5/06/2022

5/6/2022

This week's reflection comes from our seminarian, Mees Tielens:

A Song of True Motherhood

Julian of Norwich

God chose to be our mother in all things *

and so made the foundation of his work, 

most humbly and most pure, in the Virgin’s womb. 

God, the perfect wisdom of all, *

 arrayed himself in this humble place. 

Christ came in our poor flesh * 

to share a mother’s care. 

Our mothers bear us for pain and for death; * 

our true mother, Jesus, bears us for joy and endless life. 

Christ carried us within him in love and travail, * 

until the full time of his passion. 

And when all was completed and he had carried us so for joy, * 

still all this could not satisfy the power of his wonderful love. 

All that we owe is redeemed in truly loving God, * 

for the love of Christ works in us; 

Christ is the one whom we love. 

May 8 is the feast day of Julian of Norwich, a medieval English mystic. Julian is known for her untraditional and often surprising theological images, including this poem you just read. Julian was a hermit at a convent in the 14th century and historians aren’t sure if she ever gave birth herself. Either way, she chose the image of not just a mothering God but a pregnant Christ as the image of pure love. Christ, she says, carried us and gave us birth. It’s a wonderful poem that turns the dominant image of a male God on its head, and I think it’s a great one to sit with around Mother’s Day. 

In May, my daughter likes to ask a specific question over and over again, as four year olds do. She’ll ask us why she has two dads instead of a dad and a mom like everyone else in her class. Mother’s Day is one of the many things that marks our queer family as different, for good or for ill, no matter the amount of picture books I read to her that have families that look like ours.

What we tell Gracie is that she has two dads because her dads fell in love with each other and then were lucky enough to have her. We also tell her that just because she doesn’t have a mom doesn’t mean she isn’t being mothered. She has aunts, family friends, teachers, a plethora of people (women and otherwise) who do all the things that mothers do: nurture, guide, lead, feed, protect, love. And, as Julian reminds us, she has God, who is Mother and Father and everything in between and beyond, and whose love makes it possible for any of us to love each other, in turn. 

I don’t know if she understands that yet, but I’m not worried–we’ve got a lot more years and a lot more Mother’s Days to make that particular point. But she will, and I hope she’ll always know herself mothered by God. May that also be true for you.