The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
May 10, 2009
Vol. 12 no. 18

Everything But...
           Mother’s Day is just too general because it is universal, since we all have mothers and many of you reading this are mothers. The greeting card industry has led the way in defining what a mother is supposed to be like, and a lot of mothers I know laugh at the stereotypes displayed. When we think of Mother’s Day, you must begin by thinking of “my mother” - a very specific, possibly idiosyncratic instance of motherhood.
          Jewish and Christian traditions are full of idiosyncratic mothers - and therefore people possibly like our mothers. Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel were wives of the three great patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and mothers who did not hesitate to get deeply involved in the destiny of their sons. They are remembered most for their mothering.
          One of the many scandals of Christianity - we specialize in scandals, by the way - is that the Messiah needed a mother. Jesus already had a Father, but a real human mother was necessary if he was going to be fully human. An infamous debate raged in the 400’s about calling Mary, the Mother of God or Theotokos. “Mother of God” was intended to be a sort of double entendre, but some theologians took umbrage at the idea that a woman could give birth to God, objecting loudly. Really big argument, but the Mother of God won out, at least among Greek Orthodoxy. Protestants haven’t been big on Mary, but there’s no one like her.
          Hopefully this won’t get me tried for heresy. If God needs a mother and none of us human beings can do without one, isn’t that telling us something about the nature of God and the nature of mothers? I know that saying all this might create a lot of pressure for the mothers we know, but most of them have been able to handle it, divinely.