Mary was the perfect mother, and her motherhood extends to all of heaven and earth. Learn how her example of motherhood can guide all homemakers.
The Importance of Motherhood
Mother.
It’s one of the most important words in any language, and usually the first word every child learns. It is the most fundamental of relationships and among the most sacred. Being motherless is one of the deepest tragedies to befall a soul. Dying soldiers the world over have cried out to their mothers as death comes calling on the battlefield. We call the Earth mother because it is where we are housed, nourished, and sustained on many levels. When someone is “mothered,” care is poured upon them. Motherhood means many things and is used in many ways.
Some in today’s time have marginalized the role of the mother, but no matter how out of favor motherhood might be, mothers remain a vital constant for a healthy human society. Much of home’s special appeal is because that is where mom is. When we go home, we often find her love there. God, in his wisdom, knows the value he has given to mothers. Jesus could have come to the world some other way than through a mother. And yet, he didn’t. God chose a woman, a new Eve, to say yes to God to reverse the no of the old Eve.
But even more practically, God gave Jesus that special bond with “the Woman” who is mentioned like book ends at the beginning and end of Scripture. It is a beautiful thing to consider the tenderness between Christ and his mother, to imagine the love that exists between God and the immaculately conceived woman. They have a pure love like no other, free from sin and willing the perfect good for the other.
Mary’s Homemaking
While Scripture speaks little of Mary’s life, we can speculate that many of the things she did were humble, mundane, and seemingly insignificant. She likely did many regular household things: laundry, dishes, cooking, fetching water, planting a garden, harvesting food, sewing clothing.
We know she made the journey to help Elizabeth during her pregnancy with St. John. Mary also quietly made sure a newlywed couple didn’t run out of wine by invoking her Son’s aid.
More than anything, however, one of her important jobs was being present to her Son when he needed her the most. When nearly everyone else close to Jesus had scurried away to avoid ridicule or persecution, she remained at the foot of the cross.
Mother to All
In the throes of pains too excruciating to wrap our minds around, Jesus revealed a most precious gift offered for all of us: his mother. Among his seven last words, or phrases, Jesus said to St. John the Beloved, “Behold, your mother!” (Jn 19:27). Scripture says that from that hour on, John took Mary “to his own home.” Pope Benedict XVI said that the Greek translation of the phrase “to his own home” is far deeper and richer than the English. He writes, “We could translate it: he took Mary into his inner life, his inner being, . . . into the depths of his being. To take Mary with one means to introduce her into the dynamism of one’s own entire existence. It is not something external.”
John served as a symbol for the rest of us. Like him, we are given the gift of a true spiritual mother, one who can mold the very depths of our being and transform us. As a trusted mother, she always points us to her Son.
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This article is taken from a chapter in Theology of Home by Carrie Gress, PhD which is available from TAN Books.
