MOTHERS AND GOD

 

Students of the Bible call John Chapters 14-17 Jesus’s "Farewell Discourse". Jose Rizal's "Mi Ultimo Adios" is akin to it. Jesus gives his before his crucifixion. Rizal writes his before his execution. Both die because of love.

In Sunday's lection from John 17, Jesus knows that Golgotha was hours away. He knows that his followers will be like sheep without a shepherd. He knows that he cannot protect them anymore. Jesus knows. And so he commits them to God. The God who is like a mother in the gospel. The God with a womb.

The church is the community that Jesus committed to God. It is not a building. Never has been, never will be. The church is people who love, like Jesus did. Those who love unconditionally. Like Jesus's mother in John. Like our mothers.

Like God-with-a-Womb.

This is why we have hope despite all the pain, the suffering, the greed, the indifference, and the evil around us. This is why we believe that a new world is possible. There are those who love unconditionally. There are those who are willing to offer their lives for others.

Like our mothers.



*art, "Madonna " by Catlett, Elizabeth, 1915-2012 (available at the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).