A Mother's Tears

I have not met a mother who had not shed tears for her child. My sister cried on the phone because her son told her that he doesn't really believe in God or prayers and that his religion was just imposed on him in his infancy.

Tears are part of caring and when a mother cries over her child, it is like a bleeding heart. Yet, it is a heart that is not broken; It is a heart softened by love.

During the passion of Christ, Mama Mary was there as Jesus carried the cross. She was there, too, at the foot of the cross. The Bible did not really say if she cried but I think she did.

A mother has a COMMUNION OF PAIN with the child she carried in her womb. There is an invisible umbilical cord that can never be severed. She knows the unspoken pain and, at the same time, she has an intuition of what lies ahead.

Rarely would mothers outlive their children, majority would have to trust in a future they can help shape. There would be many influences in a child's life, and one could only trust that the power of love may prevail.

The words "the child of those [mother's] tears shall never perish" said to St. Monica at a time when St. Augustine was living in with a woman and was also involved in the Manichaean cult did come true for her. I think it would, too, for so many mothers. Those tears may hold pain but they also hold a lot of love.