By: Fr. Mervyn Carapiet

Mother’s Day began in the United States in 1870. We owe it to Julia Ward Howe, the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Initially it was named Mother’s Peace Day. It was to be a day when mothers would applaud peace and strive for it. In this age, when gifts of flowers, cards and sweets have taken the place of its first purpose, we would do well to reflect on the thoughts of Ms. Howe in her Mother’s Day proclamation.

A few excerpts: “Arise the women of this day. Say firmly, ‘We shall not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. We shall not have our sons taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them about charity, peace and patience. We women of this county will be too concerned with the women of another country to allow our sons to be trained to kill theirs. From the heart of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says, ‘Disarm, disarm!’”

Here is a message from a mother of three young adults. “Sound really does travel slower than light. The advice mothers give to their 18 year olds doesn’t reach them until they are about 40.”

The American poetess, Phyllis McGinley, has a verse for mothers and daughters:

Mothers are hardest to forgive.

Life is the fruit they long to hand you

Ripe on a plate. And while you live,

Relentless they understand you.

And she goes on to say to mothers: “I realise that I have been fulfilled, and I don’t want my readers to think that I’m saying you can all be poets. All I’m saying is that if you really like being a wife and mother, if that’s your basic drive, don’t be upset by characters who say you have to get out and do something. Because I think you hold the future in your hand.”

Now here’s the story of Emilia, entitled “THANK YOU, EMILIA’

Emilia belonged to a middle class family in a European country that was reduced by famine after a long protracted national war. Hunger and epidemics threatened the whole country. Emilia had always been poor in health since childhood. She got married while very young to a textile worker. They went to live in a new village away from home, relatives and acquaintances.

Edmund, their firstborn, died shortly afterwards. He was a very handsome boy, a good student, and an athlete. Some years later, Emilia gave birth to a girl child who lived only a few weeks, owing to a bad condition in which the family lived. After 14 years since Edmund’s birth and some 10 years after the death of her daughter, Emilia was in a difficult situation.

She was 40 years old and in bad health: serious kidney problems, and her heart was gradually giving way due to a congenital condition. The country’s political situation became increasingly critical as a consequence of the recent ending of World War One.  In those terrible circumstances Emilia became aware of being pregnant again. Now, it was possible for a pregnant woman to have recourse to an abortion, and there were people ready to carry it out. Due to her age and poor health, Emilia’s pregnancy posed a serious threat to her life. She also asked herself what kind of world she could offer her newborn, considering the miserable family condition and the imminence of war.

She was unaware that she had only 10 more years to live. World War II exploded a few years later. The father of the unborn baby would lose his life in that war. Emilia chose to let her baby live and called him Karol. That child grew and matured to a ripe old age, very alive, and every time he visited some country millions of people would shout: “John Paul II, we all love you.”

A million thanks, Emilia !