THE MIRACLE OF MOTHERS

may 13, 2007

Sunday is Mothers' Day, and if a secular society can have its own holy day, this is it. No wonder! What could be more important than mothers?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge described a mother as “the holiest thing alive”. Robert Browning said that all love begins and ends with motherhood. May R. Coker said motherhood is the greatest privilege of life. John Neihardt noted that “one moment makes a father, but a mother is made by endless moments, load on load”.

So wonderful is motherhood that when God sent his son, Jesus Christ, for our salvation, he ordained that he should enter the world not in a spectacular or ostentatious display of divine power and majesty on high, surrounded by hosts of angels, the clap of thunder and blinding light. No, he saw fit to have his son assume our human nature within the maternal womb of the Virgin Mary, and in obscure and lowly surroundings. In a most unique and marvelous way, God provided for his son's well being not by sending an armada of the heavenly host to protect him, but simply by entrusting him to the care of a woman, namely, the Virgin Mary, along with the help of St. Joseph.

This was in keeping with God's providential plan of creation to endow women with special attributes that make them, more than men, attentive to the needs of the human person, and able to respond to them in ways that nurture their full human development.

What I say is evident from our own observation and experience, and it is confirmed by many studies of a scientific nature.

Motherhood, in the full sense, not just the biological sense, is the fruit of the marriage union of a man and woman, of “the union of the two in one flesh” (cf. Gen 2:24). This brings about a special gift of self as an expression of that special love whereby the two are united to each other so intimately and completely that they become one flesh. The mutual self donation in marriage which unifies them in the act of giving love also opens them to the act of begetting and gratefully receiving the gift of new life a new human being.

Motherhood, then, involves both openness to a new human being, and a complete self donation to him/her. It is in opening herself to the gift of new life through marital union, and in donating herself to nurturing that new human being from the moment of conception, that a women discovers her exalted identity and vocation as mother. Motherhood, in the fullest sense, has everything to do with the gift of interior readiness to lovingly accept the child, bring it into the world, and nurture it.

Giving birth is surely a cause for deep joy in woman, who is able to say with Eve, the mother of all the living, “I have brought a man into being with the help of the Lord” (Gen 4:1). Every time a child is born, the mother knows deep inside that she is sharing in a unique and indispensable way in God's own eternal, mysterious act of creation. Physically and emotionally, God has made woman uniquely able to carry out his creative design.

Man, of course, brings his own unique gifts and abilities to strengthen and support marriage and the family, but in the matter of procreation, he always remains outside the process. It is within the woman's body that the new human being develops, and this intimate bond between the mother and child affects their relationship for the rest of the lives of both. During pregnancy, the mother literally sacrifices her body for the physical development of the child, and after birth, this predisposition on the part of the mother toward self sacrifice for the good of her child remains throughout life.

So, as I say, it is no wonder that our nation annually sets aside a day to honor mothers. Who among us does not have vivid memories of our mothers however many years ago tending us when we were ill, giving us courage to face life's challenges, comforting us in moments of hurt or self doubt, and in general, enabling us to discover that we were lovable and had value, because of how much they loved us, believed in us, and sacrificed for us?

God be praised for the wonderful gift of loving mothers, and on their day may all mothers receive worthy expressions of thanks and appreciation for all they give and are!

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 05-Jun-2008 9:48 sitemap