Building Cathedrals
I just finished reading Peter Seewald’s 1996 interview with (then) Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and I was struck by the applicability of his words to our vocation as mothers. Specifically, the Pope describes the “theology of littleness” as “a basic category of Christianity.”
Littleness seems to work itself into my daily life in many ways: my companions are little, their sandwiches and socks must be correspondingly little, but, more abstractly, I often feel that the tasks I must accomplish are so little. I confuse “little” with unimportant — which Cardinal Ratzinger does not allow. Mopping floors and folding underwear feel like little tasks – little and insignificant, however, the Pope’s words in Salt of the Earth reminded me that they are not. Rather, the love which forms the backbone of my decision to be a dedicated mother who must accomplish these tasks empowers me and my family.
The Pope says ‘au contrair’ … quite the opposite, in fact: “… the tenor of our faith is that God’s distinctive greatness revealed precisely in powerlessness. That, in the long run, the strength of history is precisely in those who love, which is to say, in a strength that, properly speaking, cannot be measured according to categories of power.”
We love! We love our families so powerfully that we forego countless selfish pleasures in order to accomplish all the little needs of our little people. The Pope says that we – mothers, mothers in the home, form a part of the “strength of history” – now I don’t know about you, but that sure sounds great to me — pass the basket of unmatched socks please!
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