The papers have been full of features on Mother’s Day for some time now, so much so that to go through it all seems a bore. Yet as I started to think about the reciprocal mother-child relationship, I began to realize that the greatest examples of this love are given to us in Scripture, and then, because we are made in the image and likeness of God, this has been repeated and multiplied through life and time.
I once heard Fr. Catalino Arevalo give a talk on how the word “compassion” was used only three or four times in the Bible. Compassion, or cum passione, meant that one felt not just pity, but actually experienced what the other person was going through. I can’t remember the other examples, but the story of the raising of the only son of the widow of Nain from the dead was one such example.
As the funeral made its way out of the gates, Jesus was so moved with compassion by the mother’s pain that he touched the coffin, raised the son from the dead and gave him back to his mother. What most of us don’t realize is that Jesus’ compassion stems from the knowledge of the pain the mother would undergo. In the then Jewish society, a widow who had lost her children was normally treated as an outcast. After all, who would support her, feed her, take care of her, especially when she was sick?
That is why the story of Ruth also has such an impact. When her husband died, she should have left Naomi, her mother-in-law, and returned to her family. Instead, knowing full well how difficult it would be for the old woman to survive, Ruth, a foreigner in Naomi’s society, decides to stay with the old lady, serve and take care of her, working even in the fields to sustain them both.
In both these situations, I see how we have been prepared to understand that the Lord also would have to make such preparations for the care of his mother. For at the cost of great pain, Jesus has to pull himself up on his wrists, not just to breathe, but to expel his breath—by speaking to John, Mary, and ultimately, to us all.
Woman, behold thy son, son behold thy mother. In the end, we are truly one.