Where have all the women gone?

Sermon preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury  on the fourth Sunday in Lent

It's Mothering Sunday,

so where are all the mothers?

None are mentioned 

in the Gospel,

not even Our Lady.

Where have all the mothers gone?

[PAUSE]

Our Lord stands

before a great multitude

of five thousand men,

no mention of women.

Indeed, Our Lord says,

"Make the men 

sit down."

What?

Are the women to stand?

You can perhaps see why

some people see the Church

as being anti-women

if the Lord Himself 

doesn't refer to them.

It is possible 

that there were only

five thousand men there.

But,

more likely, 

it is Jewish practice 

to count only Jewish men 

of a certain age.

This is the same reason

why St Joseph

and Our Lady

go St Joseph's home

in Bethlehem

for the census.

But it seems pretty unfair.

Women don't seem to count.

And here,

on Mothering Sunday,

mothers seem to be 

completely forgotten 

in the Gospel

and even

by Our Lord.

Oh dear. 

It does seem

like our critics are right.

No women priests

means

perhaps the Catholic Church

is just a club for the boys

after all!

Where are the Mothers 

on Mothering Sunday?

[PAUSE]

To see what's going on here,

we need to look.

at where the feeding 

of the five thousand

plus women and children 

is going.

First of all,

we know well 

that Our Lord 

values the dignity

of women highly.

He teaches them

in the same way 

as He teaches the men.

He hears their own voice,

not through the voice of their husband.

He values their faith

above the dead faith

of the rulers of society.

He even makes sure

that the first witness

of His resurrection 

is a woman

whose testimony 

is believed by men

contrary to the tines.

There are women

throughout Our Lord's ministry

valued and saved and made glorious

- equal to men in salvation.

Equal but not interchangeable.

But that's beside the point.

[PAUSE]

Yes, only men are counted

by Jewish tradition but

counting men only

comes from 

the view here that the man

is the head of the family.

You have only to look

at the long lists of names

in the Book of Numbers

to see that in action.

But, 

in a sense,

they aren't counting men only,

they are counting families,

and there are no families

without mothers.

Our Lord feeds five thousand families

five thousand surnames,

five thousand groups of people 

belonging to each other,

united in this meal 

in Christ.

And with what did He feed them?

[PAUSE]

Following on

from this feeding of 

five thousand families

comes a most profound teaching.

After this miracle 

Our Lord goes on

to say that His flesh 

is meat indeed,

that His blood is drink indeed.

That this teaching

follows on immediately

after this miracle 

shows the intention

of Our Lord 

to give us the Holy Eucharist

- the sacrament that binds us

to each other 

by binding us to Christ.

And those who are bound to Christ

are the Church.

Mother Church.

[PAUSE]

In less than a week 

after we celebrate

the motherhood of Our Lady

at the visitation of the angel 

we see her begin 

the arduous journey 

of nurturing her son

with her own flesh and blood, 

for that is what mothers do

through the umbilical cord

before their baby is born.

Likewise Our Lord,

like a mother 

nourishes us

until we are born in Heaven

through death

and into life

through the umbilical cord

of our human nature

which He shares 

with us.

This is Mothering Sunday. 

[PAUSE]

Of course,

Mothering Sunday 

is not the same as 

Mothers' Day

but here the two are 

inextricably linked.

One cannot think 

about Mothering Sunday

without thinking of Mothers

and this brings us back

full circle. 

Where are the mothers in the Gospel?

They are here

and they are venerated,

and they are valued

and they are cherished

and, if they are not,

then that is a sin.

"Honour thy father

and thy mother."

The mothers in the Gospel

are here

because the miracle

of the feeding of 

the five thousand families

brings them here

in this Church of Christ. 

Christianity

perfects and fulfils 

the Old Testament.

Those mothers hidden by 

the old convention

of counting only 

the men of the house 

are made manifest

in Christ's own ministry

and shown to be 

as supremely valuable

as everyone else.

If you want to know

where the mothers are in the Gospel, 

look around you.