Anniversary Homily

HOMILY FOR THE MEMORIAL MASS OF MAMA HAGOSA WOLDEGIORGIS

FEBRUARY 24, 2018

Mama Hagosa Woldegiorgis

Good morning! ... And thank you all for coming to join me and members of my family at the first anniversary Memorial Divine Liturgy (the Holy Mass) offered in memory of my beloved mother, Hagosa Woldegiorgis who passed away last year at the age of 104 years.

Last year, when I heard that my mom was critically sick, I desperately wanted to go in order to be able to see her while she still alive. But, unfortunately, I realized that my American passport was expired for seven years. Then I took an immediate action to have it renewed… However, the day I’ve got renewed my password on February 22, 2017, I was informed that my mother passed away in Mekelle City, Ethiopia, on the same day, that is, on February 22nd. And I had also to get a visa from the Ethiopian Embassy, here in Washington, DC.

According to the custom and tradition of Ethiopia, since the body of a deceased person has to be buried on the second or third day, my family in the homeland had to make immediately a funeral arrangement to bury her on February 24th in a very remote village town, named Alitiena, at the Parish Church Cemetery, where she was baptized as an infant on February 22, 1913 and where my dad and her beloved husband, Baraki Woldegiorgis, also was buried in 1978.

Thus, realizing that I could not make on time for her funeral, I decided to cancel my trip to Ethiopia and have a Memorial Mass for her here at Saint Gabriel’s on the day of her funeral along with the rest of the mourning members of my family here in Washington, DC Area. However,  I was truly devastated by a shock and grief not being able to bury my beloved mother. As I was also unlucky for not being able to attend my father’s funeral as well when he passed away in October of 1978. And at that time I was living in the Cistercian Monastery of Our Lady of Fatima in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, here in the United States.

Around the end of 2008, my mother had a massive stroke that totally paralyzed her whole left side of her body to the point of threatening her chance of survivability. Then I was called for an emergency because it was thought that she would not survive the stroke. 

In January 2009, I hastily went to Ethiopia in order to be able to see her alive. Fortunately, when I’ve got there, I found that my mother, despite the massive stroke she suffered, miraculously her memory and speech were intact even though her whole left-side was paralyzed from head-to-toe… Amazingly she improved a great deal without much or with very little medical treatments and care! As a matter of fact, she was improved quite well to be able to celebrate her Centennial Birthday in 2013.

For me, therefore, January 2009 was the last time I was blessed to spend some time with her; but I terribly regret that I did not go back to see her again before she died last year! Because she always used to say as her blessing: “May you be my buriers!”  That’s why I feel so guilty for failing to fulfill her wishes by not being able to attend her funeral due to a great geographic distance and bad timing!

Because as the Bible reminds us, honoring parents is a sacred duty and obligation from God for children: Especially, when the Book of Exodus 20:12 says:  “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you”.

And in the Book of Proverbs 6:20-22 we read: “My son,  keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.” 

We see even Jesus the Son of God obeying his human mother at the wedding of Cana: When Mary saw they were running out of wine, she said to her son, “They have no wine.” Even though Jesus replied to her, saying, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come”, for her honor, love, and respect, Jesus performed his first miracle by turning water into wine. (John 2:3-4). 

The Gospel of St. Luke (2:52) referring to the same subject, says, “And Jesus went down with them (Mary his mother and Joseph his stepfather) and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.”

And at his very final moment of his agony and desolation on the Cross, Jesus demonstrated a great concern and love for his own mother who was heartbroken of grief:  When he saw his Mother and disciple he loved standing at the foot of the Cross, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple (John), “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home (John 19:25-27). This act of Jesus proves how much mothers are important in the lives of their children…even in the life of Jesus the Son of God!

Prophet Jeremiah (1:5) says, “Even before I formed you in the womb (of your mother) I have known you; even before you were born I had set you apart and appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  And Psalm 139:13-14 says, “It was you who formed my inmost part and knit me together in my mother’s womb. I thank you for these wonders you have done, and my heart praises you for your marvelous deeds.”

Because God formed us in our mothers’ womb, mother’s love is in our gene and in our blood and instilled in our hearts and genetically embedded into our minds…

On Pinterest  an anonymous writer says: “There’s no love like a mother’s. Her heart is filled with care. With Christ as her example, her Savior’s love she’ll share.  A mother’s love is endless, not changing for all time.”

An Article entitled “The Influence Of Godly Mothers 2 Timothy 1:5; 3:14-17” and posted on the Bible.org, says:

“Mothers do influence their sons and daughters! One of life’s greatest blessings is to have a godly mother. And thus, one of the greatest gifts you can give your children is to be a godly mother.”  The writer comments on the second letter of Paul to Timothy (1:5) continue to say, “I’d like to elevate the role of godly mothers by looking at the influence a godly mother and grandmother had on a well-known young man named Timothy. In 2 Timothy 1:5 we learn that his faith came to him through his grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice… In 2 Timothy 3:14-17, we also learn that the sincere faith of these women was combined with instructing Timothy from his earliest days from the Scriptures. Their example and the results in Timothy’s life show us that…”

Certainly, my godly mother, Hagosa, had great influence on me, my brothers, sisters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren as well. She was a woman of deep faith and great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary for her entire life. Until her memory failed her towards the end of her life, she devotedly used to pray three mysteries of the Holy Rosary daily for herself and for her whole family, relatives, benefactors and for the rest of the world.

God had blessed my godly mother with a long-age of 104 years outliving my father who died in 1978 by 39 years. She raised all her children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren alone, some of whom were orphaned or abandoned by their parents for different reasons and situations. Because of her gentleness and meekness and devotedness, she was most loving and affectionate mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother to all of us at home and abroad in Diaspora living scattered in four continents - Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America – until she died peacefully last year in her own home surrounded by some of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren living in Ethiopia. And she was buried on February 24, 2017, from the same parish church in which she was baptized.

Today, at her first Anniversary Memorial Mass, we are happy to have among us the most loved and cherished daughter-in-law, Teamu Tekye Weldegiogis, who recently arrived from Ethiopia to visit her children and grandchildren. My mother was so blessed to have such a daughter-in-law truly devoted to her husband, children and to her mother-in-law as well. Since my father died in 1978, Teamu had been my mother’s right hand in helping her to raise a host of children in the Baraki Family.

In conclusion, I would like to say that my mother was truly a saintly woman who truly lived a virtuous and exemplary Christian life and most loved and greatly respected mother I've ever known!

It’s my firm hope and belief that this Memorial Mass as well as other Masses offered in her memory today here in the United States, in Ethiopia, in Eritrea, and in the Holy Land by her children and grandchildren on her first anniversary of her death, will spiritually aide her in attaining eternal rest and peace that our Lord promised to his faithful followers in the heavenly Kingdom with merciful God, the angels, and the saints.

And I’m quite confident that my saintly mother might be saying today:

 “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul …. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23).

Mother, may you rest in peace forever and ever! AMEN!!!

(Delivered by one of her two-priest-sons, the Reverend Tesfmariam Baraki)