Mother Is The Word For Love

Someone has said that “When Mary took Jesus down from the Cross she was cleaning up the mess made by the humanity of which she was very much a part.” Mary was fully human in one very special way that she shares only with other women. Mary was mother. She was not the kind of sugary supermom so often portrayed in TV situation comedies of the fifties. She did not have quick, easy solutions to every problem that came into her life or her family’s life. In fact, the very first Gospel episode in which she appears portrays Mary as a very human, mixed-up teenager. Mary learns that she is going to have a child and she is confused, bewildered. “How can this be?” she asks. The “How can this be?” syndrome is a common, natural, predictable teenage lament. Hearing it should not shock or surprise anyone, parents especially. The wise parent is prepared to accept it and to deal with it as a very…