Sorrowful mothers

Two nights ago, the celebrity was rude, arrogant, and offensive.

Last night, he was mumbling contrition.

The older celebrity sitting next to him, in front of millions of people, asked,

What do you think your mother would have said?

Arrogant no longer, the young man sat in stricken silence.

The thought of his dead, sorrowful mother obviously devastated him.

Many of us know a little of that feeling.

Worse than any punishment, worse than any shame, is the terror of bringing sorrow to our mothers.

God have mercy on us for any pain we have caused them (and our fathers and all who loved us).

But no matter what we have done, no matter what kind of family we have come from, no matter what kind of family (if any) we have left...

No matter what sorrow we have caused...

Jesus Christ reaches out to us with God’s infinite love and also gives us His own mother, as we hear in today’s Gospel (John 19:25-27):

When Jesus saw his mother
and the disciple there whom he loved
he said to his mother,
“Woman, behold, your son.”
Then he said to the disciple,
“Behold, your mother.”