A Mother’s Love
Mary shows us a side of our salvation and a side of God that is essential. She shows us the love of a mother. She reminds us that Jesus did not just drop down from heaven. He was born of a woman. His conception was miraculous, but his birth was just like yours and mine. And he grew as a child and a teenager under the gentle guidance of his mother. He helped his father in the carpentry business. No wonder the Bible tells us that he experienced everything we experience, except sin (Epistle to the Hebrews 2:17-18 and 4:15). Was he tempted? The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us yes, he was – but he did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). Did his mother play a role in his learning the ways of human living, and did she teach him to resist temptation? I do not doubt it.
Is Jesus our loving and comforting Saviour? Where did he learn how to be so loving, so compassionate? Yes, he knew the life of perfect love within the eternal trinitarian bond of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But he had to learn human love and compassion. (The Epistle to the Hebrews again emphasises the learning that Jesus experienced in his earthly existence. For example, 5:7-10 as well as passages referenced in previous paragraph.)
Jesus shows us the feminine side of God. The Christmas icon shows Mary holding the infant Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths. In the Dormition icon, he is holding her in his arms as an infant wrapped in swaddling cloths. The Son has become the Mother, in a manner of speaking! Where did he learn how to hold you and me in his embrace? From his mother.
So we turn to Mary in our prayers, and she is never absent from any of the prayers of the church. We turn to her to show us the love of Christ, the love he learned from her! And which he pours out to us.
Most holy Theotokos, pray for us, intercede for us, bring us to your Son’s embrace. Amen.
