Mother's Day Homily

New Testament Reading Proverbs 31:28-31

Proverbs 31:28–31 CSB

Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also praises her: “Many women have done noble deeds, but you surpass them all!” Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised. Give her the reward of her labor, and let her works praise her at the city gates.

Homily

This reading is an excerpt from the Epilogue of Proverbs regarding The Wife of Noble Character. I chose it because it is the most pronounced praise we have in the Bible about mothers and wives. In fact, it is 21 verses long. It’s an interesting one because it’s from the Old Testament from the Book Of Proverbs, which is one of the books of the Wisdom Literature. This is the part where I am supposed to make a dumb joke about it being “wise” that we praise our wives, but I won’t go there, those jokes certainly get old. I love this idea, that a husband should see their wife as the best of all possible wives, even if that is a silly thing to ever think. That Charm and beauty is meaningless, that character is what matters, a person’s actual values is in their inherent worth as a human being, their inherent worth of simply being a person. It amazes me these types of concepts are addressed even in Old Testament times.

We fail so many times to appreciate the gift that our wives, our mothers, our significant others, bring to our lives. We have this special day that we give them flowers, chocolates, and a card to tell them I love you, and I think that is certainly great that people get a special day out of the year to be recognized. But motherhood should be recognized 365 days out of the year. Yes, that is easier said than done, I’m not saying we give pompous praise for every little act and it come off sarcastic or contrived, but I believe Mother’s everywhere, single ones, married ones, ones who have lost, ones who are barely holding a family together, one’s who wanted to build a family but never had the opportunity to, deserve so much more support than they get. They are the greatest of them all in our families. They are what hold things tighter than ever before when things fall to pieces. I can think of a story of why this is the case. My Grandma Schafer, was the reason family would always come together to the dinner table for each holiday. These traditions in our familiy were sacred. I was convinced they were so sacred they would continue on for eons. What I didn’t completely appreciate and realize at the time, is that it was solely my Grandma that was pulling all of these people together from different walks of life, back to the family table, to sit together and have such a tight-knit family, to say that family matters. My grandma has been gone for a couple of years now, and yet it feels like a lifetime ago, that we had these times of fellowship, and I miss them dearly. Everyone, remember to always recognize the love, the pain, and the hardship your Mom, your Grandma, Your wife, has went through, you have no idea what each one has done, and how much they are doing to keep things together. How much they are holding together.

As Husbands, we sometimes are so used to the normalcy we don’t always appreciate the work and nurturing they do, so let us recognize that today. Let us pray.

Homily Prayer

Heavenly Father,

We thank you for these women in our lives, that have taken care of us since our birth, whether by blood or adoption, whether a caretaker, a friend, it doesn’t matter, motherhood comes in so many shapes, but in all of it, the love of Christ is shown all the same. Lord, bless these women today for all that they have done, give them the support they need to continue to do what they do, and let us recognize and give thanks to them daily for all of the gifts they have given to us in our lives. Amen.