His Mama Would Have Been So Proud
Mother’s Day. The day we honor and give thanks to our mothers for the ultimate gift of life. They cared for us when we were young and helpless, and taught us to mind our Ps and Qs until we wised up enough to have our own children and do the same for them. The cycle of life. Some are better at this than others, but judging from the population explosion on earth, most of us tend to survive and thrive.
I had my son later in life, not driven by a biological clock and with not too great an affinity for shrieking and smelly little people. But then I found the right man to marry and everything changed. Now I am so thankful that fate turned me around and gave me the greatest gift of all—unconditional love. My son is the one shining light, no matter how dark things get sometimes.
So I think about how our new Pope’s mother would feel were she still alive. How proud she would be to have given the world a man with such compassion and goodness in his soul. Mama Prevost would shine her own light as she went through her days now, perhaps mundane days of doing what women and mothers do. Except now her neighbors may knock on her door, or wave to her as they walked their dogs and call out “Congratulations, we always knew Bobby was special!” She may hear from old and new friends “Wonderful news, what a great job you did!” Reporters will clamor to interview the extraordinary woman who created Pope Bob.
We all want our children to find contentment in life. When they ache, we ache. When they are joyful, we are as well. Health and happiness is payback enough. And if they are able and willing to give something back to society in even a small way, we feel we have done a good job. Being a mother is a gift and a burden. Not all of us can, or want, to take on motherhood. But when we do, it is the most important responsibility of our lives.
The author Elizabeth Stone once stated:” Making the decision to have a child—it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.”
Pope Bob spent many years giving to those who needed him the most, in a country far away from his home. He has been loved and respected. And now he has been chosen as the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics, and a leader of all faithful. We can only assume that Mama Prevost is sitting at the side of God himself, who nods at her in benign gratitude, and says well done Mama Prevost. Well done.
