Mother...Motherhood...Is a Sacrament...

There is an awe-full, mysterious, sacred presence in our lives. A presence, I am sad to say, that seems to be acknowledged, reverenced, and celebrated just one day out of 365. As we live out the other days is not this mysterious reality really taken for granted? Has not the place of our encounter with the Sacred become so familiar that we have lost our reverence, and respect for this God given gift. That is the danger of the familiar, it leads us into that death dealing place of apathy. We are always in the need to be awakened to the sacred to the mysterious that is part and parcel of our every day journey. That journey that is ours as spiritual beings immersed in the human condition. Within the depths of our mothers an encounter takes place, between the creative love of Creator God, and the human effort of human beings, acting freely. This hidden, sacred, mysterious encounter has led to the present day understanding of the sacramentality of sexuality. We sure have come a long ways in our ever growing understanding of human sexuality, and the sacramental aspect of this gift. Now we go a step further and are asked to reflect on the sacramentality of mothers and motherhood. I'm referring to sacrament with a small "s". A small "s" sacrament I would like to suggest is: " Each and every person, place, event, action, which brings us into contact with the deeper realities of life, ultimately with Reality itself, that Reality we call God”. The sacramental reality of mothers and motherhood must be visited again and again. Like all that is mysterious this journey always leads us to a deeper understanding of that which can never be explained, only reverenced. We find there is layer upon layer to the mystery that is "mothers" and "motherhood". Just stop and reflect on all that has been written, and is being written. It is never ending, so we must be open to ever new, life enhancing, life enriching revelations. Speaking of revelation the scriptures have some wonder-full passages offered for our encouragement. Our Father/Mother God, in Isaiah 49:15 "Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you." So we are forever present in the minds of God, and to a lesser extent to our mothers. There are times when we will be absent from the conscious though of our mothers, after all they do have their own lives. In the mind of God we are always present to Him, as we journey with Him, and to Him. Our Father/Mother God is our origin and our destiny. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you?" Psalm 110:3, "from the womb before the day star, I have begotten you." Our place of origin then is the womb of God, Who is infinite love. We leave that place of comfort and security and journey into the uncertainty that is this life. God as not abandoned us. He has prepared for us a presence who will remind us of Who it is we came from, and the love that we originated from. The loving Gaze of mother's is the loving gaze of God enfleshed. This is a loving presence we can feel, hear, and above all touched by. This soothes the pain of the seeming loss of our First Love. Our mother's is to mirror the first love, and who we continue to be in that love. The best of plans do not always work out, not even God's plan "a". We are in His plan "b". There is a dark side to mothers and motherhood. The ideal is in so many case never actualized, and this results in human beings existing in a "living hell". Because of abuse their essential inner wholeness has been broken and in some cases destroyed. There are so many books written about "Daughters without Mothers", and the recovery that is necessary to return to wholeness. Thank God for the courage of those authors that tell their story and offer hope to those who have to honestly face that reality in their lives. Of course there are many sons without mothers as well. There is so much healing to be gone through to journey back to the place where you were the beloved. We must not allow transient evil sabotage our essential goodness and lovableness. That recovery, like all recovery, is not easy. The toxic shame will fight us each and every step of the way. Toxic shame which wants to communicate that we are not okay, somehow not "good enough", has to be faced. We are all more than we do, or have or achieve. We therefore need the-unconditioned love, undeserved, unlimited " first love" to become a reality. In this way, while we are still pilgrims, having no lasting home. We are somehow secure in the knowledge that our God is always a nourishing, ever creative, ever comforting, and always ever mercy-full. Why? Because we have experienced all within the lives who reveal the Mystery within mothers, and motherhood. Mothers you are the living sacrament of our living God. Be healthy so we can have a healthy understanding of, and a healthy relationship with The Source The Origin. We will then find ourselves living the aisling, the dream of our Mother/Father God.