BY BILL REAGAN
Motherhood is a sacred trust.
On occasion we have clients at Loaves & Fishes who are not up to the task of parenting. Some people do not have the necessary skills to be good parents. Sometimes, the only solution is to call Child Protective Services. The results are never pretty.
Some women have stayed with us who, though they were pregnant, have not abstained from drugs, tobacco or alcohol during their pregnancies. Some have been selfish and irresponsible. Most have had some kind of untreated mental illness or substance abuse problem which has led to dangerous behavior for their unborn child.
Most of us get sentimental on Mother’s Day. I remember my sainted mother, Kathleen, and her sacrifices for her nine children.
That’s right – nine Reagans! I thank God for my wife, Theresa, and love watching her joy at being a grandmother, and for my daughter, Rachel, who has given us the blessing of grandchildren.
I especially admire single mothers. If you want to know what courage looks like, find a single mother.
But I hope our appreciation of Mother’s Day goes beyond sentimentality for the mothers in our lives, and beyond the pity or aversion we feel for those cases where motherhood goes all wrong.
Motherhood is sacred, a holy thing. It is God’s institution. Motherhood comes from Him. Mothers do that one thing only God can do – give life. We men can protect and nurture, but we cannot do that divine work.
Motherhood is a trust. Mothers hold the lives of their children in trust, from womb to breast to eventual independence.
The rest of us hold this sacred institution in trust. We must celebrate our mothers today. Today’s celebrations will have the most meaning if we help the mothers in crisis, support the single mothers, respect the needs and rights of mothers in our workplaces, care for them when they grow old and cherish their memory when they are gone.
Bill Reagan is executive director of Loaves & Fishes of the Rio Grande Valley.
