Preface:
In the eight years since my dear
mother died, Mother’s Day has been a rather painful reminder of her absence. I
attempt to focus on my gratitude for all she was and all she did for me, my two
siblings and the many people she brought under her wings. Even so, there is a
dull ache in my heart each year as this day approaches.
As with all commercialized
holidays today, we are pounded by relentless advertisements which exhort us to
conditionalize our love of others by our willingness to spend money on any
number of consumer goods and services – If you really love them, you’ll buy
them our products. These inescapable tawdry messages serve to remind me of how
far from my own mother I am and how far from the intended appreciation of
mothers our annual feeding frenzies at the malls and chain restaurants have
become.
I have been asked to speak tomorrow
to a Mar Thoma Catholic parish in Seminole County by a colleague at the
university who is affiliated with that tradition. The topic assigned was the
history of Mother’s Day. I share below my comments to the body tomorrow.
Happy Mother’s Day to all
mothers, past present and mothers yet to be. Though we may not tell you often
enough, we will always be in your debt. On behalf of all your children, we
thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
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I appreciate Dr.
Jacob’s invitation to speak to you briefly on the history of Mother’s Day this
morning. As is often the case, such invitations provide the opportunity for
enlightenment on subjects many of us thought we already knew about but
ultimately find that we actually knew very little about them. So I thank you
for the opportunity to learn and to speak to you this morning.
Mother’s Day arose
out of compassion
According to a very
helpful National Geographic Magazine site on this history, what became America’s
Mother’s Day began in the years just before the American Civil War. A Virginia
women's organizer Ann Reeves Jarvis held annual Mother's Day work clubs across
the western portion of the state to improve sanitary conditions for families and
try to lower infant mortality by fighting disease and curbing milk
contamination. From the very beginning Mother’s Day arose out of compassion for
children by concerned mothers.
During the Civil
War, that focus shifted. Mother’s Day became an occasion for tending to the many
sick and dying soldiers from both sides during the war. In the years following
that war, Mother’s Friendship Day became an annual event organized to unite
former foes and encourage peace-making. Julia Ward Howe — best known as the
composer of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"—issued a widely read
"Mother's Day Proclamation" in 1870, calling for women to take an
active political role in promoting peace.
It would be the
daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis who would be responsible for the event we celebrate
today. Anna Jarvis was never able to become a mother herself. But when her own beloved
mother Ann, the founder of the Mother’s Day movement, died in 1908, Anna Jarvis
organized Mother’s Day observances in West Virginia and Philadelphia as a day
where people should go home to spend time with their mother and thank her for
all that she did. It was through Anna’s persistence in lobbying President
Woodrow Wilson that the second Sunday in May was set aside as a national
holiday in 1914.
But it would cost her
everything….
It’s important to
recognize that Mother’s Day was not designed to be a celebration of motherhood
generally but rather a very specific day to say thanks to one’s own mother. And
while it is hardly surprising that this holiday, like all the rest in an unreservedly capitalist culture, quickly
turned into a highly commercialized event, the rapid transition of Mother’s Day
to a commercial gold mine centering on the buying and giving of flowers,
candies, and greeting cards deeply disturbed Jarvis. She would dedicate the
rest of her life as well as her sizable inheritance to returning Mother's Day
to its reverent roots.
Jarvis died penniless
in a sanitarium in a state of dementia in 1948. She was a woman who could easily
have profited from Mother's Day if she had wanted to. Instead, she railed
against those who did, and it cost her everything, financially and physically.
In the end, it
would be American commercial interests who would emerge victorious. A holiday
begun to encourage people to go home to spend a day with their mother will
prove this year’s most popular holiday for dining out. About 133 million
Mother's Day cards will be delivered this year, according to Hallmark Cards,
the primary beneficiary of Mother’s Day commercialization. After Christmas,
it's the second most popular holiday for giving gifts in America. The National
Retail Federation estimates that Americans will spend an average of $162.94 on
mom this year.
Mother’s Day has also
become an international observance. In much of the Arab world, Mother's Day is
on March 21, which happens to loosely coincide with the start of spring. In
Panama the day is celebrated on December 8, when the Catholic Church honors
perhaps the most famous of mothers, the Virgin Mary. In Thailand mothers are
honored on August 12, the birthday of Queen Sirikit, who has reigned since 1956
and is considered by many to be a mother to all Thais.
Though cards,
presents and meals out at a restaurant are a far cry from the day spent at home
with mother to show one’s appreciation that this holiday’s organizers
originally intended, it is hardly surprising that a day to honor mothers has
become a permanent part of human cultures. The truth is, all of us owe our
mothers much, even if it is simply for our very existence. Mothers play an
enormous role in human development. We all owe much to our mothers, indeed. Today
I hope each of you will take the time to tell them so, even if it is just a
prayer of gratitude for a now-deceased mother like my own.
A Prayer for our
Mother(s)
I close with two prayers
from the Mothering Sunday liturgy from the Church of England in my own Anglican
tradition. Let us pray:
We
thank you God for the love of our mothers:
we thank you for their care and concern;
we thank you for the joys they have shared with us;
we thank you for the pains they have borne for us;
and we thank you God for all that they give us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
we thank you for their care and concern;
we thank you for the joys they have shared with us;
we thank you for the pains they have borne for us;
and we thank you God for all that they give us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now may God, who gave birth to all creation, bless us:
God, who became incarnate by an earthly mother, bless us:
God, who broods as a mother over her children, bless us.
May God bless us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
“Mother's Day Turns 100: Its Surprisingly Dark History,” National Geographic Daily News found online May 10, 2014 at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140508-mothers-day-nation-gifts-facts-culture-moms/
Prayers adapted
from “New Patterns for Worship, A Service for Mothering Day,” Church of England website found online
May 10, 2014 at http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/newpatterns/sampleservicescontents/npw14.aspx
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The Rev. Harry Scott Coverston, J.D., M.Div., Ph.D.
Member,
Florida Bar (inactive status)
Priest,
Episcopal Church (Dio. of El Camino Real, CA)
Professed
Member: Third Order Society of St. Francis (TSSF)
Instructor:
Religion and Cultural Studies, Humanities, Philosophy of Law
Osceola/Valencia
Regional Campus, Kissimmee
University
of Central Florida, Orlando
If the
unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it
religious or political, is not worth holding.
Most things of value do
not lend themselves to production in sound bytes.
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