Mother's Day and Peace

Last Sunday a clergy friend posted a link to images from a television program called, “America’s Top Model.” Apparently it is one of the top rated shows watched by young women in our nation. Awhile back they featured an episode where the beautiful young models had to create and pose for shots in which they appeared to have been brutally murdered. It was called the “Crime Scene Shoot.” To say that the images were gruesome and disturbing is an understatement, I literally felt my stomach tie up in knots after viewing some of the images. The point my clergy friend was making is that in our society, women continue to be devalued through unattainable standards of beauty, sexualization, and the making normative violence against women. What may be most shocking about this whole thing however, is that this episode aired with little notice, there was not the shock and outrage that should accompany something like this at all. The judge’s themselves, after viewing the images, had comments such as, “Death becomes you, young lady" and "Very beautiful and dead."

Those who were upset were brushed off by fans and the media alike in the name of “art.” Some responded with the idea that “no one was really hurt.” But when a young women are taught that violence is sexy or beautiful, or cool or edgy, hasn’t someone been hurt? Especially when we know the tragic statistics about domestic violence and violence and murder against women in our nation.

Then again, perhaps this issue begs another question…the deeper question about how we as a society have become so comfortable with violence? We have wholeheartedly embraced it and don’t give it much thought anymore in our movies, television, the news, in magazines, you name it. Graphic violence does not even get a film an R rating anymore. A friend of mine whose mother was brutally murdered by his father has boycotted all violent TV shows and movies because he literally cannot emotionally handle it. He says it means he can’t watch almost anything anymore. And yet, this kind of violence is glorified and even honored by our culture everywhere.

So what does Jesus, who died a very violent death, teach us in the midst of this? And in what ways do we all take part in the violence of our culture, partner with it, or simply enabling it with our complacency? How are we, as Christians, ultimately advocating and living out peace?
It is said that the Dalai Lama was once asked to hold a moment of silence to pray for peace. He refused saying something to the effect of, “No, go and be that peace.” We can’t kid ourselves into thinking that prayer without action is useful.

Sadly, we have become so conditioned to glamorizing violence that we have actually lost the goal that all our sights should be set on: the goal of peace. Peace in our hearts, our homes, our communities, our nation and the world. But we, like those who crucified Jesus, often aren’t even aware of what we’re doing, and Jesus’ prayer for the cross applies to us too in our complicitness with violence, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”

In our own distractions and even by taking on the values of our culture, much like the disciples in our Gospel lesson traveling on the road to Emmaus, fail to even recognize Jesus and his desire for us as children of the Prince of Peace.

So what, you may wonder, does all this have to do with Mother’s Day? Quite a lot.
In Europe. Mother’s Day was originally a day that fell on the fourth Sunday of Lent and Christians used the day to honor “Mother Church” by decorating the church with jewels, flowers, and other offerings. That tradition came to America but its’ original purpose was altered some time later when Julia Ward Howe conceptualized Mother’s Day in 1870 with a slightly different purpose in mind. Julia was a Christian and the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic but she later she became so distraught by the violence and death she saw happening during the Civil War that she called upon all mothers to come together and protest what she viewed as the unnecessary killing of her sons, where the sons of mothers were killing the sons of other mothers. She called for an international Mother’s Day, a day celebrating both peace and motherhood. Here is an excerpt from her call in 1870:

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the meansWhereby the great human family can live in peace,Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God. In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly askThat a general congress of women without limit of nationalityMay be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenientAnd at the earliest period consistent with its objectsTo promote the alliance of the different nationalities,The amicable settlement of international questions.The great and general interests of peace.

Soon a West Virginian women’s group lead by Anna Reeves Jarvis began to celebrate this adaption of Howe’s holiday with the goal of reuniting families and friends that have been divided by the Civil War. They called it Mother’s Friendship Day. After Anna died, her daughter campaigned for the creation of an official Mother’s Day in honor of peace. She successfully petitioned the superintendent of the Sunday School where she taught and on May 10, 1908, the first ever Mother’s Day celebration happened at a Methodist Church in West Virginia and in a church in Philadelphia, making today the 103rd anniversary to the day of the first American Mother’s Day. All mothers were given white carnations that day. But her daughter, Anna Jarvis, did not stop there…she petitioned state governments, women’s group and churches to make this a national holiday. She finally convinced the World’s Sunday School Assocation to back her, who had key influence with congress. And so in 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed it as a national observance, to be held the second Sunday in May, just as it is today.

So Mother’s Day is more than about honoring women and moms, it is day about reminding all of us, women, men, fathers, and mothers alike, to keep peace as our goal, to hold it out as the great aim in our world.

I am compelled to mention this story, because is alarming that today in our society we generally fail to view peace as the goal anymore. Almost no one even talks about peace as an ultimate goal. When one leader is toppled, the media’s next question is simply, “Okay, who is our next target?” We don’t stop to ask what we can do to achieve true and lasting peace in our communities, nation, or world. Violence has become the norm.

While we may give peace lip service and pray for it every Sunday, honest discussions and actions about it, whether in our government, our churches, in our personal lives, or in our society are quite rare. And of course we may disagree about how to achieve peace, and that’s okay, but we do need a renewed sense that peace is everyone’s goal. The aim for peace alone unites all us, particularly those of us in the household of God. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers” and “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you”…”I have said this to you that in me you may have peace.” All our other aims are in vain if peace is not at the forefront, and so we need to reclaim this Mother’s Day that no matter who you are what you believe, the desire for peace and an end to violence is a goal for all humanity. And then, go and be that peace. Practice peace in all you do, see, say and listen to: because we can be peace every day. Amen.