Our Lady: Perfect Mother, Perfect Faith

My five-year-old daughter, Mary, began all-day Kindergarten just this past week.  She has been talking about it for some time, and when she mentioned it again just before Thanksgiving, my husband and I finally gave in.  I bought her a new lunch bag (probably the best part of the deal in her young mind) and pulled the extra small gym uniform out of the closet.  I teased my little girl that I would cry all afternoon without her, but she called my bluff.  “Besides, I don’t need you anymore, Mom.”  When I must have shown some wounded shock at this statement, she added, “Oh, but I still like you!”  Whew, thank goodness!

As I watch my little girl take yet another step toward her eventual independence, I can’t help thinking that Our Lady must have suffered the same type of sorrow as she watched her little man growing up.  After all, Jesus was her only child, even if he was the Son of God, and as a human mother, there must have been some bittersweet moments.   She must have rejoiced at his first smiles and applauded his first steps.  After the death of St. Joseph sometime during Jesus’s adolescence, she probably felt very close to her child, just the two of them alone in the world.  And imagine her motherly grief as he put on his cloak and sandals and walked away from their home to begin a public ministry that would lead to the cross.

“Behold, this child is destined for the rise and fall of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34-35).  Imagine being at your child’s baptism and having a member of your parish step forward to praise the great things he will do followed closely by an omen of greatest sorrow!  Mary must have been both saddened and jubilant all at once, knowing that the salvation of her people was at hand, cradled gently in her own arms.

To a much smaller degree, the nature of parenthood is the same for all as it was for Mary.  We are charged with many things during our children’s lives, such as spiritual and moral instruction, provision of food, shelter, and education, and discipline.  But all of these duties have the same aim: to produce men and women who are ready and capable to serve the Lord in their own callings throughout life.  For most of us, our children will be called to a professional vocation as well as a spiritual one, such as marriage, single life, or the religious life.  In Jesus’s case, this calling was to public ministry, persecution, and a heartbreaking death on the cross.  Mary’s sacrifice as a parent is unique and remarkable in all of history.  As the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, regarding the obedience of faith “The Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment” (CCC #144).

As my own Mary marches confidently away from me to join her older siblings at school all day, I can only stop and reflect on Our Lady’s gift to the world.  As the model for my own motherhood, I ask her intercession in letting my child go to the greatness that God has planned for her.  But as I praise God for the fact that she will be in my arms again at the end of the day, I thank Our Lady for being a much stronger mother than I.