CALL YOUR MOTHER!

Years ago I had a poster on my office door called Life's Little Instructions. It was a reminder to me, and all who passed by and stopped to read, that we often make life so very complicated, much more complicated and, thus, more difficult than it need be. Life as it is is already complicated enough without out having to make it even more so.

And so the poster reminded me/us (and still does) to "Sing in the shower"; "Leave the toilet seat in the down position" [which I learned very, very quickly with all those women around the house!]; "Never refuse homemade brownies" [the bulge around the middle indicates that I have taken this one to heart/stomach]; "Don't expect life to be fair" [which is a sermon in itself]; "Keep secrets" [which speaks for itself]; "Have a dog" [it says nothing about a cat, which proves that they are wise instructions as well]; and, finally, at the very end, "Call your mother" [which says it all].

Whenever I needed any advice, and instruction, I called my mother. And my mother always kept it simple. She got to the point, saw the issue or problem clearly, and didn't get bogged down in the non-essentials. Whenever I had a personal problem in my life, Mom always asked me what I would tell a parishioner who found him/herself in that same position. My response invariably was that I would tell them not to do what I was doing. And that resolved my problem.

This Sunday is Mother's Day, of course. The cynics say that it is simply an occasion for the greeting-card people and the flower people to cash in. I say that those who think that way need to call their mothers a little more often.

There is nothing we can do, of course, to properly honor our mothers. The most expensive greeting card with its wonderful words still falls short of what we want and need to say. The largest basket of flowers won't quite do the honor we would like to send. But we have to do something with things - cards and flowers, gifts - because our words will always, always, fail to convey our thanks and love.

Many of you who read this are still blessed to have your mothers alive, blessed to be able to call your mothers, to hear their voices and their words of wisdom. But whether we can pick up the phone and call, drive over and visit, or simply speak to her heavenly presence, as I do, we need to call and call upon our mothers, not just this day, but, perhaps, every day, and not just on those days when we are in deep trouble and need a little instruction on how to extricate ourselves from the mess we find ourselves in.

I suppose every one of those instructions could be boiled down to "Call your mother." When the going gets rough, when we need an encouraging word or even a scolding word, when we need sound advice even if we don't want to hear it, we need to call upon mom. Even from heaven she still, somehow in some way, seems to answer.

That does not mean that our mom is somehow akin to God but she’s close. What else can anyone say except "Call your mother.”