Mother’s Day Reflection: Created for Union
Standing on her doorstep with her reading glasses perched on the tip of her nose, waving goodbye with that tender loving smile. I drive away wanting to freeze the picture knowing that these moments won’t last forever.
I fast forward a year and find myself trying to recapture the memory fading from my mind. A sense of sadness wells deep within me. There’s an ache that pierces my heart longing to see and touch her once again, longing to hear her voice and share conversation.
And yet all that remains, at least for now, are photographs and memories.
I turn to Mary, my other mother, asking her to wrap me in her mantle and help ease the pain.
I gaze at the beautiful statue of Mary sitting on my desk next to a photo of me with Mom and contemplate the connection that exists between the three of us.
Each one of us a mother and daughter. Each one of us no stranger to the joys and sorrows that motherhood brings. Each one of us separated bodily, for a time, from the ones we love.
There is a certain comfort I take reflecting on this unbreakable bond and yet a gaping hole still remains in my heart. Why?
And then I realize, my body longs to communicate with my senses. I want to see, touch, taste, feel and smell. This is how I relate. My body speaks a language, a God-given language.
This is how I love. God placed the desire to love in me and he gave me a body to express it.
No wonder I feel conflicted. Despite the spiritual connection I feel with Mom, my body cries out for more.
We are created for union. Union with each other and union with our Creator. We are a union of body and soul.
God created us as a union of body and soul, the separation of the two at death is entirely “unnatural.” Indeed, it is a cosmic tragedy. Death separates our bodies from our souls. It separates the living from the dead.
But I have faith and hope in the resurrection. I look to Jesus’ Ascension and Mary’s Assumption as a sign of hope. Our souls will be reunited with the body on the day of resurrection.
I look forward to the day when I see Mom again, next time in her divinized body, standing at heaven’s door, waving hello with that same tender loving smile.