Mother’s Day, May 18th, 2014
In the history of art, the most beautiful images, the most beautiful portraits that exist, are entitled: Mother and Child.
Look at the beautiful mysterious Virgin of Guadalupe. She too has a child—though not in her arms—but within her womb.
Oh, sure, I like landscapes and still life paintings, but the fruits and vegetables and flowers seem almost dead when compared to a ‘Mother and child’.
Maybe it is the eyes that draw you in. They always seem to know so much—even when they are closed or looking down at her Child. Those eyes seem to see the past and the future, the joys and sorrows—the heartaches and headaches that the world holds in store for her little baby.
Maybe it is the mouth that holds the secret to the beauty of a Mother and Child painting. Sometimes the artist paints the lips half-open—as if the Mother is teaching a lesson—a lesson perhaps in how to live and how to love.
Sometimes the lips of the Madonna are thin and closed—as if to say that certain secrets are best kept hidden from her beloved Child.
I love the arms and hands of the Mother in such paintings. They seem so long and strong. The Mothers always seem to have beautiful wrists that wrap so surely around their baby. No one will hurt this Child—that is for sure. At least not as long as she is holding on.
When you look at a Mother and Child you see love and purpose and focus—in her eyes—on her lips—in her arms. You know that no sacrifice for her child will ever be too much for her.
Today of course is American Mothers Day. Yesterday was Mexican Mother’s Day. These celebrations remind us that there is something mysterious and supernatural about the whole concept of motherhood. Something that is so important that it is almost impossible to put it into words. That is why we paint pictures.
But you can be sure that it has something to do with love and life and womanhood. Mothers remind us that love gives birth to life and somehow that is a miracle reserved for women only.
I would like to say that Motherhood is the closest link that we can have with God. First God loves, and then He gives forth life. Just like our mothers.
As brilliant and wonderful as are the Angels, they cannot create new life. But Mothers can. And that is the secret and essence of Motherhood. Love yields life. Love always yields life.
However—Motherhood is not so well understood anymore. If you look around in our popular culture you will see how we are being constantly taught that we don’t need mothers any more.
The War On Women is the war on motherhood
We now have test tube babies and surrogate mothers and two mommies and two daddies. Motherhood? For our sleek moderns, that is a vulgar word. And moderns hold a special disdain for mothers with multiple children.
The War on Women is the war on Motherhood.
The War on Women is the assault on the essence of womanhood which is Motherhood. To the degree that we separate love from life—to the degree that we celebrate sterility in our relationships—to the degree that we deny women the chance to be mothers—to that degree we are waging war on women and who they are.
And this war is being waged by the people who give us our commerce and politics and entertainment. The ones who give us our laws, write our newspapers and produce our TV shows. They want to redefine women as just female cogs in the great wheel of commerce—as no more than cyphers in a digital universe. The moderns are creating a world of childless mothers and motherless children. In no way do they want women to be mothers, for that will ruin their greedy plans for them.
And so they provide women with limitless supplies of birth control pills and free abortions and all the pornography the men can consume. They do this to manipulate us into thinking that life is not about family—but about pleasure and making money—for them.
Given enough time and propaganda against motherhood, our women will all eventually be chained to a desk or to a bed and be made to serve either as pleasure devices or wage slaves.
we live in a society that victimizes our women by demeaning their role as mothers.
What do you think this society is all about?
If people think I am criticizing today’s mothers they misunderstand me seriously. I am criticizing a society that
victimizes our women by demeaning their role as mothers.
This is a plea for mothers—and for us—as their children. We need to be aware of what is happening in today’s society. We cannot simply say—“well this is the way it is these days. We have to go along.”
No we don’t have to go along. We need to say “No” to anything that disrespects women and tells us that love can be defined apart from life. We need to resist the notion that women can be defined apart from motherhood—or that men can be defined apart from fatherhood. There I have said it! It is all about family!
We must say “no” to immodest fashions. No to Birth control. No to pornography. No to abortion. No to gay marriage. Because then we are saying Yes. Yes to Love! Yes to Life! Yes to children! Yes to family! And Yes to mothers—who should be as treasured and valued as much as any Madonna ever painted.