In the background, a song in Hindi sung by Paarth Singh on You Tube is playing continuously with the loop option selected, despite not understanding a word except "ma and mama." On his You Tube page, Paarth Singh also posted this Mother's Day greeting: "Happy Mothers Day I Love You MAA" [1]. A mother's love is one which many sons know and feel instinctively as boys and as adults.
A mother-son relationship is so critical to the formation of the man the boy is to become that no boy born ought to be denied it. Sadly, there are boys who have no choice but to grow up being denied of a biological mother's love by couples, heterosexual and homosexual, who use surrogacy to conceive them, perverting God's plan.
How critical is this mother-son relationship? The answer, at least for Christians, particularly for Catholics, is apparent. The Son of God did not descend alone from Heaven but chose to be born of the Blessed Virgin Mary Who was filled with joy at the Annunciation [2] and with unspeakable anguish and sadness at various times in Her life. [3] It was the Blessed Virgin and Her chaste spouse Joseph Who looked after Jesus as He was growing up but it was the relationship between the Blessed Mother and Her beloved Child, the Son of God, that is the closer.
In the words of Saint Louis de Monfort: "Mary is the excellent masterpiece of the Most High, the knowledge and possession of which He has reserved to Himself. Mary is the admirable Mother of the Son, who took pleasure in humbling and concealing her during her life in order to favor her humility, calling her by the name of "woman" (Jn. 2:4; 19:26), as if she were a stranger, although in His heart He esteemed and loved her above all angels and all men. Mary is the "sealed fountain" (Cant. 4:12), the faithful spouse of the Holy Ghost, to whom He alone has entrance. Mary is the sanctuary and the repose of the Holy Trinity, where God dwells more significantly and more divinely than in any other place in the universe, not excepting His dwelling between the Cherubim and Seraphim. Nor is any creature, no matter how pure, allowed to enter into that sanctuary except by a great and special privilege." [4]
The closeness of this holy Mother-Son, Son-Mother relationship described by Saint Louis de Monfort is largely spiritual. On a mundane level (upon reflection) this Mother-Son and Son-Mother relationship is deepest emotionally for both Mother and Son when the Blessed Mother was standing under the cross to which Her Son was nailed.
Imagine how much the Blessed Mother had to suffer watching Her only Son endure agonizing pain while dying on the cross, knowing that when He was no longer in the world that She would be alone with no one to love Her as much as Her Son had during His life and with no one for Her to love Who was the blessed fruit of Her womb.
Imagine the unspeakable sadness Jesus had to bear in silence while watching from high on the cross His Mother who was going through so much pain from not being able to save Her Son Who was so close yet so far from Her. Imagine how much He loved Her from the moment He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of one so pure, loving, humble and obedient. Imagine too how difficult it was for Jesus to give His beloved Mother to John who, no matter how beloved a disciple, could not love His Mother in the way He loved His Mother Who gave birth to Him, raised Him, taught Him, protected Him and loved Him above all else.
The bond of love between the Mother of God and the Son of God is perfect and has no equal. It is a bond that is eternal and their sufferings together were out of unconditional love for the sake of the man who continue to mock and disregard them, yet They continue to love with a certain sadness all who sin. This love is the infinite magnification of another love, an ineffable and unspoken love, noticed and unnoticed, that can be felt by mother and son, remembered especially on Mother's Day, whether both are together or whether mother and son are separated by distance or the passing of one or the other.
May all sons and mothers who share a love so close and so difficult to express and notice have a loving Mother's Day together, or apart in the depths of their souls!
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AesOAB6SO2M
[2] Luke 1:26-38www.usccb.org/bible/luke/luke1.htm
[3] https://companionscross.org/sites/default/files/file-attachments/The%20Rosary%20of%20the%20Seven%20Sorrows%20of%20Our%20lady_edited.pdf
[4] Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Monfort, TRUE DEVOTION to MARY with PREPARATION FOR TOTAL CONSECRATION, trans. Father Frederick William Faber, D.D. (North Carolina: TAN Books, 2010), 2.
A second edition (1863) is available online (in which the exact quoted words do not appear but similar wording with the same import can be read on pages 2-3) entitled A TREATISE ON THE TRUE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY at https://knightlibrary.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/montfort_the_true_devotion_to_the_blessed_virgin.pdf
Saturday, May 12, 2018
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