Dandelions for Mother

Ahhhh, dandelion season.

It's that lovely time of year when our children spend more and more time running around outside, and more often than not, I have a little vase of fresh yellow "flowers" from my littlest ones that is constantly being refreshed.

My kiddos know that I love flowers, and even their little dandelions bring me joy because they remind me of their innocent little faces that were full of love upon handing me their gifts.

Next week (May 4th), at the 8:30 mass, our parish will have its annual May Crowning.  The women and girls of the parish will bring forward flowers from their gardens or local flower shops, and place them in vases before the statue of our Blessed Mother, and place a crown of roses on her head. 

I sometimes like to imagine Jesus as a child. and wonder what sort of gifts He would shower on His beloved mother.  He did perfectly keep all 10 commandments, after all, and "Honor your Father and Mother" would not have been an exception!  I can only imagine what great love He felt for her, and how much honor he showed!

Many Mother's Days ago, my husband bought me a beautiful Mary statue for our yard.  It has become a tradition in May each year for us to bring our handmade (silk) flower crown in procession to our Mother.  The children have little vases that they will place at her feet, (more often than not, these are filled with dandelions).  It's just a little thing that we do to celebrate the month of May, but it gives us a simple and innocent way to imitate the love that our Lord had for his Mother, especially during this month of blooms that so reminds us of Mary's beautiful love for Jesus and for us!

"O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today! Queen of the Angels! Queen of the May!"

Do all Catholics go to Hell?

Her catechist was worried.  The normally cheerful and bright eyed little 8 year old (who we'll call Ella) entered her Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium with a decidedly different aspect this particular Wednesday.  When the catechist went over to check in as she was doing her individual work later in the session, Ella looked even more upset and gave her worry words:

"Do all Catholics go to hell?"

Her well-trained catechist may not have been quite ready for that question, but she knew better than to answer right away and instead prompted her for more information and why she was asking.

Ella responded, "My neighbor came over to play last night and she told me that I was going to hell because I was a Catholic. Is it true?"

As a young child, this particular catechist had experienced the exact heartbreaking accusation from well-meaning friends, so poor Ella's worry hit a chord with her.  She quietly said a prayer and responded carefully, "What do you think? Do you think it is true?"

"No."

"I don't either. You know, sometimes it is hard to know what to do in a situation like that.  What do you think you can do for your friend?"

"Pray for her?" Ella responded, her eyes softening.

"That's a good idea.  Maybe we could go to the prayer table and pray right now."  Ella and her catechist prayed intently for Ella's little friend, and she was able to go back to her work with a lighter heart and her joyful eyes were alight again as her catechist blessed her as she left the atrium that day.

Not the First, Not the Last

When the catechist finished restoring her atrium that night, she came to me and shared the story. This was not the first time nor probably the last that I would hear of something like this that one of our parish children had to experience.

For the most part, I have not had to deal with too many people who have been so confident as to pronounce that kind of judgement on others, but I have had people exclaim in surprise, "Wow. I've never met a Catholic like you."  (Really? I wondered. What does that even mean?) "You know, a Catholic who is a Christian!"

While this may sound kind of bizarre to Catholics who consider the word "Catholic" to automatically imply and be synonymous to the word "Christian", there is a very important lesson to be taken from this constant mistake on the part of so many of our Christian brothers and sisters.  They are so concerned about us that they even tell their children that we aren't Christian, and that if we don't get "saved" we are going to hell. Putting their judgement of our eternal damnation aside (if we can), we ought to confront their main evidence:

We don't talk about Jesus enough.  

Sure, we imply it all the time. We talk about "getting the Sacraments," we talk about going to Mass, we talk about Mary, we make the Sign of the Cross when we pray.  But what is the result of this witness we give to our neighbors?  They don't know what a Sacrament is. They don't understand the historical and theological significance of the Mass. Transubstanti-what? They take our veneration of the Blessed Mother--which is nothing more than giving her the same honor that her own Son gives her--as idol worship.  They even see the Sign of the Cross which we make to remind ourselves of the armor of God that we received when Christ saved us in our Baptism as some sort of weird thing that might actually be condemned in the Book of Revelation!

