the top two art historians of all time, Sir Kenneth Clark. And he said this, this is interesting. He said that the

[00:02:29] enunciation of Mary is the single most reproduced image in all of art. Isn't that amazing? The most reproduced image in all of art is maternity. It's like it resonates with somebody, right? Many times I've been at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome where they have the Pieta that Michelangelo carved over two years.

[00:02:59] Mary holding her deceased son after they take him down from the cross. And I've seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people kneeling in front of this statue, weeping and weeping and weeping. Why? Because they've lost a child. And there's something in maternity that resonates in a deep core with us. You know, the second chapter of the book of Genesis, we hear that Satan

[00:03:25] goes after the woman, not the man, the woman. I mean, Adam is off like picking blueberries, right? In that garden. Meanwhile, Satan is talking to his wife, dude, get over there. The next chapter, chapter 3 of Genesis, again, Satan goes after the woman. The other end of the Bible,

[00:03:47] Revelation chapter 12, Satan goes after the woman. Attacks the woman, attacks the woman, and attacks the woman. It begs the question, doesn't it? Does Satan know something we don't? Harkens back to the old

[00:04:13] Catholic dictum. If you want to know what is most sacred to God, look at what is most attacked by Satan. What is most attacked by Satan? My opinion, femininity, motherhood, life, family, right in the crosshairs all the time.

[00:04:38] What does that mean for us, gentlemen? You say, well, I'm not a woman. What does that mean for us, brothers? I'll tell you what it means. It means you and I, brothers, need to protect femininity at all costs. That's what we are called to do. We are there to protect, to do what Adam didn't do, right?

[00:05:05] I think we could use a little more male chivalry in this world, more papa bear, in my opinion. Yeah, it's really, it's incredible. Moms are amazing because if Saint Edith Stein is right, she died at Auschwitz, Jewish convert, she said, maternity is written to the soul of a mother, not just the body, the soul of a mother. I'm not a mom, but I can tell you I know thousands of them and that makes total sense to me.

[00:05:36] It's in her soul, totally, man. You know, moms are amazing because as you know, when a mother gives birth at that moment, it takes every single drop of her emotional, physical and spiritual energy. Everything goes into this act. And yet, ironically, it's totally out of her control.

[00:06:05] Moms, a lot of times, never give themselves credit for everything that they've done and do. In their mind, they've always, they're not doing enough time. I'm not doing enough. Our kids are always watching us, as you know. I always have to laugh when I, some of the mothers that I know of toddlers, little ones, moms are amazing, man. They can get a five-minute power nap in the drop-off pickup line, right?

[00:06:32] If a mother finally gets a night out with her spouse, like a date night, where she goes out with her girlfriends for a night out, what do all her conversations go back to? The kids. Somehow, it's going to go back to the kids. It reminds me of priests. You get a bunch of priests together. All the conversations that they talk about, it's all going to go back to one conversation with priests.

[00:06:57] Which priest is getting transferred to what parish? And not a one of them knows the truth. Like, oh, I know. All right, bother. Right? It's true. Mothers can watch the same Pixar video 4,000 times with their toddler, memorize it, and they'll watch it again. Or, you know, as you know, when their toddler finally goes potty in the potty for the first time,

[00:07:25] it's like they won the Nobel Peace Prize, right? And carry them in like the Roman Pontiff or something, right? It's a beautiful, beautiful vocation. It's the most rewarding and truly the most challenging. Because mothers often deeply internalize the imprudent decisions of their children, as if they themselves had made them.

[00:07:49] And let's be honest, as beautiful as motherhood is, and as beautiful as Mother's Day is, it is often excruciatingly painful for many people. Why? Do you know that one in six women in this country struggle with infertility? One in six. Some people, they've lost their child. Some people have lost their mother. Some people, the mother and the child don't talk.

[00:08:18] They're not on speaking terms. They had a falling out. It's a beautiful day and a challenging day. If this is you, I want to tell you something. We love you. We love you. And our hearts are united with you. If that's you and your family, we're with you this day. Okay. So, I'll close with this.

[00:08:49] Did you know that, it's kind of a funny fact. Do you know that in the year 1940, Memphis had four mayors in two days? Do you know that? In a 48-hour period, we had four mayors in the city of Memphis in 1940. Mayor Chandler, Mayor Overton, Mayor Boyle, Mayor Crump. Look it up. Interesting. Anybody ever heard of E.H. Crump?

[00:09:18] Boss Crump? So, when he was alive, he was a very divisive figure. Even to this day, if you mention his name, you see people on both sides as supporters, detractors. By the way, you can thank Boss Crump for inventing the brainchild of MLG&W. It came from him.

[00:09:38] And he was, in 1946, our mayor was on the cover of Time magazine as one of the most influential politicians in the country. Interesting. On the one hand, he did a lot of good. He cleaned up the city, supported the fire department, police department, got orphans' homes. On the other side, he was a strict segregationalist.

[00:10:05] And he was not afraid to use the police to harass his political opponents. Boss Crump. If you ever go to Elmwood Cemetery, you go over that bridge, take a right, you see a huge monument. And at the very bottom, it has one word, Crump. And I share this with you for this reason.

[00:10:29] Before he died, in 1954, Boss Crump was reflecting on his own childhood and especially his own mom. And you know, his father was in the Confederate Army, died in 1878 from the yellow fever. And he said, you know, my mom was left to raise three kids. And at 17 years old, E.H. Crump came to Memphis from Holly Springs, worked his way up.

[00:11:00] And he said this of his mom, quote, she taught us how to be survivors, how to survive emotionally, how to survive physically in this world. Boy, is that ever true. Regardless of what you may think, Boss Crump, I think we'd all agree with that. But moms teach us how to be survivors, don't they? You wake up at 2 a.m. when you're five years old, you go to your mom because you had a nightmare. Your first day of first grade.

[00:11:30] First day of college. Your first true heartbreak. And you break up with your boyfriend and your girlfriend. You got your own kid now. And your baby is colicky. And you haven't slept in a week. Who do we call? Probably not your dad. Sorry, guys. Okay? Moms teach us how to survive this world.

[00:11:58] And if that's true, then I have another question for you. Who helps them survive? Who helps the survivors survive? That's our job. That's our job.