Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli

From the third century come our earliest representations of the Mother of Jesus. One image is found on the walls of the Catacombs of St. Priscilla in Rome. Mary is holding the child Jesus and nursing him. Another image is found on a sarcophagus in the Vatican. It depicts the three Magi adoring Jesus held in the arms of Mary. When Christians, therefore, began to represent Mary in art, they always portrayed her with her son. The child and the mother together.

Even aside from any theological reflection, those earliest artists understood the special bond that exists between a mother and a child. Recent scientific studies confirm this. From the first moment of conception, the mother and child bond together. This bonding is complex. It involves not just the heart, but the brain and almost every part of the body.

In the womb, the child depends on the mother for nourishment and for life itself. To meet the child’s needs, the mother herself is changed. Her body adapts itself to providing the proper nutrition for her child and herself. And her brain makes changes to help her tenderly care for her offspring. So intimate is the relation of child to mother that the child in the womb actually recognizes the sound of the mother’s voice. Thus, from the very beginning of conception, nature unites mother and child in a bond meant to last through life.

However, motherhood is much more than conceiving and birthing a child. Our mother’s hugs and kisses boost our immune system, help prevent diseases and even affect our IQ. Our mother’s untiring devotion and care follow us all the days of our lives. After we are born, it is from her lips that we learn how beautiful we are coming fresh from the hands of God. And, our self-confidence is born. Our mother’s eyes see our gifts and her finger points us in the right direction to a meaningful life. As Napoleon Bonaparte observed, “the future destiny of a child is always the work of the mother.” And not just the child’s fate in this world alone.

Cardinal Mindszenty, leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary from 1945 to 1973, gave one of the most beautiful tributes to mothers. He said, “A mother is the most important person on earth. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any Cathedral — a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body. The angels have not been blessed with such a grace. They cannot share in God’s creative miracle to bring new saints to heaven … what on God’s earth is more glorious than this, to be a mother?”

To our mother’s hands, God entrusts us when we are most vulnerable, most helpless and in need of constant care. For in each of our mothers, he places something of his own heart. Tenderness. Warmth. Kindness. Sacrifice. Joy. Our moms watch our first steps. Laughter slips from their lips as we wobble and fall. And, tears fall from their eyes when we grow older and fall from the path of goodness. Our mother’s hands are always there to lift us up and help us find the way to God.

Like Mary holding Jesus in her arms, our mothers carry us as babies in their arms. And even after we can walk on our own, they carry us still in their hearts. That bond between mother and child, death does not destroy. The bond grows stronger and more powerful when our moms are called to be with God. And, that unbreakable bond tugs at our heart, making us aware that our true home is not here, but with God in heaven.
 

On Mother’s Day, we honor all those who share in the noble vocation of motherhood. With grateful hearts, we remember our mothers who brought us into the world and all those women who have accompanied us by their love, their kindness and faith. We thank God for them.

May God bless and protect those still with us with his grace. May he give to those who have gone before us peace and eternal happiness.