On 13 May, feast of Our Lady of Fatima, we celebrated Mother’s Day. Many of us thanked God for the extraordinary gift of our mothers. Is there a person on earth who really cares, appreciates, supports, guides, than a mother? A mother remains a mother. Her place rests simply unique.
Washington Irving, an American writer, seems to endorse this line of thought when he wrote: “A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavour by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”
Recently, I have had the same experience which Irving is writing about. Since I am living under the sun I am also susceptible to any sorts of trials that come along. In fact, on Friday 4 May, I suffered a mild heart attack. I must admit that I shocked many people, including my beloved mother. No one was expecting that an almost 40-year-old man, healthy and passionate for life, will finish up literally fighting for his life. But this is life’s mystery and, if you want, its crude way of evolving! Life is full of surprises which encompass all its diverse spectrums.
Nevertheless, after such a trauma, one thing emerged crystal clear in my mind and heart: My mother is with me in every step of my hospitalisation journey. Her daily visits and phone calls so as to ask me about how things are progressing immediately showed me the sense of security a loving mother brings in her children’s psyche and soul! No wonder than that God Almighty, completely amazed by a mother’s love for her offspring, was bold enough of explaining his love for us by likening it to hers. In Isaiah, He tells us: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” (Isa 49, 15).
Incidentally on Mother’s Day, I had the grace of celebrating my first Mass in what I would call “my second life”. I was all eyes and ears to see and listen to the Word God has prepared especially for me. I was definitely sure that the reading of the last Sunday of Easter was God’s personal loving invitation to me to base the entire piece of my life upon his promises. The theme struck me instantaneously. It dealt with the essential meaning of love. An excellent motto to kick off with indeed!
In the Bible’s view, authentic love can be the bread and butter of those who want to embrace it. This is so since “God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10, 34-35). God has no favourites.
Suffice for one to truly acknowledge that “love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 John 4, 7). The kind of love the Bible is presenting to us is sacrificial. Jesus said: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15, 13). Moreover, God’s love considers friends those it loves because it trusts them. “I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15, 15). Are not loyalty and trust top motherly qualities we all need to live humanly?
■ Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap