Sunday Meditation: The Good Shepherd and Mother’s Day

Today’s Gospel reading is very short, the reading on The Good Shepherd Sunday.

 

Jesus said:

“My sheep hear my voice;

I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

No one can take them out of my hand.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,

and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.

The Father and I are one.”        

- John 10:27-30

Contemplate that for a bit and then contemplate this for Mother’s Day.  Who is our first human shepherd but our mother?  Whose voice do we first hear but our mother’s, probably from inside the womb?  We hear that voice in the womb and we pine for it.  What must that child feel after the trauma of exiting into a new world?  How comforting then to hear the mother’s voice, familiar to him or her that was from the security of the amniotic sac.  We are then placed on our mother’s breast and we feel the comfort of a greater hand.  The Good Shepherd works through our mother.

So on this Mother’s Day I want to contemplate some mothers who were good shepherds, and I’ll do it through the various novels I can recall where mothers were good shepherds.  So I made a list of mothers who played central roles in various novels.  Here are the best five mothers in no particular order that I can recall from novels I have read.  I’ll provide a bare summary of their heroism.

1. Katie Nolan from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

Katie is an immigrant to the US who struggles to raise her daughter despite an alcoholic and ne’er-do-well husband.  Her strength is what makes her daughter Francie succeed. 

2. Fantine from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

A young woman who bears a child out of wedlock and is forced to prostitution to support the child.  Tears still come to my eyes when I recall Fantine on her death bed pinning for her little Cosette.

3. Hester Prynne from The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Believing her husband had died, Hester Prynne bears a child out of an adulterous relationship.  Hester, ostracized by her Puritan society, raises her daughter Pearl in quiet dignity. 

4. Mrs. Ramsey from To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf.

Mrs. Ramsey, mother of a large family, is the cornerstone of the family, and the lighthouse that guides the children’s vision.  Her sudden death leaves a disintegrated family, but ultimately her memory heals the wounds.

5. Ántonia Shimerda from My Ántonia by Willa Cather.

Ántonia, a ten year old immigrant to the prairies of US, overcomes cultural differences and poverty, overcomes having a child out of wedlock, and ultimately through her hard work and sacrifices buys her own farm and raise ten more children.

All five of these mothers shepherd their children in a most moving way that should be recalled on a day dedicated to motherhood.  Can you think of any others?

Happy Mother’s Day.