A Mother’s Love
As we begin this new school year, I have the great honor of periodically watching many parents, especially mothers, drop their kids off for school. As mothers reading this know, there are many things that the heart of a mother experiences when she drops off her child for pre-k or kindergarten for the very first time. Or when her awkward, hormone-raging middle schooler begins high school. Or the experience of a mom who helps her senior in high school paint their parking spot: the first of many final, special memories in the child’s educational career. In God’s great plan for creation, I believe there are not too many more beautiful things to witness in life, than to see a mother give her everything to her children; her body, her emotions, her worries, her time, her talents, and most especially her love.
I have said it before, that no matter how hard a child tries to return the love that his mother has for him, he will never be able to justly, even if he tries with all his being, because the love of a mother is unmatched. This realization was actually hard for me to grasp; I can never love my mom as much as she loves me. Amazing.
Today, Aug. 15 is the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary. Catholics around the world will go to Mass today, and some communities like Praha will have grand festivals. Why? In order to give thanks to God for the gift of His mother. And so, when we look at the beauty of the motherhood of our own mothers, we can also see the great beauty of the Mother of God.
For over two thousand years, many Christians, and particularly Catholics, have had a strong reverence and love for the Virgin Mary. They do not worship her, but relate with her in so many ways. As was the custom at the time, Mary would most likely have dropped Jesus off at the local synagogue as a young boy for him to learn the faith. We know from Scripture, when Jesus was a boy, that he became lost in the crowd after his family journeyed to Jerusalem for the feast day. I can only imagine the worry and mystery going on in the heart of His mother during that chaotic during that chaotic time. Scripture also tells us, it was Jesus’ first public miracle, at the wedding at Cana, that occurred because of the petition of the Mother of God. And as many sons reading this, including me, can attest to, when my mother asks me to do something, I usually do it out of love for her. I think a mom knows her son (and her daughters) better than almost anyone in the world. Mom knows how to talk to her son, to reason with him, she knows the times he is stressed, the times he needs to be loved, and the ways to ask him for things.
As the Gospel of John tells us, at the request of Jesus as He hung upon the cross for us, the beloved disciple took Mary into his home. Many scripture scholars teach that the beloved disciple’s name was not used on purpose in this passage, so that all disciples of Jesus could take Mary into their own spiritual home and call her mother. Mary, with the uniquely formed heart of a mother, understands her children. She knows what it is like to let go of her children and entrust them to God. She knows what it is like to love them in ways that only a mother can, but most of all, she as the first disciple, knows how to point all of her children to her Son.
As St. Maximillian Kolbe reminds us, “Don’t worry about loving Mary too much, you could never love her more than her Son does.” And Mary isn’t just a mother for moms, gentlemen, she is often depicted in sacred art as crushing the head of the serpent. She is a queen warrior in the battle of temptation. You want her on your side. And just like the couple at the wedding at Cana, Mary wants to pray for us, she wants to ask her Son to do things for us. Well, why would we not just go to Jesus? We can, but I think knowing the love and prayers of the Mother of God is also pretty special, and like her Son, she loves all people as her children.