Sunday Reflection

Happy & Compassionate Mother’s Day to all our beautiful mothers and more.

The Bible is in some ways bookended with Mothers. We begin with the story of Eve. We end with Mary at the foot of the Cross. In between, we have everything possible. Stories to meet all of our own versions of mothering and everything in between. The joy, the trials and struggles, the challenges and triumphs, the gift, and the losses. The love. Mothering is a story of creation and love.

Perhaps we are entering a time now of mothering. A time of creation and love. A time of gentleness and kindness and compassion. A time to recreate a new world out of troubles. To rebuild and recreate anew. To mother. Yes, we can all be mothers. God as mother. Christ as mother. Sister as mother. Brother as mother.

If we can think outside of the box, we can see the mothering coming from God and Jesus. From women and men. Mothering is the act of creation and nurturing. We create a life living as Christ would. We can birth to a Jesus like life in our own lives.

It was Meister Eckhart who said: “What good is it to me if Mary gave birth to the son of God 1400 years ago and I don’t give birth to the son of God in my person and time and culture?”

We are all practicing mothering qualities each day. Birthing a new life each moment that better, and more graceful, than the one before. Yes, we hit stumbling blocks, but we learn and grow and move forward.

We need more mothering. Love. Compassion. Compassion being love in action. It’s easy to talk love, but to practice compassion is to be love in action. To walk the walk. We have a year ahead of us that is in need of these more mothering qualities of love, nurturing, and compassion.

We are all tired. We are all traumatized. We are all exhausted and anxious. We are all stressed and unsure. We are all struggling with sleep and rest and depression. We are all emerging from a pool of collective trauma and with trauma comes consequences.

We’re in a normal state of trauma induced stress. Many of us have experienced deeper loss and trials, but we’re all in the pool of collective trauma and healing takes time and nurturing. We don’t really need more pushing ourselves and others and fighting and dividing. We need more gentleness and kindness. Togetherness…

I imagine Eve “cursed” with birth. Driven out of the safety of the garden, with only Adam as her companion. I imagine her alone and frightened birthing that first child. I also imagine her strong and determined. I imagine her prayer is that no mother will have to birth a child without compassionate companionship. I imagine her prayer building a line of compassion, nurturing, connection, and helpfulness.

I imagine Mary watching her son die on the cross. She is not alone. Perhaps it is the lineage of Eve that we should never have to suffer…alone. Compassion. Love in action. Being there for one another to share the burden and the tears and the pain.

Mothers are love at work. We are lucky. We have this place to nurture and nourish and grow together. I think it’s the beauty of coming together as a people of faith and spirit. To be together to support and nourish one another. To mother one another in the most beautiful forms.

Mothering is not just for women. We all carry the qualities of mothering. Christ birthed new way of thinking. A new way of being. He nurtured and nourished that way. We could call that birthing and mothering. God created and birthed us. God nurtures and loves us. Yes, we could also call that fatherly.

But today is mother’s day and so our work is that of mothering. The compassion of love to nurture and create a better world. Just our small world…not the big, huge world beyond us. Just where we are as individuals and can do good.

There is work to be done. By all of us. We need to be mothers and carry those qualities of mothering. Mothering isn’t weakness. It is strength, from the first mother to the last. Embodying those qualities of care and gentleness and patience. Grace and wisdom.

We need to cultivate those mothering qualities for our collective healing to come. Mothering is a call to action, to love in action, to compassion. We need to give to ourselves and others bandaids and kisses, and hugs. To nurture and nourish ourselves while we give ourselves time to heal. Time for the tears to stop falling.

Mothering requires raw truth. Yes, we must mother ourselves, and our families, but mothering is also looking beyond ourselves, beyond our inner circle, to all of the people around us. To see and act on other’s needs. Not to fix, but to be present, to listen, to comfort. Mothering means to look beyond ourselves and see where we might minister to others and help share the burden.

It is a year ahead that could be filled with mothering. How beautiful could that be? Mothering requires seeing (we all know that moms have eyes in the back of their heads) and mothering, especially maybe those who are overburdened with mothering themselves.

We can all take on the role of mothering qualities of love and nurturing. All of us. We can all put on bandaids and kiss the wounds and hold someone while they cry. We can all sit with one another as we heal. May we have the patience of mothers with ourselves, with one another, and with the time it will take to heal ourselves of the year past.

Remember to take naps and to not watch too many grown up cartoons (that would be the news). Remember to take a bath and wash behind your ears. And remember where the bandaids and hugs are located.