Hello everyone! Heyo! Welcome back to Scattering Flowers with Elise and Miles, a podcast where you read the daily Gospels and the Saint of the Day.
Let’s get started! Today is Monday, May 25th, and the Gospel reading is John 19, 25-34, and the scripture to reflect on is John 19, 27. Behold your mother. Have you ever seen the How to Train Your Dragon movies?
My favorite one is the third one.
It’s such a good story.
But the first one, a boy named Hiccup meets this dragon, Toothless, and he thinks that he has to kill it because that’s what his whole village has told him.
Hiccup could have run away or he could have killed the dragon, but he said he unties the dragon.
This decision went against all that he had been taught and put himself in great danger.
He faints at the end of the scene. I think this was the best choice since the dragon and Hiccup became friends and then helped each other out in the ways that a dragon and humans would have never done before. Now you might be thinking, what in the world does this How to Train Your Dragon movie have to do with these gospel stories? Jesus knew that Jesus was going to betray him.
Why do you think Jesus didn’t run away or fight against the people who were going to arrest him?
So what we see from Jesus is that he does not act in fear.
He does not fight or flight.
Instead, he chooses to act on what God tells him to do. Today’s feast day is the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of a Church.
Today we celebrate Mary as the Mother of the Church, and since we are the Church, she is our Mother too. Just as we try good things for our earthly moms because we love them, we could do good things for Mary.
For instance, if we put flowers near a statue of Mary, sing a song to Mary, or thank her for hearing your prayers and telling them to our Lord, so how else can you honor our wonderful Heavenly Mother today?
Think about it! Hiccup’s decision not to fight or run away eventually leads to being able to fly on a dragon.
So this choice that Jesus makes to stay and die on the cross, even though he lived a perfect and sinless life, he willingly went to the cross for our sin, and all who believe in him will live with him forever. And what we can also see through that is his choice was not easy to make, and often comes at a cost.
The end result is that a greater understanding of God.
How amazing! Today we can remember our Blessed Mother Mary and every year of the Monday after Pentecost Sunday.
When Jesus hung on the cross, he said to John, Behold your mother, and because of this, she is all our mother today too! Let’s pray a Hail Mary together.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for our sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Thank you so much for listening.
We’ll be back tomorrow, scattering more flowers.
See ya!