This Sunday, May 8th, we celebrate the 3rd Sunday after Pascha and Mother’s Day 2022. This indeed is a joyful day of celebration firstly for the women who came to anoint the crucified Christ and were greeted by an angel who proclaimed Christ’s glorious Resurrection. Secondly, we commemorate Mother’s both living and those who have fallen asleep with an American Civil holiday.
This is a day of commemorating the women disciples of Our Lord. In the ancient culture of the Jewish people, women were severely restricted to their domestic duties and childbearing, unable to have full access to the great temple or a synagogue. Women did not count in a quorum, necessary to hold prayers. Women were not permitted as witnesses and like servants could not control their own time.
But in Jesus’s ministry this was to change, for numbered among the Savior’s most faithful followers were women. According to the Gospels women along with the disciples followed Jesus throughout His ministry and supported Him with their own resources. It is because of their unyielding devotion that they were rewarded and the first to discover the empty tomb, and that all obstacles in their path were overcome. The darkness of night gave way to the light of the Resurrection.
This is the glorious theme of this Sunday and it is very appropriate indeed that on this day we celebrate Mother’s Day. For many of us, this day brings joyful memories of our departed Mother’s, grandmother’s, godmother, aunts, sisters who nurtured us and cared for us as we grew and matured. It is also a day in which we give thanks for our Mothers who are with us, helping us, advising us and loving us unconditionally as Jesus did.
Truly this is a day of great rejoicing and thankfulness, for we know, firsthand, the love shown to us by our mother’s and we say as our faith proclaims, “Christ is Risen from the dead trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs, bestowing life”.
