Recently a high school friend, colleague in ministry, and mom of two called to my attention Julia Ward Howe’s 1870 Declaration for a Mother’s Day of Peace. My friend noted, as a mother, how much the Declaration was more about peace and justice than mothers.
While Howe is more likely remembered as the writer of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, her interests reached beyond poetry calling for peace and the end of war. Her Declaration calls for disarmament, the teaching of charity, the alliance of nations and the “amicable settlement of international questions.” In many ways she was a prophet of her time. Mother’s Day was first recognized in 1907 at a church in West Virginia and later declared in 1914 by President Woodrow Wilson as a National observance.
100 years later Mother’s Day has taken on quite a different meaning than first pictured by Howe. Today we send cards, cook breakfast, and carry to lunch the dear mothers of our lives. Today we honor mom and show our thanks for her love. Today we remember mom, but how about peace.
“Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.”
Howe called upon women to stand and be the leaders of peace at a time when the country was recovering from a bloody war and the world was in the midst of building towards a great war. She called upon women to be the leaders of peace when families were healing from the separation of brother taking arms again brothers. She called for upon women to be the leaders of reconciliation whereby God was “impressed” on the family.
Today let us make plans to honor our mothers and seek ways to bring peace to our homes, communities, nation, and world. Honor mom that she knows she is loved unconditionally as Christ first loved us. Encourage her to seek the face of God that she can reflect God’s light upon her family. Celebrate her for she hears our cries and brings calm that we might see peace.
Furthermore, pray for peace this Mother’s Day. The world is noisy. Turmoil and violence dominate newscasts. Family squabbles make waves when children need stability. Pray for peace and pray for the peacemakers. Heed the call of the Apostle Paul to become an ambassador for Christ seeking reconciliation in light of the resurrection. Pray for peace that we can be the one Body of Christ for the world.
Published in the Saturday, May 6, 2011 edition of the Henderson Daily Dispatch