(Fifth Sunday of Easter (C): This homily was given on May 10, 1998 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Acts 14: 21-27.)

"Motherhood: A disease?"

This morning I bring you some distressing news, courtesy of "the world":

Many of you are afflicted with a very serious disease, and you’re not aware of it. This is scary. Some of you have only had the disease for a year or two; others have had it for decades. It’s very costly; it’s very common, and there’s no known way to treat it. Which means that once you contract this particular ailment, you have it for LIFE—even if some of its external manifestations disappear for one reason or another. And so, you might say that this is a terminal illness--terminal in the sense that you take it with you to your grave.

What is this terrible ailment, you ask?

It’s called: MOTHERHOOD!

"Fr. Ray, how could you say that?! Do you really believe that motherhood is a sickness?"

No, I don’t. Not for one minute; not for one second! But let’s be clear about it: there are many people right now who do! Oh, they won’t say it in quite those terms; they won’t come right out and say that they believe motherhood is an illness--but they will convey that message by their attitude. In fact, I dare say, this is now the prevailing attitude in our culture. That’s why I began my homily by saying, "I bring you some distressing news, courtesy of "the world". It’s not what I believe, it’s what worldly people currently believe.

Where do we see the evidence for this?

Well, just think of how often pregnancy is talked about these days in negative terms. (Pregnancy and motherhood, of course, are synonymous; because, once you’re pregnant, you ARE a mother—even if your child is never born). Think about it: a woman becomes pregnant--especially a woman who already has two or more children—and how do some friends and family members respond?: "You’re pregnant?—AGAIN!!!! You poor thing!" Which is the very same type of reaction that you get if you tell somebody you’ve got cancer or some other terminal illness!: "Your biopsy just came back positive? You poor thing!" "You’ve got Lou Gehrig’s disease? You poor thing!"

And what about the message given by the pro-abortion crowd? According to Planned Parenthood and the other death-dealers of our society, the purpose of an abortion is to "terminate a pregnancy" or to "remove the product of conception." Think for a moment about those expressions. People want to terminate things that they consider evil, not things that they consider good. No one in their right mind wants to remove something from their body that they consider good and healthy. Which means that Planned Parenthood (and those who embrace their philosophy) believe that the "product of conception" is like a tumor: it’s evil, and therefore it should be expelled from a woman’s body.

And we wonder why our culture is collapsing? The New Catechism says that the family is "the original cell of social life." In other words, it’s the foundation of a stable and prosperous society. As the family goes, so the culture goes. Always. You can bank on it! (One footnote here: the normal expression of family life is a man and a woman united in a valid marriage, along with their children. In decades past, I could assume that everyone understood that—but unfortunately in this politically-correct era of human history, I can’t.) This is why it’s of paramount importance that we promote and defend the dignity of parenthood! As the family goes, so the culture goes. So instead of looking at motherhood (and fatherhood) as diseases, we need to extol them, reverence them, and take them seriously as vocations from God—because that’s exactly what they are! I dare say that most (if not all) of our social problems right now are rooted in the disintegration of family life. I was reminded of this a few days ago, when I was speaking to a young man from our parish who teaches at a middle school in a tough section of Cranston. He said, "Fr. Ray, it’s unbelievable. Some of these kids come from such unstable homes. And so they very often look to me for the love and guidance that they aren’t getting from their fathers—sometimes because their fathers aren’t around." Perhaps some of those dads have run away physically and\or emotionally because they see fatherhood in a negative light, as if it were a disease.

Well, personally, I love my fatherhood. I thank God for it. It’s the joy of my life to father children—SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING! (Do not misunderstand me here! No letters to the bishop, please!) Remember, fatherhood (like motherhood) has a spiritual dimension, as well as a physical dimension. Earthly fathers need to be concerned with both; spiritual fathers had better only be concerned with one! But how incredibly rewarding it is, when you see the fruits of your labor for the Lord in the lives of your spiritual children. That means so much! For example, we’ve had a number of young people pass through our teenagers’ prayer group over the years. Now many of them are out there bringing Catholic Christian values into almost every area of life: science, technology, education, theology. When I hear from these young people, and they tell me how they’re taking what they learned from us and applying it in their daily lives, I feel like a proud dad. I feel like any earthly parent would feel in the same circumstances. That’s the joy of spiritual fatherhood. Like earthly fatherhood and motherhood, it’s not a disease!

Now I’ll bet that most of you didn’t think of any of this when you heard today’s first reading from Acts 14, but you could have! Because this reading is actually about St. Paul, the father. It’s about St. Paul and St. Barnabas exercising their spiritual parenthood. First of all, it says that these two men proclaimed the good news in Derbe and made numerous disciples there. Translated, that means they "fathered many children" spiritually in that town. Then they went to see some of their other spiritual children in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch. The text reads, "They gave their disciples [in those places] reassurances and encouraged them to persevere in the faith." Good parents do things like that for their sons and daughters: they encourage them and build them up emotionally and spiritually. Then it says, "In each church they installed elders." Good parents always make sure their children will be cared for in their absence. The never leave them home alone! Paul and Barnabas knew that they wouldn’t always be with their children in these cities, so they installed elders to watch over them. And then, in the next paragraph, it says that they went back to their children in Antioch and "related [to them] all that God had helped them accomplish." In other words, they spent some time communicating with their sons and daughters—something every parent should do.