Anne Lastman.

Mother’s day, in Australia,  is  approaching  Sunday, May the 10^th a day when children, with dad’s help spoil mum beginning with bringing mum breakfast in bed, and of course the beautifully wrapped gifts and the special handmade cards and presents from each of the children. Cards which will be kept by mum all her life.  Next step is the reading of the cards and laughter and hugs and thanks all around, a bit of jumping on bed, younger ones of course, this at about 6.30am.  OH dear! Dad stands by or sits on bed  too whilst mum is the centre of all this “surprising” riotous behaviour. I remember those days so clearly, maybe a thousand years ago.  Four very young  sons sitting on bed around me watching while I ate their prepared breakfast for me (eat at 6 am?) all of them.  And I saw love and I hope they saw how much loved they were.

Mother’s Day, a feast day unlike any other and it’s become so important and children prepare for this in  ways available and known to them and given to mum with much love and accepted with equal amount of love.  I know it’s said that it’s mother’s day every day and indeed it’s so. However, it’s so special to acknowledge a day when they  fully acknowledge her love for them and theirs for her. 

We have heard it said that a mother knows when her child has need of her, irrespective of age.  There’s a call and a knowing and she won’t rest until a response.  She knows when her child leaves to go to another dimension (as I did). A mother knows from the moment of conception that there is a special relationship between them, unlike any other.  They have nine months to develop a language of their very own, cues of their own. Help one another when needed. Mother, whose child has shed cells within her which will remain with her for a lifetime. The connection. 

This same mother who feeds, washes, cleans, kisses their hurts much better than anyone else. Who nurses them when sick and child wants mummy only.  The woman who teaches them to walk, talk, develop. Plays with them, tucks them into bed after telling them the most fantastical story about life with the more astute mothers being able to include creation, all in language of story which  remains imprinted deeply and can be resurfaced especially at a time in the future when needed. A mother who loves like no other. A different love. A creator kind of love.    

Love is a mysterious emotion. It’s written  within every cell of every being. Love is so infinite that woman immediately forgets the pains of birth (as promised  Gn 3.16) the moment she meets the one she has carried in her body for usually nine months. Within one body another took up residence there (like Matryoshka doll) and  grew safely  as they developed a love and language of their own

To quote St John Paul II “motherhood involves a special communion with the mystery of life as it develops in the woman’s womb”  He further added, “Each and every time that motherhood is repeated in human history, it’s always related to the covenant which God established with the human race through the motherhood of the Mother of God” and indeed, the covenant is extended every time motherhood is repeated making the birth of every child a salvific moment for woman. A moment where her dignity as woman is exalted. A dignity which no one may violate without suffering. A dignity which is a divine gift.   

Motherhood is always a blessing. It’s how and why God created humanity. He first created love, then forgiveness, their home, earth, and then finally created his masterpieces (man and woman, Ish and Isha ) to cooperate and participate with him in  further creation.  She is so designed that no other can be like her.  Woman  even creates the perfect food for her baby. 

Woman’s role as mother doesn’t end with the birth and her feeding of the child but her love and nurture and care and devotion for her child/children continues for all his/her lifetime. She feeds, washes, nurses in time of pain, sits and rocks gently, watches him grow. But she knows that she must in time release him (as at Cana) and does so slowly by encouragement and beginning to let go.  She teaches him and responds and explains his many “whys” and walks with him and even pushes him to  be a little more distant, so he can grow differently but more, however, she’s always there. 

Mother waits for the day when separation comes but she remains silent hoping that all will be well.  And she does know that she must step back and allow the new journey to begin, there is both sadness and happiness for him.   But still she worries. A mother never stops worrying about her child. When accepted, her role as mother is her fulfilment. She knows she has done what was asked of her “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” and she knows  the pains of birth and salvation which come from them have which diminished that curse. Her work done.  “woman is redeemed through childbearing” She, on  her part, has “yes” and completed her yes when asked to mother a new life. A role unlike any other because she has actively worked with her creator and together, they created another human being whose birth changed all of creation in order to accommodate him. All of creation has been enhanced  because of his/her coming. 

To know the role of “mother” is to marvel at the destiny God had prepared for her even long before her own creation and “He looked upon all that he had made and declared that it was “very good”( Gen 1:31) and gave her a middle name “mercy/compassion”  Indeed, mother, love, mercy, make up the compassion of God. In him is found all love because he is love (Ps 103) and all mercy and she draws her love and mercy from him and gives it back again to continue another creation.

The late Saint Pope John Paul II called this special love of woman “Feminine genius.” He didn’t mean the genius in the building a cathedral or climbing a mountain, or even flying a plane, but the genius of being mother and understanding her role, and she understood that God had created this with his own Word. He created woman to be the glue which holds humanity together. Woman who becomes mother holds the world in the palm of her hand. This is her genius. Understanding Her creator’s love. 

Again, Saint John Paul II.  wrote and spoke much about the glory of woman and her charism of motherhood. Letter to Women, Muglieris Dignitatem, On the Dignity & Vocation of Women. He reflected on the strength and importance of woman and her role as mother.   He spoke of her not as an afterthought of God but as the final most creative and mysterious masterpiece. One who is Helper. First his helper and then helper for all of humanity.  

Understanding the fecundity of woman is important because, even beasts and nature are designed to reproduce and continue life, but woman is different.  She understands that within that new creation which she carries, begins a new tree of life. A beginning of a new history. 
“Tree of Life” (woman) replaces the one (tree of death, different woman) which caused so much pain and death. Woman will understand what mother means because another mother will hold her child in her arms and watch him grow and then leave her home as he looks resolutely  ahead  then watch him suffer and die.  Her love during the years softened his future and showing what life and then death mean as she holds the child in her arms. The mother loved and understood. Just a mother loves and understands even when it seems difficult to do so. 

Saint John Paul II, always believed that the true strength, the mystery of the woman, is best seen when she sees and knows herself  as daughter, woman,  wife, mother, protector of her family and all her children. Her strength then is formidable even though she is the softer one by the Lord’s designs.  

Woman in her design is the secret of God. In his divine  design room and workshop he moulded the one who would cooperate with him to create a new humanity worthy of the heavenly places which had been left empty.  She would say “Yes” to his desire to create a new and different creature than his first creation (angels).  Woman, (created a little lower than the angels Ps 8) who would be moulded in such a way that a new being would come to birth. Her mystery of life and birth.  Her mystery, a love so different, that it would be called “mother.”  From all time “mother” would be the one who loves so differently that all of creation deserved to experience and maintain a one called “mother” and so all with life and living have called one called mother.

 There has been a war against the woman, mother, infant.  it’s a war against maternity, femininity, motherhood and innocence and this war against the woman and her baby is one which throughout time has been attempted, through various means, including child sacrifice, infanticide, rejection, abandonment, and abortion. However, motherhood cannot be erased from woman.  That is who she is.

Finally, when we celebrate Mother’s day, it’s a blessing and thank you mother.  A big “thank you mum” is what she needs to hear.  No gifts are necessary, though she loves them but a  “thank you I love you. I wouldn’t want another Mum but you”.  

Mothers are resilient, forgiving, love passionately, sacrifice, and renew their covenant with every new conception. She loves all of her children 100%, she has a magical way of finding again a new 100% to love  each child,  and further she loves all  the children that God has created and especially those who cannot know a  mother’s love for the present time. 

We wish all mothers, a very blessed, happy, mother’s day.  “blessed are you amongst all women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” (Lk 1:39-44). The womb of woman is also blessed because life took up residence there.

Thank you to all mothers for your love and sacrifice. Happy mother’s day.

For ease of writing I have used the pronoun “him”