Sure, we can get angry at someone who would presume to judge our or our children's final destination, but there is a bigger opportunity here: an opportunity for evangelization. The only thing I suggested the catechist add to her conversation with Ella is to encourage her to say the thing that is so obvious that we as Catholics miss it.

Ella should say to her friend the thing that most truly represents her relationship with God: "I love Jesus more than anything.  He is my God and He saves me and protects me. He is my best friend and I love Him with all of my heart! And I know He loves me because He gives all of Himself to me and doesn't hold anything back!"

The First Principle 

If Catholics start talking like that, our non-Catholic neighbors and friends will far more easily see their own Jesus reflected in our hearts. They may even start asking us about what it is we mean by Baptism, or Eucharist, or why we make the Sign of the Cross or pray on those beads. We must remember that what is obvious to us, is not so obvious to others. We need to proclaim Jesus Christ as the first principle from which everything we believe flows, and we need to say it out loud to our children so that they may be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks them one day if they are a Christian.

"Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence..." 1 Peter 3:15b-16a.

The Very Best Way

"Mommy?"

My very sad 7 year old sat down next to me as we returned home after Holy Thursday Mass. "Wasn't there some other way that Jesus could have saved us?  He was God.  Couldn't there have been another way?"

Another Way?

I had seen this little girl's tears at the end of Mass as the Eucharist was taken in slow procession from the Church and as the women reverently stripped the altar and removed the candles and left our tabernacle open and empty for all to see.  We were living that moment when Jesus had been taken from us, and it didn't sit well with little Leah (or me, either, to be honest).

Many worshipers had remained several moments in silence before quietly exiting or making their own sorrowful procession to the Altar of Repose that seemed to represent for us the imprisonment our Lord underwent before his death.  Our family had sat before this altar before we headed home, and I remembered how Leah's sweet little tears flowed quietly.

"Wasn't there another way?" she begged.

"Oh darling," I responded, too quickly for the words to have been my own. "He is God.  There may have been lots of ways to open the gates of Heaven, but He didn't just come to offer us salvation... He wanted us to receive it.  He chose the Cross to make us feel His love, and to draw out our love for Him.  He is God, Peanut.  So I think of all the possible ways, we can trust that He chose the very best way."

His Blood be on Us and on our Children

I'm reminded of the scripture verse from Romans 5:8: "God proves His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  To put this another way, He died for us while we were still enemies.

The crowds infamously responded to Pilate after he washed his hands "of this righteous man's blood" by saying, "His blood be on us and on our children" Matthew 27:25.  Their vitriol and hate in that moment was flung into His face and His response still shocks us...



"Yes," His love responded. "So be it."

As death was wrought and his heart was pierced, His blood did flow out and continues to flow even now over us and our children. Not as guilt or condemnation, but as an ocean of mercy that washes away all stain of sin and enmity.




You Can't Make Someone Love You

But why all this labor to win over our hearts to Him?

Jesus' parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), the story of that privileged one who wished death on his father to prematurely claim his inheritance, and found himself in dire poverty and misery, bears an explanation.

After reflecting on this parable a few weeks ago, I asked the children in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium, "The father must have heard about the famine. He must have been so worried for his son. Why didn't the father just go and get his son and bring him back?"

A 10 year old boy answered simply, "Because he didn't want a slave. He wanted his son. You can't make someone love you."

So the father watched and waited for the day that his son would come to his senses and remember the goodness of the father that he treated so poorly.  He waited for his son to love him. Yet that prodigal had no idea how deep his father's love was until his return - when this pitiful and contrite penitent begged enough forgiveness to be considered a slave and was instead overwhelmed with mercy and received again as a son.

The Very Best Way

It is the greatest mystery of love that God would choose to die at our hands so that we may know that "truly this is the Son of God." Oh that we would have the grace to suffer so well at the hands of our enemies so as to make them our friends!  It is the path that our Savior has blazed for us, and we ought to follow. He is God after all, and has shown us not only the way, but the very best way.