Today our second reading is a wonderful Scripture for Mother’s Day! In it we are invited to come to the Lord, a living stone, and to let ourselves “like living stones … be built into a spiritual house” (1 Pet 2:4-9). Both Hebrew Scripture and our Christian Scripture use rocks, cornerstones, stones and foundation stones as symbols for something we so badly need always: love that is steady and unfailing. We think of motherly love like that. In the family unit, mothers are often the ones who, with their steady and unfailing motherly love, do the heavy lifting to build family unity to shape good moral character in their children. They become the Christlike good shepherds of their families. Consider that whatever our life situation is, we are all called to that motherly role of “building spiritual houses” — helping people come together around the unfailing truth of the teachings of Jesus and the experience of steady and unfailing divine love. I hope that all of you who read this have had good mothering. For those who have not, I pray that you will continue to heal, and that children today without good mothering may find that motherly care in others, including us.
