From the Friars: Mother of the Good Shepherd
Years ago I was in the hospital room when my sister was in labor with her first son. She was complaining loudly to my mother for not having warned her about how painful giving birth actually was. It was a difficult situation, so like the Apostles, I fled the cross and went to the chapel to pray and to avoid watching my sister suffer.
Adoration of the Shepherds, by Gerard van Honthorst – Google Art Project, Public Domain, Link
Pain in child birth is a consequence of original sin (Gen 3:16). This is not an arbitrary way for God to punish our disobedience but a prefigurement of the pain of Our Blessed Mother at the foot of the Cross. Here the Church was born from the pierced side of her Son, when the wrong of sin was made right. It is a sign also of our share in the Cross, of all the human pain and sacrifice required in our fallen world in order to give life and to nourish it.
Our Lady had no pain when she gave birth to Jesus . She had no original sin nor its consequences. Sadly, almost every movie about Christ’s birth gets this wrong. But Mary suffered more than we can imagine during the Passion of Our Lord and in this way she merits being Mother of the Church.
Today we honor our mothers and it is also the fourth Sunday of Easter which is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. It is a day of joy and gratitude for the great gift of our mothers and for the victory of Jesus over death by laying down His life for His sheep. Motherhood demands heroic sacrifice. After the Cross itself it is probably the clearest manifestation of God’s love in the world. From the moment of conception, and forever thereafter, the mother is continually sacrificing herself for her child. Morning sickness, dirty diapers, sleepless nights and varicose veins; the list is endless.
Pain, which is bad in itself, is mysteriously the proof of this genuine love. It is the test of fidelity. The fact that a woman endured so much to give us life and to sustain our life forms a deep bond that is a glimpse of the eternal bond that makes One the three Divine Persons, the True God Who is Love.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Thank you, Mom
and thanks be to the
Good Shepherd for you.
–Fr. Peter