St Edburg's Church - Bicester

This fourth Sunday of Lent is commonly known as Mothering Sunday. It has had several other names - Laetare Sunday from the Latin Laetare Jerusalem – translated as Jerusalem rejoice; Refreshment Sunday; Rose Sunday because medieval Popes sent gifts of golden roses to Catholic rulers and the priests wore pink robes to celebrate; Simnel Sunday – because Simnel cakes used to be eaten on this Sunday; Sunday of Five loaves – because the traditional gospel was the feeding of the 5,000.

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This Sunday has so many names because it is a different to the other Sundays in Lent. We are in the middle of Lent with three weeks still to go to Easter. It is the middle Sunday of Lent, and needed to be marked out in some way. Lent is a period of going without, giving alms, and of prayer and of thinking about one’s relationship with God so a brief break from Lent rigour for just one day was welcome – hence Refreshment Sunday.

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It is best known now as Mothering Sunday. Originally it was the Sunday when people returned to their ‘mother’ church – the church of their family and their place of baptism. From mid-1600s the focus shifted to adult children working away from home going back to visit their families on this one Sunday of the year. The custom was revived by Constance Penswick Smith (1878 – 1938), daughter of the vicar of Coddington in Nottinghamshire. She re-established many customs such as the church giving flowers to the children to give to their mothers.

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So now this Sunday’s focus very much on showing our mothers how much we love them and how grateful we are to them for what they have done for us - practical things when we are small, teaching us to behave, or just being there to listen and give advice. So it is right to thank them and to look after them in our turn.

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Jesus as always shows us the way. He grew up in a family and until he was about 30 he worked with his father in their carpenter’s workshop. Later, his family followed him. Even when he was dying he took care that his mother would be looked after, by telling John to treat her in the future as his own mother. So let us follow Jesus’s example and love, look after and care for our mothers, and show them that we love them.

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Christopher Young