Mothering Sunday
“When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing near by, he said to her, ‘Woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.”
Summary
Today is Mothering Sunday and our readings tell us the story of two mothers: Mary, mother of Christ, John 19.25-27 and Jochebed, mother of Moses, Exodus 2.1-10. Both stories reveal the cost of mothering: the effort it takes to nurture a child and keep them safe from harm, and the heartbreak that ensues when you can no longer protect them from the world.
They also tell us that mothering is for everyone: we all need to be mothered (not just as infants but throughout our lives) and we are all needed as mothers, whoever we are. The beloved disciple at the foot of the cross must now mother Mary in her grief; Pharaoh’s daughter, her foreign slave girls and Miriam, the little Hebrew sister, must work together to provide Moses with the mothering he needs to survive.
He will go on to be Mother to his people, just as Jesus will become Christ, our precious mother.
FIRST READING
Exodus 2.1-1
The birth of Moses
Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river-bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. ‘This is one of the Hebrew babies,’ she said.
Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?’
‘Yes, go,’ she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.’ So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, ‘I drew him out of the water.’
GOSPEL
John 19.25-27
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing near by, he said to her, ‘Woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
