By Fr. Glenn Jones:

Well, a happy Mothers’ Day to all of you moms out there. I hope that your children recognize all the love that you’ve given them, and realize that many go without such love all of their lives. So kids: be grateful to, and for, your moms! After all, they’re there to share both your joys and your sorrows, your hopes and dreams. Whoever coined the phrase: “A problem shared is a problem halved” must have been thinking about Mom.

Moms’ Day is always smack down around the middle of May, which tends to be one of the busiest months of the year. Lots of things going on that month in churches just after Easter, especially in Catholic churches where First Communions and Confirmations are most often celebrated. Then there’s Mothers’ Day, of course. But soon all of the graduations kids graduate from one grade/school to another, or high school to job/college, or college to job (hopefully).

Then there’s many brides getting ready for traditional June or summer weddings, poring over invitation lists, church schedules, color charts and brides’ magazines. Then we come to the Memorial Day holiday to remember and thank those who have made so much of all this possible by having given their lives in the service of our country. And finally, the great launch into summer vacations—veritable forests of RV’s springing up along the highways and byways and RV parks.

In such hectic times it’s so easy to get frazzled and impatient with everybody and everything; so many pressures, so little time (though many of pressures self-generated due to our own expectations). Certainly, it’s good to try to arrange things to go well, but perfection is a pretty elusive goal, so we should simply expect those little (even sometimes big) hiccups along the way. Have we not all seen people go into tantrums and ruin things for everyone around them? We don’t want to fall prey to that!

So, we might remember Jesus’ advice to the apostles after they’d been doing much work: “… [they] told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves.” (Mark 6:30-32) Such “down time” gives us time for minds and emotions to rest and recover.

BUT … by no means does this mean that we should be leeches on others; St. Paul was wisely rather adamant about this point: “If anyone will not work, let him not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work…” (2 Thessalonians 3:10-11), and “…aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands…” (1 Thessalonians 4:11). Paul was likely remembering scriptures such as: “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied” (Proverbs 13:4). And one also need remember that if one takes well-meant charity without necessity, it may be stealing food out of the mouths who really do need assistance.

After all, our work is not only to support ourselves and our families, but contributes to the good of the whole community. Even the most menial jobs can be of great importance; for instance, who knows how many illnesses the one who cleans toilet facilities has prevented? Farms and ranches (and thus farmers and ranchers and their employees) are often disparaged as “flyover country”, but without them (and truckers, and fuel-producers, and metal miners/refiners, and store clerks, etc., etc.), we don’t eat, we don’t travel, we aren’t clothed. So, no legitimate job or profession is without importance or honor, even if it may be without glamor or acclaim. When we’re tempted to just be idle in life, we might recall that quote from the movie “The Kingdom of Heaven”: “What man IS a man who does not make the world better.”

Such thoughts recall a scriptural passage in which, after the descriptions of several types of craftsmen and laborers are described, ends: “All these rely upon their hands, and each is skillful in his own work.  Without them a city cannot be established, and men can neither sojourn nor live there. Yet they are not sought out for the council of the people, nor do they attain eminence in the public assembly. They do not sit in the judge’s seat, nor do they understand the sentence of judgment; they cannot expound discipline or judgment, and they are not found using proverbs. But they keep stable the fabric of the world, and their prayer is in the practice of their trade.” (Sirach 38:31-34)

So here’s to you, all laborers of the world—slogging it out day after day or night after night, or even 24/7; know that a job well done is honorable in itself. Find inspiration in: “Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you are serving the Lord…” (Colossians 3:23-24)

And for you moms out there, know that you have one of the most important jobs of all as “the hand that rocks the cradle”: raising those little images of God through health and sickness, thousands of diapers, ups and down, laughter and tears, happiness and heartache. May God continue to bless you always, and may you have a most joyous and blessed Mothers’ Day!

Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.