Today is Mother's Day! It's not a feast on the church's liturgical calendar, but it is a day dear to the hearts of so many Americans. How many of you have living mothers? How many of you have mothers who have passed on from this life?
My mother died of breast cancer May 12, 1976 - 46 years ago this Thursday. She was only 58 years old. Not only did she suffer a long an painful death from breast cancer, she suffered through an exacting marriage, gave birth to and raised seven children, worked long, back-breaking hours, with little rest, every day of her life as a typical country woman of her day. I was the second child. I was born at home, delivered by my grandmother and the both my mother and me almost died in the process.
Today's second reading reminded me of her. I can imagine her being in heaven in the throng of people hugged and protected by the Good Shepherd from any more suffering. I can imagine a section in heaven for the martyrs who suffered, but I can also imagine a very special section marked off just for suffering mothers. In that section reserved just for suffering mothers, I can imagine my own mother, Mary Ethel Mattingly Knott, standing there with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and millions and millions of mothers who have died in childbirth, who have died from disease and violence, who have died in wars and those hundreds of Ukrainian mothers who have died just in the last few months. When I think of them, I find the words of our second reading today so very comforting.
The one who sits on the throne will shelter them.
They will not hunger or thirst anymore,
nor will the sun or any heat strike them.
He will shepherd them and lead them to springs of
life-giving water, and God will wipe away every
tear from their eyes.
The Book of Revelation is a complicated piece of writing called "apocalyptic literature." "Apocalyptic writing, with all its highly complicated imagery and symbolism, started to become very popular in the two centuries before Christ. It is richly symbolic. It is filled with images, persons, places, animals, actions, objects, parts of the body, numbers, measurements, stars, constellation, colors and garments. It cannot be understood literally, but must be interpreted to capture what the writer wanted to communicate.
Today, especially among those fundamentalist preachers, who claim to have been given personal revelations as to its meaning, there is a tendency to treat it as a book of "predictions" about the future. People who tend to read it literally are even prone to label certain people and situations today as being "predicted" in such and such a passage. They especially like to use it to predict "the end of the world," even though Jesus pretty much put a stop to that kind of predicting. He said in Luke 21:8, “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them."
The Book of Revelation was written mainly to encourage the people of its time, not scare them. It was written during a period of bitter persecution to increase the hope and determination of the Church in its very early days. It was written to comfort beleaguered Christians undergoing great persecution, hardship and martyrdom at the hands of a sadistic emperor. It was written to encourage Christians to to remain faithful and to give them a glimpse of what awaited them in heaven.
It basically tells those who suffer and those who remain faithful to Jesus that they basically have nothing to fear, that they may have to suffer a while for him, but in the end they will triumph. The Book Of Revelation is an epic of Christian hope, a victory song of a persecuted Church.
The Book Of Revelation has since become a source of comfort for all Christians who have suffered through the ages and still suffer even today. After all the centuries since it was written, it still offers suffering people a "glimpse of heaven" and something to look forward to, especially those among us who wait for relief from what seems like endless physical, emotional and psychological suffering. Think of all the people of the world who are suffering today as I read this passage for a third time.
The one who sits on the throne will shelter them.
They will not hunger or thirst anymore,
nor will the sun or any heat strike them.
He will shepherd them and lead them to springs of
life-giving water, and God will wipe away every
tear from their eyes.
Before I leave this pulpit, let me say a few words to my own dear mother! Even though she has been gone 46 years now, I still miss her especially on Mother's Day. "Mom, I am so sorry you had to suffer so much in your life here on earth! I am relieved to know that you are so very happy today! I miss you, I thank you and I love you! Save me a place close to you and I'll see you soon!
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