John Paul I, during the Angelus on September 10, 1978 made the controversial statement, “God is (our) father and even more He is (our) mother.” The entire Christian world of course wondered what he was saying and many in the Vatican curia were convinced that he was just confusing the people of God. What did he mean by that? Is God really mother? Maybe it is true that God is our Father and he is truly even more our Mother. I’ve been reflecting about it and I thought of my own mother and how her role in my life reflects the motherhood of God which John Paul I is talking about. Then, I found Rembrandt’s “Prodigal Son”. I think this captures my own stirrings accurately.
I would like to borrow some observations from Sr. Wendy’s reflection on Rembrandt’s piece. A most notable aspect for Sr. Wendy is the red cloak that “comes out like a womb protecting the son”. This is so useful when reading the response of the father to his son. The son by his own fault and recklessness has been reduced to nothing: tattered clothes, worn out shoes, shaved head. He is no longer nothing though because the love and mercy of his father has given him back his dignity. In contrast is the other son, a man of fairness and the law looking through a trajectory of disapproval. I whole-heartedly agree with Sr. Wendy that the father and the son are lost in intimacy. Other observers notice that the left side and more feminine hand of the father is the hand that really brings his son closer to him.
“Prodigal Son” by Rembrandt
I am convinced that love and mercy are truly feminine gifts and abilities. When we, as men say that we are not really feminine, we lie about or simply dismiss the intrinsic feminine qualities we are endowed with. Without the feminine in us we are sub-humans. The role of our mothers is to make sure that we don’t end up as sub-human species and no other art work has communicated this to me than this.
I’ve seen how my mother has accomplished this role over and over again; through her sacrifices, even through the presents she sends me meticulously wrapped and packed, the prayers she offers for me, her every energy of love and goodwill. All of them have made me more genuinely human enough to love and show mercy to myself and others.
Isaiah 66:12-13 and Hosea 11:1-4 speak about God as mother who holds, feeds, comforts and heals her children. The force of the feminine left hand of the father in Rembrandt’s “Prodigal Son” simply stands as a reality in the picture against a backdrop of justice and disapproval. Finally, the motherhood of God wins. Easter has come and our mothers have brought us out of their womb to celebrate God’s triumphant motherhood.
Happy Mother’s Day!!!!
Organic 